THE CANONGATE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 30 1
of Gosford House, near Edinburgh ; but his successors have continued to prefer the old
mansion, which stands only a few hundred yards from the modern pile; and it is left
accordingly in a more desolate state even than the deserted edifice in the Canongate, with
whose spoils it should have been adorned.
On the site now occupied by a brewery, a little to the eastward of Queensberry House,
formerly stood Lothian Hut, a small but very splendidly finished mansion, erected by
William, the third Marquis of Lothian, about 1750, and in which he died in 1767. His
Marchioness, who survived him twenty years, continued to reside there till her death, and
it was afterwards occupied by the Lady Caroline D’Arcy, Dowager Marchioness of the
fourth Marquis. The scene of former rank and magnificence would have possessed a
deeper interest had it now remained, from its having formed for many years the residence
of the celebrated philosopher, Dugald Stewart, and the place where he carried on many of
his most important literary labours.
At the head of Panmure Close, on the north side of the street, an ancient edifice of
the time of Queen Mary still exists. It has already been referred to as bearing the
earliest date on any private building in the Canongate. It consists, like other buildings
of the period, of a lower erection of stone with a fore stair leading to the first floor, and
an ornamental turnpike within, affording access to the upper chambers of the building.
At the top of a very steep wooden stair, constructed alongside of the latter, a very rich
specimen of carved oak panneling remains in good preservation, adorned with the
Scottish lion, displayed within a broad wreath, and surrounded by a variety of ornament.
The doorway of the inner t,urnpike bears on the sculptured lintel the initials I. H.,
a shield, charged with a cheveron and a hunting horn in base; and the date 1565,
which leaves little reason to doubt that its builder was John Hunter, a wealthy burgess,
who filled the office of treasurer of the burgh in 1568. The name of Panmure Close is
derived from its having been the access to Panmure House, an old mansion, part of
which still remains at the foot of Monroe’s Close, now occupied as an iron foundry.
It formed the town residence of the Earl of Panmure, who ww succeeded in it
towards the middle of last century by the Countess of Aberdeen. At that time it
was pleasantly surrounded by open garden ground, and was deemed a peculiarly
suitable mansion ; and towards the close of the century it was occupied by the celebrated
Dr Adam Smith, who spent there the last twelve years of his life. It is now
as melancholy a looking abode as could well be assigned for the residence even of a poor
author.
John Yaterson’s House, or the Golfer’s Land, as it is now more generally termed,
forms a prominent object among the range of ancient tenements on the south side of the
Canongate, and is associated with a romantic tale of the Court of James VII., during
his residence at Holyrood, as Duke of York. The story narrated in the ‘ I Historical
Account of the Game of Golf,” privately printed by the Leith Club of Golfers, bears that,
during the residence of the Duke in Edinburgh, the question was started on one occasion
by two English noblemen, who boasted of their own expertness in the game, as to
whether the ancient Scottish amusement was not practised at an equally early date in
England. The Duke’s fondness for the game has already been referred to,’ and he was
Ante, p. 104.
