HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AFTER THE RESTORA TIOA? 103
visited at the Abbey. Balls, plays, and masquerades vere likewise attempted, but the
last proved too great an innovation on the rigid manners of that period to be tolerated.
The most profane and vicious purposes were believed, by the vulgar, to be couched under
such ‘a system of disguise ; and this unpopular mode of entertainment had to be speedily
abandoned. Plays, however, which were no less abhorrent to the people at that period,
afforded a constant gratification to the courtiers, and were persisted in, notwithstanding
the violent prejudices which they excited. The actors were regarded as part of the Duke of
York’s household ; and, if we may give any credit to the satirical account which Dryden
has furnished of them, they were not among the most eminent of their profession. Some
members of the company, it would seem, had gone to Oxford, according to annual custom,
to assist in performing the public acts there. Dryden, with great humour, makes them
apologise to the University for the thinness of the Company, by intimating that many
of its members have crossed the Tweed, and are now nightly appearing before Edinburgh
audiences, for the ambiguous fee of (‘ two and sixpence Scots.” He slyly insinuates, however,
that only the underlings of the company have gone north, leaving all its talent and
character at the service of the University:-
Our brethren have from Thames to Tweed departed,
To Edinborough gone, or coached or carted :
With bonny blue cap there they act all night,
For Scotch half-crowns, in English threepence hight.
One nymph, to whom fat Sir John Falstaffs lean,
There with her single person fills the scene.
Another, with long use and age decayed,
Died here old woman, and rose there a maid.
Our trusty door-keeper, of former time,
There struts and awaggers in heroic rhime.
Tack but a copper lace to drugget suit,
And there’s a hero made without dispute ;
And that which was a capon’s tale before,
Becomes a plume for Indian Emperor.
But .all his subjects to express the care
Of imitation, go, like Indian, bare I
The reader need hardly be reminded of the usual licence which the satiric poet
claims as his privilege, and which his Grace’s servants at Edinburgh may have
retorted in equal measure on his Majesty’s servants at Oxford, though no copy of
their prologue has been preserved. It is not improbable, however, that the early Scottish
theatre might merit Rome of the poet’s sarcasms. The courtly guests of the royal Duke
were probably too much taken up with the novelty of such amusements, and the
condescending urbanity of their entertainers, to be very critical on the equipments of the
stage.
These amusements were occasionally varied with the exhibition of masques at Court, in
which the Lady Anne, and other noble young ladies, assumed the characters of gods and
goddesses) and the like fanciful personages that usually figure in such entertainments. The
gentlemen varied these pastimes with the games of tennis and golf. The Tennis Court,
which also served as the fist theatre for the Court, stood immediately without the Water
Gate. It may be seen in Gordon’s map, a large oblong building, occupying a considerable
Dyden’a Niac., voL ii. -
I 04 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
portion of the ground between the old port and the building still known as Queen Mary’s
Bath, the intervening ground being then entirely unoccupied. After being devoted to the
humble purpose of a weaver’s workhouse, it was at length burnt to the ground, in the year
1777.l
Many traditions
still preserved prove his keen relish for this game, in which he is said to have become a
proficient. ‘‘ The Duke of York,” says Tytler, ‘‘ was frequently seen in a party at golf .on
the Links at Leith, with some of the nobility and gentry. I remember, in my youth, to
have often conversed with an old man, named Andrew Dixon, a golf club-maker, who
said that, when a boy, he used to carry the Duke’s golf clubs, and to run before him and
announce where the ball fell.” ’
The general harmony of the Court of Holyrood, during the visit of the Duke of York,
was, however, occasionally interrupted by other annoyances besides those occasioned by the
struggles of the Covenanters.
A custom had long prevailed in Edinburgh, of annually burning the Pope in effigy on
Christmas-day ; but the magistrates, justly conceiving that such a procedure was calculated
to afford little satisfaction to the Duke, determined to prevent its recurrence during his
stay in Edinburgh. The populace, however, were not then impressed with such awe for
civic enactments as the modern system of police has since produced. The students of the
College took up the matter, and bound themselves by a solemn oath to effect the incremation
of his Holiness in defiance of both Duke and magistrates. The military were called
out to put a stop to their proceedings, and some of the most active ringleaders taken
captive; but the populace rose in defence of the students, and finished the day’s work
The students, as the most
zealous movers in thk tumult, were first visited with the wrath of offended authority. The
college gates were ordered to be closed, and the collegians to remove to the distance of
fifteen miles from the city ; but the excitement after a time abated, and they were again
restored to their wonted privileges.
In 1682, the famous old cannon, Mons Meg, was burst in firing a salute in honour of
the Duke of York, shortly before his return to England. The Duke took his departure in
great state in the month of May, leaving the citizens of Edinburgh to resume their quiet
decorum, unseduced by the example of the Court. The older gentry of the last age continued
to cherish a pleasing remembrance of his visit, and to tell, with great delight, of
the gaiety and brilliancy of the court at Holyrood House.
The intelligence of the death of Charles 11. reached Edinburgh on the 6th of February
1685. The Chancellor and other officers of state, with the Privy Council, the lords of session,
the magistrates, and many of the chief nobility, proceeded to the Crosfi, accompanied by the
Lyon King-at-Arms, and his heralds, and proclaimed James Duke of York, King of Great
Britain. In April, on the assembling of Parliament, an act was passed for the confirmation
of the Protestant religion, and fresh tests enacted for its protection ; but the actions of the
King showed little respect for such laws, and much excitement was occasioned by proceedings
that were generally believed to be preparatory to the subversion of the Protestant
Church.
Leith Links was the usual scene of the Duke’s trials of skill at golf.
. by burning the Provost’s house at Priestfield to the ground.
Amot, p. 195. 9 Archaelogia Scotica, vol. i. p. 504.
