I02 OLD AYD NEW EDINBURGH. [The Lawnmarket.
Duke of York and Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke made
some noise in London during the time of the
Regency. The house below those occupied by
Hume and by Boswell was the property and residence
of Andrew Macdowal of Logan, author of the
? Institutional Law of Scotland,? afterwards
elevated to the bench, in 1755, as Lord Bankton.
In another court named Paterson?s, opening on
the Lawnmarket, Margaret Countess Dowager of
Glasgow was resident in 1761, and for some years
before it Her husband, the second ead, died in
1740.
One of the handsomest old houses still existing in
the Lawnmarket is the tall and narrow tenement of
polished ashlar adjoining Tames?s Court. It is of
a marked character, and highly adorned. Of old
it belonged to Sir Robert Bannatyne, but in 1631
was acquired by Thomas Gladstone, a merchant
burgess, and on the western gable are the initials
of himself and wife. In 1634, when the city was
divided for the formation of sixteen companies, in
obedience to an injunction of Charles I., the
second division was ordered to terminate at
?? Thomas Gladstone?s Land,? on the north side of
the street.
In 1771 a dangerous fire occurred in the Lawnmarket,
near the head of the old Bank Close. It
was fidt?discovered by the flames bursting through
the roof of a tall tenement known as Buchanan?s.
It baffled the efforts of three fire-engines and
a number of workmen, and some soldiers of the
22nd regiment. It lasted a whole night, and
created the greatest consternation and some loss
of life. ?The new church and weigh-house were
opened during the fire,? says the Scots Magazine
of 1771, ?for the reception of the goods and
furniture belonging to the sufferers and the inhabitants
of the adjacent buildings, which were kept
under guard.? Damage to the extent of several
thousand pounds was done, and among those who
suffered appear the names of General Lockhart of
Carnwath ; Islay Campbell, advocate ; John Bell,
W.S. ; and Hume d .Ninewells; thus giving a
sample.of those who still abode in the Lawnmarket.
CHAPTER XI.
, THE LAWNMARKET (continued).
Lady Stair?s Close-Gay or Pittendrum-e?Aunt Margarct?s Mmor?--The Marshal h l and Countess of Stair-Mm Femer-Sir Richard
Stcele-Martha Countess of Kincardine-Burns?s Room in Baxter?s Close-The Bridges? Shop in Bank Street-Bailie MacMonm?s
PRIOR to the opening of Bank Street, Lady Stair?s
Close, the first below Gladstone?s Land, was the
chief thoroughfare for foot passengers, taking advantage
of the half-formed Earthen Mound to reach
the New Town. It takes its name from Elizabeth
Countess Dowager of Stair, who was long looked
up to as a leader of fashion in Edinburgh, admission
to her select circle being one of the highest
objects of ambition among the lesser gentry of her
day, when the distinctions of rank and family were
guarded with an angry jealousy of which we have
but little conception now. Lady Stair?s Close is
narrow and dark, for the houses are of great height ;
the house she occupied still remains on the west
side thereof, and was the scene of some romantic
events and traditions, of which Scott made able
use. in his ?Aunt Margaret?s Mirror,? ere it became
the abode of the widow of the Marshal Earl of
Stair, who, when a little boy, had the misfortune to
kill his elder brother, the Master, by the accidental
discharge of a pistol; after which, it is said, that
his mother could never abide him, and sent him
.
in his extreme youth to serve in Flanders as a
volunteer in the Cameronian Regiment,.under the
Earl of Angus. The house occupied by Lady Stair
has oyer its door the pious legend-
? Feare the Lord and depart from cuiZZ,?
with the date 1622, and the initials of its founder
and of his wifeSir Wiiam Gray of Pittendrum,
and Egidia Smith, daughter of Sir John Smith, of
Grothall, near Craigleith, Provost of Edinburgh in
1643. Sir William was a man of great influence in
the time of Charles I. ; and though the ancient title
of Lord Gray reverted to his family, he devoted
himself to commerce, and became one of the
wealthiest Scottish merchants of that age. But
troubles came upon him; he was fined IOO,OOO
merks for corresponding with Montrose, and was
imprisoned, first in the Castle and then in the
Tolbooth till the mitigated penalty of 35,000 merks
was paid. Other exorbitant exactions followed, and
these hastened his death, which took place in
1648. Three years before that event, his daughter
