Edinburgh Bookshelf

Edinburgh Bookshelf

Search

Index for “mark zuckerberg”

- - -
who had come to pity, there were more than a
hundred whose hearts were filled with a tiger-like
ferocity, which the clergy had inspired to a dangerous
degree, and for the most ungenerous purpose.?
The women of the kail-market and the ?? saints
of the Bowhead? were all there, their tongues
trembling with abuse, and their hands full of stones
or mud to launch at the head of the fallen Cavalier,
who passed through the Water Gate at four in
the afternoon, greeted by a storm of yells. Seated
on a lofty hurdle, he was bound with cords so
tightly that he was unable to raise his hands to
save his face; preceded by the magistrates in
their robes, he was bareheaded, his hat having
been tom from him. Though in the prime of manhood
and perfection of manly beauty, we are told
that he ? looked pale, worn, and hollow-eyed, for
many of the wounds he had received at Invercarron
were yet green and smarting. A single
horse drew the hurdle, and thereon sat the executioner
of the city, clad in his ghastly and sable
livery, and wearing his bonnet as a mark of disrespect.??
He was escorted by the city guard, under
the notorious Major Weir-Weir the wizard, whose
terrible fate has been recorded elsewhere.
In front marched a number of Cavalier prisoners,
bareheaded and bound with cords. Many
of the people now shed tears on witnessing this
spectacle ; but, says Khcaid, they were publicly
rebuked by the clergy, ? who declaimed against
this movement of rebel nature, and reproached
them with their profane tenderness ; ? while the
?Wigton Papers ? state that how even the widows
and the mothers of those who had fallen in his
wars wept for Montrose, who looked around him
With the profoundest serenity as he proceeded
up the Canongate, even when he came to Moray
House-
?Then, as the Graham looked upward, he met the ugly
was one living mass of human beings ; but for one I where, by an unparalleled baseness, Argyle, with
the chief men of his cabal, who never durst look
Montrose in the face while he had his sword in
his hand, appeared in the balcony in order to feed
merrily their sight with a spectacle which struck
horror into all good men. But Montrose astonished
them with his looks, and his resolution confounded
them.?
Then with broad vulgarity the marchioness spat
full in his face ! Argyle shrank back at this, and
an English Cavalier who stood among the crowd
below reviled him sharply, while Lorne and his
bride continued to toy and smile in the face of
the people. (? Wigton Papers.?)
So protracted was this melancholy spectacle that
seven o?clock had struck before the hurdle reached
the gate of the Tolbooth, where Montrose, when
unbound, gave the executioner a gold coin, saying
-?? This-is your reward, my man, for driving the
cart.?
On the following day, Sunday, the ministers in
their pulpits, according to Wishart, rebuked the
people for not having stoned him. One declared
that ?he was a faggot of hell, and that he already
saw him burning,? while he was constantly
taunted by Major Weir as ?a dog, .atheist, and
murderer.?
The story of Montrose?s execution on the z1st
of May, when he was hanged at the Cross on a
gibbet thirty feet high, with the record of his
battles suspended from his neck, how he died
with glorious magnanimity and was barbarously
quartered, belongs to the general annals of the
nation ; but the City Treasurer?s account contains
some curious items connected with that great legal
tragedy :-
1650. Ffebruar. To making a scaffold at ye Cross
for burning ye Earl of Montrose?s papers . 2 8 0
May 13. For making a seat on a cart to carry him
from ve Water Gate to ve Tolbooth . IZ 16 o
?
into the street was Argyle, with a gay bridal party
in their brave dresses. His son, Lord Lorne, had
just been wedded to the Earl of Moray?s daughter,
deeperand covering it again . . I 16 0
Pd. for sharping the axe for striking
away the head, legs, and arms from
the body. . . . . . o 12 0
,,

... - - who had come to pity, there were more than a hundred whose hearts were filled with a tiger-like ferocity, ...

Book 3 p. 14
(Score 0.72)

358 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
looking burgh, full of crooked alleys, and rambling narrow wynds, scattered about in the
most irregular and lawless fashion, and happily innocent as yet of the refinements of an
Improvements’ Commission ; though the more gradual operations of time and changing
tastes have swept away many curious features of the olden time. There is indeed an air
of substantial business-like bustle and activity about its narrow unpretending thoroughfares,
and dingy-looking counting-houses, that strangely contrasts with the gaudy finery
of New Town trading. The London fopperies of huge plate-glass windows, and sculptured
and decorated shop fronts, so much in vogue there, are nearly unknown among the
burghers of Leith, The dealers are too busy about more important matters to trouble
themselves with these new-fangled extravagancies, while their customers are much too
knowing to be attracted by any such showy baits. The contrast indeed between the
Scottish Capital and its Port is even more marked than that which distinguishes the
courtly west end of London from its plebeian Wapping or White Chapel, and is probably,
in all the most substantial sources of digereme, in favour of the busy little burgh : whose
merchants conduct a large and important share of the trade of the North of Europe in
their unpretending little boothies, while the shopkeeper of the neighbouring city magnifies
the petty details transacted over his well-polished mahogany counter, and writes himself
down mercdant accordingly.’
The principal street of Leith is the Kirkgate, a broad and somewhat stately thoroughfare,
according to the prevalent proportions among the lanes and alleys of this close-packed
little burgh. Time and modern taste have slowly, but very effectually, modified its antique
features. No timber-fronted gable now thrusts its picturesque fapade with careless grace
beyond the line of more staid and formal-looking ashlar fronts. Even the crow-stepped
gables of the Rixteenth and fieventeenth centuries are becoming the exception ; and it is
only by the irregularity which still pertains to it, aided by the few really antique tenements
that remain unaltered, that it now attracts the notice of the curious visitor asthe genuine
remains of the ancient High Street of the burgh. Some of these relics of former.times are
well worthy the notice of the antiquary, while memorials of still earlier fabrics here and
there meet the eye, and carry back the imagination to those stirring scenes in the history
of this locality: when the Queen Regent and her courtiers and allies made it their stronghold
and chosen place of abode ; or when, amid a more peaceful array, the fair Scottish
Queen Mary, or the sumptuous Anne of Denmark, rode gaily through the street on their
way to Holyrood. At the south-east angle of the old churchyard, one of these memorials
meets the eye in the shape of an elegant Gothic pediment surmounting the boundary wall,
and adorned with the Scottish Regalia, sculptured in high relief, with the initials J. R. 6 ;
while a large panel below bears the Royal Arms and initials of Charles II., very boldly
executed. These insignia of royalty are intended to mark the spot on which King James’s
Hospital stood-a benevolent foundation which owed no more to the royal patron whose
name it bore, than the confirmation by his charter in 1641 of a portion of those revenues
that had been long before bestowed by the piety of private donors on the hospital of St
Anthony, and the imposition of a duty on all wine brought into the port for the augmentation
of its reduced funds. Here certain poor women were maintained, being presented
The description given above, to a 5eat extent, no longer applies, aa the town haa 80 rapidly extended as to be now
part of the City, and ia also not behind its great neighbour in the wealth of imposing shop fronts.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. looking burgh, full of crooked alleys, and rambling narrow wynds, scattered about in ...

Book 10 p. 393
(Score 0.72)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 381
sense of Dundas, would have been unable much longer to have withstood, when
the recovery of the King happily removed them from their difEculties.
The Chief Justice stood opposed to the administration of Pitt until the
violent nature of the Revolution in France induced him and other individuals
of his party to join the ministerial ranks. He was almost immediately invested
with the high office of Lord Chancellor ; and to the influence which- he thus
acquired in the councils of his Majesty are to be attributed many of those
vigorous and decisive measures which were subsequently adopted by the
Government.
Lord Loughborough held the Chancellorship till 1801, when he was created
Earl of Rosslyn, with a remainder to his two nephews ; and, nearly worn out
with the fatigues of a long and active career, he retired altogether from public
life, carrying with him the highest esteem of his sovereign, by whom he continued
to be honoured with every mark of respect. “ During the brief interval
allowed to him between the theatre of public business and the grave, he paid
a visit to Edinburgh, from which he had been habitually absent for nearly fifty
years. With a feeling quite natural, perhaps, but yet hardIy to be expected in
one who had passed through so many of the more elevated of the artificial
scenes of life, he caused himself to be carried in a chair to an obscure part of
the Old Town, where he had resided during the most of his early years. He
expressed a particular anxiety to know if a set of holes in the paved court
before his father‘s house, which he had used for some youthful sport, continued
in existence ; and, on finding them still there, it was said that the aged statesman
was moved almost to tears.’”
His demise is thus announced
in the journals of the period :-
“At his seat at Baylis, near Salthill, in Berkshire, aged seventy-two, the Right Hon. Alexander
Wedderhurn, Earl of Rosslyn, Baron of Loughborough, in Leicestershire, and Baron Loughborough,
in Surrey. His lordship had been long subject to the gout ; but for some weeks past he was so much
recovered as to visit round the neighbourhood j and on Tuesday night, January 1, accompanied the
Countess to her Majesty’s f6te at Frogmore.
“ Next morning his lordship rode on horseback to visit several of the neighbouring gentlemen ; and,
after his return to Baylis, went in his carriage to Bulstrode to visit the Duke of Portland, and
returned home apparently in perfect health. At six o’clock, as his lordship sat at table, he was
suddenly seized with a fit of the apoplectic kind, and fell speechless in his chair. At twelve o’clock
he expired.
“ His lordship married, 31st December 1767, Betty Anne, only daughter and sole heiress of
John Dawson, Esq. of Morley, in Yorkshire, who died 15th February 1781. He had no issue. His
second lady, whom he married 12th September 1782, vas the youngast daughter of William Viscount
Courtenay, by whom he had a son, horn 2d October 1793, and since dead. Ry a second patent,
October 31, 1795, he was created Baron Loughborongh, in the county of Surrey, with remainders
severally and successively to Sir James St. Clair Erskine, Bart., and to John Erskine, his brother ;
and, by tr patent, April 21, 1801, Earl of Rosslyn, in the county of Mid-Lothian, to him and his
heirs-male, with remainder to the heirs-male of Dame Janet Erskine, deceased, his sister. He
was succeeded in the title by his nephew, Sir Jam= St. Clair Erskine, Bart. The remains of the
Earl were interred in St. Paul’s Cathedral. ”
His lordship died on the 2d January 1805.
In private life Lord Loughborough was esteemed a most agreeable com-
Traditions of Edinburgh.--The house, which consists of four stories, and is dated 1679, was
situated in Elphinstone’s Court, South Gray’s Close, oppotlite the ancient Mint

... SKETCHES. 381 sense of Dundas, would have been unable much longer to have withstood, when the ...

