LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 357
hold still frowns above the crag that rises from the eastern bank of Lochend; and after
the royal grant of the Harbour to the Town of Edinburgh by Robert I., Sir Robert
Logan of Restalrig, Knight, the baronial lord of Leith, appears as a successful competitor
with the magistrates of Edinburgh for the right of road-way and other privileges claimed
by virtue of the royal grant. The estate of Restalrig extended from the outskirts of the
Canongate to the Water of Leith, including the Calton, or Wester Restalrig, as it was
styled ; but Logan was easily induced to sell the rights of his unfortunate vassals to their
jealous rivals. The Logans, however, continued long afterwards to possess nearly the
whole surrounding property, and thereby to maintain their influence and superiority in
the burgh) where they appear to have always had their town mansion. The following
allusion to it, in the reign of Queen Mary, by a contemporary, shows its dignity and
importance, at a period when a greater number of the nobility and higher clergy were
residing in Leith than had ever been at any earlier date. ‘ I Vpoun the xviij of May 1572,
thair come to Leith ane ambassatour fra the King of France, nameit Monsieur Lacrok, a
man of good knawlege, to intreat for peace betuix the pairties; at the quhilk tyme of
his entrie, the hail1 inhabitaris and remanaris within the burgh of Edinbnrgh wer in thair
armour wpone the fieldis in sicht of thair aduersaris, quha dischargit fyve peices of
artailzerie at thame, and did na skaith. Vpoun the xxj day, the foirnameit ambassatour
come to Edinburgh Castell, met be George Lord Seytoun, at quhais entrie certane
mvnitoun wes dischargit; quha past the same nycht to Leith agane, and lugeit in Mr
Johne Loganes lugeing thair.”’ The whole possessions of this ancient family were at
length forfeited in the reign of James VI. by the turbulent baron, Robert Logan of
Restalrig, being involved in the Gowrie conspiracy; though his share in that mysterious
plot was not discovered till he was in his grave. The forfeited estates were transferred to
the Elphinstons of Balmerinoch, new favourites who were rising to wealth and power on
the spoils of the church and the ruin of its adherents.
One of the descendants of the barons of Restalrig appears to have retrieved in some
degree the failing fortunes of the family by a gallant coup-&-main, achieved against a
host of opponents,. A gentleman in Leith has now in his possession the marriage-contract
between Logan and Isaballa Fowler, an heiress whom tradition &rms to have
been the celebrated Tibbie Fowler 0’ the glen, renowned in Scottish song, whose penny
siller proved so tempting a bait that the lady’s choice involved the defeat of forty disappointed
wooers1 With Tibbie’s siller he appears to have built himself a handsome
mansion at the head of the Sheri€F Brae, which was demolished some years since to
make way for the Church and.Alms Houses erected by Sir John Gladstone of Fasque,
Eart. It was decorated with a series of sculptured dormer windows, one of which bore
the initials I. L., with the date 1636.’
Among the antiquities of Leith, as might be anticipated, there are none of so early a
character as those we have described in the ancient capital. Its ecclesiastical establishments
apparently claim no existence prior to the fifteenth century ; while the oldest date
we have found on any private building is 1573. It is nevertheless a quaint, old-fashioned
Diurnal of Occurrenta, p. 263. ’ Campbell’s Hiat. of Leith, p. 315, Gemye, grandson of Robert Logan, who waa forfeited, married Isabel Fowler,
daughter to Ludovick Fowler of Burncastla-Nkbet’s Heraldry, VOL i. p. 202.
358 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
looking burgh, full of crooked alleys, and rambling narrow wynds, scattered about in the
most irregular and lawless fashion, and happily innocent as yet of the refinements of an
Improvements’ Commission ; though the more gradual operations of time and changing
tastes have swept away many curious features of the olden time. There is indeed an air
of substantial business-like bustle and activity about its narrow unpretending thoroughfares,
and dingy-looking counting-houses, that strangely contrasts with the gaudy finery
of New Town trading. The London fopperies of huge plate-glass windows, and sculptured
and decorated shop fronts, so much in vogue there, are nearly unknown among the
burghers of Leith, The dealers are too busy about more important matters to trouble
themselves with these new-fangled extravagancies, while their customers are much too
knowing to be attracted by any such showy baits. The contrast indeed between the
Scottish Capital and its Port is even more marked than that which distinguishes the
courtly west end of London from its plebeian Wapping or White Chapel, and is probably,
in all the most substantial sources of digereme, in favour of the busy little burgh : whose
merchants conduct a large and important share of the trade of the North of Europe in
their unpretending little boothies, while the shopkeeper of the neighbouring city magnifies
the petty details transacted over his well-polished mahogany counter, and writes himself
down mercdant accordingly.’
The principal street of Leith is the Kirkgate, a broad and somewhat stately thoroughfare,
according to the prevalent proportions among the lanes and alleys of this close-packed
little burgh. Time and modern taste have slowly, but very effectually, modified its antique
features. No timber-fronted gable now thrusts its picturesque fapade with careless grace
beyond the line of more staid and formal-looking ashlar fronts. Even the crow-stepped
gables of the Rixteenth and fieventeenth centuries are becoming the exception ; and it is
only by the irregularity which still pertains to it, aided by the few really antique tenements
that remain unaltered, that it now attracts the notice of the curious visitor asthe genuine
remains of the ancient High Street of the burgh. Some of these relics of former.times are
well worthy the notice of the antiquary, while memorials of still earlier fabrics here and
there meet the eye, and carry back the imagination to those stirring scenes in the history
of this locality: when the Queen Regent and her courtiers and allies made it their stronghold
and chosen place of abode ; or when, amid a more peaceful array, the fair Scottish
Queen Mary, or the sumptuous Anne of Denmark, rode gaily through the street on their
way to Holyrood. At the south-east angle of the old churchyard, one of these memorials
meets the eye in the shape of an elegant Gothic pediment surmounting the boundary wall,
and adorned with the Scottish Regalia, sculptured in high relief, with the initials J. R. 6 ;
while a large panel below bears the Royal Arms and initials of Charles II., very boldly
executed. These insignia of royalty are intended to mark the spot on which King James’s
Hospital stood-a benevolent foundation which owed no more to the royal patron whose
name it bore, than the confirmation by his charter in 1641 of a portion of those revenues
that had been long before bestowed by the piety of private donors on the hospital of St
Anthony, and the imposition of a duty on all wine brought into the port for the augmentation
of its reduced funds. Here certain poor women were maintained, being presented
The description given above, to a 5eat extent, no longer applies, aa the town haa 80 rapidly extended as to be now
part of the City, and ia also not behind its great neighbour in the wealth of imposing shop fronts.
