346 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
quarters at Dalkeith Palace. The old mansion continued to be the town residence of the
noble family of Stair, until, like the rest of the Scottish peers, they deserted their native
capital soon after the abolition of our national Parliament by the Act of Union. It is
not unlikely that the present name of the old court is derived from the more recent
residence there of John, second Earl of Stair, who served during the protracted campaigns
of the Duke of Narlborough, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General soon
after the bloody victory of Malplaquet. He shared in the fall of the great Duke, and
retired from Court until the accession of Geoge I., during which interval it is probable
that the family mansion in the Potterrow formed the frequent abode of the disgraced
favourite.
Degradation and decay had long settled down on the old aristocratic haunt, when
Clarinda wrote from the same place in 1788, in anticipation of a visit from the poet
Burns, " I hope you '11 come a-foot, even though you take a chair home. A chair is so
uncommon a thing in our neighbourhood, it is apt to raise speculation-but they are all
asleep by ten."' The first interview between Mrs M'Lehose, the romantic Clarinda,
and her Sylvander, took place at the house of Miss Nimmo, a mutual friend, who resided
in Alison Square, Potterrow; an equally humble locality, and within a few paces of
General's Entry, but which derives a still deeper interest from having been the place
where the youthful poet Thomas Campbell lived during his stay in Edinburgh, while
engaged in the composition of his Pleasures of Hope. To appreciate the later associations
of these scenes of poetic inspiration and intellectual pleasures, the reader should rise
from the perusal of the ardent and romautic correspondence of Clarinda and Sylvander,
and proceed to visit the dusky little parlour on the first floor of the crazy tenement in the
Potterrow, where the poet was welcomed by the enthusiastic Clarinda. It is on the
north side of General's Entry, and approached by a narrow turnpike stair, where the
whole accommodations of Mrs M'Lehose consisted of a kitchen, bedroom, and the
straitened parlour wherein she received the visits of the poet. Here this young and
beautiful woman resided with her infant children, and struggled against the pinching
cares of poverty, and the worse sorrows created by an acutely sensitive mind. The
emigration, however, of the gentry of the Old Town to the more fashionable dwellings
beyond the North Loch had been very partially effected in 1788 ; and the contrast between
the little parlour in General's Entry, and the drawing-rooms of the poet's wealthier hosts,
was by no means so marked and striking as it afterwards became. Such are the strangely
mingled associations of rank, historic fame, and genius, with lowly worth and squalid
poverty, which still linger around so many old nooks of the Scottish capital, and give
so peculiar an interest to its scenes.
Beyond this lies the more modern district that preceded the New Town, and included
in its various districts accommodation designed for very different ranks of society. Nicolson
Street, which now forms a portion of the principal southern avenue to the city, was constructed
towards the close of last century on an extensive unoccupied space of ground
lying between the Pleasance and Potterrow. It belonged to Lady Nicolson, whose house
stood nearly at the junction of South College Street with Nicolson Street, and on the
knee.
Correspondence between Burns and Clarinda, p. 152. The poet was at thi period lame, from an injury in his
