88 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. tThe Castle Hill.
the steep flight of steps that descend to Johnston
Terrace, we find a date 1630, with the initials
A. M.-M. N., and in the wall below there still
remains a cannon ball, fired from the half-moon
3 ~ - ~ * - .... ,-. ,~,_., -.,- :.. ~- - - , ~ ~ ~ .,- .,~-- %..:,>
street some are unchanged in external aspect since
the days of the Stuarts.
On the pediment of a dormer window of the
house that nom forms the south-west angle of the
street, directly facing the Castle, and overlooking
of Huntly in 1684; but the edifice in question
evidently belongs to an anterior age; and the old
tradition was proved to be correct, when in a disposition
(now in possession of the City Improve- __-- L n _-_-_ :--:--\ =.. e:- -_=--& TI-:-> L_ 1.1-
I
arch, within which, is a large coronet, supported by
two deerhounds, well known {eatures in the Gordon
arms. Local tradition universally affirms this
mansion to have been the residence of the dukes
of that title, which was bestowed on the house
THE CASTLE HILL, 1845.
aunng me DiocKaae in 1745. I nrougn rnis DWUing
there is a narrow alley named Blair?s Close-so
narrow indeed, that amid the brightest sunshine
there is never in it more than twilight-giving access
to an open court, at the first angle of which is a
handsome Gothic doorway, surmounted by an ogee
iiiriii LuiiitIiissiunl uy air M J U ~ K ~ Dam tu nis
son William, dated 1694, he describes it as ?all
and hail, that my lodging in the Castle lHill of
Edinburgh, formerly possessed by the Duchess of
Gordon.?
The latter was Lady Elizabeth Howard, daugh
