THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 265
man, the Regent Morton, and an associate with him in the murder of Riazio ; so that, if
the sculpture over the doorway be a device adopted by the Morton family, the corresponding
one, already described in the Castle Hill, may be considered as affording considerable
probability of that house having been the mansion of the Regent. William Douglas,
Lord Whittinghame, resigned his office as a judge in 1590, and was succeeded by his son
Archibald, the granter of the disposition referred to, a special favourite of James VI.,
who accompanied him on his matrimonial voyage to Norway, and was rewarded for his
“ lovable service ” soon after his return by this judicial appointment.
The portion of the wynd below this old mansion included, along with the building
of 1564, recently swept away to make room for an extensive printing-office, another
which was long used as a Roman Catholic Chapel. This was an antique stone fabric,
from which a curiously-projecting timber front was removed only a few years before its
desertion as a place of worship. On the fifth flat of this tenement, approached by a
steep and narrow turnpike stair, a large chamber was consecrated to the worship of the
Roman Catholic Church during the greater part of last century, and probably earlier.
When we last visited this primitive retreat of “ Old Giant Pope, after the many
shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger daya,” there still remained painted, in
.simple fashion, on one of the doors immediately below the chapel, the name of the old
Bishop, Mr Hay. This was the once celebrated opponent of Bishop Wm. Abernethy
Drummond, of the Scottish Episcopal Church, under the initials G. H., and well worthy
of note in the history of the locality as the last of the Bishops of Blackfriars’ Wynd,
where the proudest nobles of Scotland were wont of old to give place to the dignitaries of
the Church.
Nearly opposite to this, a large and ancient tenement stood entire in the midst
of ruins, the upper story of which was also used as a chapel. It was dedicated to St
Andrew, and formed the chief Roman Catholic place of worship in Edinburgh, until it
was abandoned in the year 1813 for the ecclesiastical edifice at Broughton Street,
dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary. The interior of the chapel retained much
of its original state till its demolition. The frame-work of the simple altarpiece
still remained, though the rude painting of the Patron Saint of Scotland, which
originally flled it, had disappeared. Humble as must have been the appearance of this
chapel, even when furnished with every adjunct of Catholic ceremonid for Christmas or
Easter festivals, aided by the imposing habits of the officiating priests that gathered
around its little altar, yet men of ancient lineage were wont to assemble among the
worshippers; and during the abode of the royal exiles at Holyrood Palace, Count
d’Artois, the future occupant of the French throne, with the princes and their attendants,
usually formed part of the congregation. An internal staircase formed a private entrance
for the priests and other officials from the floor below, where the straitened accommodations
it afforded sufficed for the humble residence of these successors of the Cardinals
and Archbishops who once dwelt in the same neighbourhood. The public accesa was by
a projecting stone staircase, which formed the approach to the different floors of the
building. Over this doorway was a sculptured lintel, with a shield of arm6 in the centre,
bearing three stars in chief, with a plain cross, and over it two swords saltier ways.
On either side of this was cut, in large antique characters, the inscription MISERERE
2 L