Book 8 p. 531
(Score 0.72)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 341
and abusive language took place-bloody encounters ensued-and boats were captured on both
sides. It would require the pen of a Dnunmond (Hawthornden) to describe in a proper manner
the many bloody conflicts of these sons of Neptune, in which’as much enterprise and heroism
were frequently displayed as would have done honour to a more important cause. A scarcitg of
fish at first gave rise to these disputes ; but it would appear that the combatants afterwards fought
not so much for oysters as for victory. And indeed, what with vinegar on the one part, and pepper
on the other, the oysters, upon the whole, were highly seasoned.
‘‘ The Newhaven fishers contend that the community of Edinburgh, whose tacksmen they are,
have the sole right to the Green Scalp on the breast of Iuehkeith, and to the Beacon Grounds lying
off the Black Rocks. To instruct this right they produce a notarial copy of a charter from King
James VI., and likewise a charter from Charles I., 1636, whereinfihings are expressly mentioned.
There was also produced a charter in favour of Lady Greenwich,inwhichfihings are comprehended.
“On the other hand, the Prestonpans fishers contended that the Newhaven men have
encroached on the north shores belonging to the Earl of Morton and burgh of Burntisland, of
which they are tacksmen. They accordingly produced an instrument of seisin, dated Nov. 10,
1786, in virtue of which his lordship wm infeft, inter alia, in the oyster scalps in question.
They also condescended on a charter granted by King James VI., 1585, to the town of Burntisland,
which is on record, and which they say establishes their right. They further contend
that the Magistrates of Edinburgh have produced no proper titles to prove their exclusive right
to the scalps they have set in tack to the Newhaven fishermen. The charter of King James VI.
was resigned by the town in the reign of Charles I. ; and the new charter granted by the latter
in 1636 gives no right to the oyster scalps in dispute. The word Jshings, in general, is not
contained in the dispositive clause, but only occurs in the Tenendas, like hawkings, huntings,
or other words of style, which is of no signification.
“ After various representations to the Judge-Admiral, his lordship pronounced an interlocutor
ordaining both parties to produce their respective rights to these fishings, and prohibiting them
from dredging oysters in any of the scalps in dispute till the issue of the cause.
“A petition was presented to his lordship on the 6th January last [1790], by the Newhaven
fishers, stating that, by the late interdict, they find themselves deprived of the means of support
ing themselves and families, while the Prestonpans fishers are pursuing their usual employment
by dredging on other scalps than those in dispute ; and praying his lordship would recal or
modify said interdict. Which petition being served on the agent for the east-country fishers,
his lordship, by interlocutor of the 5th February last, allowed both parties to dredge oysters upon
the scalps they respectively pretended right to ; and before going to fish, to take with them any
of the six sworn pilots at Leith, to direct each party where they should fish, to prevent them
from encroaching on each other‘s scalps, or taking up the seedlings.’ ”
This cause was finally decided by the Judge-Admiral against the Prestonpans
fishermen ; but no damages were awarded, and each party had to pay their
own expenses.
On the breaking out of hostilities with France, the danger which threatened
the coast had the effect of diverting the attention of the Newhaven men from
their local quarrels ; and they were the first to offer their services as a marine
force to guard against the encroachments of the enemy. This well-timed
manifestation of public spirit was so highly appreciated, that on the 10th of
May 1796, the president of their Society, at a meeting convened fofthe purpose,
was presented with a handsome silver medal and chain, in presence of several
gentlemen, by the Duke of Buccleuch, who delivered an appropriate speech on
the occasion. On one side, the medal contained the following inscription:-
“ In testimony of the brave and patriotic offer of the fishermen of Newhaven
to defend the coasts against the enemy, this honorav mark of approbation was
voted by the county of Mid-Lothian, November 2, 1796.” On the reverse side

... SKETCHES. 341 and abusive language took place-bloody encounters ensued-and boats were captured on ...

Book 9 p. 453
(Score 0.71)

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 389
Remedy, and others, with the royal master printer. Only one month thereafter, Scotland
lay at the mercy of her southern rival. Her King was slain; the chief of her nobles
and warriors had perished on Flodden Field ; and adversity and ignorance again replaced
all the advantages that had followed in the train of the gallant James’s rule. Thenceforth
the altars of St Giles’s Church received few and rare additions to their endowments.
There is good reason for believing that Walter Chepman lies buried in the south transept
of the Church, close by the spot where “the Good Regent,” James Earl of Murray, the
Regent Morton, and his great rival the Earl of Atholl, are buried, and adjoining the aisle
where the mangled remains of the great Marquis of Montrose were reinterred, with every
mark of honour, on the 7th of January 1661. This receives strong corroboration
from an agreement entered in the Burgh Registers, 30th June 1579, by which the
Council ‘‘ grants and permits that upon the west part of Walter Chepmanis Iyle, fernent
the Earl of Murrayis tomb, sal be broken, and thair ane burial-place be maid for the Earl
of Athole.”
The Regent’s tomb, which stood on the west side of the south transept, was on many
accounts an object of peculiar interest. As the monument erected to one who had played
so conspicuous a part in one of the most momentous periods of our national history, it
was calculated to awaken many stirring associations. The scene which occurred when the
Regent’s remains were committed to the tomb was itself not the least interesting among
the memorable occurrences that have been witnessed in the ancient Church of St Giles,
when the thousands who had assembled within its walls were moved to tears by the
eloquence of Knox. “Vpoun the xiiij day of the moneth [of Februar, 15701, being
Tyisdaye,” says a contemporary, “ my lord Regentis corpis being brocht in ane bote be sey
fra Striueling to Leith, quhair it was keipit in Johne Wairdlaw his hous, and thairefter
caryit to the palace of Halyrudhous, wes transportit fra the said palace of Halyrudhous to
the college kirk of Sanctgeill in this manner ; that is to say, William Kirkaldie of Grange
knycht, raid fia the said palice in dole weid, beirand ane pensall quhairin wes contenit ane
reid lyoun ; efter him followit Coluill of Cleishe, maister houshald to the said regent, with
ane vther pensell quhairin wes contenit my lord regentis armes and bage ; efter thame wes
the Erlis of Athole, Mar, Glencarne, lordis of Ruthvene, Methvene, maister of Grahame,
lord Lindsay, with diuerse vtheris barronis, beirand the saidis corpis to the said college kirk
of Sanctgeill, quhairin the samyne wes placeit befoir the pulpett; and thairefter Johne
Knox minister made ane lamentable sermond tuitching the said murther ; the samin being
done, the said corpis wes burijt in Sanct Anthoneis ple within the said college kirk.”’ The
Regent’s tomb was surmounted with his arms, and bore on the front of it a brass plate
with the figures of Justice and Faith engraved thereon, and the epitaph composed by
Buchanan a for the purpose :-
IACOBO STOVARTO, MORAVIX COMITI, SCOTIAJ PROREGI ;
VIRO, BTATIS SVB, LONGE OPTIMO: AB DSIMICIS,
OWVIS XEYORIH: DETERRIMIS, EX INSIDIIS EXTINCTO,
CEV PATRI COMNVNI, PATRIA MCERENS POSVIT.
1 Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 168. Calderwood’s Ekt, voL ii p. 626.

... ANTIQUITIES. 389 Remedy, and others, with the royal master printer. Only one month thereafter, ...

Book 10 p. 427
(Score 0.71)

420 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
mark of personal esteem, and to denote the high opinion entertained of his
gallant conduct.
Mr. Grant, who was a very handsome, well-made man, was selected as one of
the Prince’s Life-guards, commanded by Lord Elcho. The dress of the guards
was blue, faced with red, and scarlet waistcoats, with gold lace. The equipment
and appearance of this body are alluded to in a letter from Derby, where the
Pretender’s army arrived on the 4th December 1745, on their intended march
to London, but from which a counter-movement in the direction of Scotland
was commenced next morning. The letter is by an eye-witness, who says :-
“ On Wednesday, about eleven o’clock, two of the Rebel’s vanguard entered this town, inquiring
for the Magistrates, and demanding billets for nine hundred men or more. A short while after, the
vanguard rode into the town, consisting of about thirty men, clothed in blue, faced with red, aud
scarlet waistcoats, with gold-lace; and, being likely men, made a good appearance. They were
drawn up in the market-place, and sat on horseback two or three hours. At the same time the bells
were rung, and several bonfires made, to prevent any resentment from them that might ensue on our
showing a dislike to their coming among us. About three afternoon, Lord Elcho, with the Life-guards,
and many of their chiefs, arrived on horseback, to the number of about a hundred and fifty, most of
them clothed as above. Soon after, their
main body marched into town, in tolerable order, six or eight abreast, with about eight standards,
most of them white flags and a red cross, their bagpipes playing as they marched. * * * * *
Their Prince did not arrive till the dusk of the evening. He walked on foot, attended by a great
body of his men, who conducted him to his lodgings, the Lord Exeter’s, where he had guards placed
all around the house. Every house almost by this time was pretty well tilled ; but they continued
driving in till ten or eleven at night, and we thought we never should have seen the last of them.
The Dnkes of Athol and Perth, the Lords Pitsligo, Nairn, Elcho, and George Murray, old Gordon of
Glenbucket, and their other chiefs and great officers, Lady Ogilvie, and Lady Murray, were lodged
at the best gentlemen’s houses. Many common ordinary houses, both public and private, had forty
or fifty men each, and some gentlemen near a hundred. At their coming in they were generally
treated with bread, cheese, beer, and ale, whilst all hand8 were aloft getting their suppers ready.
After supper, being weary with their long march, they went to rest, most upon straw, others in beds.”
Mr. Grant continued with the Prince’s army till its overthrow at Culloden,
when he fled to his native hills, where, for a time, he found shelter. As the
search for those who “ had been out ” became less vigorous, he ventured to take
up his residence at his father’s house, where he once very narrowly estaped
apprehension. One of the ploughmen being in the field, observed a party of
military at a short distance ; but, conscious that he was seen by them, he was
at a loss how to get intelligence conveyed to the house ; for had either he or
his boy left the plough and gone home, the circumstance would have excited
the suspicion of the soldiers. He therefore adopted the expedient of driving
home, with oxen and plough, as if his work had been completed, and instantly
gave notice of the danger. Colquhoun made his escape to a neighbouring hill,
where, concealed in a hollow, he safely witnessed the arrival and departure of
his foes
These made a fine show, being the flower of the army.
will ! ” he exclaimed, at the same moment dealing the democrat a blow that levelled him with the floor.
The row instantly became general ; but by the prowess of Maclean and several other spirited gentlemen
the loyalists were soon victorious. Mr. Maclean, who is a thorough Highlander, and a Jacobite
in sentiment, has been for many years Solicitor of .Excise ; and, having been long in extensive
business, may be said in a great measure to have repaired the broken fortunes of his family. He
now possesses an estate in Argyleshire.

... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. mark of personal esteem, and to denote the high opinion entertained of his gallant ...

Book 8 p. 584
(Score 0.7)

242 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
The mansion of the Earl in the Old Stamp Office Close was celebrated at a subsequent
period as Fortune’s tavern, a favourite resort of men of rank and fashion, while yet some of
the nobles of Scotland dwelt in its old capital. At a still later period, it was the scene of
the annual festivities during the Hittings of the General Assembly of the Kirk, towards the
close of last century. The old Zarl of Leven, who was for many years the representative
of majesty at the High Court of the Church, annually took up his abode at this fashionable
tavern, and received in state the courtiers who crowded to his splendid levees.’ Still more
strangely does it contrast with modern notions, to learn that the celebrated Henry Dundas,
first Viscount Melville, began practice as an advocate while residing on the third flat of the
old land a little further down the street, at the head of the Flesh Market Close, and continued
to occupy his exalted dwelling for a considerable time. Below this close, we again
come to works of more modern date. Milne Square, which bears the date 1689, exhibits
one of the Old Town improvements before its contented citizens dreamt of bursting their
ancient fetters, and rearing a new city beyond the banks of the North Loch. To the
east of this, the first step in that great undertaking demolished some of the old lanes
of the High Street, and among the rest the Cap and Feather Close, a short alley which
stood immediately above Halkerston’s Wynd. The lands that formed the east side of this
close still remain in North Bridge Street, presenting doubtless, to the eye of every tasteful
reformer, offensive blemishes in the modern thoroughfare ; yet this unpicturesque locality
has peculiar claims on the interest of every lover of Scottish poetry, for here, on the 5th
of September 1750, the gifted child of genius, Robert Ferpson, was born. The precise
site of his father’s dwelling is unknown, but now that it has been transformed by the indiscriminating
hands of modern improvers, this description may sufice to suggest to some as
they pass along that crowded thoroughfare such thoughts as the dwellers in cities are most
careless to encourage.’
Availing ourselves of the subdivision of the present subject, effected by the improvements
to which we have adverted, we shall retrace our steps, and glance at such associations
with the olden time as may still be gathered from the scene of the desolating fires that
swept away nearly every ancient feature on the south side of the High Street. Within
the last few years, the sole survivor of all the antique buildings that once reared their
picturesque and lofty fronts between the Lawnmarket and Niddry’s Wynd has been demolished,
to make way for the new Police Office. It had strangely withstood the terrible
conflagration that raged around it in 1824, and, with the curious propensity that still prevails
in Edinburgh for inventing suggestive and appropriate names, it was latterly universally
known as “ the Salamander Land.” ’ Through this a large archway led into the Old
Fish Market Close, on the west side of which, previous to the Great Fire, the huge pile
of buildings in the Parliament Close reared its southern front high over all the neigh-
In 1812 an unwonted spectacle waa exhibited at the head of the Old Stamp Office .Close, in the execution of three
young la& there, as the leadera in a riot that took place un New Year’s Day of that year, in which several citizens were
killed and numerous robberies committed. The judges fixed upon this spot, as having been the scene of the chief bloodshed
that had occurred, in order to mark more impressively the detestation of their crimes. A small work was published
by the Rev. W. Innes, entitled “ Notes of Conversations ’’ with the criminals. ’ In Edgar’s map, the close is shown extending no farther than in a line with Milne’s Court, so that the whole of the
east side etill remains, including, it may be, the poet’s birthplace. ’ We have been told that this land was aaid to have been the residence of Defoe while in Edinburgh ; the tradition,
however, ia entirely unaupported by other testimony.

... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. The mansion of the Earl in the Old Stamp Office Close was celebrated at a ...

Book 10 p. 263
(Score 0.7)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 293
parties. His lordship having asked my consent, directed that they might do so. In consequence
. of this permission, they divided themselves into small parties, and walked round the table.
When they came opposite to Lord N[elso]n, or me, the men stooped their heads, and the
women bent their knees (such being the English manner of salutation). This mark of respect
they thought due to Lord N[elso]n for the victory of the Nile ; and to me, for my supposed high
rank. This ceremony took up nearly an hour ; after which the Lord Mayor presented Lord
N[elso]n, in the name of the city, with an elegant cimiter, the hilt of which waa studded with
diamonds, as a testimony of their gratitude for his distinguished services. His lordship having
buckled on the sword, stood up, and made a speech to the Lord Mayor and to the company,
assuring them that, with the weapon he had now been invested, and the protection of the
Almighty, he would chastise and subdue all their enemies.
‘‘ This interesting scene being hished, I thought-it was time to retire, and went up to the
Lord Mayor to take leave. His lordship, however, seized me by the hand, and led me up stairs
to a superb apartment, where we found the Lady Mayoress, and nearly five hundred other ladies,
richly dressed, some of whom were aa beautiful as the Houries of Paradise, waiting our appearance,
before they commenced dancing. As few rooms in the world would have held such an
assemblage of people, if furnished in the usual manner, this apartment was fitted up with long
ranges of seats rising above each other, (resembling the stone steps of a large tank or reservoir
in India), which were continued all round the room, for the use of the spectators, leaving but
a moderate space in the middle for the dancers.
“When we had been seated a short time, twelve or fifteen of the principal young men
present were permitted to enter the circle and to choose their partners. After they had gone
down the dance, they were relieved by an equal number of others ; and in this manner the ball
was kept up till daylight, and the sun had risen ere I reached home.
“ This was one of the most delightful nights I ever passed in my life ; as, independent of
every luxury my heart could wish, I had an opportunity of gazing all the time on the angelic
charms of Miss qomlbe, who sat in that assemblage of beauties, like the bright moon surrounded
with brilliant stars.
“After what I have said, it may be unnecessary to repeat, that the young lady is one of the
greatest beauties in London. One evening I met her, by chance, at a masquerade ; and, as the
weather was warm, she wore only a short veil, which descended no lower than her upper lip,
As our meeting was quite unexpected, she thought she could converse with me without being
known ; but, in answer to her $rst question, I replied, ‘ There is but one woman in London
who possesses such teeth and lips ; therefore Miss C[om]be may save herself the trouble of
attempting to deceive her admirers.’ This speech was overheard by some persons, and became
the subject of conversation in the polite circles next day.”
’
Mr. Comhe held his seat in Parliament till the year 1817. He had for some
time prior suffered greatly in his health by a paralytic disorder, “ which,” says
a correspondent of the Gentleman’s Muguzim, “ though it greatly debilitated
his limbs, left his vigorous mind almost wholly unimpaired ; till, in June 181 7,
the wanton and cruel insult he received, by the resolution of a thinly-attended
Common Hall, had a visible effect on his enfeebled constitution. So unexpected
a return €or long and faithful services he was but ill-prepared to sustain;
and he relinquished, in consequence, his seat in Parliament and all his civic
honours. I am happy to add that he hw left a handsome provision for his
numerous family. The will has been proved by his eldest son, as sole executor ;
and though the personal effects do not exceed 3140,000, there are real estates
sufficient to complete the second plum.”
His
widow survived till 1828.
Mr. Combe died at Cobham Park, Surrey, on the 10th July 1817.

... SKETCHES. 293 parties. His lordship having asked my consent, directed that they might do so. In ...

Book 9 p. 390
(Score 0.69)

APPENDIX. 435
of Auchinleck ; but a passage in Father Hay’s MS. History of the Holpodhonse F d y , seem to confirm the
tradition beyond the possibility of doubt. Recording the children of Bishop Bothwell, who died 1593, he tells
us-‘ He had also a daughter named Anna, who fell with child to a sone of the Earle of Mar.’ Colonel
Alexander’s portrait, which belonged to his mother is exceedingly handsome, with much vivacity of corntenance,
dark blue eyes, a peaked beard, and moustaches :-
‘ Ay me ! I fell-and yet no queetion make
What I should do again for auch a sake.”’
Father Hay has thus recorded the seduction of Anna Bothwell, in hia Diplomatuna CoZZectiO (MS. Advoc.
Lib. vide Liber Cart. Sancte h c i s , p. xxxviii.) :-‘‘ Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, became Abbot of Holyrudehouse
after Robert Steward, base son to King Jam= the Fift by Euphem Elphinstone ; who was created
Earle of Orkney and Lord Shetland by King Jamea the Sixth, 1581. This Adam was a younger brother to Sir
Richard Bothwell, Provost of Edinburgh in Queen Maries time, and a second sone to Sir Francis Bothwell, lord
of the Session in King James the Fifta time, and was begotten upon Anna Livingstone, daughter to the Lord
Livingstone. He married Margaret Murray, and begote upon her John, Francis, WiUiam, and George Bothwells,
and a daughter Anna, who by her nurse’s deceit, fell with child to a sone of the Earle of Mar.”
Both the face and figure of Colonel Sir Alexander Erskine are very peculiar, as represented in his portrait.
He is dressed in armour, with a rich scarf across his right shoulder, and a broad vandyke collar round his
neck The head is unusually small for the body; and the features of the face, though handsome, are sharp, and
the face tapering nearly to a point at the chin. The effect of this is considerably heightened by ths length of
his moustaches, and hb peaked beard, or rather imperial, as the tuft below the under lip, which leaves the
contour of the chin exposed, is generally termed. The whole combines to convey a singularly sly and catclike
expression, which-unless we were deceived when examining it by our knowledge of the leading incidents of
his history-seem very characteristic of the “ dear deceiver.”
The orignal portrait, by Jamieson, beam the date and age of Colonel Erskine-1628, aged 29. Two stanzas
of the ballad, somewhat varied, occur in Brome’s Play of the Northern Lass, printed in 1632-not 1606 as
‘erroneously stated before. From this we may infer, not only that the ballad must have been written very
shortly after the event that gave rise to itpossibly by Anna Bothwell herself-but also that the seducer must
himself have been very young, so that the nurse is probably not unfairly blamed by Father Hay as an active
agent in poor Anna’s mongs.
I.
VIII. ARMORIAL BEARINGS.
BLYTH’BC LosE.-The armorial bearings in Blyth’s Close, with the +initialsA . A., and the date 1557 (page
148), may possibly mark the house of Alexander Achison, burgess of Edinburgh, the ancestor of the Viscounts *
Gosford of Ireland, and of Sir Archibald Achiaon, the host of Dean Swift at Market Hill, who, with hb particularly
lean lady, became the frequent butt of the witty Dean’s humour, both in prose and verse. The old burgeea
acquired the estate of Glosford in East Lothian by a charter of Queen Mary, dated 1561. Nisbet says, “The
name of Aitchison carries, argent, an eagle with two heads displayed, sable j on a chief, vert, two mullek,
or.”
QOSFORD’S CLose.-Since the printing of the text (page MO), we have discovered the ancient lintel
formerly in Qosford’s Close bearing a representation of the Crucihion, and have succeeded in getting it removed
to the Antiquarian Museum. It has three-shields on it, boldly cut, and in good preservation. On the centre

... 435 of Auchinleck ; but a passage in Father Hay’s MS. History of the Holpodhonse F d y , seem to ...

Book 10 p. 474
(Score 0.69)

370 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Dalrymple. Edinburgh, 1786 ; gratefully and affectionately
inscribed to Richard (Hurd), Bishop of
Worcester, 4t0, pp. 213. In flve Chapters.
Sketch of the Life of John Barclay, 4t0, 1786.
Sketch of the Life of John Hamilton, a Secular Priest,
Sketch of the Life of Sir Janies Ramsay, a General
Officer in the Armies of Gustavus Adolphus, King
of Sweden, with a head.
Life of George Lesley (an eminent Capuchin Friar in
the early part of the 17th century), 4t0, pp. 24.
Sketch of the Life of Mark Alexander Boyd, 4to.
Specimen of a Life of James Marquis of Montrosa
These lives were written and published an a speeimen
of the manner in which a Biographia Scotica
might be executed. With the exception of the last,
they have been reprinted in the Appendix to the
edition of his Annals printed in 1819.
4tO.
Davidis Humei, Scoti, summl apud suo8 philosophi,
de vita sua acta, liber aingularis ; nunc primum
Latin0 redditua. [Edin.] 1787, 4to.
Adami Smith!, LL.D., ad Gulielmum Strahanum
armigerum, de rebns novissimis Davidis Hurnei,
Epistola, nunc primum Latine redditta. [Edin.]
1768, 4tO.
The Opinions of Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Marlborough,
published from her original MSS. 1788,
12mo, pp. 120 (with a few Foot Notes by Lord
Hailes, in which he corrects the splenetic partiality
of her Grace)-a singularly curious
work.
The Address of Q. Sept. Tertullian to Scapula Tertullus,
proconsul of Africa, translated by Sir
David Dalrymple. Edin. 1790, 12mo. Inscribed
to Dr. John Butler, Bishop of Hereford. Preface,
pp. 4. Translation, pp. 18. Original, pp. 13.
Notes and Illustrations, pp. 135,
No. CXLVIII.
REV. DR. DAVID JOHNSTON,
MINISTER OF NORTH LEITH.
IT may be said of this excellent man, that he inherited the virtues of the clercial
character by descent. His father was minister of Amgask, in the county of
Fife, and his maternal grandfather, the Rev. Mr. David Williamson, of the parish
of St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, was a celebrated clergyman in the days of the
persecution.’
His early years were sedulously
devoted to the study of those acquirements necessary for the important office
MR. DAVIDJ OHNSwTaOs bNor n in 1733.
1 51r. Williamson was the son of a respectable glover in St. Andrews. He was ordained to the
West Kirk in 1661. The re-establishment of Episcopacy took place two years afterwards ; but, in
defiance of an order of Council, issued in 1664, he continued to preach in his church till the year
following, when he WWJ compelled to abandon his charge. Ee then retired to the west country,
preaching to the people in the fields and at conventiclas. In 1687, on the Act of Toleration being
passed, Mr. Williamson returned to Edinburgh ; and waa so well received by his old parishioners,
that they erected a meeting-house for him, where they attended on his ministrations. The prelatists
of the West Kirk soon found themselves almost totally deserted by their congregation ; but their
hands being tied np by the Toleration Act, they secretly stirred up the civil magistrate against him
by false accusations, in consequence of which he was imprisoned, but subsequently liberated ; yet
the ~amep arty continued to harass him in various ways, until, by the Revolution, he was happily
restored to the parish church in 168,!3. It is to Mr. Williamson that the “Author of Waverley ”
alludes in the following couplet of an absurd old ballad, put into the mouth of a syren of the mob
aa old Deans and his daughter Jeanie are pressing through the crowd to the trial of Effie :-
‘‘Mess David Williamson, chosen of twenty,
Ran up the pupit stairs, and sang Eilliecrankic.”
He was seven times married-a circumstance which afforded a fund of merriment to the Jacobites.
See Scottish Paspils, vol. i. Edin. 12mo.

... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Dalrymple. Edinburgh, 1786 ; gratefully and affectionately inscribed to Richard ...

Book 8 p. 516
(Score 0.68)

MUSCHAT?S CAIRN. 311 Arthur?r Seat.]
terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his
brother, and his sister-in-law, together with Burnbank,
? in the Christian city of Edinburgh, during a
course of many months, without any one, to appearance,
ever feeling the slightest compunction towards
the poor weman, though it is admitted she
loved her husband, and no real fault on her side
has ever been insinuated.?
At length it would seem that Nicol, infatuated
and lured by evil fate, at the suggestion of ?? the
devil, that cunning adversary ?-as his confession
has it-borrowed a knife, scarcely knowing for
what purpose, and, inviting his unsuspecting wife to
walk with him as far as
Duddingston one night,
cut her throat near
the line of trees that
marked the Duke?s
Walk. He then rushed
in a demented state to
tell his brother what
he had done, and thereafter
sank into a mood
of mind that made all
seem blank to him.
Next morning the unfortunate
victim was
found ?with her throat
cut to the bone,? and
many other wounds received
in her dying
struggle.
In the favourite old
Edinburgh religious
by a cairn near the east gate and close to the north
wall. ?The original cairn is said to have been
several paces farther west than the present one,
the stones of which were taken dut of the old wall
whenit was pulled down to give place to the new
gate that was constructed previous to the late royal
visit ?-that of George IV.
In 1820 the pathway round Salisbury Craigs was
formed, and named the ? Radical Road ? from ?the
, circumstance of the destitute and discontented
west-country weavers being employed on its construction
under a committee of gentlemen. At
that time it was proposed to ?sow the rocks with
wall-flowers and other
>I? AlAKGAKET?S WELI..
tract, which narrates
the murderous story, in telling where he went
before doing the deed, he says that he passed
?? through the Tidies,? at the end of a lane which
was near the Meadows. The entrance to the Park,
near the Gibbet Fall, was long known as ?the
Tirliea,? implying a sort of stile.
Nicol Muschat was tried, and confessed all. He
was hanged, on the 6th of the ensuing January in
the Grassmarket, while his associate Burnbank was
declared infamous, and banished ; and the people,
to mark their horror of the event, in the old
Scottish fashion raised a cairn on the spot where
the murder was perpetrated, and it has ever since
been a well-remembered locality.
The first cairn was removed during the formation
of a new footpath through the park, suggested by
Lord Adam Gordon, who was resident at Holyrood
House in 1789, when Commander of the
Forces in Scotland; but from a passage in the
WeekOJournal we find that it was restored in 1823
odoriferous and flowering
plants.? It was also
suggested ? to plant
the cliffs above the
walk with the rarest
heaths from the Cape
of Good Hope and
other foreign parts.?
( Weekfiyuumal, XXIV.)
The papers of this
time teem with bitter
complaints against the
Earl of Haddington,
who, as a keeper of
the Royal Park, by an
abuse of his prercgative,
was quarrying away
the craigs, and selling
the stone to pave the
streets of London; and
the immense gaps in
their south-western face still remain as proofs of
his selfish and unpatriotic rapacity.
As a last remnant of the worship of Baal, or
Fire, we may mention the yearly custom that still
exists of a May-day observance, in the young of the
female sex particularly, ascending Arthur?s Seat on
Beltane morning at sunrise. ?? On a fine May morning,?
says the ? Book of Days,? ? the appearance
of so many gay groups perambulating the hill sides
and the intermediate valleys, searching for dew, and
rousing the echoes with their harmless mirth, has
an indescribably cheerful effect.? Many old citizens
adhered to this custom with wonderful tenacity,
and among the last octogenarians who did so we
may mention Dr. Andrew Duncan of Adam Square,
the founder of the Morningside Asylum, who paid
his last annual visit to the hill top on hlayday, 1S26~
in his eighty-second year, two years before his death ;
and James Burnet, the last captain of the old Town
Guard, a man who weighed nindeen stone, ascended

... CAIRN. 311 Arthur?r Seat.] terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his brother, and his ...

Book 4 p. 310
(Score 0.68)

Arthur?r Seat.] MUSCHAT?S CAIRN. 311
terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his
brother, and his sister-in-law, together with Burnbank,
? in the Christian city of Edinburgh, during a
course of many months, without any one, to appearance,
ever feeling the slightest compunction towards
the poor weman, though it is admitted she
loved her husband, and no real fault on her side
has ever been insinuated.?
At length it would seem that Nicol, infatuated
and lured by evil fate, at the suggestion of ?? the
devil, that cunning adversary ?-as his confession
has it-borrowed a knife, scarcely knowing for
what purpose, and, inviting his unsuspecting wife to
walk with him as far as
Duddingston one night,
cut her throat near
the line of trees that
marked the Duke?s
Walk. He then rushed
in a demented state to
tell his brother what
he had done, and thereafter
sank into a mood
of mind that made all
seem blank to him.
Next morning the unfortunate
victim was
found ?with her throat
cut to the bone,? and
many other wounds received
in her dying
struggle.
In the favourite old
Edinburgh religious
by a cairn near the east gate and close to the north
wall. ?The original cairn is said to have been
several paces farther west than the present one,
the stones of which were taken dut of the old wall
whenit was pulled down to give place to the new
gate that was constructed previous to the late royal
visit ?-that of George IV.
In 1820 the pathway round Salisbury Craigs was
formed, and named the ? Radical Road ? from ?the
, circumstance of the destitute and discontented
west-country weavers being employed on its construction
under a committee of gentlemen. At
that time it was proposed to ?sow the rocks with
wall-flowers and other
>I? AlAKGAKET?S WELI..
tract, which narrates
the murderous story, in telling where he went
before doing the deed, he says that he passed
?? through the Tidies,? at the end of a lane which
was near the Meadows. The entrance to the Park,
near the Gibbet Fall, was long known as ?the
Tirliea,? implying a sort of stile.
Nicol Muschat was tried, and confessed all. He
was hanged, on the 6th of the ensuing January in
the Grassmarket, while his associate Burnbank was
declared infamous, and banished ; and the people,
to mark their horror of the event, in the old
Scottish fashion raised a cairn on the spot where
the murder was perpetrated, and it has ever since
been a well-remembered locality.
The first cairn was removed during the formation
of a new footpath through the park, suggested by
Lord Adam Gordon, who was resident at Holyrood
House in 1789, when Commander of the
Forces in Scotland; but from a passage in the
WeekOJournal we find that it was restored in 1823
odoriferous and flowering
plants.? It was also
suggested ? to plant
the cliffs above the
walk with the rarest
heaths from the Cape
of Good Hope and
other foreign parts.?
( Weekfiyuumal, XXIV.)
The papers of this
time teem with bitter
complaints against the
Earl of Haddington,
who, as a keeper of
the Royal Park, by an
abuse of his prercgative,
was quarrying away
the craigs, and selling
the stone to pave the
streets of London; and
the immense gaps in
their south-western face still remain as proofs of
his selfish and unpatriotic rapacity.
As a last remnant of the worship of Baal, or
Fire, we may mention the yearly custom that still
exists of a May-day observance, in the young of the
female sex particularly, ascending Arthur?s Seat on
Beltane morning at sunrise. ?? On a fine May morning,?
says the ? Book of Days,? ? the appearance
of so many gay groups perambulating the hill sides
and the intermediate valleys, searching for dew, and
rousing the echoes with their harmless mirth, has
an indescribably cheerful effect.? Many old citizens
adhered to this custom with wonderful tenacity,
and among the last octogenarians who did so we
may mention Dr. Andrew Duncan of Adam Square,
the founder of the Morningside Asylum, who paid
his last annual visit to the hill top on hlayday, 1S26~
in his eighty-second year, two years before his death ;
and James Burnet, the last captain of the old Town
Guard, a man who weighed nindeen stone, ascended

... Seat.] MUSCHAT?S CAIRN. 311 terrible schemes occupied Nichol. Muschat, his brother, and his ...

Book 4 p. 311
(Score 0.68)

Leith.] OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209
CHAPTER XXII.
LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded).
Leith and Edinburgh Peopk in the First Years of the Nineteenth Century-Gorge 1V. Pmkied-His Landing at Leith-Temtory Of the
Town defined-Landing of Mons Meg-Leith during the Old War--The Smacks.
UNLESS it be among the seafaring class, no difference
is perceptible now between the inhabitants of
Edinburgh and Leith ; but it was not so once, when
the towns were more apart, and intercourse less frequent
; differences and distinctions were known
even in the early years of the present century.
A clever and observant writer in 1824 says that,
as refinements and dissimilarities existed then between
the Old and New Town, so did they exist
in the appearance, habits, and characteristics of the
Leith and Edinburgh people.
?? Not such,? he continues, as accidentally
take up their residence there for a sea prospect and
a sea-breeze, but those whose air is Leith air from
their cradles, and who are fixtures in the placemerchants,
traders, and seafaring persons : the
latter class has a peculiarity similar in most maritime
towns; but it is the rich merchants and
traders, together with their wives and daughters,
who are now before us.? (? The Hermit in Edin.??
The man of fortune and pleasure in Edinburgh,
he remarks, views his Leith neighbours as a mere
Cit, though in point of fact he is much less so than
the former. ?The inan of fashion residing in
Edinburgh for a time, for economy or convenience,
and the Scottish nobleman dividing his time betwixt
London, Edinburgh, and his estates, sets
down the Leith merchant as a homespun article.
Again, the would-be dandy of the New Town eyes
him with self-preference, and considers him as his
inferior in point of taste, dress, living, and knowledge
of the beau monde-one who, if young, copies
his dress, aspires at his introduction into the higher
circle, and borrows his fashions ; the former, however,
being always ready to borrow his name or
cash; the first looking respectable on a bill, and
the second not being over plenty with the men of
dress and of idle life in Edinburgh. Both sexes
follow the last London modes, and give an idea
that they are used to town life, high company,
luxuries, late hours, and the manner of living in
polished France.?
All this difference is a thing of the past, and
the observer would be a shrewd one indeed who
detected any difference between the denizen of the
capital and of its seaport.
But the Leith people of the date referred to
Vol. 11.)
.
were, like their predecessors, more of the old
school, and, with their second-class new fashions,
and customs were some time in passing into desuetude,
old habits dying hard there as elsewhere. The
paterfamilias of Leith then despised the extremes
of dress, though his son might affect them, and hn
was more plodding and business-like in bearing
than his Edinburgh neighbour; was alleged to
always keep his hands in his pockets, with an expression
of independence in his face ; while, continues
this writer, in those ?of the Edinburgh
merchants may be read cunning and deep discernment.
Moreover, the number of Leith traders is
limited, and each is known by headmark, whilst
thpse employed in commerce and trade in the
northern capital may be mistaken, and mixed up
with the men of pleasure, the professors, lawyers,
students, and strangers j but an observing eye will
easily mark the difference and the strong characteristic
of each-barring always the man of pleasure,
who is changeful, and often insipid within
and without.?
In 1820 the Edinburgh and Leith Seamen?s
Friendly Society was instituted.
In the same year, when some workmen were
employed in levelling the ground at the south end
of the bridge, then recently placed across the river
at Leith Mills (for the purpose of opening up a
communication between the West Docks and the
foot of Leith Walk), five feet from the surface they
came upon many human skeletons, all of rather unusual
stature, which, from the size of the roots of
the trees above them, must have lain there a very
long time, and no doubt were the remains of some
of those soldiers who had perished in the great
siege during the Regency of Mary of Lorraine.
The proclamation of George IV. as king, after
having been performed at Edinburgh with great
ceremony, was repeated at -the pier and Shore
of Leith on February grd, 1820, by the Sheriff
Clerk and magistrates, accompanied by the heralds,
pursuivants and trumpeters, the style and titles 01
His Majesty being given at great length. At one
o?clock the ship of the Admiral and other vessels
in the Roads, the flags of which had been halF
hoisted, mastheaded them at one p.m, and fired
forty-one guns. They were then half-hoisted till
the funeral of George 111. was over.

... OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209 CHAPTER XXII. LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded). Leith and Edinburgh ...

Book 6 p. 207
(Score 0.68)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 307
Blackwall, where the Circassian was conducted into a private room, whilst some necessav
arrangements were made ; and about ten o’clock the travellers, attended by the three English
gentlemen, went on board a boat provided for the occasion, and suitably fitted up for privacy and
comfort, by Mr. Barber, of the house of Messrs. Mathias, P. Lucas, and Co., the lightermen to his
Excellency, The distressing situation of the Circassian on taking leave of the Ambassador, and
the native sensibility of the males on taking leave of their old friends and relatives, unavoidably
delayed the arrival of the party at the waterside considerably beyond the time agreed upon,
which occasioned a loss of the 6rst hour‘s ebb tide ; and although this detention added considerably
to the labours of the boatmen, who were all chosen men in the employ of Messrs. Lucas and
Co.l(their foreman acting as captain of the boat’s crew), and whose occupations did not generally
lead them to this sort of duty ; yet with such alacrity did they proceed, stimulated, no doubt,
by the honour of conveying a female of such distinguished notoriety, that they reached the vessel
in Gravesend Roads about three o’clock, where they were received on board with every mark of
attention by Captain Milh and his ship’s crew.”
A vast crowd had assembled at Gravesend, in the hope of obtaining a sight
of the ‘‘ Fair Circassian ;” and although orders had been issued by Government
to the various officers of customs, not to interfere with the luggage of the party,
every official contrivance was resorted to by some of them in order to obtain a
glimpse of the stranger.
“ Such was the anxiety of the Ambassador respecting his Dill Awm,” continues the account
from wpich we have quoted so largely, “that although he had given ample directions that everything
possible should be provided for her private use, beyond the supplies of the ship, and which
he could not doubt would be strictly attended to ; yet after she had proceeded on her way to the
ship, he despatched the Persian medical student, Mirza Jiafer Tabeeb, to attend her on board,
that nothing might be wanted as far as his professional knowledge could suggest, that could in
a remote degree contribute to her comfort and the preservation of her health.
“On her passage to the ship, she was attired in English costume, wearing a black velvet
pelisse, and buff sandals, with an Anglo-Cashmere shawl placed over her head, which nearly
covered her figure ; and on leaving the Ambassador’s house it veiled her face, with the exception
of her beautiful jet eyes, which lost none of their lustre, although she was evidently labouring
under a depression of spirits, bordering on dejection, but from which she appeared to have
considerably recovered in the course of the day.
“When she arrives at Constantinople she will have to perform a tedious journey of about
fifteen hundred miles overland to Tehran, the present capital of Persia, where the principal
residence of the Ambassador is situated. The mode of conveyance from Constantinople, for
females of her rank, is in a TmMr awm, which, in the Persian language, signifies a moving
throne or seat. It may be compared to an English sedan chair, only considerably more spacious ;
two poles are similarly fastened to each side, which project fore and aft ; but instead of being
supported by men, two mules are substituted, one in front, and the other on the principle of a
propelling power, and a strap or cord being fastened behind from one pole to the other, which
rests on a kind of saddle placed on the back of the mule, the T t ~ hatw~an is supported by the
mules at a proper distance from the ground, to preserve a due equilibrium ; and in this way they
travel at an easy rate in perfect safety through a dangerous tract of countrg.”
After the departure of his Dill Awm, the Ambassador remained in England
about a month, a portion of which he spent at Cheltenham for his health. In
the prosecution of his design of visiting Scotland and Ireland, his Excellency
arrived at Dumbreck’a Hotel, Edinburgh, on Saturday the 30th of October,
and shortly afterwards took up his residence at the Royal HoteL He was
waited upon by the Lord Provost (Manderston), and about three o’clock, accompanied
by his lordship, Bailie Manners, and an interpreter. The Ambassador
proceeded in his carriage to the Parliament House, and viewed with much
interest the Courts of law, the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, and the

... SKETCHES. 307 Blackwall, where the Circassian was conducted into a private room, whilst some ...

Book 9 p. 408
(Score 0.67)

1 24 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
anticipated, on the loftiest and least accessible part of the rock on which it is built. Here,
on the very edge of the precipitous cliff, overhanging the Old Town several hundred feet
below, the ancient Royal Palace is reared, forming the south and east sides of a large quadrangle,
called the Grand Parade. The chief portion of the southern side of this square
consists of a large ancient edifice, long converted into an hospital for the garrison, but
which had been ori,ginally the great hall of the Palace. Notwithstanding the numerous
changes to which it has been subjected in adapting it to its present use, some remains of
its ancient grandeur have been preserved. At the top of the principal staircase may be
seen a very finely sculptured stone corbel, now somewhat mutilated, representing in front
a female face of very good proportions, and ornamented on each with a volute and thistle.
On this still rests the original oak beam ; and on either side of it there are smaller beamfl
let into the wall, with shields carved on the front of each. The whole are now defaced
with whitewash, but they afford evidence of the existence formerly of a fine open timbered
roof to the great hall, and it is probable that much more of it still remains, though concealed
by modern ceilings and partitions. From the occasional assembling of the Parliament
here, while the Scottish Monarchs continued to reside in the Castle, it still retain8
the name of the Parliament House.’
The view from the windows on this side of the Palace is scarcely surpassed by any other
in the capital. Immediately below are the picturesque old houses of the Grassmarket and
West Port, crowned by the magnificent towers of Heriot’s Hospital. From this abyss,
the hum of the neighbouring city rises up, mellowed by the distance, into one pleasing
voice of life and industry; while, beyond, a gorgeous landscape is spread out, reaching
almoat to the ancient landmarks of the kingdom, guarded on the far east by the old keep
of Craigmillar Castle, and on the west by Merchiston Tower. Between these is still seen
the wide expanse of the Borough Muir, on which the fanciful eye of one familiar with the
national history will summon up the Scottish hosts marshalling for southern war ; as when
the gallant Jameses looked forth from these same towers, and proudly beheld them gathering
around the standard of (( the Ruddy Lion,” pitched in the massive (( Bore Stane,”’
still remaining at the Borough Muir Head.
The windows in this
part of the quadrangle have been very large, though now partly built up, and near the top
of the building, there is a sculptured shield, much defaced, which seems to bear the Scottish
Lion, with a crown over it. A stone tablet over the arch of the old doorway, with
’
Immediately to the east of this, the royal apartments are situated.
In the Treasurer‘s Acoounta, various items occur, relating to the royal apartmenta in the Castle, e.g. AJJ. 1516, “for
trein werk (timber work) for The Great Haw Windois in the Castell; gret gestis, doubill dalis, &c., for the Myd Chamer
;” and, again, r( to Robert Balye for fluring of the Lordis Haw in Davidis Tower of the Castell in Ed‘ ”-Pitcairn’s
Crim. Trials, Appendix. The Hall is also alluded to in the survey of 1572, and ita locality deacribed aa “On the south
syde wher the haule is,” &c.-Bann. Misc., vol. ii. p. 70. In a seriee of “One hundred and fifty select views, by P.
Sandby,” published by Boydell, there is one of Edinburgh Castle from the south, dated 1779, in which two of the great
hall windows remain ; they are lofty, extending through two stories of the building, as now arranged, and apparently
divided by stone mullions.
Bore Stane, so called from the hollow or Lore into which the staff of the royal standard was placed (vide Marmion,
canto iv. v. 28). About a mile south of this, near the entrance to Morton Hall, is the Eare Stane (confounded by
Maitland, p. 506, with the former). Various stones in Gloucestershire and other districta of England bear the same
name, which an antiquarian friend suggests is probably derived from the Saxun I?&, signifying slaughter, and therefore
indicating the site of an ancient battle. About a mile to the south of this, a huge h i d i c a l mass of red sandstone bears
the name of Buck Stane. The two last are popularly believed to mark the rendezvous of the Court for coursing the
hare or hunting the buck in “ The olden time.”
The coping, supported on stone corbels, still remains a8 in the earliest views.

... 24 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. anticipated, on the loftiest and least accessible part of the rock on which it is ...

Book 10 p. 135
(Score 0.65)

THE LA WNMARKE T. I59
the latter building, consisted of a rudely executed ogee pediment, containing the city
arms, and surmounted by three tron weights. On Queen Mary’s entry to Edinburgh in
1561, this was the scene of some of the most ingenious displays of civic loyalty. Her
Majesty dined in the Castle, and a triumphal arch was erected at the Weigh-house, or
“ butter trone,” where the keys of the city were presented to her by “ane bony barne,
that descendit doun fra a cloude, as it had bene ane angell,” and added to the wonted
gift a Bible and Psalm-book-additions which some contemporary historians hint were
received with no very good grace.’ Cromwell established a guard in the older building
there, while the Castle was held out against him in 1650, and prudently levelled it with
the ground on gaining possession of the fortress, lest it should afford the same cover to
hiis assailants that it had done to himself. The latter erection proved equally serviceable
to the Highlanders of Prince Charles in 1745, when they attempted to blockade the Castle,
and starve out the garrison by stopping all supplies. The first floor of the large done
land, in front of Milne’s Court, was occupied at the same period as the residence and guardroom
for the officers commanding the neighbouring post ; and it is said that the dislodged
occupant,--a zealous Whig,-took his revenge on them after their departure by advertising
for the recovery of missing articles abstracted by his compulsory guests. The court
immediately behind this appears to have been one of the earliest attempts to substitute
an open square of some extent for the narrow closes that had so long afforded the sole
town residences of the Scottish gentry. The main entrance is adorned with a Doric entablature,
and bears the date 1690. The principal house, which forms the north side of the
court, has a handsome entrance, with neat mouldifigs, rising into a small peak in the
centre, like a very flat ogee arch. This style of ornament, which frequently occurs in
buildings of the same period, seems to mark the handiwork of Robert Milne, the builder
of the most recent portions of Holyrood Palace, and seventh Royal Master Mason, whose
uncle’s tomb,-erected by him in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard,-records in quaint rhymes
these hereditary &onours :-
.
Reader, John Milne, who maketh the fourth John,
And, by descent from father unto son,
Sixth Master-Mason, to a royal race
Of seven succesaive kings, sleeps in thia place.
The houses forming the west side of the court are relics of a much earlier period, that
had been delivered from the durance of a particularly narrow close by the march of fashion
and improvement in the seventeenth century. The most northerly of them long formed
the town mansion of the lairds of Comiston, in whose possession it still remains ; while that
to the south, though only partially exposed, presents a singularly irregular and picturesque
Ante, p. 71. “Quhen hir grace come fordwart to the butter trone of the said burgh, the nobilitie and convoy foirsaid
precedand, at the quhilk butter trone thair waa ane port made of tymber, in maiat honourable maner, cullorit with
fyne cullouris, hungin with syndrie armem ; upon the quhii port w88 singand certane barneia in the maiat hevinlie via;
under the quhilk port thair wea ane cloud opynnand with four levis, in the quhik waa put and bony barna And quhen
the queues hienes waa cumand throw the said port, the said cloud opynnit, and the barne dscendit doun as it had beene
ane angell, and deliuent to her hienes the keyis of the toun, togidder with ane Bybd and ane Paalme Buik, couerit with
fyne purpourit veluot ; and efter the said b eha d spoken aome small speitches, he deliuerit alsua tu her hienea thw
writtin@, the tennour thairof is vncertane. That being done, the barne ascendit in the cloua, and the said dud stekit j
- and thairefter the quenia grace come doun to the to1bnith.”-Diurnal of Ocurrenta, p. 68.

... LA WNMARKE T. I59 the latter building, consisted of a rudely executed ogee pediment, containing the ...

