THE HIGH STREET. 243
bouring buildings with a majestic and imposing effect, of which the north front of James’a
Court-the only private building that resembles it-conveys only a very partial idea.
Within the Fishmarket Close was the mansion of George Heriot, the royal goldsmith of
James VI. ; where more recently resided the elder Lord President Dundas, father of
Lord Melville, a thorough &on wivant of the old claret-drinking school of lawyers.’ There
also, for successive generations, dwelt another dignitary of the College of Justice, the
grim executioner of the law’s last sentence-happily a less indispensable legal functionary
than in former days. The last occupant of the hangman’s house annually drew “ the
dempster’s fee” at the Royal Bank, and eked out his slender professional income by
cobbling such shoes as his least superstitious neighbours cared to trust in his hands,
doubtless, with many a sorrowful reflection on the wisdom of our forefathers, and ‘‘ the
good old times ” that are gone The house has been recently rebuilt, but, as might
be expected, it is still haunted by numerous restless ghosts, and will run considerable
risk of remaining tenantless should its official occupant, in these hard times, find his
occupation gone.4
Borthwick’s Close, which stands to the east, is expressly mentioned in Nisbet’s
Heraldry as having belonged to the Lords Borthwick, and in the boundaries of a house
in the adjoining close, the property about the middle of the east side is described as the
Lord Napier’s ; but the whole alley is now entirely modernised, and destitute of attractions
either for the artist or antiquary. On the ground, however, that intervenes between this
and the Assembly Close, one of the new Heriot schools has been built, and occupies a site
of peculiar interest. There stood, until its demolition by the Great Fire of 1824, the old
Assembly Rooms of Edinburgh, whither the directors of fashion removed their ‘‘ General
Assembly,” about the year 1720,” from the scene of its earlier revels in the West Bow.
There it was that Goldsmith witnessed for the first time the formalities of an old Scottish
ball, during his residence in Edinburgh in 17’53. The light-hearted young Irishman has
left an amusing account of the astonishment with which, ‘‘ on entering the dancing-hall,
he sees one end of the room taken up with the ladies, who sit dismally in a group by themselves
; on the other end stand their pensive partners that are to be, but no more intercourse
between the sexes than between two countries at war. The ladies, indeed, may
ogle, and the gentlemen sigh, but an embargo is laid upon any closer commerce I ” Only
three years after the scene witnessed by the poet, these grave and decorous revels were
removed to more commodious rooms in Bell’s Wynd, where they continued to be held till
the erection of the new hall in George Street. Much older associations, however, pertain
to this interesting locality, for, on the site occupied by the d d Assembly Rooms, there
formerly stood the town mansion of Lord Durie, President of the Court of Session in 1642,
and the hero of the merry ballad of “ Christie’s Will.” The Earl of Traquair, it appears,
had a lawsuit pending in the Court of Session, to which the President’s opposition was
1 Dr Steven’s Memoirs of Gorge Heriot, p. 6. ’ T& ‘‘ Convivial habits of the Scottish Bar.”-Note to “Guy Mannering.? ’ Pidc Chambers’s Traditions, vol. ii. p, 184, for aome curioua notices of the Edinburgh hangmen. ’ The office of this functionary ia now abolished, and the house ia occupied by privata families,
5 Nbbet’s Heraldry, vol. ii Appendix, p. 106.
a In a mine dated 1723, it is atyled-“That big hall, or great room, now known by the name of the h m b l y
House, being part of that new great atone tenemeut of land lately built,” &c.--BurgA Chu&r h.
244 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
dreaded. In this dilemma he had recourse to Will Armstrong, a worthy descendant of the
famous mosstrooper executed by Jamev V.,-who owed to the Earl’s good fiervices his
emape from a halter. Will promptly volunteered to kidnap the President on learning
that he stood in his patron’s way, and watching his opportunity when Lord Durie was
riding out, he entered into conversation with him, and so decoyed him to an unfrequented
spot called the Figgate Whins, near Portobello, when he suddenly pulled him from his
horse, muffled him in his trooper’s cloak, and rode off with the luckless judge trussed up
behind him. Lord Durie was secured in the dungeon of an old castle in Annandale called
the Tower of Graeme, and his horse being found on the beach, it was concluded he had
thrown his rider into the sea. His friends went into mourning, his successor was
appointed, the Earl won his plea, and Will was directed to set his captive at liberty. The
old judge waa accordingly seized in his dark dungeon, mufHed once more in the cloak,
and conveyed with such dexterity to the scene of his capture that he long entertained the
belief he had’ been spirited away by witches. The joy of his friends was probably
surpassed by the blank amazement of his successor, when he appeared to reclaim his old
office and honours. Accident long after led to a discovery of the whole story; but in
those disorderly times it was only laughed at as a fair ruse de gumre.‘ In the ballad the
bold moss-trooper alights at Lord Durie’s door, and beguiles him with a message from “the
fairest lady in Teviotdale.” Sir Walter, however, confesses to such ekeing and patching
of the traditionary fragments of the old ballad, that we must content ourselves with the
fact of the stolen President’s dwelling having stood on the site of the Heriot’s school in the
Assembly Close. Of this there can be no doubt, as it ia referred to in the boundaries of
various early deeds, in most of which the alley is styled Durie’s Close.
The Covenant Close has already been referred to:
with its interesting old land, surmounted with three
crow-stepped gables, forming the most prominent
feature in the range of the High Street as seeu from
the south. The front lands immediately below this
and the adjoining close again direct us to associations
with the olden time, though only as occupying the
site of what once was interesting, for fire and modern
reform together have effected an entire revolution in
this part of the town. Over the doorway immediately
above Bell’s Wynd an escallop shell? cut upon the
modern stone lintel, marks the site of the ‘‘ Clam
Shell Turnpike,” an edifice associated with eminent
characters, and some of the most interesting eras in
Scottish history. Maitland only remarks of it, in
this close there ‘( is an ancient chapel, which is still
plainly to be seen by the manner of its construction, though now converted into a dwelling-
1 Chrktie’s Will, Border Minstrelsy. There is little doubt of the general truth of thia tradition.
Ante, p. 93.
The leading facts,
though without the names, are related in Forbes’s Journal, and Scott tells UE that some old stnnzas of the ballad were
current on the Border in hia youth.
VIGNETTE-CIBIII Shell Turnpike, from Skena Taken down lT91.
