KING’S STABLES, CASTLE BARNS, AND CASTLE HILL. t37
tainhall records, 11th March 1685, a reduction pursued by the Duke of Queensberry, as
Constable and Captain of the Castle of Edinburgh, against Thomas Boreland and the other
heritors and possessors of the King’s Stables, alleging that they were 8 part of the Castle.
The proprietors claimed to hold their property by virtue of a feu granted in the reign of
James V. But the judges decided, that unless the defendera could prove a legal dissolution
of the royal possession, they must be held as the King’s Stables, belonging to the
Castle, and accordingly annexed to the Crown. Thomas Boreland’s house still stands:
immediately behind the site of the old Corn Narket. It is a handsome and substantial
erection, adorned with picturesque gables and dormer windows, which form a prominent
feature in the oft-repeated view of (( the Castle from the Vennel ; ” and from the date,
1675, which atill appears over the main doorway, we may presume that this substantial
mansion, then so recently erected, had its full influence in directing the attention of the
Duke of Queensberry to this pendicle of the royal patrimony. It bears over the entrance,
in addition to the date, the initials T. B. and V. IL, those of the proprietor, and probably
of his brother or wife; and above them is boldly carved the loyal inscription,
FEAR - GOD HONOR * THE * KING.
It may reasonably be presumed that the owner must have regarded the concessions
demanded from him on behalf of royalty, so speedily thereafter, as a somewhat freer
translation of his motto than he had any conception of, when he inscribed it where it
should daily remind him of the duties of a good subject.
Several of the neighbouring houses are evidently of considerable antiquity, and may,
with little hesitation, be referred to a much earlier date than this. Their latest reflection
of the privileges of royalty haEl been that of affording sanctuary for a brief period to debtors,
a right of protection pertaining to the precincts of royal residences, now entirely fallen into
desuetude there, though firmed to have proved available for this purpose within the
memory of some aged neighbours.’
A little to the west of this, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Canal Basin, is a
place still bearing the name of the Castle Barns. It is described by Maitland as for the
accommodation of the Court when the King resided in the Castle, and it no doubt occasionally
sufficed for such a purpose ; but the name implies its having been the grange or
farm attached to the royal residence, and this is further confirmed by earlier maps, where
a considerable portion of ground, now lying on both sides of the Lothian Road, is included
under the term.
But the most interesting portion of Edinburgh connected with the Castle, is its ancient
approach. Under the name of the Castle Hill, is included not only the broad Esplanade
extending between the fortifications and the town, but also a considerable district,
formerly bounded on the south by the West Bow, and contailling many remarkable
and once patrician alleys and mansions, the greater portion of which have disappeared
in the course of the extensive changes effected of late years on that part of the
town.
A singularly picturesque and varied mass of buildings forms the nearest portion of the
town to the Castle, on the south side of the approach, though there existed formerly s very
old house between this and the Castle, as delineated in Gordon’s map. This group is
1 Disposition of House in Portsburgh, Council Charter Room. Chambers’s Traditions, vol. i. p. 99.
S
138 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
bounded on the east by Brown’s Close, and forms a detached block of houses of various
dates and styles, all exhibiting considerable remains of former magnificence.
The house that now forms the kouth-west angle towards the Castle Hill bears, on the
pediment of a dormer window facing the Castle, the date 1630, with the initials A. M.,
M. N. ; and there still remains, sticking in the wall, a cannon ball, said to have been shot
from the Castle during the cannonade of 1745, though we are assured that it was placed
there by order of government, to indicate that no building would be permitted on that
side nearer the Castle. Through this land‘ there is an alley called Blair’s Close, leading
by several curious windings into an open court behind. At the first angle in the close,
a handsome gothic doorway, of very elegaut workmanship, meets the view, forming the
entry to a turnpike stair. The doorway is surmounted with an ogee arch, in the tympanum
of which is somewhat rudely sculptured a coronet with supporters,--‘( two deerhounds,”
says Chambers, ‘‘ the well-known supporters of the Duke of Goidon’s arms.” ’
This accords with the local tradition, which states it to have been the town mansion of
that noble family ; but the style of this doorway, and the substantial character of the
whole building, leave no room to doubt that it is an erection of a much earlier date
than the Dukedom, which was only created in 1684. Tradition, however, which is never
to be despised in questions of local antiquity, proves to be nearly correct in this case, as
we find, in one of the earliest titles to the property now in the possession of the City Improvements
Commission, endorsed, I-‘ Disposition of House be Sir Robert Baird to William
Baird, his second son, 1694,” it is thus defined,-“All and hail that my lodging in the
Caste1 Hill of Edinburgh, formerly possessed by the Duchess of Gordon.” This appears,
from the date of the disposition, to have been the first Duchess, Lady Elizabeth Howard,
daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. She retired to a Convent in Flanders during the lifetime
of the Duke, but afterwards returned to Edinburgh, where she principally resided
till her death, which took place at the Abbey Bill in 1732, sixteen years after that of
her huaband.
In 1711, her Grace excited no small stir in Edinburgh, by sending to the Dean and
Faculty of Advocates, -‘aI silver medal, with a head of the Pretender on one side, and on
the other the British Isles, with the word Reddite.” On the Dean presenting the medal,
the propriety of accepting it was keenly discussed, when twelve only, out of seventyfive
members present, testxed their favour for the House of Hanover by voting its
rejection.s
The most recent of the interior fittings of this mansion appear old enough to have
remained from the time of its occupation by the Duchess. It is finished throughout with
wooden panelling, and one large room in particular, overlooking the Castle Esplanade, is
elegantly decorated with rich ‘carvings, and with a painting (one of old Norie’s pictorial
idornments) filling a panel over the chimney-piece, and surrounded by an elaborate piece
.
1 The term ImuZ, in this and similar instances throughout the Work, is used according to its Scottish acceptation,
* Traditionq vol. i p. 153.
* Norie, a house-decorator and painter of the last century, whom works are very common, painted on the panels of
Pinkerton remarks, in his introduction to the ‘‘ Scottish Gallery,” 1799,-“Norie’a
and signifies a building of several stories of separate dwellings, communicating by a common stair.
Douglas’s Peerage, vol. i. p. 654.
the older houaea in Edinburgh.
genius for landacapea entitles him to o place in the list of Scotch paintera”
