Parliament Claw.
One of the shops next to the jeweller?s was,
about the middle of last century, a tavern, kept by
the famous Peter Williamson, the returned Palatine
(as the boys abducted from Aberdeen were called)
who designated himself on his signboard as
?from the other world.? Here the magistrates
partook of the Deid-chack-a dinner at the expense
of the city-after having attended an execution,
a practice abolished by Lord Provost Creech.
In 1685 an Exchange
was erected
in the Parliament
Close. It had a range
.of piazzas for the
accommodation of
merchants transact-
<ing business ; but by
sold use and wont,
attached as they were
to the more ancient
place of meeting, the
,Cross, this convenience
was scarcely ever
used by them.
In 1685 the equestrian
statue of Charles
TI., a well-executed
work in lead, was
erected in the Parliament
Close, not
far from its present
site, where one intended
for Cromwell
was to have been
placed ; but the
Restoration changed
.the political face of
Edinburgh. In the
accounts of George
Drummond, City
Treasurer, I 684-5, it
of the royal birthday are worthy of remembrance,
as being perhaps amongst the most long-cherished
customs of the people ere-
?? The times were changed, old manners gone,
And a stranger filled the Stuart?s throne.?
It was usual on this annual festival to have a
public breakfast in the great hall, when tables, at
the expense of the city, were covered with wines
and confections, and
the sovereign?s health
was drunk with acclaim,
the volleys of
the Town Guard
made the tall mansions
re-echo, and
the statue of King
Charles wasdecorated
with laurel leaves by
the Add CaZZants, as
the boys of Heriot?s
Hospital were named,
and who claimed this
duty as a prescriptive
right.
The Bank of Scotland,
incorporated by
royal charter in
1695, first opened for
business in a flat, or
$%or, of the Parliament
Close, with a
moderate staff of
clerks, and a paid-up
capital of only ten
thousand pounds ster-
Zing. The smallest
share which qny person
could hold in this
bank was LI,OOO
Scots, and the largest SIR WILLIAM FORBES, C ? PITSLLGO. (AfierKuy.)
appears thatthe king?s
statue was erected by the provost, magistrates, and
council, at the cost of A;z,580 Scots, the bill for
which seems to have come from Rotterdam. On the
Jast destruction of the old Parliament Close, by a
fire yet to be recorded, thc statue was conveyed for
.safety to the yard of the Calton Gaol, where it lay
for some years, till the present pedestal was erected,
in which are inserted two marble tablets, which
had been preserved among some lumber under the
Parliament House, and, from the somewhat fulsome
inscriptions thereon, seem to have belonged
to the first pedestal. Among the more homely
associations of the Parliament Close, the festivities
j6z0,ooo of the same
money. To lend money on heritable bonds and
other securities was the chief business of the infant
bank. The giving of bills of exchange-the
great business of private bankers-was, after much
deliberation, tried by the ? adventurers,? with aview
to the extension of business as far as possible. In
pursuance of this object, and to circulate their
notes through the realm, branch ofices were
opened at Glasgow, Dundee, Montrose, and Aberdeen,
to receive and pay out money, in the form
of inland exchange, by notes and bills. But
eventually the directors ?found that the exchange
trade was not proper for a banking company,?
Parliament Close.] BANK OF SCOTLAND. ?77
which they conceived to be more properly intended
? as a common repository of the nation?s
cash-a ready fund for affording credit and loans,
and for making receipts and payments of money
easy by the company?s notes.? But, as dealing in
hours for business, and establishing rules and regulations,
which will never answer the management
of the exchange trade.?
Ere long the bank, we are told (in ?Domestic
Annals of Scotland?), found it impossible to s u p
RUINS IN THE OLD MARKET CLOSE AFTER THE GREAT FIRE OF NOVEMBER, 1824.
(Fwm an Efding plr6lzihfat 1A.e time.)
exchange interfered with private trade, the new
Bank of Scotland deemed it troublesome and
improper. ? There was much to be done in that
business without doors, by day and night, without
such variety of circumstances and conditions as
are inconsistent with the precise hours of a public
office and the rules and regulations of a wellgoverned
company; and no company like the
Bank can be managed without fixing stated office-
23
port the four provincial branches, as they did not
contribute to the ends in view ; ? for the money
that was once lodged in any of these places by the
cashiers issuing bills payable at Edinburgh, could
not be redrawn thence 6y bills from EdinbuTh; ?I of
course, because of there being so little owing then
to persons resident in the provinces. SO, after
considerable outlay in trying the branch offices,
the directors ordered them to be closed, and
