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
