LEITH AND THE NEW TO WN. 359
thereto by the United Corporations of Leith, exclusive of that of the Mariners, the wealthiest
and most numerous class of privileged citizens, whose Hospital, dedicated to the Holy
Trinity, stood directly opposite to St Mary’s Church, on the site now occupied by the
Trinity House. The inscription which adorned the ancient edifice is built into the south
wall of the new buildiug at the corner of St Giles’ Street, cut in large and highly ornamental
antique characters-h THE NAME OF THE LORD VE MASTERIS AND MARENELIS
BYLIS THIS HOTS TO YE POVR. ANNO DOMIN1I 555. The date of this foundation is
curious. Its dedication implies that it originated with the adherents of the ancient faith,
while the date of the old inscription indicates the very period when the Queen Regent
assumed the reins of government. That same year John Knox landed at Leith on his
return from exile ; and only three years later, the last convocation of the Roman Catholic
clergy that ever assembled in Scotland under the sanction of its laws, was held in the
Blackfriars’ Church at Edinburgh, and signalised its final session by proscribing Sir David
Lindsay’s writings, and enacting that his (( buik should be abolished and brunt.”
To the east of the Trinity House, on the north side of the Kirkgate, a very singular
building fronts the main street at the head of Combe’s Close. The upper stories appear
to have been erected about the end of the sixteenth century, and form rather a neat and
picturesque specimen of the private buildings of that period. But the ground floor presents
different and altogether dissimilar features. An arcade extends along nearly the
whole front, formed of semicircular arches resting on massive round pillars, finished with
neat moulded capitals. Their appearance is *such that even an experienced antiquary,
if altogether ignorant of the history of the locality, would at once pronounce them to be
early and very interesting Norman remains. That they are of considerable antiquity
canuot be doubted. The floor of the house is now several feet below the level of the
street; and the ground has risen so much within one of them, which is an open archway
giving access to the court behind, that a man of ordinary stature has to stoop considerably
in attempting to pass through it. No evidenae is more incontrovertible as to the great
age of a building than this. Other instances of a similar mode of construction are,
however, to be found in Leith, tending to show that the style of architecture is not a safe
criterion of the date of their erection. The most remarkable of these is an ancient edifice
in the Sheep’s Head Wynd, the ground floor of which is formed of arches constructed
in the same very early style, though somewhat plainer and less massive in character,
while over the doorway of the projecting staircase is cut in ornamental characters the
initials and date, D. W., M. W., 1579. The edifice, though small and greatly dilapidated,
is ornamented with string courses and mouldings, and retains the evidences of former
grandeur amid its degradation and decay.‘ Maitland refers to another building, still
standing at the north-west corner of Queen Street, which, in his day, had its lower story
in the form of an open piazza, but modern alterations have completely concealed this
antique feature. Here was the exchange or meeting-place of the merchants and traders
of Leith for the transaction of business, as was indicated by the popular name of the
Bursa-evidently a corruption of the French term Bourse-by which it was generally
known at a very recent period. The arches in the Kirkgate have also been closed up and
. 1 This teuement is erroneously pointed out in Campbell‘s History of Leith aa bearing the earlieat date on any private
editice in the town.
