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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I

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St. Giles?s Churchyard. INTERIOR OF THE HIGH CHURCH, ST. GILES?S. CHAPTER XVI. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ST. GILES?S. St. Giles?s Churchyard-The IIaison Dieu-The Clam-shell Turnpike-The Grave of Knox-The City Cross--The Summons ot Pluto- Executions : Kirkaidy, Gilderoy, and others-The Caddies--The Dyvours Stane-The Luckenbooths-The Auld Kirk S~yle-Eym?o Lodging-Lard Coalstoun?s Wig-Allan Ramsay?s Library and ?Creech?s Land?-The Edinburgh Halfpenny. DOWN the southern slope of the hill on which St. Giles?s church stands, its burying-ground-covered with trees, perchance anterior to the little parish edifice we have described as existing in the time of David 1.-sloped to the line of the Cowgate, where it was terminated by a wall and chapel dedicated to the holy rood, built, says Arnot, ?in memory of ?hrist crucified, and not demolished till the end of the sixteenth century.? In July, 1800, a relic ot this chapel was found near the head of Forrester?s Wynd, in former days the western boundary of the churchyard. This relic-a curiously sculptured grouplike a design from Holbein?s ?Dance of Death,? was defaced and broken by the workmen. Amid the musicians, who brought up the rear, was an angel, playing on the national bagpipe-a
Volume 1 Page 148
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