THE CAiVONGA TE ANB ABBE Y SANCTUAR Y.
Earl, who took an active share in promoting the Union. He was soon after elevated to a
dukedom in the British Peerage, and successively filled the offices of Keeper of the Privy
Seal and Secretary of State for Scotland.
At the head of Reid’s Close stands the ancient and picturesque stone tenement,
designated in the accompanying engraving Nisbet of Dirleton’s House, which appears by
the date on it to have been erected in the year 1624. Its basement story is substantially
arched with stone, in accordance with the fashion of that age, when a citizen’s mansion
had occasionally to be made his castle, in a very different sense from that which is now
maintained as the theory of Britis& law. This edifice, which was probably reared by
eome courtier of note and influence at that period, afterwards became the residence of
Sir John Nisbet, who waa promoted to the Bench in 1664, under the title of Lord
Dirleton, and was the last who held the office of Lord Advocate conjointly with that of
a Judge. He was the predecessor of Sir George Mackenzie as Lord Advocate, and is
accused, both by Kirkton and Wodrow, of making himself the tool of the Bishops. The
latter relates a curious instance of his zeal in persecuting the unfortunate Covenanters.
Robert Gray having been brought before the Council, and examined a8 to his knowledge
of the hiding places of some of the leaders of that party, withvut their succeeding in
obtaining from him the desired information, Sir John took a ring from the man’s finger
and sent it to Mrs Gray by a trusty messenger, who informed her that her husband had
told all he knew of the Whigs, and that he sent this ring to her in token that she might
do the same. Deceived by this ingenious fraud, the poor woman revealed their places of
concealment; but her husband was so affected that he sickened and died a few days after.
The south front of the house &ppears in the engraving of Reid’s Close, and is singularly
A little further to the eastward, on the same side, is the huge mansion erected by
William, first Duke of Qneensberry, the builder of Drumlanrig Castle, who exercised
almost absolute power in Scotland during the latter years of the reign of Charles II.,
and presided as High Commissioner in the first Parliament of James VII. He afterwards
took an active share in the revolution that placed the Prince of Orange on the throne ; a
step which did not prove sufficient to redeem him from the hatred of the Presbyterian
party, against whom his power had been used in a very cruel and arbitrary manner.
Ee died in the Canongate in 1695. His character was made up of the strangest contradictions
; a great miser, yet magnificent in buildings and pleasure grounds ; illiterate,
yet a collector of books, and commanding in his letters-which he dictated to a secretarya
style that is admirable.‘ Hia son, the active promoter of the union, and the Lord High
Commissioner under whose auspices it was accomplished, kept court here during that
stormy period, and frequently found his huge mansion surrounded by the infuriated mob
who so pertinaciously pursued every abettor of that hated measure.’ But the most
- picturesque, and somewhat unique in its character.
-
, A collection of his lettem now in the possassion of C. E. Sharpe, Esq., would form a curious and valuable acquisition
to the liter.ary world if published. ’ A myaterioua and horrible story is related in the “ Traditions of Edinburgh,” comerning the Duke’s eldest son,
Lord Drumlanrig, an idiot, who, being deaerted by his keeper on the day the union was passed-the whole household
having gone off, with the exception ol a little kitehen boy-escaped from his confinement, murdered the boy, and was
found roasting him at the fire when the domestics returned in triumph b o r n the Parliament Close. The dreadful tale
soon became known, and it waa universally regarded as a judgment on the Duke for hia ahare in the union.
300 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
eminent occupants of Queensberry House are Charles, the third Duke, who was born there
in 1698, and his celebrated Duchess, Lady Catherine Hyde, the patroness of the poet
Gay, and the beauty of the court of George I., whose sprightliness and wit have been
commemorated in the numbers of Pope, Swift, and Prior ; and whom Horace Walpole,
Earl of Orford, celebrated in her old age as-
Prior's Kitty, ever fair !
The eccentric beauty espoused the cause of Gay with such warmth, that on the Lord
Chamberlain refusing to 'sanction the representatiod of PO&, a piece intended as a
continuation of the Beggar's Opera, she received the poet into her house as her private
secretary, and both she and the Duke withdrew
in high dudgeon from court. Gay
accompanied his fair patroness to Edinburgh,
and resided some time at Queensberry House.
!ilk hl!..? L. h . /;2-': His intercourse with the author of "the
Gentle Shepherd," has already been referred
to, as well as his frequent visits to the poet's
shop at the cross.' We furnish a view of
another .and much humbler haunt of the
i poet during his residence in Edinburgh.
It is a small lath and plaster edifice of
1 considerable antiquity, which still stands
directly opposite Queensberry House, and
is said to have been a much frequented
tavern in Gay's time, kept by an hospitable
old dame, called Janet Hall; and, if tradition
is to be believed, Jenny Ha's changehouse
was a frequent scene of the poet's relaxations with the congenial wits of the Scottish
capital.''
The huge dimensions of Queensberry House are best estimated from the fact of its
having been subsequently converted into barracks and an hospital. The latest purpose to
which this once magnificent ducal residence has been applied, as a House of Refuge for
the Destitute," seems to complete its descent in the scale of degradation. Little idea,
however, can now be formed, from the vast and unadorned proportions which the ungaiuly
edifice presents both externally and internally, of its appearance while occupied by its
original owners. "he
wings were surmounted with neat ogee roofs. The centre had a French roof, with storm
windows, in the style of the Palace of Versailles, and the chimney stalks were sufficiently
ornamental to add to the general effect of the building, so that the whole appearance of
the mansion, though plain, was perfectly in keeping with the residence of a nobleman and
the representative of majedy. The internal decorations were of the most costly description,
including very richly carved marble chimney pieces. On the house being dismantled,
many of these were purchased by the Earl of Wemyss, for completing his new mansion
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The whole building was then a story lower than it is at present.
. Ante, p. 199. a Traditions, vol. i p. 291.
