I82 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Parliament Close.
for a considerable amount, binding themselves to
support the Beacon, against which such strong proceedings
were instituted that the print was withdrawn
from the public entirely by the zznd of
September. ?But the discovery of the bond,?
continues the magazine just quoted, ?was nearly
leading to more serious consequences, for, if report
be true, Mr. James Gibson, W.S., one of those who
had been grossly calumniated in the Beacon, had
thought proper to make such a demand upon Sir
Walter Scott as he could only be prevented from,
ordinary scene for the indulgence of mirth and of
festivity than this subterranean crypt or denfacetiously
named the Greping O#ce-certainly
could not well be conceived, nor could wit, poetry,
and phgsic well have chosen a darker scene; yet
it was the favourite of one whose writings were
distinguished for their brilliancy and elegant
htinity. He died in 1713, and was buried in
the Greyfriars? Churchyard.
In the fourth floor of the Zand overlooking the
aforesaid cellar, there dwelt, about 1775, Lord
to the justice of Heaven; but it seems scarcely
credible, though such was the fact, that the still
more calamitous fire of 1824, in the same place, was
?attributed by the lower orders in and near Edinburgh
also to be the judgment of Heaven, specially
commissioned to punish the city for tolerating such
a dreadful enormity as-the Musical Festival ! ?
. Early on the morning of the 24th of June, rF24,
a fire broke out in a spirit-vault, or low drinkingshop,
at the head of the Royal Bank Close, and it
made great progress before the engines arrived,
and nearly all the old edifices being panelled or
wainscoted, the supply of water proved ineffectual
to check the flames, and early in the afternoon the
eastern half of the Parliament Square was a heap of
blackened ruins. To the surprise of all who witnessed
this calamity, and observed the hardihood
and temerity displayed by several persons to save
property, or to arrest the progress of the flames, the
only individual who fell a sacrifice was a city oflicer
named Chalmers, who was so dreadfully scorched
that he died in the infirmary a few days after.
liament Close, was attributed by the magistrates?is
portrait of George 111. :-
? Well done, my lord ! With noble taste,
You?ve made Charles gay as five-and-twenty,
We may be xarce of gold and cam,
?But sure there?s lead and oil in plenty ;
Yet, for a public work like this,
You might have had some famous artist ;
Though I had made each merk a pound,
I would have had the very smartest.
? Why not bring Allan Ramsay down,
From sketching coronet and cushion? ?
And knows-the English Constitution.
But why thus daub the man all over,
The cream complexion of HANOVER? ?
For he can paint a living khg,
The mgk-white s#ed is well enough ;
And to the swarthy STUART give
In 1832, when a drain was being dug in the
Parliament Square, close by St. Giles?s Church,
there was found the bronze seal of a Knight of St.
John of Jerusalem. It is now preserved in the
Museum of Antiquities, and bears the legend,
? S. AERNAULD LAMMIUS.?
the son of the poet, who had just painted the