Book 10 p. 173
(Score 0.65)

OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
after nnmixous schemes and suggestions, the North
Bridge was widened in 1873, after designs by
Messrs. Stevenson. The average number of footpassengers
traversing this bridge daily is said to
be considerably in excess of go,ooo, and the
number of wheeled vehicles upwards of 2,000.
The ground at the north-east end of the bridge
has been so variously occupied in succession by an
edifice ?named Dingwall?s Castle, by Shakespeare
Square, and the oldTheatre Royal, with its thousand
memories of the drama in Edinburgh, and latterly
Jay the new General Post Office for Scotland, that we must devote a chapter or two to that portion
? of it alone.
CHAPTER XLIII.
EAST SIDE OF THE NORTH BRIDGE.
Diogwall?s Castle-Whitefield?s ? Preachings?-History of the Old Theatre Royal-The Building-David Ross?s Management--Leased to
Mr. Foote-Then to Mr. Digges-Mr. Moss-- Yates-Next Leased to Mr. Jackson-The Siddons Fumre-Reception of the Great
Actress-ME. Baddeley-New Patent-The Playhouse Riot-?The Scottish Roscius ?-A Ghost-Expiry of the Patent.
BUILT no one knows when, but existing during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there stood
on the site now occupied by the new General Post
Office, an edifice named Dingwall?s Castle. In
1647, Cordon of Rothiemay, in his wonderfully
distinct and detailed bird?s-eye view of the city,
represents it as an open ruin, in form a square
tower with a round one at each angle, save on the
north-east, where one was fallen down in part. All
the sloping bank aiid ground between it and the
Trinity College church are shown as open, but
bordered on the west by a line of houses, which he
names Niniani Suburbium seu nzendicorum Fatea
(known latterly as the Beggar?s Row), and on the
west and north by high walls, the latter crenellated,
and by a road which descends close to the edge
of the loch, and then runs along its bank straight
westward.
This stronghold is supposed to have derived its
name from Sir John Dingwall, who was Provost of
the Trinity College church before the Reformation ;
and hence the conclusion is, that it was a dependency
of that institution. He was one of the
first Lords of Session appointed on the 25th May,
1532, at the formation of the College of Justice,
and his name is third on the list.
Of him nothing more is known, save that he
existed and that is all. . Some fragments of the
castle are still supposed to exist among the buildings
on its site, and some were certainly traced
among the cellars of Shakespeare Square on its demolition
in 1860.
During the year 1584 when the Earl of Arran was
Provost of the city, on the 30th September, the
Council commissioned Michael Chisholm and others
to inquire into the order and condition of an ancient
leper hospital which stood beside Dingwall?s Castle;
but of the former no distinct trace is given in
Cordon?s view.
In Edgar?s map of Edinburgh, in 1765, no indication
of these buildings is given, but the ground
occupied by the future theatre and Shakespeare
Square is shown as an open park or irregular
parallelogam closely bordered by trees, measuring
about 350 feet each way, and lying between the
back of the old Orphan Hospital and the village
of Multrie?s Hill, where now the Register House
stands.
It was in this park, known then as that of the
Trinity Hospital, that the celebrated Whitefield
used yearly to harangue a congregation of all creeds
and classes in the open air, when visiting Edinburgh
in the course of his evangelical tours. On his
coming thither for the first time after the Act
had passed for the extension of the royalty,
great was his horror, surprise, and indignation, to
find the green slope which he had deemed to be
rendered almost sacred by his prelections, enclosed
by fences and sheds, amid which a theatre was in
course of erection.
The ground was being ?appropriated to the
service of Satan. The frantic astonishment of the
Nixie who finds her shrine and fountain desolated
in her absence, was nothing to that of Whitefield.
He went raging about the spot, and contemplated
the rising walls of the playhouse with a sort of grim
despair. He is said to have considered the circumstance
as a positive mark of the increasing wickedness
of society, and to have termed it a plucking up
of God?s standard, and a planting of the devil?s in
its place.?
The edifice which he then saw in course of
erection was destined, for ninety years, to be inseparably
connected with the more recent rise of
the drama in Scotland generally, in Edinburgh in
particular, and to be closely identified with all the
artistic and scenic glories of the stage. It was
long a place replete with interest, and yet recalls

... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge. after nnmixous schemes and suggestions, the North Bridge was widened in ...

Book 2 p. 340
(Score 0.64)

1-50 OLD.? AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The City Crosa.
by the Figgate-burn ere he marched to storm
Dunbar.?
There lie citizens who have fought for their
country at Flodden, Pinkie, and a hundred:other
fields; and there lies one whose name is still
mighty in the land, and ?who never feared the
face of man?-John Knox. He expired at his old
manse, near the Nether Bow, on the 24th of No-
~ vember, 1572, in his sixty-seventh year, and his
body was attended to the grave by a great multitude
of people, incIuding the chief of the nobles
and the Regent Morton, whose simple iZqe over
his grave is so well known. It cannot but excite
surprise that no effort was made by the Scottish
people to preserve distinctly the remains of the
great Reformer from desecration, but some of that
spirit of irreverence for the past which he incul-
GRAVE OF JOHN KNOX.
cated thus recoiled upon himself, and posterity
knows not his exact resting-place. If the tradition
mentioned by Chambers, says Wilson, be correct, that
? his burial-place was a few feet from the front of the
old pedestal of King Charles?s statue, the recent
change in the position of the latter must have
placed it directly mer his grave-perhaps as strange
a monument to the great apostle of Presbyterianism
as fancy could devise !? Be all this as it may,
there is close by the statue a small stone let intc
the pavement inscribed simply
? I. K., 1572.?
An ancient oak pulpit, octagonal and panelled
brought from St. Giles?s church, and said to havc
been the same in which he was wont to preach, i!
still preserved in the Royal Institution on tht
Earthen Mound. . .
Close by St. Giles?s church, where radii in thc
causeway mark its site, stood the ancient cros!
of the city, so barbarously swept away by thc
ignorant and tasteless magistracy of 1756. Scott
and other men of taste, never ceased to deplore it!
destruction, and many attempts have been vainl;
nade to collect the fragments and reconstruct it,
[n ? Marmion,? as the poet has it :-
?? Dunedin?s cross, a pillared stone,
Rose on a turret octagon;
But now is razed that monument,
And the voice of Scotland?s law went forth,
Oh, be his tomb as lead to lead
Upon its dull destroyer?s head !-
A minstrel?s malison is said.?
. - -Whence royal edicts rang,
In gloribus trumpet clang.
A battlemented octagon tower, furnished with four
angular turrets, it was sixteen feet in diameter, and
fifteen feet high. From this rose the centre pillar,
xlso octagon, twenty feet in height, surmounted by
a beautiful Gothic capital, terminated by a crowned
unicorn. Caldenvood tells us that prior to King
Tames?s visit to Scotland the old cross was taken
down from the place where it had stood within
the memory of man, and the shaft transported
to the new one, by the aid of certain mariners
from Leith. Rebuilt thus in 1617, nearly on the
site of an older cross, it was of a mixed style of
architecture, and in its reconstruction, with a better
taste than later years have shown, the chief ornaments
of the ancient edifice had been preserved ;
the heads in basso-relievo, which surmounted
seven of the arches, have been referred by our
most eminent antiquaries to the remote period of
the Lower Empire. Four of those heads, which
were long preserved by Mr. Ross at Deanhaugh,
were procured by Sir Walter Scott, and are still
preserved at Abbotsford, together with the great
stone font or basin which flowed with wine on
holidays. The central pillar, long preserved at
Lord Somerville?s house, Drum, near Edinburgh,
now stands near the Napier tomb, within a railing,
on the north side of the choir of St. Giles?s, where
it was >placed_in 1866. A crowned unicorn surmounts
it, bearing a pennon blazoned with a silver
St. Andrew?scross on one side, and on the. other
the city crest-an anchor.
From the side of that venerable shaft royal proclamations,
solemn denunciations of excommunication
and outlawry, involving ruin and death, went
forth for ages, and strange and terrible have been the
scenes, the cqelties, the executions, and absurdities,
it has witnessed. From its battlements, by tradition,
mimic heralds of the unseen world cited the gallant
James and all our Scottish chivalry to appear in
the domains of Pluto immediately before the
march of the army to Flodden, as recorded at
great length in the ?? Chronicles of Pitscottie,?
and rendered more pleasantly, yet literally, into
verse by Scott- ~

... OLD.? AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The City Crosa. by the Figgate-burn ere he marched to storm Dunbar.? There lie ...

Book 1 p. 150
(Score 0.64)

360 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge
they occupied when obtained, that we are tempted to
conclude the genteeler part of the congregations in
Edinburgh deem the essential duties of religion to
be concentrated in holding and paying rent for so
many feet square in the inside of a church."
- Lady Glenorchy, whom Kincaid describes as '' a
young lady eminent for good sense and every
accomplishment that could give dignity to her
rank, and for the superior piety which made her conspicuous
as a Christian," in 1772 feued a piece of
ground from the managers of the Orphan Hospital,
at a yearly duty of d15, on which she built her
chapel, of which (following the example of Lady
Yester in another part of the city) she retained the
patronage, and the entire management with herself,
and certain persons appointed by her.
In the following year she executed a deed,
which declared that the managers of the Orphan
Hospital should have liberty (upon asking it in
proper time) to employ a preacher occasionally in
her chapel, if it was not otherwise employed, and
to apply the collections made on these occasions
in behalf of the hospital. On the edifice being
finished, she'addressed the following letter to the
Moderator of the Presbytery of Edinburgh :-
" Edin., April zgth, 1774.
"REVEREND SIR,-It is a general complaint that the
churches of this city which belong to the Establishment are
not proportioned to the number of its inhabitants, Many
who are willing to pay for seats cannot obtain them ; and no
space is left for the poor, but the remotest areas, where few of
those who find room to stand can get within hearing of any
ordinary voice. I have thought it my duty to employ part
of that substance with which God has been pleased to
entrust me in building a chapel within the Orphan House
Park, in which a considerable number of our communion
who at present are altogether unprovided may enjoy the
benefit of the same ordinances which are dispensed in the
parish churches, and where I hope to have the pleasure of
accommodating some hundreds of poor people who have
long been shut out from one of the best and to some of them
the only means of instruction in the principles of our holy
religion.
" The chapel will soon be ready to receive a congregation,
and it is my intention to have it supplied with a minister 01
approved character and abilities, who will give sufficient
security for his soundness in the faith and loyalty to Govern
ment.
"It will give me pleasure to be informed that the Pres.
bytery approve of my design, and that it will be agreeable tc
them that I should ask occasional supply from such ministen
and probationers as I am acquainted with, till a congregatior
be formed and supplied with a stated minister.-I am, Rev,
Sir, Src '' W. GLENORCKY."
The Presbytery being fully convinced not onlj
of the piety of her intentions, but the utility o
having an additional place of worship in the city
unanimously approved of the design, and in May,
1774, her chapel was opened by the Rev. Robert
Walker of the High Church, and Dr. John Erskine of
the Greyfriars ; but a number of clergy were by no
means friendly to the erection of this chapel in any
way, on the plea that the footing on which it was
admitted into connection with the Church was not
sufficiently explicit, and eventually they brought the
matter before the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale.
Lady Glenorchy acquainted the Presbytery, in 1775,
that she intended to place in the chapel an English
dissenting preacher named Grove. The Presbytery
wrote, that though they approved of her
piety, they could give no countenance whatever to
a minister who was not a member of the Church of
Scotland; and Mr. Grove foreseeing a contest,
declined the charge, and now ensued a curious
controversy.
Lady Glenorchy again applied to the Presbytery,
wishing as incumbent the Rev. Mr. Balfour, then
minister of Lecroft; but he, with due respect for
the Established Church and its authority, declined
to leave his pastoral charge until he was assured
that the Presbytery of the city would instal him in
the chapel. The latter approved of her selection,
but declined the installation, unless there x-as a
regular " call " from the congregation, and security
given that the offerings at the chapel were never to
be under the administration of the managers of the
charity workhouse.
With this decision she declined to comply, and
wrote, " That the chapel was her own private property,
and had never been intended to be put on the
footing of the Establishment, nor connected with it
as a chapel, of ease to the city of Edinburgh ; That
having built it at her own expense, she was entitled
to name the minister : That she wished to convince
the Presbytery of her inclination, that her minister,
though not on the Establishment, should hold communication
with its members : That, with respect
to the offerings, everybody knew that she had a p
pointed trustees for the management of them, and
that those who were not pleased with this mode of
administration might dispose of their alms elsewhere;
adding that she had once and again sent part of
these offerings to the treasurer of the charity workhouse."
A majority of the Presbytery now voted her reply
satisfactory, agreed to instal her minister, and that
he should be in communion with the Established
Church, '' Thus," says h o t , who seems antagonistic
to the founders, " did the Presbytery give every
mark of countenance, and almost every benefit
arising from the Established Church, while this institution
was not subject to their jurisdiction ; while

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge they occupied when obtained, that we are tempted to conclude the ...

