Parliament Close.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE PARLIAMENT CLOSE.
Probable Extinction of the Court of Session-Memorabilia of the Parliament Close and SquartGoldsmiths of the Olden Time-George Henot-
His Workshq-His Interview with James VI.-Peter Williamson?s Tavern-Royal Exchange-Statue of Charles 11.-Bank of Scotland-
The Fire of 17oo-The Work of Restoration-John Row?s Coffee-house-John?s Coffee-house-Sylvester Otway-Sir W. Forber?s Bank-
Si Walter Scott?s Eulogy on Si W i U i Forks-John Kay?s Print-shop-The Parliment Stairs- James Sibbald-A Libel CascFire
in June, 1824-Dr. Archibald Pitcairn-The ? Greping Ofice?-Painting of King Charles?s Statue White-Seal of Amauld Larnmius.
A CHANGE has come over the scene of their
labours and the system of. the law which these
d d lords could never have conceived possiblewe
mean the system that is gradually extending in
Scotland, of decentralising the legal business of the
country-a system which stands out in strong con-
,trast to the mode of judicial centralisation now
prevailing in England. The Scottish county
courts have a jurisdiction almost co-extensive
with that of the Supreme Court, while those of
England have a jurisdiction (without consent of
parties) to questions only of value. This gives
them an overwhelming amount of business, while
the supreme courts of Scotland are starved by the
ipferior competing with them in every kind of litigation.
Thus the Court of Session is gradually
dwindling away, by the active competition of the
provincial courts, and the legal school becomes
every day more defective for lack of legal practice.
The ultimate purpose, or end, of this system
will, undoubtedly, lead to the disappearance of the
Court of Session, or its amalgamation with the
supreme courts in London will become an object
of easy accomplishment ; and then the school from
whence the Scottish advocates and judges come,
being non-existent, the assimilation of the Scottish
county courts to those of England, and the sweep
-ing away of the whole legal business of the country
to London, must eventually follow, with, perhaps,
the entire subjection of Scotland to the English
courts of law.
A description of the Parliament Close is given in
the second volume of ?? Peter?s Letters to his Kinsfolk,?
before the great fire of 1824 :-
?The courts of justice with which all these
eminent men are so closely connected are placed
in and about the same range of buildings which
in former times were set apart for the accommodation
of the Parliament of Scotland. The main
approach to these buildings lies through a small
.oblong square, which from this circumstance takes
the name of fhcParlianient Close. On two sides
this close is surrounded by houses of the same
gigantic kind of elevation, and in these, of old,
were lodged a great proportion of the dignitaries
and principal practitioners of the adjacent Courts.
At present, however (181g), they are dedicated,
like most of the houses in the same quarter of the
city, to the accommodation of tradespeople and
inferior persons attached to the courts of law.
. . . . The southern side of the square and a
small portion of the eastern are filled with venerable
Gothic buildings, which for many generations
have been dedicated to the accommodation
of the courts of law, but which are now shut out
from the eye of the public by a very ill-conceived
and tasteless front-work, of modern device, including
a sufficient allowance of staring square
windows, Ionic pillars, and pilasters. What beauty
the front of the structure may have possessed in
its original state I have no means of ascertaining ;
but Mr. Wastle (J. G. Lockhart) sighs every time
we pass through the close, as pathetically as could
be wished, ?over the glory that hath departed.?
The old Parliament House, the front of which
has been destroyed and concealed by the arcaded
and pillared facade referred to, we have already
described. The old Goldsmiths? Hall, on the
west side, formed no inconsiderable feature in the
close, where, about 1673, the first coffee-house
established in the city was opened.
The Edinburgh goldsmiths of the olden time
were deemed a superior class of tradesmen, and
were wont to appear in public with cocked hats,
scarlet cloaks, and gold-mounted canes, as men of
undoubted consideration. The father of John
Law of Lauriston, the famous financial projector,
was the son of a goldsmith in Edinburgh, where
he was born in April, 1671 ; but by far the most
famous of all the craft in the old Parliament Close
was George Heriot.
