Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time

All Books Kay's Originals Vol. 1 Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Edinburgh Past and Present Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

Go to: « Kay's Originals Vol. 1 « Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Cover Title Pages Contents List of Illustrations Preface Part 1: Historical Associations Part 1 Ch 1: Earliest Traditions Part 1 Ch 2: From The Accession of The Stuarts to the Death of James III Part 1 Ch 3: From the Accession of James IV to the Battle of Flodden Part 1 Ch 4: From the Battle of Flodden to the Death of James V Part 1 Ch 5: From the Death of James V to the Abdication of Queen Mary Part 1 Ch 6: From the Accession of James VI to the Restoration of Charles II Part 1 Ch 7: Historical Incidents after the Restoration Part 2: Local Antiquities and Traditions Part 2 Ch 1: The Castle Part 2 Ch 2: King's Stables, Castle Barns, and Castle Hill Part 2 Ch 3: The Lawnmarket Part 2 Ch 4: The Tolbooth, Luckenbooths, and Parliament Close Part 2 Ch 5: The High Street Part 2 Ch 6: The High Street and Nether Bow Part 2 Ch 7: The Canongate and Abbey Sanctuary Part 2 Ch 8: St Leonard's, St Mary's Wynd, and The Cowgate Part 2 Ch 9: The West Bow and Suburbs Part 2 Ch 10: Leith, and The New Town Part 2 Ch 11: Ecclesiastical Antiquities Appendix » Edinburgh Past and Present » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

THE WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 35 5 Cromwell soon drew General Leslie’s forces out of their secure position, and tempted them to follow to their own destruction. The mound thus thrown up between the two towns was gradually improved into a pleasant footpath. Defoe remarks in 1748-Leith Wynd “leads north into a suburb called the Calton; from whence there is a very handsome gravel-walk twenty feet broad, continued to the town of Leith, which is kept in good repair a t the public charge, and no horses sutfered to come upon it.” Thus it continued till the opening of the North Bridge in 1772, when it seems to have been adopted as a carriage-road, with very little provision for ifs security or maintenance. It has since been converted, at great expense, into one of the broadest and most substantial roadways in the kingdom, along which handsome streets and squares are now laid out, destined, when completed, to unite the capital and its seaport into one great city ; but it still retains, in its name of Leith Walk, a memento of the period when it was carefully guarded for the exclusive use of pedestrian travellers. About half-way between Edinburgh and Leith, on the west side of the Walk, is the site of the Gallow-Lee, once a rising ground, whose summit was decorated with the hideous apparatus‘of public execution, permanently erected there for the exposure of the mangled limbs of notorious culprits or political offenders. This accursed Golgotha, however, has been literally carted away, to convert the fine sand, of which it chiefly consisted, into mortar for the builders of the New Town ; and the forfiaken sand-pit now blooms with the rarest exotics and the fresh tints of nursling trees, the whole ground being laid out as a nursery. The rising ground called Heriot’s Hill, which lies immediately to the north of the nursery, serves to show the former height of the. Gallow-Lee. When the surrounding ground was unoccupied, and the whole area of the New Town lying in open fields, the.lonely gibbet with its loathsome burden-must have formed a prominent object from a considerable distance on every side-a moral lesson, as our forefathers conceived, of p e a t value in the suburban landscape 1 Defoe’e Tour, vol. iv. p. 86.

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