I 68 MEMORIALS OF EDIN3URGH.
dramatic exhibitions, this having been used at one time as a public theatre. On passing
through this, an inner room is reached, which exhibits an exceedingly interesting series
of decorations of an earlier period, still remaining in tolerable preservation. The ceiling,
which is richly ornamented in stucco, in the style that prevailed during the reign of
Charles IL, has a large circle in the centre, containing the royal crown, surrounded by
alternate roses and thistles, and with the date 1678. The remainder of the ceiling is
arranged in circular and polygonal compartments, with the Scottish Lion Rampant, and
the Lion Statant Gardant, as in the English crest, alternately. The walls of this apartment
are panelled in wood, and decorated in the very richest dyle of old Norrie’sl art,
justifying his claim to rank among the landscape painters of Scotland. Every panel in
the room, on shutters, walls and doors, contains a different landscape, some of them
executed with great spirit; even the keystone of an arched recess has a mask painted on
it, and the effect of the whole is singularly beautiful, notwithstanding the injury that
many of the paintings have sustained.
This fine old mansion was originally the residence of Sir John Smith of Grotham,
Provoat of Edinburgh, who, in 1650, was one of the Commissioners chosen by the Committee
of State, to convey the loyal assurances of the nation to Charles 11. at Breda,
taking with them, at the same time, ‘‘ The Covenant to be subscryvit by his Majestie.” a
So recent, we may add, has been the desertion of this locality by the wealthier citizens of
Edinburgh, that the late Professor Pillans, who long occupied the Chair of Humanity
in the University of Edinburgh, was born and brought up within the same ancient
dwelling.
The inner court, of which we furnish an engraving, is a neat, open, paved square, that
still looks as though it might afford a fitting residence for the old courtiers of Holyrood.
The building which faces the visitor on passing through the second large archway, has
long been regarded with interest as the residence of Bailie Macmoran, one of the Magistrates
of Edinburgh in the reign of James VI., who was shot dead by one of the High
School boys, during a barring-out or rebellion in the year 1595. The luckless youth who
fired the rash shot was William Sinclair,’a BOR of the Chancellor of Caithness, and
owing to this he was allowed to escape, his father’s power and influence being too great
to suffer the law to take its course. Until the demolition of the Old High School in 1777,
the boys used to point out, in one part of the building, what was called the Bailie’s
Window, being that through which the fatal shot had been fired.
The Bailie’s initials, I. M., are visible over either end of the pediment that surmounts
the building, and the close is styled, in all the earlier titles of the property, Macmoran’s
Close.’ After passing through several generations of the Macmorans, the house was
Among the List of Subscribers to the first edition of Ramsay’s Poems, published in 1721, are the names of James
Norrie and John Smibert (the friend of the poet), Painters.
* Nicol’s Diary, p. 4. ’ “ William Sinclair, eone to William Sinclair, Chansler of Catnes. . . . . . . There wes ane number of
schollaris, being gentlemen’s bairns, made ane muitinie. . . . . . Pntlie the hail1 townesmen ran to the schooll,
and tuik the said bairns and put yame in the Tolbuith, bot the ha21 bairns wer letten frie w’out hurte done to yame for
ye wme, win ane ahort tyme yairafter.”-Birrell’s Diarp, p. 35.
This close affords a very good example of the frequent changes of name, to which heady the whole of them were
subjected; the last occupant of note generally supplying hia name to the residence of his amemor. It is styled in
the various titles, Macmoran’s, Sir John Smith’s, Royston’s, and Riddle’s Close.
