362 MEMORIAL S OF EDINB URG H.
old oaken chair remained till recently an heirloom, bequeathed by its patrician occupants
to the humble tenants of their degraded dwellings. A recent writer on the antiquities
of Leith, conceives it probable that this may have been the residence of the Regent
Lennox; but we have been baffled in our attempts to arrive at any certain evidence
on the subject by reference to the titles. “ Mary,” says Maitland, “ haviug begun
to build in the town of Leith, was followed therein by divers of the nobility, bishops,
and other persons of distinction of her party; several of whose houses are still remaining,
as m y be seen in sundry places, by their spacious rooms, lofty ceilings, large staircases,
and private oratories or chapels for the celebration of mass.” Beyond the probable
evidence afforded by such remains of decaying splendour and former wealth, nothing
more can now be ascertained. The occupation of Leith by nobles and dignitaries of
the Church was of a temporary nature, and under circumstances little calculated to
induce them to leave many durable memorials of their presence. A general glance, therefore,
at such noticeable features as still remain, will suffice to complete our survey of the
ancient seaport.
The earliest date that we have discovered on any of the old private buildings of the
burgh, occurs on the projecting turnpike of an antique tenement at the foot of Burgess
Close, which bears this inscription on the lintel, in Roman characters :-NISI DNS FRUSTBA,
1573. This ancient alley is the earliest thoroughfare in the burgh of which we have
any account. It was granted to the burgesses of Edinburgh, towards the close of the
fourteenth century, by Logan of Restalrig, the baronial over-lord of Leith, before it
acquired the dignity of a royal burgh, and the owner of nearly all the lands that extended
along the banks of the harbour of Leith. We are led to infer from the straitened proportions
of this narrow alley, that the whole exports and imports of the shipping of Leith were
conveyed on pack-horses or in wheel-barrows, as it would certainly prove impassable for
any larger wheeled convejance. Its inconvenience, however, appears to have been felt at
the time, and the Laird of Restalrig was speedily compelled to grant a more commodious
access to the shore. The inscription which now graces this venerable thoroughfare, though
of a date so much later than its first construction, preserves a memorial of its gifts to the
civic Council of Edinburgh, as we may reasonably ascribe to the veneration of some wealthy
merchant of the capital the inscribing over the doorway of his mansion at Leith the
very appropriate motto of the City Arms. To this, the oldest quarter of the town, indeed,
we must direct those who go “in search of the picturesque.” Watera’ Close, which
adjoins Burgess Close, is scarcely surpassed by any venerable alley of the capital, either in
its attractive or repulsive features. Stone and timber lands are mixed together in admired
disorder ; and one antique tenement in particular, at the corner of Water Lane, with a
broad projecting turnpike, contorted by corbels and string courses, and every variety of
convenient aberration from the perpendicular or horizontal, which the taste or whim of its
constructor could devise, is one of the most singular edifices that the artist could select as a
subject for his pencil.
The custom of affixing sententious aphorisms to the entrances of their dwellings appears
to have pertained fully as much to the citizens of Leith as of Edinburgh. BLISSIT . BE .
GOD . OF . HIS . GIFTIS . 1601., I. W., I. H., is boldly cut on a large square panel on
the front of an old house at the head of Sheriff Brae; and the same favourite motto
LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 363
frequently occurs with slight variations. The earliest instance of it is on the front of an
ancient tenement at the head of Binnie’s Close, St Giles’ Street, where it is accompanied
with a large and finely cut shield, with two coats of arms impaled, and the date 1594.
Near to this, in Muckle’s Close, is the following:-~m . BLISSING .) OF . GOD . IS . GRIT .
RICHES . M . S. 1609. In Vinegar Close,, an ancient building, now greatly modernised,
is adorned with a large sculptured shield, containing the armorial bearings represented in
the vignette at the head of the chapter. In St Andrew Street, over a window on the first
floor of a house fronthg Smeaton’s Close, is the common Iegend-Tm FEIR OF THE LORD
IS THE BEGINNING OF AL VISDOME; and on the same building within the close, another
window bears the brief inscription and -date :-FEIR THE LORD, 1688 ; the year of the
Revolution. The lintel of the ancient doorway of a house in Water Lane, demolished in
1832, bore the following pious couplet, with the date 1574 :-
THEY AR WELCOME HERE,
QUHA TEE LORD DO FEIR.
And over another doorway in Queen Street, there is cut, in more ancient and ornamental
characters-cREDENTI . NIHIL . LINGU~E:. A fine old building near the head of Queen
Street, which was only demolished a few years since, was generally believed to be the
mansion which had been honoured as the residence of the Queen Regent ; but the name
of the street, which probably suggested the tradition, is of recent origin, and superseded
the more homely one of the Paunch Market; and there is no evidence in its favour
sufficient to overturn the statement of Maitland, who wrote at a period when there was
less temptation to invent traditions than now. The ancient tenement, however, was
evidently one of unusual magnificence. Several large portions of very richly carved oak
panelling were removed from it at the time of its demolition, the style of which leaves
little doubt of their being fully as old as the date of the Queen Regent’s abode in Leith ;
and its walls were decorated with well executed paintings, some of which are said to have
had the appearance of considerable antiquity.’ The house was highly decorated on the
exterior with sculptured dormer windows’ and other ornaments common to the buildings
of the period; and the oak window frames were richly carved in the style so
frequently described among the features of oyr earlier domestic architecture. Many such
are still to be met with about Leith, carved in different styles, according to the period
of their execution ; the most common ornament on those of later date being the egg and
arrow.
Frequent mention is made by early historians of the King’s Work, an extensive building
that appears to have occupied the whole ground between the Broad Wynd and Bernard
Street. The exact purpose for which it was maintained is not clearly defined in any
of the early allusions, but it probably included an arsenal, with warehouses, and resident
officials, for storing the goods and managing the revenues of the port. This idea is confirmed
by the reddendum in the charter, by which James VI. afterwards conferred it on
a favourite attendant-viz., that he was to keep one of the cellars in the King’s Work in
repair for holding wines and other provisions for his Majesty’s use.8 That some funds
1 Now in the poasession of C. B. Sharpe, Esq. ’ Campbell’s Hkbry of Leith, p. 314. Arnot, p. 672.
