of an age as different in every respect from tht
present as the wilds of North America are differenl
from the long-practised lands of Lothian or Devon,
shire.?
In James?s Court was the residence of Sir Islaj
Campbell, Lord President, whose mother was Heler
Wallace, a daughter of the house of Ellerslie. Ad.
OAK DOOR, FROM THE GUISE PALACE.
(From th OrigiMZ in ihe Scoflish Antiquarian Museum.)
mitted to the bar in 1757, he was one of thecounsel
for the defender in the famous Douglas case, and,
on the decision of the House of Lords being given,
he posted to Edinburgh ere the mail could arrive,
and was the first to announce to the crowds assem.
bled at the Cross the great intelligence. ?? Douglas
for ever ! ?? he cried, waving his hat in the air.
A shout from the people responded, and, untrac.
ing the horses from his carnage, they drew it in
triumph to his house in James?s Court, probably
the same in which his father, who was long one oi
the principal clerks of Session, resided.
This court is a well-known pile of building
which rises to a vast height at the head of the
Earthen Mound, and was erected between 172s
and 1727 by James Brownhill, a speculative builder,
and for years after it was deemed a fashionable
quarter, the denizens of which were all persons of
good position, though each occupied but a flat or
floor ; they clubbed in all public measures, kept a
secretary to record their names and proceedings,
and had balls and parties among themselves ; but
among the many local notables who dwelt here the
names of only three, Hume, Boswell, and Dr. Blair,
are familiar to us now. Burton, the biographer of
the historian of England, thus describes this great
fabric, the western portion of which was destroyed
by fire in 1858, and has erected on its site, in
the old Scottish style, an equally lofty structure for
the Savings Bank and Free Church offices; consequently
the houses rendered so interesting by the
names of Hume, Blair, Johnson, and Boswell, are
among the things that were. ?Entering one of
the doors opposite to the main entrance, the
stranger is sometimes led by a friend, wishing to
afford him an agreeable surprise, down flight after
flight of the steps of a stone staircase, and when
he imagines he is descending so far into the bowels
of the earth, he emerges on the edge of a cheerful,
crowded thoroughfare, connecting together the old
and new town, the latter of which lies spread before
him in a contrast to the gloom from which he
has emerged. When he looks up $0 the building
containing the upnkht street through which he has
descended, he sees that vast pile of tall houses
standing at the head of the Mound, which creates
astonishment in every visitor of Edinburgh. This
vast fabric is built on the declivity of a hill, and
thus one entering on the level of the Lawnmarket,
is at the height of several storeys from the ground
on the side next the New Town. I have ascertained
that by ascending the western of the two stairs
facing the entry of James?s Court to the height of
three storeys we arrive at the door of David Hume?s
house, which, of the two doors on that landing place,
is the one towards the left.?
The first fixed residence of David Hume was in
Riddell?s Land, Lawnmarket, near the head of the
West Bow. From thence he removed to Jack?s
Land, in the Canongate, where nearly the whole of
his ? History of England ? was written ; and it is
somewhat singular that Dr. Smollett, the continuator
of that work, lived? some time after in his sister?s
house, exactly opposite. The great historian and
philosopher dwelt but a short time in James?s Court,
when he went to France ag Secretary to the Embassy.
During his absence, which lasted some
