When all is considered, and we further know that
the building was strong enough to have lasted
many more ages, one cannot but regret that the
palace of Mary de Guise, reduced as it was to vilebess,
should not now be in existence. The site
having been purchased by individuals connected
with the Free Church, the buildings were removed
in 1846 to make rodm for the erection of an academical
institution, or college, for that body.?
The demolition of this mansion brought to light
a concealed chamber on the first floor, lighted by a
narrow loophole opening into Nairne?s Close. The
entrance had been by a movable panel, affording access
to a narrow flight of steps wound round in the
wall of the turnpike stair. The existence of this
mysterious chamber was totally-unknown to the various
inhabitants, and all tradition has been lost of
those to whom it may have afforded escape or refuge.
The Duke of Devonshire possesses an undoubted
portrait of Mary of Guise, It represents her with
a brilliantly fair complexion, with reddish, or
auburn hair. This is believed to be the only
authentic one in existence, That portrait alleged
to be of her in the Trinity House at Leith is a bad
copy, by Mytens, of that of her daughter at St.
James?s. Some curious items connected with her
Court are to be found in the accounts of the Lord
High Treasurer, among them are the following :-
At her coronation in 1540, ?Item, deliverit to
ye French telzour, to be ane cote to Serrat, the
Queen?s fule,? &c. Green and yellow seems to have
been the Court fool?s livery; but Mary of Guise,
seems to have had a female buffoon and male
and female dwarfs :-? 1562. Paid for ane cote,
hois, lyning and making, to Jonat Musche, fule,
A 4 5s. 6d.; 1565, for green plaiding to make
ane bed to Jardinar the fule, with white fustione
fedders,? &c.; in 1566, there is paid for a garment
of red and yellow, to be a gown ?( for Jane Colqu-,
houn, fule;? and in 1567, another entry, for broad
English yellow, U to be cote, breeks, also sarkis,
to James Geddie, fide.?
The next occupant of the Guise palace, or of
that portioli thereof which stood in Tod?s Close, was
Edward Hope, son of John de Hope, a Frenchman
who had come to Scotland in the retinue of
Magdalene, first queen of James V., in 1537.
It continued in possession of the Hopes till 1691,
when it was acquired by James, first Viscount Stair,
for 3,000 guilders, Dutch money, probably in connection
with some transaction in Holland, from
whence he accompanied William of Orange four
years before, In 1702 it was the abode and property
of John Wightman of Mauldsie, afterwards
Lord Provost of the city. From that period it was
the residence of a succession of wealthy burgesses
-the closes being then, and till a comparatively
recent period, exclusively occupied by peers and
dignitaries of rank and wealth. Since then it shared
the fate of all the patrician dwellings in old Edinburgh,
and became the squalid abode of a host of
families in the most humble ranks of life.
CHAPTER X
THE LAWNMARKET.
The Lawnmarket-RispE-The Weigh-house-Major Somerville and Captain Crawfod-Anderson?s Pills-Mylnc?s Court-James?s Court-
Su John Lauder-Sir Islay Campbell-David Hum-?? Corsica? Boswell-Dr. Johnson-Dr. Blair-?? Gladstone?s Land?-A Fue in 1771.
THE Lawnmarket is the general designation of that
part of the town which is a continuation of the
High Street, but lies between the head of the old
West Bow and St. Giles?s Church, and is about 510
feet in length. Some venerable citizens still living
can recall the time when this spacious and stately
thoroughfare used to be so covered by the stalls
and canvas baoths of the lawn-merchants,? with
their webs and rolls of cloth of every description,
that it gave the central locality an appearance of
something between a busy country fair and an
Indian camp. Like many other customs of the
olden time this has passed away, and the name
alone remains to indicate the former usages of the
place, although the importance of the street was
such that its occupants had a community of their
own called the Lawnmarket Club, which was
famous in its day for the earliest possession of
English and foreign intelligence.
Among other fashions and customs departed, it
may be allowable here to notice an adjunct of the
first-floor dwellings of old Edinburgh. The means
of bringing a servant to the door was neither a
knocker nor bell, but an apparatus peculiar to
Scotland alone, and still used in some parts of Fife,
called a risf, which consists of a slender bar of
serrated or twisted iron screwed to the door in an
upright position, about two inches from it, and
furnished with a large ring, by which the bar could
be rasped, or risped, in such a way as secured attention.
In many instances the doors were also
furnished with two eyelet-holes, through which the
Tine Lawomarket.1 MAJOR SOMERVILLE. 9s
visitor could be fully visCd before admission was
accorded. In many other instances the entrances
to the turnpike stairs had loopholes for arrows or
musketry, and the archways to the closes and
wynds had single and sometimes double gates, the
great hooks of which still remain in some places,
and on which these were last hung in 1745, prior
to the occupation of the city by the Highlanders.