Down to the year 1780, says a historian, perhaps
there was not a goldsmith in Edinburgh who did
not condescend to manual labour. In their shops
every one of them might have been found busy
with some light work, and generally in a very plain
dress, yet ever ready to serve a customer, politely
and readily. The whole plate shops of the city
being collected in or near the Parliament Close,
thither it was that, till the close of the eighteenth
century, country couples resorted-the bride to get
her bed and table napery and trousseau ; there, too,
were got the nuptial ring, and ?? the silver spoons,?
and, as the goldsmiths of the city then kept scarcely
any goods on hand in their shops, everything had
to be ordered long before it was required ; and it
was always usual for the goldsmith and his customer
to adjourn together to the B ~ j e n Hole, an
ancient baker?s shop, the name of which has proved
a puzzle to local antiquarians, or to John?s Coffee
House, to adjust the order and payment, through
the medium of a dram or a stoup of mellow ale.
But, as time passed on, and the goldsmiths of
Edinburgh became more extensive in their views,
capital, and ambition,
the old booths in the
Parliament Close were
in quick succession
abandoned for ever.
The workshop of
George Heriot existed
in this neighbourhood
till the demolition of
Beth?s Wynd and the adjacent
buildings. There
were three contiguous
small shops, with projecting
wooden superstructures
above them,
that extended in a line,
between the door of the
old Tolbooth and that
of the 1,aigh Councilhouse.
They stood upon
the site of the entrancehall
of the present Signet
Library, and the central
of these three shops was
the booth of the immortal
George Heriot,
the founder of the great
hospital, the goldsmith
to King James VI.-the
good-humoured, honest,
Humble though this booth, after the execution
of ?the bonnie Earl of Gowrie,? when the extravagance
of Anne of Denmark-a devoted patron
of George Heriot -rendered the king?s private
exchequer somewhat impaired, he was not above
paying visits to some of the wealthier citizens in
the Lawnmarket or Parliament Square, and, among.
others, to the royal goldsmith. The latter being.
bred to his father?s business, to which in that age
was usually added the occupation of a banker, was
GEORGE HERIOT?S DRINKING CUP.
(De-d Sy himsew)
and generous ?Jingling Geordie? of the ?? Fortunes
of Nigel.?
It measured only seven feet square ! The back
windows looked into Beth?s Wynd ; and, to show
the value of local tradition, it long appeared that
this booth belonged 10 George Heriot, and it became
a confirmed fact when, on the demolition of
the latter place, his name was found carved above
the door, on the stone lintel. His forge and
bellows, as well as a stone crucible and lid, were
also found on clearing away the ruins, and are now
carefully preserved in the museum of the hospital,
to which they were presented by the late Mr.
Robertson, of the Commercial Bank, a grateful
?? Auld Herioter.?
admitted a member of
the Incorporation of
Goldsniiths on the 28th
May, 1588. In 1597 he
was appointed goldsmith
to Queen Anne, and
soon after to the king.
Several of the accounts
for jewels furnished by
him to the queen are
inserted in Constable?s
? Life of Heriot,? published
in 1822.
It is related that one
day he had been sent
for by the king, whom
he found seated in one
of the rooms at Holyrood,
before a fire composed
of cedar, or some
other perfumed wood,
which cast a pleasant
fragrance around, and
the king mentioned incidentally
that it was
quite as costly as it
was agreeable, ? If your
majesty will visit me at
my booth in the Parliament
Close,? quoth
Heriot, ?I will show you a fire more costly than
that.? ?? Say you so ! ? said the king ; ?? then I
will.?
On doing so, he was surprised to find that Heriot
had only a coal fire of the usual kind.
?Is this, then, your costly fire?? asked the
king.
? Wait, your highness, till I get my fuel,? replied
Heriot, who from an old cabinet or almrie took a
bond for Az,ooo which he had lent to James, and,
laying it on the fire, he asked, laughingly, ?Now,
whether is your majesty?s fire in Holyrood or
mine the most costly ??
? Certainly yours, Master Heriot ! ? replied the
king.
