Tron Church.
sum had been paid but once in ten years, yet, if it
had been properly managed, the accumulated sum
behoved to have exceeded ~16,000 sterling."
The old spire had been partially built'of wood
covered with lead, according to a design frequently
repeated on public buildings then in Scotland. It
was copied from the Dutch ; but the examples of it
are rapidly disappearing. A bell, which cost 1,490
merks Scots, was hung in it in 1673, and continued
weekly to summon the parishioners to prayer and
-
EXPLANATION.
A The principal Entry.
B The mea 01 thrSyuare.
C The Piazza,
I3 The Coffee-room inthe west Coffec-hare.
d Rwnis aod Closets in diLlp.
a The Coffee-mm in the middk Ccffec
e Rmpis and Closets in ditm.
F The Coffee-room in the la t Coffeehoux.
f Raoms io ditto.
G The Great Sair leadiog to the Custon
H The P a q e Ieadioi 10 ditt-.
I 'An open for 1etriI.g in li6ht to the Houses
in the Writer's Court under the level of
the Square.
E The Passage belwecn the Square and
Wriicr's Court.
1. Seven Shops withiu the Square
m Four Shops behi d the raqe tvthe srect.
N Ten Shop an a line with the street.
0 An open of four feet for dcoopirg eaws
P Part ot the M'riter-5 Court.
g Area of ditto.
house. -
H0"W.
of the neighbouring houses
B
pounds yearly. It is an edifice of uninteresting
appearance and nondescript style, being neither
Gothic nor Palladian, but a grotesque mixture of
both. It received its name from its vicinity to the
Tron, or public beam for the weighing of merchandise,
which stood near it.
A very elegant stone spire, which was built in
1828, replaces that which perished in the great
conflaggation of four years before.
The Tron beam appears to have been used as
GENERAL PLAN OF THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. (Frmn an Engraviw in fhe "Scofs Mafizzine" fm 1754.)
sermon till the great fire of 1824, when it was
partly melted by heat, and fell with a mighty crash
through the blazing ruins of the steeple. Portions
of it were made into drinking quaighs and similar
memorials.
In 1678 the tower was completed by placing
therein the old clock which had formerly been in
the Weigh House.
Towards the building of this church the pious
Lady Yester gave 1,000 merks. In 1703 the
magistrates appointed two persons to preach alternately
in the Tron Church, to each of whom they
gave a salary of forty guineas, as the Council Re-,
gister shows ; but about 1788 they contented themselves
with one preacher, to whom they gave fifty
a pillory for the punishment of crime. In Niccol's
'' Diary" for 1649, it is stated that " much falset
and cheitting was daillie deteckit at this time by
the Lords of Sessioune; for the whilk there was
daillie nailing of lugs and binding of people to the
Trone, and boring of tongues; so that it was a
fatal year for false notaries and witnesses, as daillie
experience did witness."
On the night of Monday, the 15th of November,
1824, about ten o'clock, the cry of "Fire ! " was
heard in the High Street, and it spread throughout
the city from mouth to mouth ; vast crowds came
from all ,quarters rushing to the spot, and columns
of smoke and flame were seen issuing from the
second *floor of e house at the head of the old
The Great Fire.] THE GREAT FIRE. 189
Assemlily Close, then occupied as a workshop by
Kirkwood, a well-known engraver. The engines
came promptly enough ; but, from some unknown
cause, an hour elapsed before they were in working
order, and by that time the terrible element had
raged with such fierceness and rapidity that, by
eleven o'clock the upper portion of this tenement,
including six storeys, forming the eastern 'division
of a uniform pile of buildings, was one mass of
roaring flames, which, as the breeze was from the
to their elevated position, or the roar of the gathering
conflagration, the shouts of the crowd, and
wailing of women and children, their cries were
unheard for a time, until it was too late. The
whole tenement was lost, together with extensive
ranges of buildings in the old Fish Market and
Assembly Closes, to -which it was the means of
communicating the flames.
While these tall and stately edifices were yielding
to destruction, the night grew calm and still, and
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.
sooth-west, turned them, as they burst from the
gaping windows, in the direction of a house to the
eastward, the strong' gable of which saved it from
the destruction which seemed imminent.
Two tenements to the westward were less fortunate,
and as, from the narrowness of the ancient
close, it was impossible to work the engines, they
soon were involved in one frightful and appalling
blaze. Great fears mere now entertained for the
venerable Courant office; nor was it long before
the fire seized on its upper storey, at the very time
when some brave fellows got upon the roof of a
tenement to the westward, and shouted to the firemen
to give them a pipe, by which they could
piay upon the adjoining roof, But, owing either
I the sparks emitted by the flames shot upwards as if
spouted from a volcano, and descended like the
thickest drift or snow-storm, affecting the respiration
of all. A dusky, lurid red tinged the clouds,
and the glare shone on the Castle wdls, the
rocks of the Calton, the beetling crags, and all the
city spires. Scores of lofty chimneys, set on fire
by the falling sparks, added to the growing horror
of the scene ; and for a considerable time the Tron
Church was completely enveloped in this perilous
shower of embers.
About one in the morning of the 16th the alarm
of fire was given from a house directly oppoife to
the burning masses, and, though groundless, it
added to the deepening Consternation. Mean
