ran?s family were too rich to be bribed, and
clamoured that they would have blood for blood.
On the other hand, ?friends threatened death to
a l l the people of Edinburgh if they did.the child
any harm, saying they were not wise who meddled
with scholars, especially gentlemen?s sons,? and Lord
Sinclair, as chief of the family to which the young
culprit belonged, moved boldly in his behalf, and
procured the intercession of King James with the
magistrates, and in the end all the accused got
free, including the slayer of the Bailie, who lived to
become Sir William Sinclair of hfey, in 1631, and
the husband of Catharine ROSS, of Balnagowan,
and from them the present Earls of Caithness are
descended.
When the brother of the Queen Consort, the
Duke of Holstein, visited Edinburgh in March,
t593, and as Moyse tells us, ?was received and
welcomed very gladly by Her Majesty, and used
every way like a prince,? after sundry entertainments
at Holyrood, Ravensheugh, and elsewhere,
a grand banquet was given him in the house of
the late Bailie Macmorran by the city of Edmburgh.
The King and Queen were present, ? with
great solemnity and merriness,? according to Birrel.
On the 3rd of June the Duke embarked at Leith,
under a salute of sixty pieces of cannon from the
bulwarks, and departed with his gifts, to Wit-1,ooo
five-pound pieces and 1,000 crowns, a hat and
string valued at IZ,OOO pounds (Scots?), and many
rich chains and jewels.
The Bailie?s initials, I. M., are on the pediments
that ornament his house, which after passing
through several generations of his surname, became
the residence of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik.
?By him,? says Wilson, ?it was sold to Sir
Roderick Mackenzie, of Preston Hall, appointed
tr senator of the College of Justice in 1702, who
resided in the upper part of the house at the same
time that Sir John Mackenzie Lord Royston, third
son of the celebrated Earl of Cromarty, one of the
wittiest and most gifted men of his time, occupied
the low flat. Here, in all probability, his witty
and eccentric daughter Anne was born and brought
up. This lady, who married Sir William Dick of
Prestonfield, carried her humorous pranks to an
excess scarcely conceivable in our decorous days j
sallying out occasionally in search of adventures,
like some of the maids of honour of Charles II.?s
Court, dressed in male attire, with. her maid for a
squire. She seems to have possessed more wit
than discretion.? Riddell?s Close was of old an
eminently aristocratic quarter.
Lower down the street Fisher?s Close adjoined
it, and therein stood, till 1835, the residence of the
ducal house of Buccleuch, which was demolished
in that year to make way for Victoria Terrace. On
the east side of an open court, beyond the Roman
Eagle Hall-a beautiful specimen of an ancient
saloon-stood the mansion of William Little of
Craigmillar (bearing the date 1570)~ whose brother
Clement was the founder of the university library,
for in 1580, when commissary of the city, he bequeathed
?to Edinburgh and the Kirk of God,?
all his books, 300 volumes in number. These
were chiefly theologicaL works, and were transferred
by the town council td the university. Clement
Little was not without having a share in the
troubles of those days, and on the 28th of April,
1572, with others, he was proclaimed at the market
cross, and deprived of his office, for rebellion against
Queen Mary ; but the proclamation failed to be put
in force. His son was Provost of the city in 1591.
Clement and William Little were buried in the
Greyfriars? churchyard, where a great-grandson of
the latter erected a tomb to their memory in 1683.~
Little?s Close appears as Lord Cullen?s in Edgar?s
map of 1742, so there had also resided that famous
lawyer and judge, Sir Francis Grant of Cullen, who
joined the Revolution party in 1688, who distinguished
himself in the Convention of 1689 by his
speech in favour of confemng the cram of Scotland
on William and Mary of Orange, and thus swayed
the destinies of the nation. He was raised to the
bench in 1709. His friend Wodrow has recorded
the closing scene of his active life in this old alley,
on the 16th of March, 1726. ?Brother,? said the
old revolutionist, to one who informed him that
his illness was mortal, ?you have brought me the
best news ever I heard ! ? ?? And,? adds old Robert
Wodrow, ?that day when he died was without a
czoud.?
_-
Menteth?s ??Iheatrc of Mortality.?? Eh, 1704.
