THE WEST 30 W AND SUBURBS. 3 39
His device-seemingly a pair of pincers-was engraved on both sides, surmounted by a
coronet, and encircled on the one side with a motto, partly defaced, and on the other with
his name repeated, and the words in. sol. ingen. Various other mottoes were engraved
amid the ornamental work with which the blade was covered, such as, Vincere aut mort‘,-
Fi& sed cui vide,-Pro ark et foeis,-and Soli de0 gloria Thie singularly curious and
interesting relic was procured from the contractors at the time of its discovery; and was
last in the possession of the late Mr Hugh Paton. The manner of ita concealment, and the
fierce character of the old Lord Ruthven, within whose ancient lod,.ing it was discovered,
may readily suggest to the fancy its having formed the instrument of some dark and bloody
deed, ere it was consigned to its strange hiding-place.
The character of the old tenement, wherein the assemblies of fashion were held previous
to 1720, will be best understood by a reference to our engraving. Over the doorway of
the projecting turnpike was inscribed the motto, IND OMINOC omDo-the title of the
eleventh Psalm ; and above this, within an ornamental panel, the arms of the Somervilles
were sculptured, with the initials P. S., J. W., and the date 1602. These are memorials
of Peter Somerville, merchant, and “yin of the present bailies,” in 1624-a wealthy
burgher, who possessed houses in different parts of the town, and whose son and heir,
Bartholamew Somerville, one of the most liberal contributors towards the establishment
of the infant University, has already been referred to in the account of the Lawnmarket.
His picturesque old gabled tenement appears in the same view to which we have referred
for his father’s lodging.
AI1 beyond this building lay without the line of the earliest town walls. A piece of
their massive masonry remained as a part of its southern gable, and retained, till its
demolition, one of the iron hooks on which the ancient gate had hung; though it
must not be overlooked that this portal of the city was retained, like the modern
Temple Bar, as the appointed scene of certain civic formularies and long-established
state ceremonials, for nearly two centuries after it had been supplanted in its military
functions by the West Port. To the west of this was the intricate and singuiar old
mansion of Provost Stewart, where he was believed to have entertained Prince Charles
and some of his principal oEcers in 1745, and to have afforded them hasty exit, in a
very mysterious fashion, on the approach of a party despatched by General Guest with
an urgent invitation for their company in the Castle.‘ The house was one of no mean
note, and appears from its titles to have deserved the name of the Mansion House-such
was the succession of civic dignitaries that dwelt within its walls. It is described as
‘‘ that dwelling-house some time possessed by um$ Bailie George Clerk, merchant ;
afterwards by the Countess of Southesk ; thereafter by Provost John OrJhorn ; thereafter
by Provost George Hallibnrton ; and thereafter by the said Provost Archibald Stewart.”
Beyond this was an antique timber-fronted tenement, which formed of old the mansion
of Napier of Wrychtishousis, and which enjoyed a far more popular reputation, as
containing the little booth.from whence the rioters of 1736 procured the fatal rope
with which Porteons was hung. Many readers will remember a quaint. little Dutch
manikin, with huge goggle eyes, and a bunch of flax in his hand, who presided over its
threshold in latter times. His history was traced for considerably more than a century
Ante, p. 113.
