3 d MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
though it is probable their worldly circumstances were thereby left more dependent on
their own peculiar resources. We are informed by an intelligent lady who resided in the
Canongate in her younger years, that one Christiau Burns, who then dwelt in Strachie’s
Close, enjoyed the universal reputation of a witch ; and on one occasion within her recollection
was scored adoon the breatfi-ie., had a deep cut made in her forehead by a
neighbouring maltster, whose brewing, as he believed, had been spoiled by her devilish
cantrips.
The Water Gate has long since ceased to be a closed port, but the Canongate dues were
still for some time after collected there on all goods entering the burgh. Its ancient site
was marked, till a few years since, by a pointed arch constructed of wood, and surmounted
with the Canongate Arms. This ornamental structure having been blown down in 1822,
the fishwives of Newhaven and Musselburgh unanimously rebelled, and refused to pay the
usual burghal impost levied on their burdens of fish. The warfare was unflinchingly maintained
by these amazons for some time, and the Magistrates were at length compelled
to restore peace to their gates, by replacing the decorated representative of the more
ancient structure. This, however, has again been removed, in consequence of the demolition
of an antique fabric on the east side of the gateway; and such .was the apathy of
the then generation that not even a patriotic fishwife was found to lift her voice against
the sacrilegious removal of this time-honoured landmark 1
A radiated arrangement of the paving in the street, directly opposite to the Water
Gate, marks the site of the Girth Cross, the ancient boundary of the Abbey Sanctuary.
It appears in the map of 1573, as an ornamental shaft elevated on a flight of steps ; and
it existed in nearly the same state about 1750, when Maitland wrote his History of
Edinburgh. Every vestige of it has since been removed, but the ancient privileges,
which it was intended to guard, still survive as a curious memorial of the ecclesiastical
founders of the burgh. Within the sacred enclosures that once bounded the Abbey of
Holyrood, and at a later period formed the chief residence of the Scottish Court, the
happy debtor is safe from the assaults of inexorable creditors, and may dwell at ease in his
city of refuge, if he have been fortunate enough to bear off with him the necessary spoils..
It is, in truth, an imperium in imperio, an ancient royal burgh, with its own courts and
judges and laws, its claims of watch and ward, and of fe;dal service during the presence
of royalty, the election of peers, or like occasions of state, which every householder is
bound to render as a sworn vassal of the Abbey. Endowed with such peculiar privileges
and immunities, it :s not to be wondered at that its inhabitants regard the ancient capital
and its modern rival with equal contempt, looking upon them with much the same feeling
as one of the court cavaliers of Charles 11. would have regarded some staid old Presbyterian
burgher or spruce city gallant in his holiday finery. In truth, it is scarcely conceivable
to one who has not taken up his abode within the magic circle, how much of the fashion of
our ancestors, described among the things that were in our allusions to the Cape Club
and other convivial assemblies of last century, still survives in uudiminished vigour under
covert of the Sanctuary’s protection.
On the south side of the main street, adjoining the outer court-yard of the Palace, a
series of pointed arches along the wall of the Sanctuary Court-House indicate the remains
of the ancient Gothic porch and gate-house of Holyrood Abbey, beneath whose groined
.
