146 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
single apartment, with a huge fireplace at the west end, and a gallery added to it by the
timber projection in front. The hearth-stone was raised above the level of the floor, and
guarded by a stone ledge or fender, similar in character to a fireplace of the thirteenth century
dill existing at St Mary’s Abbey, York. This room was lighted by a large dormer
window in the roof, in addition to the usual windows in front; and in the thickness of
the stone wall, within the wooden gallery, there were two ornamental stone recesses, with
projecting sculptured sills, and each closed by an oak door, richly carved with dolphins
and other ornamental devices.’ The roof was high and steep, and the entire appearance
of the building singulaTly picturesque. We have been the more particular in describing
it, from the interest attaching to its original possessors. It is defined, in one of the titledeeds
of the neighbouring property, as (( That tenement of land belonging to the chaplain
of the chaplainry of St Nicolas’s Altar, founded within the College Church of St Giles,
within the burgh of Edinburgh;” it is now replaced by a plain, unattractive, modern
building.
The most interesting portions of this district, however, or perhaps of any other among
the private buildings in the Old Town, were to be found within the space including Todd’s,
Nairn’s, and Blyth’s Closes, nearly the whole of which have been swept away to provide a
site for the New College. On the west side of Blyth’s Close there existed a remarkable
building, some portion of which still remains. This the concurrent testimony of tradition
and internal evidence pointed out as having been the mansion of Mary of Guise, the Queen
of James V., and the mother of Queen Mary. There was access to the different apartments,
as is- usual in the oldest houses in Edinburgh, by various stairs and intricate
passages ; for no feature is so calculated to excite the surprise of a stranger, on his first visit
to such substantial mansions, as the numerous and ample flights of stone stairs, often placed
in immediate juxtaposition, yet leading to different parts of the building. Over the main
doorway, which still remains, there is the inscription, in bold Gothic characters, %&U$
gonot! Dto, with I. R., the initials of the King, at thk respective ends of the lintel.
On a shield, placed on the right side, the monogram of the Virgin Nary is sculptured,*
while a corresponding shield on the left, now entirely defaced, most probably bore the usual
one of our Saviour.’ . On the first landing of the principal stair, a small vestibule gave entrance to an apartment,
originally of large dimensions, though for many years subdivided into various rooms
and passages. At the right-hand side of the inner doorway, on entering this apartment, a
remarkably rich Gothic niche remained till recently, to which we have given the name of a
piscina, in the accompanying engraving, owing to its having a hole through the bottom of
it, the peculiar mark of that ecclesiastical feature, and one which we have not discovered in
any other of those niches we have examined. The name is at least convenient for distinction
in future reference to it; but its position was at the side of a very large and handsome
fireplace, one of the richly clustered pillars of which appears in the engraving, on the
outside of a modern partition, and no feature was discoverable in the apartment calculated
For the description of the interior of this ancient building, we are mainly indebted to the Rev. J. Sime, chaplain of
Trinity Hospital, whose uncle long possessed the property. A very oblique view of the house appears in Storer’s ‘‘High
Street, from the Caatle Parade.” Plate 1, vol. ii.
Vide Pugin’s Glossary of Eccl. Ornament, p. 162. 8 Vignette at the head of the Chapter.
