Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time

All Books Kay's Originals Vol. 1 Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Edinburgh Past and Present Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

Go to: « Kay's Originals Vol. 1 « Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Cover Title Pages Contents List of Illustrations Preface Part 1: Historical Associations Part 1 Ch 1: Earliest Traditions Part 1 Ch 2: From The Accession of The Stuarts to the Death of James III Part 1 Ch 3: From the Accession of James IV to the Battle of Flodden Part 1 Ch 4: From the Battle of Flodden to the Death of James V Part 1 Ch 5: From the Death of James V to the Abdication of Queen Mary Part 1 Ch 6: From the Accession of James VI to the Restoration of Charles II Part 1 Ch 7: Historical Incidents after the Restoration Part 2: Local Antiquities and Traditions Part 2 Ch 1: The Castle Part 2 Ch 2: King's Stables, Castle Barns, and Castle Hill Part 2 Ch 3: The Lawnmarket Part 2 Ch 4: The Tolbooth, Luckenbooths, and Parliament Close Part 2 Ch 5: The High Street Part 2 Ch 6: The High Street and Nether Bow Part 2 Ch 7: The Canongate and Abbey Sanctuary Part 2 Ch 8: St Leonard's, St Mary's Wynd, and The Cowgate Part 2 Ch 9: The West Bow and Suburbs Part 2 Ch 10: Leith, and The New Town Part 2 Ch 11: Ecclesiastical Antiquities Appendix » Edinburgh Past and Present » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

266 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH. ME1 DEVS ; and below, the initials G. G. The latter has been mistaken for the date 1616 ; but no one who examined the style of the doorway and inscription could feel any hesitation in assigning to it a date of fully a century earlier. Only one other old building remained on the west side of the wynd, bearing the pious inscription over its entrance :-THE FEIR OF THE LORD IS THE BEWNNMG OF AL VISDOME. Below this, at the corner of the Cowgate, formerly stood the English Episcopal Chapel, founded by Lord Chief Baron Smith in 1722. It was a plain edifice, possessing no external features of an ecclesiastical character, as may be seen in our engraving of The building existed exactly a century, having been demolished in 1822, after serving during that period as the place of worship of all loyal and devout Episcopal High Churchmen, at a time when Episcopacy and Jacobitism were nearly synonymous in Scotland. The interest that attaches to it as a feature of the olden time, when such a sight was deemed the most suitable that could be selected for a chapel, probably attended by a congregation including a greater array of rank and fashion than any that now assembles in Edinburgh, is further increased from its having been the place of worship of Dr Johnson when residing with Boswell, in 1773. Here also, and not improbably on the same site, was the town mansion of William St Clair, Earl of Orkney, the founder of Roslin Chapel, who maintained his Court at Roslin Castle with a magnificence far surpassing what had often sufficed for that of the Scottish Kings. He was royally served at his own table-if we are to believe the genealogist-in vessels of gold and silver ; Lord Dirleton being his master of the household, Lord Borthwick his cup-bearer, and Lord Fleming his carver, with men of ancient rank and lineage for their deputies. His Princess, Margaret Douglas, was waited on, according to Father Hay, by seventy-five gentlewomen, whereof Hty - three were daughters of noblemen, “all cloathd in velvets and silks, with their chains of gold, and other pertinents ; togither with two hundred rideing gentlemen who accompanied her in all her journeys. She had carried before her, when she went to Edinburgh, if it were darke, eighty lighted torches. Her lodgeing was att the foot of Blackfryer Wynde; so that, in a word, none matched her in all the countrey, save the Queen’s Majesty.” Directly opposite to the site of Baron Smith’s Chapel stood one of the palatial edifices of the old capital, popularly known as Cardinal Beaton’s house-a sdEciently humble and unpretending structure, which undoubtedly formed an archiepiscopal residence of no mean character in the sixteenth century. This ancient mansion, however, falls more correctly to be treated of as one of the most interesting among the older features of the Cowgate. The vignette at the beginning of the chapter exhibits the richest group of mottoes to be found on any building in Edinburgh. They formed the decorations on the architrave of a decayed old stone land on the same side, near the head of the Vnd. A shield, charged with armorial bearings, was sculptured on the left side of the doorway, as represented in the woodcut, with the initials E. K., and the date 1619. above this, at the head of the east side, was one of much more pretension externally, having a front to the wgnd of polished ashlar, and a range of unusually large windows, Cardinal Beaton’s House,” where it appears on the further side of the wynd, The building . Genealogie of the Sainte Claires of Rosslgn, p. 26.

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