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.
3 60 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
converted into shops of late years, but not so effectually as to conceaI their character,
which is deserving of special notice as a peculiar and very characteristic feature in the
domestic architecture of the town. Returning, however, to the ancient edifices of the
Kirkgate, we must refer the reader to the view already given of one which was only
demolished in 1845, and which, from its appearance, was undoubtedly one of the oldest
private buildings in Leith.’ Popular fame, as was mentioned before, assigned its erection
to May of Guise. The value to be attached to such traditional associations may be
inferred from a remark in the most recent history of Leith Were we to give credit to
all the traditionary information we have received, Mary of Lorraine would appear to have
had in Leith not one place of residence, but at least a score, there being scarcely an old
house in the town without its claims to the honour of having been the habitation of
the Queen Regent. The mortification, therefore, which certainly awaits him who sets
out on an antiquarian excursion through Leith, particularly if the house of that illustrious
personage be the object of his pursuit, will not proceed from any difficulty in
discovering the former residence of her Majesty, but in the much more puzzling circumstance
of finding by far too many ;-in short, that nearly all the existing antiquities
of Leith are fairly divided between Cromwell and Queen Mary, between whom there would
Beem to have been a sort of partnership in building houses. As might naturally be
expected from this association, her Majesty and the Protector would appear to have lived
on the most sociable footing. We have in more than one instance found them residing
under one roof, Queen Mary occupying probably the first floor, and Cromwell living
up-stairs.’” Such popular aptitude in the coining of traditions is by no means confined
to Leith; but the antiquary may escape all further trouble in searching for the
Queen’s mansion by consulting Naitland, who remarks, (‘ that Mary .of Lorraine having
chosen Leith for her residence, erected a house to dwell in at the corner of Quality Street
Wpd in the Rotten Row,” now known as Water Lane, ‘‘ but the same being taken down
and rebuilt, the Scottish Arms which were in the front thereof are erected in the wall
of a house opposite thereto on the southern side ; and the said Mary, for the convenience
of holding councils, erected a handsome and spacious edifice for her Privy Council to
meet in.”’ The curious visitor will look in vain now even for the sculptured arms
that escaped the general destruction of the ancient edifice wherein the Queen Regent,
Mary of Guise, spent the last years of her life, embittered by the strife of factions and
the horrors of civil war ;-an ominous preparative for her unfortunate daughter’s assumption
of the sceptre, which was then wielded in her name. One royal abode, however, still
remains-if tradition is to be trusted-and forms a feature of peculiar interest among
the antiquities of the Kirkgate. Entering by a low and narrow archway immediately
behind the buildings on the east side, and about half way between Charlotte Street
and Coatfield Lane, the visitor finds himself in a singular-looking, irregular little court,
retaining unequivocal marks of former magnificence. A projecting staircase is thrust
obliquely into the narrow space, and adapts itself to the irregular sides of the court by
sundry corbels and recesses, such as form the most characteristic features of our old
Bcottish domestic architecture, and might almost seem to a fanciful imagination to have
been produced as it jostled itself into the straitened site. A richly decorated dormer
1 Ante, p. 54. Abridged from Campbell’a History of Leith, p. 312. Maitland, p. 496.
