ST LEONARD’S, ST MARY’S WYND, AND COWGATE. 329
however, that his hostess had a fair and witty daughter, with whom he fell in love, and
forgetting his early sorrows, he married her, and spent the remainder of his life in
Edinburgh. The young couple continued to reside for some time. after their marriage
in the old lady’s house in the Cowgate; and thereafter removing to No. 19 St Andrew’s
Square, Henry Brougham, the future Lord Chancellor of England, was born there in the
year 1779.
Almost directly opposite to St Magdalene’s Chapel, a large and heavy-looking old
mansion faces the street, with a broad arched gateway opening into an enclosed court,
and two entrances from the street to the interior of the mansion, each of them surmounted
with its appropriate legend. Within, a handsome but wofully dilapidated
oaken staircase remains, and the interior exhibits otker traces of bygone splendour,
amid the shreds and tatters of poverty that form the chief tapestry of the old halls of
the Cowgate in modern days. This extensive tenement is t.he mansion built by the
celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, king’s advocate of Charles I., and yet the foremost among
those who organised the determined opposition to that monarch’s schemes for remodelling
the Scottish Church, which led at length to the great civil war. Over one of the doorways
is inscribed, TECVMH ABITA1,6 16, while the lintel of the principal entrance bears
this laconic motto, now so much defaced as to be nearly undecipherable, AT HOSPES
HVMOw, hich proves to be an anagram of the name of its celebrated builder.’ The
philosophy of its old founder’s motto seems to acquire a new force in the degradation that
has befallen the dwelling-place of the crafty statesman, wherein he schemed the overthrow
of the throne and government. In this ancient mansion, in all probability, the
bold councils were held that first checked the unfortunate Charles I., and gave confidence
to those who were already murmuring against his impolitic measures. Here too we may,
with considerable confidence, presume the National Covenant to have been drawn up,
and the whole scheme of policy matured by which the unhappy monarch found himself
foiled alike in the Parliament, the Assembly, and in the decisive Battle of Longmarston-
Moor. In the same house, Mary, Countess of Mar, daughter of Esme, Duke of Lennox,
died on the 11th of May 1644.2 Both Bailie’s Court-at one time the residence of Lord
Kengetand Allison’s Close, which a few years ago was one of the most picturesque
alleys in the Cowgate-are decorated at their entrances with passages selected from the
Psalms, a custom that superseded the older mottoes towards the latter eud of the
seventeenth%?entury. Beyond these, however, there -still remain several tenements of
considerable antiquity and great variety of character; and in particular one old timberfronted
land, with the rude unglazed loop-holes, or shot w i n h s , which were doubtless
The elder Brougham lies buried in Restalrig Churchyard.
.
1 “ If the house near Cowgeat-head, north sgde that street, waa built by Sir Thomas Hope, as is supposed, the inscription
upon me of the lintall-stones supporta this etymologie-[viz., that the Hopes derive their name from Eoublan
the Hop plant, and not from Espemme; the virtue of the mind]-for the anagram is At Hoapea Hum, and haa all the
lettera of Thomas Houpe.”-Coltness Collections, Maitland Club, p. 16.
The “Extracts from the Countess of Mar’s Household Book,” by C. K.
Sharpe, Esq., contains many very curious local allusions, e.g. :-“Jan. 7, 1639.--(fiven to the poor at Nidriea wynd
head, as my Lady cam from the Treasurer deputes [Lord Carmichael], 6 sh. Aug. 1641.-Payit to the cnatome of
the Water Gate for ten horaea that enterit with my La. carryage, 10d. 6 Sept.-To the gardener in ye Abay yard who
presentit to my Laidy ane flour, 6 sh. 16 Sept.-Payit for twa torches to lighten on my Laidy to the Court with my
Laidy Marqueeae of Huntlie, 24 Eh. 1641,-6 Oct. J’ day to ye Abay Kirk broad, aa my Laidy went to the sermon,
6 sh., &e.”
a Sir Thomas Hope’s Diary, p. 205.
2T
