316 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
poem by John Bvrel, written on the occasion of Queen Anne’s arrival, and entitled,
“ The Description of the Qveenis Maiesties maist honourable entry into the tovn of
Edinbagh.” The history of the author is unknown, but we have found among the
title-deeds of part of the old property at the foot of Toddrick’s Wynd, a disposition of a
house by ‘‘ John Burrell, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his Majestie’s cunzie hous,”
dated 1628, and which, when t.aken in connection with the profuse and very circumstantial
minuteness with which the poet dwells on the jewellery that was displayed on
that occasion, seems to afford good presumptive evidence of this being the same person.
After devoting nine stanzas to such professional details, he sums up the inventory by.
declaring :-
All precius stains micht thair be eetie,
Quhilk in the world had ony name,
Save that quhilk Cleopatra Queene
Did swallow ore into hir wame !
The poet proceeds thereafter to describe, with equal zest, the golden chains and other
ornaments made of the precious metals, and concludes with a patriotic supplication to
heaven on behalf of the good town. The goldsmiths connected with the Mint would appear
to have possessed lodgings either within the building or in its immediate neighbourhood ;
and it was no doubt owing to George Heriot’s professional avocations that he obtained the
great tenement forming the north side of the Mint Court, which was afterwards devised
by him as the most suitable place for his benevolent foundation.’ George Heriot’s large
messuage or tenement was found by his executors to be waste and ruinous, and altogether
unsuited for the purposes of his foundation. The buildings that now occupy its site appear
to have been erected exactly a century later than the older portion of the Mint Close. An
ornamental sun-dial, which decorates the eastern wing, bears the date 1674; and over
the main doorway on the first floor, which is approached, in the old fashion, by an outside
stair, the letters C. R. 11. are sculptured, surmounting a crown, with the inscription and
date, GOD SAVE THE KING, 1675. Here was the lodging of the celebrated Earl of Argyle
during his attendance on the ScottiRh Parliament, after Charles 11. had unexpectedly
restored him to his father’s title, as appears from a curious case reported in Fountainhall’s
Decisions.’ The date is November 22, 1681, only a few days after the Earl had been
committed a prisoner to Edinburgh Castle, from whence he effected his escape under the
disguise of a page, holding up the train of Lady Sophia Lindsay, his step-daughter.
Towards the close of last century, the mansion on the north side of the court was the
residence of the eminent physician, Dr Cullen, while Lord Hailes occupied the more ancient
lodging on the south, before he removed to the modern dwelling erected for himself in
New Street. The west side of the court was at one time the abode of Lord Belhaven;
and Lord Haining, the Countess of Stair, Douglas of Cavers, and other distinguished
tenants, occupied this fashionable quarter of the town during the last century.
In Heriota will the property is described a8 “ theis my great tenementa of landis, &c., lyand ou the south side of
the King his Highe Streit thairoff, betwixt the Cloise or Wenall callit Gray’s Clois or Coyne HOUBC loise, at the east,
the Wgnd or Wenell callit Todrig’a Wynd at the west, and the said Coyne How, CE& at the south.”-Dr Steven’s Life
of George Heriot, App. p. 27.
Fountainhall’s Decisions, vol. i. p. 163.
ST LEONARD’S, ST MAR Y’S WYND, AND CO WGA TE. 317
The main entrance on the first floor of the west side is approached, like that on the south,
by a broad flight of steps extending into the court. The doorway is furnished with a very
substantial iron knocker, of old-fashioned proportions and design ; but on the lower
entrance, underneath the stair, there remains a fine specimen of the knocker’s more
ancient predecessor, the Risp, or Tiding Pin, so frequently alluded to in Scottish song,
as in the fine old ballad:-
There came a ghost to Margaret’s door,
And aye he tirled at the pin,
Wi’ mony a grievous groan ;
But answer made she none.‘
The ancient privilege of sanctuary which pertained to these
buildings, as the offices of the Scottish Mint, is curiously illustrated
by the case in Lord Fountainhall’s Reports referred to
above. A complaint was laid before the Privy Council, November
22, 1681, that a cabinet of the Earl of Argyle, which
had been poinded forth of t,he ‘‘ coin-house ” of Edinburgh, for a
debt owing by the Earl’s bond, had been rescued by open violence.
In the debate that follows, its full privileges as “an
asyle, refuge, and sanctuary, to protect and defend the persons
of the servants employed to work there in the service of the
King and kingdom,” as well as their tools and instruments, are
admitted, and the claims of “the abbey, the coin-house, and
such other places as pretend to be sanctuaries,” are all placed
on the same footing, without any final decision as to their
rights.
The Archiepiscopal Palace, whose remains occupied the space
between Toddrick’s and Blackfriars’ Wynd, afforded a striking
example of the revolutions effected by time and changing fashions
on the ancient haunts of those most eminent for rank and power. No doubt could be
entertained, from the appearance of the building, that a large part of it had been
rebuilt in a style more adapted to its humble denizens than to the period when, in the
Cowgate, were the palaces belonging to the princes of the land, nothing there being
humble or ruRtic, but all magnificent I ” It had originally enclosed a small quadrangle,
and nearly the whole of the ground floor was substantially arched with stone, resting on
solid piere, well calculated to afford secure protection against such assaults as it was
frequently exposed to during the raih and tulzies of the sixteenth century.’ The entrance
to the inner courtyard was by an arched passage in Blackfriar$ Wynd, within which a
1 These antique pracuraors of the knocker and bell are still frequently to be met with in the steep turnpikes of the
Old Town, notwithstanding the cupidity of antiquarian collectors: The ring ia drawn up and down the notched iron
rod, and makes a very audible noise within.
“Feb. 8, 1541-2.-Remiasion to John Lausone, John Scot, John Myllar, and John Scot, Ben., for their treasonable
besieging and breaking up the gates and doors of the lodging belonging to James (Archbishop) of SanctandroiS, situite
in the Blackfriars’ Wynd, within the Burgh of Edinburgh, for his capture and apprehension, he being within the said
lodging at the time,” &c.-Pitcairn’s Crim. Trials, p. *257. This waa no doubt an Act
of Privy Council, applied for thereafter.
The Archbishop died in 1539.
