234 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
for all the world.”1 It was the fate of this old mansion of the Earls of Angus to be
linked at its close in the misfortunes of a Douglas. It formed during last century the
banking-house of Douglas, Heron, & Company, whose failure spread dismay and suffering
through a widely-scattered circle, involving both high and low in its ruin. The Chapel of
Ease in New Street, erected in 1794, now partly occupies the site. Several other interesting
relics of the olden time were destroyed to make way for this ungainly ecclesiastical
edifice. One of these appears from the titles to have been the residence of Henry Kinloch,
a wealthy burgess of the Canongate, to whose hospitable care the French ambassador was
consigned by Queen Mary in 1565. An old diarist of the period relates, that ‘‘ Vpoun
Monunday the ferd day of Februar, the seir of God foirsaid, thair come ane ambassatour
out of the realm of France, callit Monsieur Rambollat, with xxxvj horse in tryne, gentilmen,
throw Ingland, to Halyrudhous, quhair the King and Queenis Majesties wes for the
tyme, accumpanyit with thair nobillis. And incontinent efter his lychting the said ambassatour
gat presens of thair graces, and thairefter depairtit to Henrie Kynloches lugeing
in the Cannogait besyid Edinburgh.” A few days afterwards, ‘( The Kingis Majestie
[Lord Darnley], accumpanyit with his nobillis in Halyrudhous, ressavit the ordour of
knychtheid of the cokill fra the said Rambollat, with great magniilcence. And the samin
nycht at evin, our soueranis maid ane banket to the ambassatour foirsaid, in the auld
chappell of Halyrudhous, quhilk wes reapparrellit with fyne tapestrie, and hung m a p s -
centlie, the said lordis maid the maskery efter supper in ane honrable manner. And
vpoun the ellevint day of the said moneth, the King and Quene in lyik manner bankettit
the samin ambassatour ; and at evin our soueranis maid the maskrie and mumschance,
in the quhilk the Queenis grace, and all her maries and ladies wer all cledin men’s apperrell;
and everie ane of thame presentit ane quhingar, bravelie and maist artiticiallie made and
embroiderit with gold, to the said ambassatour and his gentlemen.” * On the following
day the King and Queen were entertained, along with the ambassador and his suite, at a
splendid banquet provided for them in the Castle by the Earl of Mar ; and on the second
day thereafter, Monsieur Rambollat bade adieu to the Court of Holyrood. It is to be
regretted that an accurate description cannot now be obtained of the burgher mansion
which was deemed a fitting residence for one whom the Queen delighted to honour,
and for whose entertainment such unwonted masquerades were enacted. It was probably
quite as homelya dwelling as those of the same period that still remain in the neighbourhood.
The sole memorial of it that now remains is the name of the alley running
between the two ancient front lands previously described, through which the ambassador
and his noble visitors must have passed, and which is still called Kinloch’s Close after
their burgher host.
New Street, which is itself a comparatively recent feature of the old burgh, is a curious
sample of a fashionable modern improvement, prior to the bold scheme of the New Town.
It still presents the aristocratic feature of a series of detached and somewhat elegant mansions.
Its last century occupants were Lord Kames-whose house is at the head of the
street on the east side-Lord Hailes, Sir Philip and Lady Betty Anstruther, and Dr
Hume of Godscroft’s History of the Douglases, p. 432. ’ Diurnal of Occurrenta, pp. 86, 87. There appears, indeed (Maitlaud, p. 149), to have been another Kinloch‘s
lod,&g near the palace, but the correapondenoe of name and data Beems to prove the above to be the one referred to.
THE CANONGA TE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 285
Young, a celebrated physician of the period, with others of wealth and influence, among
whom may be mentioned Miss Jean Ramsay, a daughter of the poet, who lived there till
a very advanced age, in the second house below the chapel.
A lofty stone tenement on the south side of the main street, to the east of Gillon’s
Close, was erected by Charles, fourth Earl of Traquair, and formed the residence of his
twin daughters, Lady Barbara and Lady Margaret Stewart. They both died there at a
very advanced age-Lady Margaret in 1791, and her sister in 1794. They must have been
born very early in the eighteenth century, as Dr Archibald Pitcairn, who died in 1713,
made them the subject of some elegant Latin verses. They were till lately remembered as
two kindly, but very precise old ladies, the amusement and main business of whose lives
consisted in dressing and nursing a family of little dolls-a recreation by no means
unusual among the venerable spinsters of former days. The date over the main doorway
of the building is 1700. A little farther to the eastward, and almost directly opposite the
head of New Street, is the Playhouse Close, within the narrow alley of which the stage
was established in 1747, on such a footing as was then deemed not only satisfactory but
highly creditable to the northern capital, where the drama had skulked about from place
to place ever since its denouncement by the early reformers, finding even the patrosage of
royalty, and the favour of the vice-regal Court of Holyrood, hardly sufficient to protect it
from ignominious expulsion.
The history of the Scottish drama is ohe of very fitful add stinted encouragement, and
of correspondingly meagre results. The first approach to regular dramatic composition,
after the period when religious mysteries and moralities were enacted under the sanction
of the Church,’ was Sir David Lindsay’s ‘‘ Pksant Satyre of the Three Estaitis ; ” and
this so effectually aided the work of the Reformers, under whose care the stage was
immediately placed, that it may be styled the first and last effort of dramatic genius in
Scotland, almost to our own day. It was “ playit besyde Edinburgh in 1544, in presence
of the Quene Regent,” as is mentioned by Henry Charteris, the bookseller, who sat
patiently for nine hours on the bank at Greenside to witness the play. It so far surpasses
any effort of contemporary English dramatists, that it renders the barrenness of the Scottish
muse in this department afterwards the more apparent. Birrell notes on the 17th
January 1568 :-“ A play made by Robert Semple, and played before the Regent [Murray]
and divers uthers of the nobilitie.” This has been afinied, though seemingly on very
imperfect evidence, to have been Philotus, a comedy printed at Edinburgh by Robert
Charteris in 1603, the author of which is not named. It exhibits, both in plan and
execution, a much nearer approach to the modern drama than Sir David Lindsay’s Satire,
and is altogether a work of great merit. In the same year there issued from the Edinburgh
press, Darius, a tragedy written by ‘‘ that most excellent spirit and earliest gem of
l A few extracts from the Treasurers’ accounts will afford a hint of the dawn of theatrical amusements at the Scottish
court in the reign of James IF., January 1, 1503 :-“Item, ye samyn nycht to ye gyearis that playit to ye King,
41. 4s. Feb. 18.-To ye
QUENEO F YE CANONGAIT14,s .” Thin character repeatedly occurs in the accounts, and seems to have been B favourite
masker. “1504, Jan. 1.-Tu Hog the tale-tellar, 14s. Jan. 3.-Yat samyn day to Thos. Boauell and Pate Sinclair to
by yaim daunsing gere, 28s. Yat samyne nycht to ye
GYSARISO F YE TOUNE OB EDINBUBG8E f,r . cr. [French crowns.] Junel0.-Payit to Jamea Dog that halaid doune for
girse one Corpus Christi day, at the play to the Kingis and Quenis chamerig 3s. 4d.” bcc.
Feb. &-To ye mene that brocht in ye Morice Dance, and to ye menstralis in Strevelin, 42s.
Pat day to Yaister Johne to by beltis for ye Yorise Danae, 28s.
