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.
302 MEMORIALS OF EllINBURGH.
now stimulated to its defence as i national amusement peculiar to Scotland, from his
earnest desire to win the popular favour, in which he was no way more likely to succeed than
by flattering their prejudices on any question of nationality, and becoming their champion
in it0 defence. The antiquity of the Scottish game is proved by a statute, passed in the
reign of James II., 1457, forbidding the practice of both ‘( fute-ball and. golfe,” under
the penalty of the Baron’s unlaw, and enacting the use of the Bow in its sted.
The evidence on the English side not being so readily forthcoming, the Englishmen
offered to rest the legitimacy of their national pretensions on the result of a match
to be played by them against his Royal Highness and any Scotsman he chose to select.
‘She Duke immediately accepted the challenge, and, after careful inquiry, selected as
his partner John Paterson, a poor shoemaker of the Canongate, whose ancestors had
been celebrated for centuries as proficients in the game, and who then enjoyed the
honour of being considered the best golfer of his day. The match was played by the
Duke and his partner against their English challengers on the Links of Leith.; heavy
stakes were risked by the Duke and his noble opponents on the results; and after a
hard-fought field, the royal champion of Scotland and his humble squire carried the. day
triumphantly. The poor shoemaker was rewarded with a large share of the stakes
forfeited by the challenger, and with this he built the substantial tenement which
still records his name, and commemorates his victory Over the impugners of the national
sports.
A large and handsome tablet on the front of the mansion bears the Paterson Armsthree
pelicans feeding their young, with three mullets on a chief; and surmounted by a
knight’s helmet, and a defaced crest, said to be a hand grasping a golfer’s club. Over
the ground floor, a plain slab is inscribed with the following epigram, from the pen of
the celebrated Dr Pitcairn, commemorative of the heroic deeds of the. builder, and the
national claims which he successfully asserted :-
Cum victor ludo, Scotis qui proprius, esset,
Ter tres victores pcat redemitos avos,
Pateraonus, humo tunc educehat in altum
Hano, que victores tot tulet una, domum.
!Che letters of this elegant distich were formerly gilded so as to attract the. notice of
the passer, but this has entirely disappeared, and the inscription no longer challenges
the attention of any but the curious antiquary. Underneath is placed the philanthropic
declaration I HATE NO PERSON, which might be supposed the very natural aentiment of one
who had achieved such unexpected honour and reward. It proves, however, to be merely
the transposition of the letters of his own name into an anagram, according to the quaint
fashion of the age. The ancient tenement appears in the accompanying engraving, and
the inscriptions upon it leave no reasonable doubt of the traditional fame of the Canongate
Golfer. We are sorry in any degree to disturb a tradition backed by such incontrovertible
evidence ; but it appears probable, from the evidence of the title-deeds, that the Golfer’s
Land was lost, instead of won, by the gaming propensities of its owner. It was acquired
in 1609 by Nicol Paterson, maltman in Leith, from whom it passed in 1632 to his son,
John Paterson, and Apes Lyel, his spouse. He - died in 1663, as appears by the epitaph
