THE LA WNMARKET. 169
acquired by Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik. By him it was sold to Sir Roderick Mackenzie
of Preston Hall, appointed a senator of the College of Justice in 1702, who resided in the
upper part of the house, at the same time that Sir James Mackenzie, Lord Royston, third
aon of the celebrated Earl of Cromarty, one of the wittiest and most gifted men of his
time,” occupied the lower flat. Here, therefore, in all probability, his witty and eccentric
daughter, Anne, was born and brought up. This lady, who married Sir William Dick of
Prestonfield, carried her humorous pranks to an excess scarcely conceivable in our decorous
days ; sallying out occasionally in search of adventures, like some of the maids of honour
of Charles the Second‘s Court,’ dressed in male attire, with her maid for a squire, and out-
Vying them in the extravagance of her proceedings. She seems indeed to have possessed
more wit than discretion. Some of her poetical lampoons have been privately printed by
C. K. Sharpe, Esq., in a rare, though well-known little volume, entitled, (‘A Ballad
Book,” and furnish curioua specimens of the notions of delicacy at the period,
Half a dozen more Provosts, Baronets, and Lords of Session, might be mentioned as
the old occupants of this aristocratic quarter, but it will probably interest the reader more
to learn that “ The laigh tenement of land ” was ‘( sometime possessed by Jean Straiton,
relict of the deceased Mr David Williamson, Minister of the Gospel at the West Kirk,”-
the well-known ‘‘ Daintie Davie ” of Scottish song, who, if tradition has not wronged him,
had (‘ worn out six wives,” ere Jean Straiton, the seventh, contrived to survive him. He.
was one of the ejected ministers in 1665, and was restored, to the great joy of the parishioners,
in 1689, although the Duke of Gordon, then under siege in the Castle, contrived
to keep him out of his church for some months thereafter, and left the ancient fabric wellnigh
reduced to ruins ere he surrendered the fortress.’ His grave is still pointed out in
the churchyard of St Cuthbert’s, though there is no other inscription over it than his
initials on the enclosing wall, to mark the spot where he is laid.
The accompanying engraving renders a detailed description of the ancient court unnecessary.
One feature, however, is worthy of special notice, viz., the antique carved oak
shutters with which the lower half of one of the windows is closed, forming the finest
specimen of this obsolete fashion now remaining in Edinburgh.
To the east of this ancient quadrangle, there stood, till within these few years, the old
town residence of the Buccleuch family, entering from Fisher’s Close, demolished about
1835, to make way for Victoria Terrace; and hmediately beyond this, in Brodie’s
Close, there still remains, in the Roman Eagle Hall, an exceedingly beautiful specimen
of a large and highly decorated ancient saloon. This, however, falls to be treated of in
another chapter; but the same old close-re the besom of modern “ improvement ”
swept over it with indiscriminate destruction-contained various dwellings, pleasingly
associated with the memories of some of Edinburgh’s worthiest citizens in ‘( The Olden
Time. ”
On the east side of an open court, immediately beyond the Roman Eagle Hall, stood
the ancient mansion of the Littles of Craiagmillar, bearing below a large moulded and
deeply recessed stone panel, WILLIAME 1570 * LITIL, and on six shields, underneath
as many crow-stepped gables, were the initials, V. L., boldly cut in various forms.
William Little and his brother, Clement, may justly be considered, along with James
1 Grammout Memoirs. * Hiat. of West Kirk,-pp. 76-84.
Y
