THE LA WNMARKET. I73
to accomplish the foresaid bigging,” &c. This royal mandate not seeming to have produced
the ready acquiescence that was doubtless anticipated, King James, in the following
August, assumes the imperative mode,--“ Whereas the said Robert Gourlay is quarelled
and troubled for diminishing of ye breid and largeness of ye passage thereof, by use and
wont j albeit ye said vennel be na common nor free passage, lyke as ye same hath not been
this long time bygane, being only ane stay hill besouth ye said new wark, and nevir calsayit
nor usit as ane oppen and comoun vennall, lyke as na manner of persones has now, nor
can justlie plead ony richt or entrie to ye said vennal, q’“ be all lawis inviolable observit
in tymes bygane has pertainit, and aucht to pertene to US; ” and to make sure of the
matter this time, his Majesty closes by authorising the buildingof a dyke across the close,
“ notwithstanding that ye said transe and vennall have been at ony time of before, repute
or halden ane comoun and free passage I ”
The result of this mandate of royalty would appear to have been the erection of the house
at the foot of the close,-the only other building that had an entrance by it,-apparently
as the dwelling for his son, John Gourlay. This ancient edifice possessed a national interest
as having been the place where the earliest banking institution in Scotland was establislied.
The Bank of Scotland, or, as it was more generally styled by our ancestors, the Old Bank,
continued to carry on all its. business there, within the narrow alley that bore its name,
until the completion of the extensive erection in Bank Street, whither it removed in 1805.
The house bore the date 1588, the same year as that of the royal mandates authorising its
erection, and on an upright stone panel, on its north front, a device was sculptured representing
several stalks of wheat growing out of bones, with the motto, SPES ALTERA
VITAL The same ingenious emblem of the resurrection may still be seen on the fine
old range of buildings opposite the Canongate Tolbooth.
The only notice of Robert Gourlay we have been able to discover occurs in Calderwood‘
s History, and is worth extracting, for the illustration it affords of the extensive
jurisdiction the kirk was disposed to assume to itself in his day :-“ About this time,
Robert Gourlay, an elder of the Kirk of Edinburgh, was ordeanned to mak his publict
repentance in the kirk upon Friday, the 28th May [1574],for transporting mheate out of
the countrie.” The Regent, however, interfered, and interposed his licence as sufficient
security against the threatened discipline of the church.l
’John Gourlay is styled in some of his titles “ customar,” that is, one who “ taks taxatiounis,
custumis, or dewteis; ’” and his father also, in all probability, occupied a
situation of some importance in the royal household; nor is it to be supposed it was
altogether ‘‘ out of mere love and gade will” that King James was so ready to secure
to him the absolute control over the close wherein he built his house. It was a building
of peculiar strength and massiveness, and singularly intricate in its arrangements, even
for that period. Distinct and substantial stone .stairs led from nearly the same point
to separate parts of the mansion; and on its demolition, a most ingeniously contrived
secret chamber was discovered, between the ceiling of the first and the floor of the second
story, in which were several chests full of old deeds and other papers.’ A carved stone,
at the side of the highest entrance in the close, bore a shield with a martlet on it,
’ Calderwood, voL iii p. 328. ’ Vide Jamieaon’s Scottish Dictionary.
J Now in the Chambers of the Improvements Commission. . .
I74 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
surmounted by the initials R G.; the arrangement of the interior seemed to have
been designed with a view to its occasional subdivision for the separate lodgment of
illustrious occupants. A projecting turret, which appears in our engraving, enclosed
a spiral stone stair, each of the steps of which was curiously hollowed in front into the
segment of a, circle. This stair afforded access to a small room in the highest floor of
the house, which tradit.ion, as well as the appearance of the apartment, pointed out as
the place of durance of the various noble captives that found a prison within its old walls.
An adjoining closet was also shown, where the lockman waa said to have slept, while in
waiting to do his last office on such of them as spent there the closing hours of life.
Popular rumour even sought to add to the number of these associations, by assigning the
former apartment as that in which the Earl of Argyle spent the last night before his
execution ; where one of his unprincipled and lawless judges was struck with astonishment
and remorse on finding his victim in a sweet and tranquil slumber only a few hours
before passing to the scaffold.
At the period of Argyle’s execution, however, A.D. 1685, this private stronghold of
James VI. had passed out of the hands of subservient customars, into the possession of
the descendants of Sir Thomas Hope,-one of the most resolute opponents of the aggressions
of royalty,-who were little likely to suffer their dwelling to be converted into the
state prison of the bigoted James VII. ; while it is clearly stated by Wodrow, that the
unfortunate Argyle was brought directly from the Castle to the Laigh Council Room,
thence to be conducted to execution.
Very soon after the erection of Gourlay’s house, it became the residence of Sir William
Durie, governor of Berwick, and commander of the English auxiliaries, during the memorable
siege of the Castle in 1573; and thither,-on its surrender, after the courageous
defence, of which a brief account has already been given,‘-the gallant Sir William
Kirkaldy of Grange, and his brother, with the Lord Hume, Lethington, Pittadrow, the
Countess of Argyle, the Lady Lethington, and the Lady Grange, were conducted to await
the bloody revenge of the Regent Morton, and the heartlessness of Queen Elizabeth, that
consigned Sir William Kirkaldy and his brother to the ignominious death of felons.’
David Moyses, who himself held an office in the household of James VI., informs us
that on the 27th of. May 1581, the very year succeeding that of the royal mandates in
favour of Gourlay, the Earls of Arran and Montrose passed from Edinburgh with a body
of armed men, to bring the Earl of DIorton from Dumbarton Castle, where he was in ward,
to take his trial at Edinburgh ; and “ upon the 29th of May, the said Earl was transported
to Edinburgh, and lodged in Robert Gourlay’s house, and there keeped by the waged men.”’
The Earl was held there in strict durance, until the 1st of June, and denied all intercourse
with his friends. On that day the citizens of the capital were mustered in arms on the
l Ante, p. 84.
“ The noblemen past to the said lieutennentis lugeing, callit Goudayes lugeing, thair to remayne quhill farder
aduertisement come fra the Quene of Ingland.”-Diurnal of Occurrenta, p. 333. Calderwood, who furnishes the list of
noble captives, mentions the Laird of Grange as hrought with others from the Abbey to the Cross for execution. Sir
William Durie, we may presume, declined to be hia gaoler, after his death was determined on.-“ When he aaw the
scaffold prepared at the Croce, the day faire, and the aunne ahping cleere, his countenance waa changed,” &c. The
whole narrative is curious and minute, though too long for inserting here.-Calderwood, vol. iii. p. 284.
Hoyses’ Memoira, p. 63. .