Book 2 p. 360
(Score 0.64)

Leith.] SCENES UN THE LINKS. 263
a teacher of fencing and cock-fighting in Edinburgh,
published an ? Essay on the Innocent and Royal
Recreation and Art of Cocking,? from which it
may be learned that he it was who introduced it
intQ the metropolis of Scotland, and entered into
it con amot-e.
?I am not ashamed to declare to the world,?
he wrote, ?that I have a specialveneration and
esteem for those gentlemen, without and about this
city; who have entered in society for propagating
and establishing the royal recreation of cocking, in
order to which they have already erected a cockpit
in the Links of Leith; and I earnestly wish
that their generous and laudable example may be
imitated in that degree that, in cock-war, village
may be engaged against village, city against city,
kingdom against kingdom-nay, father against son
-until all the wars in Europe, where so much
Christian blood is spilt, may be turned into the
innocent pastime of cocking.?
This barbarous amusement was long a fancy of
the Scottish people, and the slain buds and fugies
(or cravens) became a perquisite of the village
schoolmaster.
On the 23rd of December, 1729, the Hon. Alexander,
Elphinstone (before mentioned), who was
leading a life of idleness and pleasure in Leith,
while his brother was in exile, met a Lieutenant
Swift, of Lord Cadogan?s regiment (latterly the 4th
or King?s Own), at the house of Mr. Michael
Watson, in Leitk
Some hot words had arisen between them, and
Elphinstone rose haughtily to depart ; but before he
went he touched Swift on the shoulder with the
point of his sword, and intimated that he expected
to receive satisfaction next morning on the Links.
Accordingly the two met at eleven in the forenoon,
and in this comparatively public place (as it
appears now) fought a duel with their swords.
Swift received a mortal wound in the breast, and
expired.
For this, Alexander Elphinstone was indicted
before the High Court of Justiciary, but the case
never came on for trial, and he died without
molestation at his father?s house in Coatfield Lane,
three years after. Referring to his peaceful sport
with Captain Porteous, the author of the ? Domestic
Annals ? says ? that no one could have imagined,
as that cheerful game was going on, that both the
players were not many years after to have blood
upon their hands, one of them to take on the murderer?
s mark upon this very field.?
Several military executions have taken placethere,
and among them we may note two.
The first recorded is that of a drummer, who was
shot there on the 23rd of February, 1686, by sentence
of a court-martial, for having, it was alleged,
said that he ?? had it in his heart to run his sword
through any Papist,? on the occasion when the Foot
Guards and other troops, under General Dalzell and
the Earl of Linlithgow, were under arms to quell the
famous ?Anti-Popish Riot,? made by the students
of the university.
One of the last instances was in 1754.
On the 4th of November in that year, John
Ramsbottom and James Burgess, deserters from
General the Hon. James Stuart?s regiment (latterly
the 37th Foot), were escorted from Edinburgh
Cast19 to Leith Links to be shot. The former
suffered, but the latter was pardoned.
His reprieve from death was only intimated to
him when he had been ordered to kneel, and the
firing? party were drawn up with their arms m
readiness. The shock so affected him that he
fainted, and lay on the grass for some time
motionless ; but the temble lesson would seem to
have been given to him in vain, as in the Scots
Magazine for the same year and month it is announced
that ?James Burgess, the deserter so
lately pardoned when on his knees to be shot, was
so far from being reformed by such a near view of
death, that immediately after he was guilty of theft,
for which he received a thousand lashes on the
parade in the Castle of Edinburgh, on November
zznd, and was drummed out of the regiment with
a rope round his neck.?
During the great plague of 1645 the ailing were
hutted in hundreds on the Links, and under its
turf their bones lie in numbers, as they were interred
where they died, with their blankets as
shrouds. Balfour, in his ? Annales,? records that
in the same year the people of Leith petitioned
Parliament, in consequence of this fearful pest, to
have 500 bolls of meal for their poor out of the
public magazines, which were accordingly given,
and a subscription was opened for them in certain
shires.
A hundred years afterwards saw the same ground
studded with the tents of a cavalry camp, when,
prior to the total rout of the king?s troops at
Prestonpans, Hamilton?s Dragoons (now the 14th
Hussars) occupied the Links, from whence theymarched,
by the way of Seafield and the Figgate
Muir, to join Sir John Cope.
During the old war with France the Links were
frequently adopted as a kind of Campus Marrius
for the many volunteer corps :hen enrolled in the
vicinity.
On the 4th of June, 1797, they had an unusual
display in honour of the king?s birthday and the

... SCENES UN THE LINKS. 263 a teacher of fencing and cock-fighting in Edinburgh, published an ? Essay on the ...

Book 6 p. 263
(Score 0.62)

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 393
Externally, the recent alterations, though greatly injuring the Old Church in some parts,
and particularly in its 8out.h front towards the Parliament Close, have effected decided
improvements on others. Many of the buttresses had been injured or entirely removed to
make way for the booths erected against its walls, and most of the mullions and tracery of
the windows had disappeared, and been replaced by clumsy wooden sashes. In the year
1561 the western wall wm rebuilt by order of the Town CounciL It is probable that this
part of the building was originally characterised by the usual amount of ornament lavished
on the west fronts of cathedrals and collegiate churches, as canopied niches, gurgoils, and
other fragments of ornate ecclesiastical architecture were scattered in an irre,plar manner
throughout the rude masonry. When it was rebuilt, however, it was no doubt hemmed in
with buildings as it remained till 1809, so that there was little inducement to erect anything
more than a. substantial wall. Here, therefore, the architect found a fair field for
the exercise of his genius, and the result is at any rate an improvement on what preceded
it. The east end is also improved externally by the addition of buttressea, though at the
sacrifice of ‘‘ our ladie’s niche ; ” and the new work preserves an exact fac-simile of the
tracery of the great east window. On the north side of the choir the monument of the
Napier family forms a conspicuous and interesting feature, though recent investigations by
the late Professor Wallace are generally received as a confutation of the tradition that it
marks the tomb of the illustrious Inventor of Logarithms.’ It is exceedingly probable
that this monument indicates the site of St Salvator’s altar, to the chaplain of which
Archibald Napier of Merchiston, in 1494, mortified an annual rent of twenty merks out of
a tenement near the College Kirk of the Holy Trinity.’
The present graceful Crown Tower of St Giles’s, which forms so striking a feature not
only of the church but of the town, dates no further back th& the year 1648, when it was
rebuilt on the model of the older tower, which had then fallen iato decay. Of the four
bells, which seem to have formed the whole complement of the belfry in early times,
one, which bore the name of St May’s Bell, was taken down at the same time that St
Giles’s arm bone was cast forth aa a relic of superstition, and ‘‘ with the brazen pillars in
Archaeologia Scotica, vol. iv. p. 213 j where evidence is produced, derived from the writings of James Hume of
Qodscroft, a contemporary of Napier, to show that he was buried in St Cuthbert’s Church. The question, however, s t i l l
admits of doubt He remarks of the
Inventor of Logarithms :-“ I1 mourut l’an 1616, et fut e n t e d hors la Porte Occidentale d‘Edinbourg, dans l’Eglise
de Sainct Cudbert.” In this statement the wrong year is assigned for hb death, and other pasaages show that the
author was at least personally unacquainted with the Scottish philosopher. The stone in St Qilea’s Church is, after all,
the best evidence. But it is
surmounted with the arms and crest of Merchiston, along with the Wrychtishousis shield. The recent biographer of
Napier remarks (Mems. of Napier of Merchiston, by Mark Napier, Esq., p. 425), “ The stone has every appearance of
being much older than the time of the philosopher.” To us, however, it appears quite in the style of that period, the
best evidence of which is ita close resemblance to that of the rare title-page of the firat edition of the Logarithm4
published nt Edinburgh by Andrew Hart, A.D. 1614, a fac-simile of which adorns that interesting volume of biography.
The close intimacy between the Napiers of Merchiston and Wrychtishousis had been cemented by an alliance in 1513.
Its continuation in the time of the philosopher is shown by an application from his neighbour for a seat or d a k adjoining
his in the Parish Church of St Cuthbert, $0 that their possession of a common place of sepulture at the period of
his death is extremely probable. Add to this, the unvarying traditions among the descendants of Napier, as we are
assured by his biographer, all pointing to the Collegiate Church of St Oiles as the burial-place of the philosopher, where
his ancestors had founded a chantry, most probably above their own vault. Further evidence may yet be discovered
on this subject. The late Rev. Principal Lee informed us, that he possessed an abstract of documents proving the use
of the family vault in St Gilea’s Church at a later date than the death of the philosopher, which adds to the improbability
of hia being buried elsewhere.
Hume’s work, a Treatise‘on Trigonometry, was published at Paris in 1636.
The inscription simply bears :--8 . E . P. FAM . DE NEPEROBUY INTEBIUS HI0 BITUY EST.
Inventar of Piom Donations, M.S. Ad. Lib.
3 D

... ANTIQUITIES. 393 Externally, the recent alterations, though greatly injuring the Old Church in some ...

Book 10 p. 431
(Score 0.62)

