258 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
believe, was the place whither the Reformer withdrew for private study and devotion, and
where the chief portion of his history was written.
The plaster ceiling of the hall appears to be a work about the time of Charles II., but a
great portion of it has now given way, and discloses the original oak beams and planking
of the flo’or above, which are painted in the style we have already described in the account
of Blpth’s Close. Tradition has industriously laboured to add to the associations of the
old building by such clumsy inventions as betray their spuriousness. A vault underneath
the street, which contains a covered well, is exhibited to the curious by the tenant of the
laigh shop,“ as the scene of secret baptisms of children before the Reformation ; at B
time when it more probably formed a convenient receptacle for the good Abbot’s wines,
and witnessed no other Christian rites than those over which his butler presided. The ‘‘ preaching window ” has also been long pointed out, from whence the Reformer, according
to the same authority, was wont to address the populace assembled below. The
interesting narrative of his last sermon in St Giles’s Church, and the scene that followed,
when. his congregation lingered in the High Street, watching, as for the last time, the
feeble steps of their aged pastor, seems the best confutation of this oft-repeated tradition,
which certainly receives no countenance from history. Among these spurious traditions,
we are also inclined to reckon that which assigns the old Reformer’s house to the celebrated
printer, Thomas Bassandyne. Society Close, in its neighbourhood, was indeed
formerly called Bassandyne’s Close, as appears by the titles; but even if this be in
reference to the printer, which we question, it would rather discredit than confirm the
tradition, as another land intervened between that and the famed old tenement.’ There is
an access to Knox’s house by a stair in the angle behind the Fountain Well, in the wall
of which is a doorway, now built up, said to communicate with a subterranean passage
leading to a considerable distance towards the north.
It is impossible to traverse the ruined apartments of this ancient mansion without feelings
of deep and unwonted interest. To the admirers of the intrepid Reformer, it awakens
thoughts not only of himself but of the work which he so effectually promoted ; to all it
is interesting as intimately associated with memorable events in Scottish history. There
have assembled the Earls of Murray, Morton, and Glencairn; Lords Boyd, Lindsay,
Ruthven, and Ochiltree, and many others, agents of the Court, as well as its most resolute
opponents ; and within the faded and crumbling hall, councils have been matured that
exercised a lasting influence on the national destinies. There, too, was the scene of his
1 We have discovered in the Burgh Charter Room a deed of disposition referring to part of this property, and of an
earlier date than any now in the hands of the propridora, viz DiSpositiOn of How in N e t k Bow, March 1,1624,
Alesounc Bassdyw and other8 to John Binning.” One of the others is Alexander Crawford, her husband, while the
property appeara to have been originally acquired by her as spouse of umq- Alexander Ker, two of whose daughters
by her are named, along with their husbands, an joint contracting parties in the disposition ; and, it may be added,
‘‘ umq” Alexander Richardson, some time spouse to me, the said Aleaoune,” 8II intermediate husband, is mentioned in
the deed. The house ia situated down the close, and is bounded “by the waste land descending north to the wall of
Trinity College on the north . . . and the waste land of umquile James Baeaendyne on the south parts.” Thia deed ia
dated only forty-eeven years after the death of the printer; so that James was, in all probability, a contemporary or pra
deceaeor. Neither he nor Aleaoun is referred to among the printer’s relatives in his will (Bann. Misc. vol. ii. p. 203),
but Alesoun Bassindyne, my dochter,” ia appointed one of the executors in the will of Katharine Norwell, the widow
of the printer, who had married a second time, and died in 1693 (ibid, p. 220), and to whom she leaves her twa best
new blak gowneis, twa pair of new cloikis, and twa new wylie cottis, with ane signet of gold, and ane ring with twa
stanein.” She was probably the old prink's only child, and an infant st the time of hie decease. The house, which
WO believe to have been that of Thomas Basaendyne, is described towarda the close of thii chapter.
*
THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 259
escape from the shot of an assassin, which struck the candlestick before him as he sat at
his studies ; and within these walls he at length expired, in the sixty-seventh year of his
age, ‘‘ not so much oppressed with years as worn out and exhausted by his extraordinary
labour of body and anxiety of mind.”
A range of very picturesque buildings once formed the continuous row from ‘‘ Knox’s
corner,” to the site of the ancient Nether Bow Port, but that busy destroyer, Time, seems
occasionally to wax impatient of his own ordinary slow operations, and to demolish with
a swifter hand what he has been thought inclined to spare. One of them, a curious
specimen of the ancient timber-fronted lands, and with successive tiers of windows divided
only by narrow pilasters, has recently been curtailed by a story in height and robbed of
its most characteristic featnres, to preserve for a little longer what remains, while the
house immediately to the east of Knox’s, which tradition pointed out as the mansion of
the noble family of Balmerinoch, has now disappeared, having literally tumbled to the
ground, Immediately behind the site of this, on the west side of Society Close, an
ancient stone land, of singular construction, bears the following inscription over its main
entrance :-R * H There
appears to have been a date, but it is now illegible. The doorway gives access to a curious
hanging turnpike stair, supported on corbels formed by the projection of the stone steps
on the first floor beyond the wall. This is the same tenement already referred to as the
property of Aleson Bassendyne, the printer’s daughter. The alley bears the name of
Bassendyne’s Close, in the earliest titles ; more recently it is styled Panmure Close, from
the residence there of John Naule of Inverkeilory, appointed a Baron of the Court of
Exchequer in 1748-a grandson of the fourth Earl of Panmure, attainted in 1715 for his
adherence to the Stuarts. The large stone mansion which he occupied at the foot of the
close, was afterwards acquired by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge,
founded in 1701, and erected into a body-corporate by Queen Anne. Its chief apartment
was used as their Hall; from which circumstance the present name of the close
originated.
The old timber land to the east of this close is said to have been the Excise Office
in early times, in proof of which the royal arms are pointed out over the first floor.
The situation was peculiarly convenient for guarding the principal gate of the city, and
the direct avenue to the neighbouring seaport. It is a stately erection, of considerable
antiquity, and we doubt not has lodged much more important official occupants than the
Hanoverian excisemen. It has an outside stair leading to a stone turnpike on the first
floor, and over the doorway of the latter is the motto DEW - BENEDICTAT. Since
George II.’s reign, the Excise Office has run through its course with as many and
rapid vicissitudes as might sufiice to mark the career of a prufligate spendthrift. In its
earlier days, when a floor of the old land in the Nether Bow sufficed for its accommodations,
it was regarded as foremost among the detested fruits of the Union. From thence
it removed to more commodious chambers in the Cowgate, since demolished to make way
for the southern piers of George IV. Bridge. Its next resting-place was the large tenement
on the south side of Chessel’s Court, in the Canongate, the scene of the notorious
Deacon Brodie’s last robbery. nom thence it was removed to Sir Lawrence Dnndas’s
splendid mansion in St Andrew Square, now occupied by the Royal Bank. This may
HODIE * MIHI * CRAS . TIBI . CVR * IGITVR CVRAS *
