THE HIGH STREET AND NETHER BOW. 266
Wryts of ane lodging,” &c., on the east side of the close, a charter is mentioned, dated
1456, “ granted be David Rae, vicar generall ; Ffindlay Ker, prior ; . and the rest of the
Convent of Graifriers att Edinburgh, to Andrew Mowbray, burgess,” of a certain piece of
land on which it is built, bounded by the king’s wall on the south. About halfway down
the close, on the east side, stands the ancient mansion of the Earls of Selkirk, having
a large garden to the south, while the principal entrance is from Hyndford‘s Close. The
building has the appearance of great antiquity. The ground floor of the south front
seems to have been an open arcade or cloister, and on the west wall a picturesque turret
staircase projects from the first floor into the close. This ancient tenement has successively
formed the residence of the Earls of Stirling, of the Earl of Hyndford, and, at a still later
period, of Dr Rutherford, the maternal grandfather of Sir Walter Scott. Hyndford’s
Close, which forms the main approach to the house, retains its antique character, having
on the west side a range of singularly picturesque overhanging timber gables. It is
neatly paved, terminating in a small court, open at one side, and altogether presents a
very pleasing specimen of the retired, old-fashioned gentility which once characterised
these urban retreats. The fine old house described above, which forms the chief
building in the close, possesses peculiar interest as a favourite haunt of Scott
during his earlier years. Its vicinity to the High School gave it additional attractions
to him, while pursuing his studies there, and he frequently referred in after
life to the happy associations he had with this alley of the Old Town. A very pleasing
view of the house from the garden is given in the Abbotsford edition of the great
novelist’s works.
To the south of this mansion, in the Mint Close, a lofty tenement, enclosing a small
paved area, still bears the name of Elphinstone’s Court, having been built by Sir James
Elphinstone in 1619. From him it passed to Sir Francia Scptt of Thirlstane, by whom
it was sold to Patrick Wedderburn, Esq., who assumed the title of Lord Chesterhall
on his elevation to the Bench in 1755. His son Alexander, afterwards the celebrated
Lord Loughborough, Lord High Chancellor of England, disposed of it shortly after
his father’s death to Lord Stonefield, who sat as a judge in the Court of Session during
the long period of thirty-nine years, and died in the Mint Close at the beginning of
the present century; so recent is the desertion of this ancient locality by the grandees of
the capital.
Various ancient tenements are to be found in the adjoining closes, of which tradition
has kept no note, and we have failed to obtain any other clue to their history. One
large mansion in South Foulis Close bears the date 1539 over its main doorway, with two
coats of arms impaled on one large shield in the centre, but all now greatly defaced.
Another, nearly opposite to it, exhibits an old oak door, ornamented with h e carving,
still in tolerable preservation, although the whole place has been converted into
storerooms and cellars. But adjoining this is a relic of antiquiQ, beside which the
works of the iifteenth and sixteenth centuries appear but as things of yesterday, and
even the ancient chapel of St Margaret in the Castle becomes .a work of comparatively
recent date.
In the front of a tall and narrow tenement at the Nether Bow, nearly opposite to
John Knox’s house, a piece of ancient sculpture has long formed one of the most noted
