LUCKENBOUTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 205
to the grave: the Regent Morton pronouncing over him his brief, but just and memorable
requiem, and before the generation had passed away that witnessed and joined
in his funeral service, the churchyard in which they laid him had been converted into
a public thoroughfare. We fear this want of veneration must be regarded as a national
characteristic, which Knox assisted to call into existence, and to which we owe much of
the reckless demolition of time-honoured monuments of the past, which it is now thought
a weakness to deplore.’
on the authority of “ the then Recorder of
Edinburgh, that many of the tombstones were removed from St Giles’s to the Greyfriars,
where they still exist; ” but we do not know of a single inscription remaining that gives
probability to this assertion. All the monuments in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard are of
a later date than Queen Mary’s gift of the gardens of the ancient monastery, though
even were it otherwise, it would not be conclusive, as the royal grant was in all probability
only an extension of an ancient burial-ground attached to the monastery in the Grassmarket.
It is mentioned almost immediately thereafter as a place of burial during the
dreadful plague of 1568, when a huge pit is ordered to be dug in the (‘ Greyfriars’ Kirkzaird.”
* Bailie Macmorran’s monument is, we believe, the only one in the old cemetery
which dates so early as the sixteenth century ; we are therefore forced to conclude that,
in the same spirit that led to the abandonment of St Giles’s burial-ground, its ancient
monuments were converted to a similar purpose with the old chapel of the Holy Rood,
that stood in the lower yard.
A few of the most important changes that have taken place on this interesting spot, in
the heart of the ancient capital, arranged in the order of their occurrence, will best illustrate
the rapidity with which it passed through successive transitions. In the year 1496, the
provost of St Giles’s Church granted to the citizens the northern part of his manse, with
the glebe, for augmenting the cemetery. In 1528 Walter Chepman, the celebrated
printer, founded and endowed a chaplainry in the chapel of the Holy Rood, in the nether
kirkyard; in 1559 the chapel was deqolished and left in ruins; and in 1562 its materials
helped to build a new Tolbooth at the north-west corner of the churchyard. On the
Protestant clergy being finally established in the stead of their Catholic predecessors, the
prebendal buildings became the residence of the tom ministers, and thither, in the year
1580, the nucleus of the present University Library was removed, until a suitable building
should be procured for it. From this clerical college the ministers were ejected in 1597
by the incensed King, who trusted thereby to weaken their power and influence, by compelling
them to live apart from one another. The substantial forfeit thus wrung from the
reclaiming clergy seems to have been regarded by him as a peculiarly acceptable trophy ;
no doubt, in part at least, from the evidence it furnished of his having come off victorious
in a contest with those who, until then, had always proved his most untractable opponents.
It is mentioned in the “ Traditions,”
1 hte, p. 83. ’ Prdbably the annals of no other town could exhibit the Hame indifference to ita ancient cemeteries, which even the
rude Indian holds sacred. Before the Reformation there were the Blackfriars kirkyard, where the Surgical Hospital
or old High. School stands ; the Kirk of Field,-now occupied by the College,-Trinity College, Holyrood Abbey, St
Roque’s and St Leonard’a kikyards. In all these places human bona are still found on digging to any depth. In thia
respect Edinburgh exhibita 8 striking contrast to the more crowded English capital.
a Chambers’s Traditions, vol. ii. p. 196. “ Statuta for the Pest.,’’ Maitland, p. 32.
206 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
He particularly manifested his satisfaction during the following year, when the ejected
ministers had been allowed to return to their pulpits. “All this winter the King and Queen
remained in the Abbey, and came up to the toun aindrie tymes; dynned and supped in the
ministers’ houses behind the kirk. For the King keeped their houses in his owne hand, howbeit
they were restored to their general1 ministrie in Edinburgh.” l To resume our chronological
sketch: in the year 1617, on the return of King James to his Scottish capital, the
old churchyard had so entirely lost all traces of its original character that it was selected
as the scene of a magnxcent civic banquet, with which the magistrates welcomed him back
to his native city. The ministers appear to have been restored after a time to their manses
in the kirkyard, but this-was only by sufferance, and during the royal will ; for in 1632
the ancient collegiate buildings were at length entirely demolished, to make way for the
Parliament House, which occupies their site. On the 14th of August 1656 General
Monck was feasted in the great hall, along with Lord Broghall, President of the Council,
and all the councillors of state, and officers of the army. ‘‘ This feast,” says Nicoll, ‘‘ wes gevin by the toun of Edinburgh, with great solempnitie, within the Parliament Hous,
ritchlie hung for that end. The haill pryme men, and such of thair followeris as wer in
respect, wer all resavit burgessis, and thair burges tickettis delyverit to thame.” a The
Duke of York, afterwards James VII., was feasted by the city within the same old hall,
on his arrival in Edinburgh in the year 1680, along with his Duchess, and the Lady Anne,
who afterwards succeeded to the throne. In 1685 the equestrian statue of King Charles
was erected, almost above the grave of John Knox; and without extending too minutely
these more striking data, we may remind the reader, that the same hall in which the Duke
of York was entertained in 1680, was the scene of the magnificent banquet with which the
next royal visitor was welcomed in 182X3 The open area was at length enclosed with
buildings, at first only low booths, but these were soon after succeeded by the loftiest
private buildings ever reared in this, or probably any other town. In 1676, a considerable
portion of the new buildings were destroyed by fire. Another conflagration succeeded
this in 1700, known by the name of the ‘‘ Great Fire,” which swept the whole magnificent
range of buildings to the ground, and these were only re-erected to experience a third
time the same fate in the year 1824. On the last destruction of the eastern and larger
half of the old Parliament Close, the statue of King Charles was carted off to the Calton
Jail, where his Majesty lay incarcerated for several years, until the complete remodelling
of the whole locality, when he was elevated anew on a handsome pedestal, in which two
marble tablets have been inserted, found among some lumber in the rooms below the
Parliament House, and containing an inscription evidently prepared for the former
Calderwood’s Hist., vol. v. p. 673. Nicoll’s Diary, p. 183.
a The following curious remarks appear in B communisation to the Caledonian blereury, December 224 1788 :-‘‘ It
is somewhat remarkable that the last public dinner that was given in the Parliament House here was to King James
VII., then Duke of York, at which WRS present the Lady Anne, afterwards Queen Anne ; and that the next dinner
that should be given in the eame place-vie., this day-ahould be by the Revolution Club, in commemoration of
his expulsion from the throne ! The whole Court of Scotland,
and a numerous train of noblemen, with the Duke, were present. And the outer hall of the Parliament House
was thrown inta one room upon the occasion. Sir James Dick,
the then Lord Provost, presided (aa the present will do this day). The Duke of Ybrk, and all the noblemen who
were with him, were preaepted with the freedom of the city. The drink-money to the Duke’s servants amounted to
S220 sterling.”
The dinner was given by the Magistrates of Edinburgh.
This dinner cost the city above $21400 aterling.