The Lawnmarket was bounded on the west by
the Butter Tron, or Weigh-house, and on the east
by the Tolbooth, which adjoined St. Giles?s, thus
forming in earlier times the greatest open space,
save the Grassmarket, within the walls. The Weighhouse,
built on ground which was granted to the
citizens by David II., in 1352, was a clumsy and
hideous edifice, rebuilt in 1660, on the site of the
previous building, which Gordon of Rothiemay, in
his map of 1647, shows to have been rather an
ornate edifice, two storeys in height, with a double
#outside stair on the south side, and a steeple and
vane at the east end, above an archway, where
enormous quantities of butter and cheese were
continually being disposed of.
In 1640 the Lawnmarket was the scene of a
remarkable single combat, of which we have a very
clearly-detailed account in ?? The Memoirs of the
Somervilles.? In that year, when Major Somerville
of Drum commanded the garrison of Covenanting
troops in Edinburgh Castle, a Captain
Crawford, who, though not one of his officers,
deemed himself privileged to enter the fortress at
all times, walked up to the gates one morning, and,
on finding them closed, somewhat peremptorily
demanded admission. The sentinel within told
him that he must ?( before entering, acquaint Major
Somerville with his name and rank.? To this
Crawford replied, furiously, ? Your major is neither
a soldier nor a gentleman, and if he were without
this gate, and at a distance from his guards, I would
tell him that he was a pitiful cullion to boot! ?
The irritated captain was retiring down the
Castle Hill, when he was overtaken, rapier in hand,
by Major Somerville, to whom the sentinel had
found means to convey the obnoxious message
with mischievous precision.
?Sir,? said the major, ?you must permit me to
accompany you a little way, and then you shall
know more of my mind.? ? I will wait on you where
you please,? replied Crawford, grimly; and they
walked together in silence to the south side of the
Greyfriars churchyard, at all times a Ionely place.
? Nazi," said Somerville, unsheathing his sword,
?I am without the Castle gates and at a distance
from my guards. Draw and make good your
threat I ? Instead of defending himself like a man
of honour, Crawford took off his hat, and begged
pardon, on which Somerville jerked his long bowlhilted
rapier into its sheath, and said, with scorn,
(? You have neither the discretion of a gentleman,
nor the courage of a soldier ; begone for a coward
and fool, fit only for-Bedlam !? and he returned
tb the Castle, accompanied by his officers, who
had followed them to see the result of the quarrel.
It is said that Crawford had been offended at
not being invited to a banquet given in the Castle
by Somerville to old General Ruthven, on?the
day after the latter surrendered. As great liberties
were taken with him after this in consequence of
his doubtful reputation for ? courage, he resolved,
by satisfaction demanded in a public and desperate
manner, to retrieve his lost honour, or die in
seeking it. Thus, one forenoon, about eleven
o?clock,? when the Major was on his way to visit
General Sir Alexander Leslie, and proceeding
down the spacious Lawnmarket, which at that hour
was always thronged with idlers, he was suddenly
confronted by Captain Crawford, who, unsheathing
both sword and dagger, exclaimed, ?? If you be a
pretty man-draw f ? With a thick walking cane
recently presented to him by General Ruthven,
the Major parried his onset and then drew his
sword, which was a half-rapier slung in a shoulderbelt,
and attacked the Captain so briskly, that he
was forced. to fall back, pace by pace, fighting desperately,
from the middle of the Lawnmarket to the
goldsmiths? booths, where Somerville struck him
down on the causeway by the iron pommel of his ?
sword, and disarmed him. Several of Somerville?s
soldiers now came upon the scene, and by these
he would have been slain, had not the yictor protected
him; but for this assault upon & superior
officer he was thrown into prison, where he lay for
a year, heavily manacled, and in a wretched condition,
till Somerville?s wife,who resided at the Drum
House, near Gilmerton, and to whom he had Written
an imploring letter, procured his liberation.
Here in the Lawnmarket, in the lofty tenement
dated 1690, on the second floor,? is the ?shop?
where that venerable drug, called the ?Grana .
Angelica,? but better known among the country
people as (?Anderson?s Pills,? are sold. They
took their origin from a physician of the time
of Charles I., who gave them his name, and of
whom a long account? was given in the University
Magazine, and locally their fame lasted for nearly
250 years. From his daughter Lilias Anderson,
the patent, granted by James VII., came ??tg
Thomas Weir, chirurgeon, in Edinburgh,? who left
the secret of preparing the pills to his daughter,
Mrs. Irving, who died in ~837, at the age of
.
