THE HIGH STREET. 239
and Gillies, with other men eminent for learning and rank. Nr Smellie may be regarded
as in some degree the genius loci of this locality ; the distinguished printing-house which he
established is still occupied by his descendants,’ and there the most eminent literary men of
that period visited, and superintended the printing of works that have made the press of the
Scottish capital celebrated throughout Europe. There was the haunt of Drs Blair, Beattie,
Black, Robertson, Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith, Lords Monboddo, Hailes, Kames, Henry
Mackenzie, Arnot, Hume, and, foremost among the host, the poet Burns ; of whom some
interesting traditions are preserved in the office. The old desk is still shown, at which these
and other eminent men revised their proofs ; and the well used desk-stool is treasured as a
valuable heir-loom, bearing on it an inscription, setting forth, that it is “ the stool on which
Burns sat while correcting the proofs of his Poems, from December 1786 to April 1787.”
Not even the famed Ballantyne press can compete with this venerable haunt of the Scottish
literati, whose very ‘‘ devils ” have consumed more valuable manuscript in kindling the
office kes, than would make the fortunes of a dozen modern autograph collectors 1 It need
not surprise us to learn that even the original manuscripts of Burns were invariably
converted to such homely purposes ; the estimation of the poet being very different in 1787
from what it has since become. Of traditions of remote antiquity, the Anchor Close has ita
full share; and the numerous inscriptions, as well as the general character of the old
buildings that rear their tall and irregular fronts along its west side, still attest its early
importance. Immediately on entering the close from the High Street, the visitor discovers
this inscription, tastefully carved over the first entrance within the pend: THE * LORD
* IS ONLY - MY - SVPORT -; and high overhead, above one of the windows facing
down the close, a carved stone bears a shield with the date 1569, and, on itB third and
fourth quarters, a pelican feeding her young with her own blood. Over another doorway a
little further down is this pious legend: 0 * LORD * IN THE - IS AL ’ MY -
TRAIST Here was the approach to Daunie Douglas’s tavern, celebrated among the older
houses of entertainment in Edinburgh as the haunt of the Crochal1a.n corps. It is mentioned
under the name of the Anchor Tavern in a deed of renunciation by James Deans of
Woodhouselee, Esq., in favour of his daughter, dated 1713, and still earlier references
allude to its occnpants as vintners. The portion of this building which faces the High
Street, retains associations of a differeut character, adding another to the numerous
examples of the simpler notions of our ancestors who felt their dignity in no way endangered .
when It is styled in most
of the title deeds (‘ Lord Forglen’s Land,” 80 that on one of the stories of the same building
that furnished accommodation to the old tavern, resided Sir Alexander Ogilvie, Bart., one
of the Commissioners of the Union, and for many years a senator of the College of Justice
under the title of Lord Forglen. Fountainhall records some curious notes of an action
brought against him by Sir Alexander Forbes of Tolquhoun, for stealing a gilded mazer
cup ’ out of his house, but which was at length accidently discovered in the hands of a
goldsmith at Aberdeen, to whom Sir Alexander had himself entrusted it some years before
to be repaired; and he having forgat,, it lay there unrelieved, in security for the goldsmith’s
the toe of the peasant came so near the heal of the courtier.”
This printing-office, together with the other objecta of interest here described in connection with Anchor Cloae,
waa taken down on the construction of Cwkburn Street in 1859. ’ h f m Cup, a drinking cup of maple.
