L UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 219
Hospital are still termed, who claimed this office by long prescription, and their acknowledged
skill in the art of loyal decoration, acquired in the annual custom of decking their
own founder’s statue.‘ This formed one of the chief attractions to the citizens throughout
the day, as well as to their numerous rustic visitors who crowded into the capital
on the occasion, to wituess or share in the fun. Towards the afternoon the veteran
corps of the city guard were called out to man the eastern entrance into the Parliament
Close while the guests were assembling for the civic entertainment, and thereafter to
draw up in front of the great hall, and announce with a volley to the capital at large each
loyal toast of its assembled rulers. Never did forlorn hope undertake a more desperate
duty! The first volley of these unpopular guardians of civic order was the signal
for a frenzied assault on them by the whole rabble of the town, commemorated in
Ferguson’s lively Address to the Muse on the Dead dogs and cats,
and every offensive missile that could be procured for the occasion, were now hurled
at their devoted heads ; and when at last they received orders to march back again to their
old citadel in the High Street, the strife became furious; the rough old veterans dealt
their blows right and left with musket and Lochaber axe wielded by no gentle hand,
but their efforts were hopeless against the spirit and numbers of their enemies, and the
retreat generally ended in an ignbminious rout of the whole civic guard. All law, excepting
mo6 Zuw, was suspended during the rest of the evening, the windows of obnoxious citizens
were broken, the effigies of the most unpopular public men frequently burnt, and for
more than half a century, the notorious Johnny Wilkes,” the editor of the North Briton,
and the favourite of the London apprentices, was annually burnt in effigy at the Cross
and other prominent parts of the town-an incremation which ‘ has lately altogether
fallen into desuetude.
Previous to the remodelling of the Parliament House, while yet the lofty lands of the
old close reared their huge and massy piles of stone high above the neighbouring buildings,
and the ancient church retained its venerable though somewhat dilapidated walls, the
aspect of this quadrangle must have been peculiarly grand and imposing, and such as we
shall look for in vain among the modern erections of the capital. It would be folly, bowever,
after recording so many changes that have passed over it at successive periods, to
indulge in useless regrets that our own day has witnessed others as sweeping as any that
preceded them, obliterating every feature of the past, and resigning it anew to the S~OW
work of time to restore for other generations the hues of age that best comport with ita
august and venerable associations. We shall close our notice with the following extract
from a local poem referring to the same interesting nook of the old Scottish capital :-
King’s birthday.”
A scene of grave yet busy life
Within the ancient city’s very heart,
Teeming with old historic memories, rife
With a departed glory, stood apart.
High o’er it rose St Giles’s ancient tower
Of curious fret work, whence the shadow falls,-
As the pale moonbeams through its arches pour,-
Tracing a shadowy crown upon the walls
1 One of the graceful and innocent customs-of earlier times, which was for sometimeiu abeyance, but is now happily
again revived.