I0 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Univtrsitv.
He seemed greatly delighted with the result,
and felt much self-gratification at the part he had
himself borne. lhus, immediately after the removal
of the court to Paisley, on the 25th Gf July,
1617, he addressed the following letter to the magistrates
of Edinburgh :-
? JAMES R.
? Trustie and weill beloved, we greet you weill.
? Being sufficientlie perswadit of the guid beginning and
progresse which ye haiff madein repairing and building of
your college, and of your commendable resolution constantlie
to proceed and persist thairin, till the same sal1 be perfytlie
finished; for your better?encouragement in a wark so
universallie beneficial for our subjectis, and for such ornament
and reputation for our citie, we haiff thocht guid not
only to declair our special1 approbation thairof, but lykewayes,
as we gave the first being and beginning thairunto, so we
haiff thocht it worthie to be honoured with our name, of
our awin impositione ; and the raither because of the late
air, which to our great content, we ressaived of the gude
worth and sufficiencie of the maisters thairof, at thair being
with us at Stirling : In which regard, these are to desyre
you to order the said college to be callit in all times herafter
by the name of KING JAMES?S COLLEGE : which we intend
for an especial1 mark and baidge of our faivour towards the
same. *
?So we doubting not but ye will accordinglie accept
thairof, we bid you heartilie fairweill.?
Though James gave his name to the college,
which it still bears, it does not appear that he gave
anything more valuable, unless? we record the tithes
of the Archdeacanry of Lothian and of the parish
cf Wemyss, together with the patronage of the Kirk
of Currie. He promised what he called a ? Godbairne
gift,? but it never came.
The salary of the principal was originally very
small; and in order to make his post more comfortable
he was allowed to. reap the emoluments of the
professorship of divinity, with the rank of rector;
but in 1620 these offices were disjoined, and his
salary, from forty guineas, was augmented to sixty,
and Mr. Andrew Ranisay was appointed Professor
of Divinity and Rector, which he held till 1626,
when he resigned both.
They remained a year vacant, when the Council
resolved to elect a rector who was not a member
of the university, and chose Alexander Morrison,
Lord Prestongrange. a judge of the Court of Session,
who took the oath de j d d i adviinistratione, but
never exercised the duties of his position.
In the year 1626 Mr. William Struthers, a
minister of Edinburgh, in censuring a probationer,
used some expression derogatory to philosophy,
among others terming it ?the dishcZout to divinity,?
which was bitterly resented by Professor James
Reid, who in turn attacked Struthers? doctrine.
The latter, in revenge, got his brother to join him,
and endeavoured to get Reid deposed by the
Council ; and so vexed did the question ultimately
become; that the professor, weary of the contest,
resigned his chair.
It would seem to have been customary for the
Scottish Universitiesto receivein those daysstudents
who had been compelled to leave other seats of
leaining through misbehaviour, and by their bad
example some of them led the students of Edinburgh
to conimit many improprieties, till the Privy
Council, by an Act in 1611, forbade the reception
of fugitive students in any university.
In 1640 the magistrates chose Mr. Alexander
Henrison, a minister of the city, Rector of the
University, and ordained that a silver mace should
be borne before him on all occasions of solemnity.
They drew up a set of instructions, empowering
him to superintend all matters connected with the
institution. The custody of the Matriculation
Roll was also given to him ; the students were to
be matriculated in his presence, and he was
furnished with an inventory of the college revenues
and donations in its favour. ?For some years,?
says Arnot, ?we find the rector exercising his office;
but the troubles which distracted the nation, and
no regular records of this university having been
kept, render it impossible for us to ascertain when
that office was discontinued, or how the college
was governed for a considerable period.?
From the peculiar constitution of this college,
and its then utter dependence upon the magistrates,
they took liberties with it to which no similar
institution would have submitted. ? Thus, for
example,? says Bower, ?? they borrowed the college
mace in 165 I, and did not return it till 1655. The
magistrates could be under no necessity for having
recourse to this expedient for enabling them to
make a respectable appearance in public when
necessary, attended by the proper officers and
insignia of their office. And, on the other hand,
the public business of the college could not be
properly conducted, nor in the usual way, without
the mace. At all public graduations, &c., it was,
and still is, carried before the principal and professors.??
The magistrates of Edinburgh were in those days,
in every sense of the word, proprietors of the university,
of the buildings, museums, library, anatomical
preparations, and philosophical apparatus ; and
from time to time were wont to deposit in their
own Charter Room the writs belonging to the institution.
They do not seem to have done this from the
earliest period, as the first notice of this, found by
Bower, was in the Register for 1655, when the
writs and an inventory were ordered to be

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Univtrsitv. He seemed greatly delighted with the result, and felt much ...

Book 5 p. 10
(Score 0.62)

Stuart monarchs-a new era began in its history,
and it took a stahding as the chief burgh in
Scotland, the relations of which with England, for
generations after, partook rather of a vague prolonged
armistice in time of war than a settled
peace, and thus all rational progress was arrested
or paralysed, and was never likely to be otherwise
so long as the kings of England maintained the
insane pretensions of Edward I., deduced from
Brute the fabulous first king of Albion !
In 1383 Robert 11. was holding his court in
the Castle when he received there the ambassador
of Charles VI., on the 20th August, renewing the
ancient league with France. In the following year
a truce ended; the Earls of March and Douglas
began the war with spirit, and cut off a rich convoy
on its way to Roxburgh. This brought the Duke
of Lancaster and the Earl of Buckingham before
Edinburgh. Their army was almost innumerable
(according to Abercrombie, following Walsingham),
but the former spared the city in remembrance of
his hospitable treatment by the people when he was
among them, an exile from the English court-a
kindness for which the Scots cared so little that
they followed up his retreat so sharply, that he laid
the town and its great church in ashes when he returned
in the following year.
In 1390 Robert 111. ascended the throne, and ir.
that year we find the ambassadors of Charles VI.
again witnessing in the Castle the royal seal and signature
attached to the treaty for mutual aid and
defence against England in all time coming. This
brought Henry IV., as we have said, before the
Castle in 1400, with a well-appointed and numerous
army, in August.
From the fortress the young and gallant David
Duke of Rothesay sent a herald with a challenge
to meet him in mortal combat, where and when
he chose, with a hundred men of good blood on
each side, and determine the war in that way.
" But King Henry was in no humour to forego the
advantage he already possessed, at the head of a
more numerous army than Scotland could then
raise ; and so, contenting himself with a verbal
equivocation in reply to this knightly challenge, he
sat down with his numerous host before the Castle
till (with the usual consequences of the Scottish
reception of such'invaders) cold and rain, and -
twenty feet in length, with three or four large saws,
I for the common use, and six or more " cliekes of
castles, resorted to the simple expedient of driving
off all the cattle and sheep, provisions and goods,
even to the thatch of their houses, and leaving
nothing but bare walls for the enemy to wreak their
vengeance on; but they never put up their swords
till, by a terrible retaliating invasion into the more
fertile parts of England, they fully made up for
their losses. And this wretched state of affairs, for
nearly 500 years, lies at the door of the Plantagenet
and Tudor kings.
The aged King Robert 111. and his queen, the
once beautiful Annabella Drummond, resided in the
Castle and in the abbey of Holyrood alternately.
We are told that on one occasion, when the Duke
of Albany, with several of the courtiers, were conversing
one night on the ramparts of the former,
a singular light was seen afar off at the horizon, and
across the s t a q sky there flashea a bright meteor,
carrying behind it a long train of sparks.
'' Mark ye, sirs ! " said Albany, " yonder prodigy
portends either the ruin of a nation or the downfall
of some great prince ;a and an old chronicler omits
not to record that the Duke of Rothesay (who,
had he ascended the throne, would have been
David III.), perished soon after of famine, in the
hands of Ramornie, at Falkland.
Edinburgh was prosperous enough to be able to
contribute 50,000 merks towards the ransom of
James I., the gifted author of " The King's Quhair "
(or Book), who had been lawlessly captured at
sea in his boyhood by the English, and was left
in their hands for nineteen years a captive by his
designing uncle the Regent Albany ; and though
his plans for the pacification of the Highlands kept
him much in Perth, yet, in 1430, he was in
Edinburgh with Queen Jane and the Court, when
he received the surrender of Alexander Earl of
ROSS, who had been in rebellion but was defeated
by the royal troops in Lochaber.
As yet no Scottish noble had built a mansion in
Edinburgh, where a great number of the houses were
actually constructed of wood from the adjacent
forest, thatched with straw, and few were more than
two storeys in height ; but in the third Parliament
of James I., held at Perth in 1425, to avert the
conflagrations to which the Edinbiirghers were so
liable, laws were ordained requiring the magistrates
to have in readiness seven or eight ladders of
his progress or retreat."*
When unable to resist, the people of the entire
town and country, who were not secured in
* Wilson's ''Memorials." .
fired ;' and that no fire was to be conveyed from
one house to another within the town, unless in a
covered vessel or lantern. Another law forbade'
people on visits to live with their friends, but to

... monarchs-a new era began in its history, and it took a stahding as the chief burgh in Scotland, the ...

Book 1 p. 27
(Score 0.61)

6 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-oCField.
Her Majesty?s presence he should make him suffei
for it Paris then says,he expressed a desire ta
go to bed.
?? NO,? said Bothwell ; 4 6 y ~ ~ must remain with
me. Would you have those two gentlemen, Hay
2nd Hepburn, locked up where they now are ? ?
?Alas !? replied the luckless varlet, who felt
himself in the power of a stronger will. ?? What more
must I do this night? for I have no heart in this
business.? ?Follow me !?J was the stern command
; and at midnight Bothwell left the palace for
his own house, where he substituted for his rich
court dress of black velvet and satin one of plain
stuff, and wrapped himself up in his riding-cloak.
Accompanied by Paris, Powrie, Wilson, and Dalgleish,
he passed down a lane which ran along
the wall of the queen?s south gardens, joining the
foot of the Canongate, where the gate of the outer
court of the palace formerly stood.
Here they were challenged by a sentinel of the
Archer Guard, who demanded, ?Who goes
there ? ? ? Friends,? replied Powrie. ? What
friends ? ? ?? Friends of the Lord Bothwell.?
After being passed out, they proceeded up the dark
Canongate, where they found the Netherbow Port
shut; but Wilson roused the keeper, John Galloway,
by rashly calling to him to open the gate
? for the friends of my Lord Bothwell.? ?? What
do ye out of your beds at this time of night ?I?
asked Gallcway ; but they passed on without replying.
(Depositions in Laing.)
They called at Ormiston?s lodging in the Netherbow;
but the wary laird, deeming that he had
done enough in assisting to convey the powder, declined
to do more, and sent word that he was
from home ; so passing down Todtig?s Wynd, they
crossed the Cowgate, entered the convent gardens,
and waited for Hay and Hepburn near the House
of the Kirk-of-Field. From this point mystery and
obscurity cloud all that followed.
When left alone by the departure of the queen,
a gloomy foreboding of impending peril would seem
to have fallen upon the wretched Damley. He read
a portion of the Scriptures, repeated the 55th Psalm,
and fell asleep, his young page Taylor watching
in the apartment near him. Thomas Nelson,
Edward Simmons, and a boy, lay in the servants?
zpartment, or gallery, next the city wall.
One account has it that it was at this time tha.t
Hay and Hepburn, concealed in the room with the
powder, b> means of their false keys gained access
to the king?s apartment ; that the noise of their entrance
awoke him, and springing from bed in his
shirt and pelisse, he strove to make his escape,
but was knocked down and strangled, his shrieks
?
for mercy being heard by some women in an adjoining
house ; that his page was dispatched in the
same manner, and their bodies flung into the orchard,
where they were found next morning, untouched
by fire or powder, and then the house was
blown up to obliterate all traces of the murder.
This peculiar version of it is based on a dispatch
from the papal nuncio to Cosmo I., and found in
the archives of the Medici by Prince Labanoff,
who communicated it to Mr. Tytler.
Bothwell?s accomplices, on the other hand, when
brought to trial, all more or less emphatically
denied that Darnley was either strangled or assassinated,
and fhm carried into the garden ; Hepburn
expressly declared that he only knew that Darnley
was blown into the air, ?and handled with no
man?s hands that he saw.? Melvil says, on the
morning after the murder, Bothwell ?? came forth
and told me he saw the strangest accident that
ever chanced-to wit, the thunder came out of the
lift (sky) and burnt the king?s house, and himself
found lying at a little distance from the house
under a tree, and willed me to go up and see him,
how there was not a mark nor hurt on aZZ his body.?
(Melvil?s ?? Memoirs,? 1735.)
No doubt rests upon the part played by Bothwell,
however the murder at the Kirk-of-Field was
achieved.
Dalgleish, Powrie,and Wilson,were left at the head
of the convent garden, while French Paris passed
over the wall at the back of the house, and joined
the two assassins, who were locked in the room
where the powder lay. On the arrival of the daring
earl, Hepburn lighted the, match connected
with the train and the powder, and having locked
the doors, they then withdrew to await the event.
Bothwell fretted with impatience as the match
burned slowly for a quarter of an hour ; then, precisely
at two in the morning, it took effect.
The whole house seemed to rise, says Hay of
Tallo, in his deposition. Then, with a noise as of
the bursting of a thunderbolt, the solid masonry
of the house was rent into a thousand fragments ;
scarcely a vestige of it remained, and ?great stones,
of the length of ten feet and breadth of four feet,?
were found blown from it all over the orchard.
Paralysed with fear, Paris fell with his face forward
on the earth ; even Bothwell was appalled,
and said, ? I have been in many important enterprises,
but I never felt as I do now ! ? The whole of
the conspirators nowhurried back to the High Street,
and sought to get out of the city by dropping from
the wall at Leith Wynd, but were forced once more
to rouse t6e porter at the Netherbow. They then
passed down St. Mary?s Wynd and the south back

... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-oCField. Her Majesty?s presence he should make him suffei for it Paris then ...

Book 5 p. 6
(Score 0.6)

Previous Results More Results

Go back to Edinburgh Bookshelf

Creative Commons License

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