260 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
be considered its culminating point. It descended thereafter to Bellevue House in
Drummond Place, built by General Scott, the father-in-law of Mr Canning, which house
was demolished in 1846, in completing the tunnel of the Edinburgh and Leith Railway ;
and now, we believe, the exciseman no longer possesses a ‘ I local habitation ” within the
Scottish capital.
On the southern side of the High Street, below “the Tron,” some few remains of
antiquity have escaped the ruthless hand of destruction, though the general character of
the buildings partakes largely of modern tameness and insipidity. Previoua to the
commencement of the South Bridge in 1785, the east end of the Tron Church, which has
since been considerably curtailed, abutted on to a large and stately range of building of
polished ashlar, with an arched piazza, supported on stone pillars, extending along nearly
the whole front. A large archway in this building, immediately adjoining the church,
formed the entrance to Marlin’s Wynd, in front of which a row of six stones, forming
the shape of a coffin, indicated the grave of Marlin, a Frenchman, who, having first paved
the High Street in the sixteenth century, seems to have considered that useful work his
best public monument ; but the changes effected on this locality have long since oblite- ‘
rated the pavior’s simple memorial. The same destructive operations swept away the whole
of Niddry’s Wynd, an ancient alley, abounding with interesting fabrics of an early date,
and associated with some of the most eminent citizens of former times. Here was the
civic palace of Nicol Udward, Provost of Edinburgh in 1591, a large and very handsome
quadrangle building, of uniform architectural design and elegant proportions, in which
King James VI. and his Queen took up their residence for a time in 1591.‘ This
building appears, from the description of it, to have been one of the most magdcent
private edifices of the Old Town.’ In the same wynd, a little further down on the
opposite side, stood St Mary’s Chapel, an ancient religious foundation dedicated to the
Virgin Mary. It was founded and endowed by Elizabeth, Countess of Ross, in 1504,
the widow of John, Lord of the Isles, who was outlawed and forfeited by James III. for
treasonable correspondence with Edward IV. of England. She was the eldest daughter
of James, Lord Livingston, Great Chamberlain of Scotland, and appears to have held
considerable property by special charters in her own behalf. A modern edifice has been
substituted for the ancient chapel before the demolition of Niddry’a Wynd, which formed
the hall of the corporation of wrights and masons. It was acquired by them in 1618,
since which they have borne the name of the United Incorporations of May’s Chapel.
The modern erection appeared from it,s style to have been built early in the eighteenth
century, and its name is now transferred to their unpretending hall in Bell’s Wynd.
On entering Dickson’s Close, a little farther down the street, the first home the visitor
comes to on the left hand is a neat and very substantial stone edifice, evidently the work
of Robert Mylne, and built about the period of the Revolution. Of its first occupants
we can give no account, but one of its more recent inhabitants is calculated to give it a
peculiar interest. Here was the residence of David Allan, ‘‘ our Scottish Hogarth,” as
he was called, an artist of undoubted genius, whose fair fame has suffered by the tame
insipidity which inferior engravers have infused into his illustrations to Ramsay and
Burna. The satiric humour and drollery of his well-known ‘‘ rebuke scene ” in a country
...
l Bnte, p. 89. ’ For a detailed account of this very interesting old building, vide Minor Bntiquitieq p. 207,
