LEITH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 375
resting his fore paw on the sword, and the other placing his paw in one of the scales. On
the other sculptured pediment a man is seen armed with a thick pole, with a hook at the
end, by which he grasps it; a goat, as it seems, is running towards him, as if butting at
him, while a bear seizes it by the waist with his teeth, and another is lying dead beyond.
The Hope’s arms are sculptured on the former pediment, underneath the fiingular piece of .
sculpture we have described-which occupies the upper part of a pointed arch-so that
it is not improbable that the curious scene of the judge determining the plea between the
lions and ‘the lamb, may refer to a family alliance with the great Lord Advocate ; though
the key to the ingenious allegory has perished with the last of their race.
On the south side of the ancient Burgh of Broughton, and nearly on the sight of the
present broad street called Picardy Place, there existed till near the close of last century a
small village or hamlet called Picardy, which was occupied exclusively by a body of weavers
who are said to have been brought over from the French province of that name by the
British Linen Company, and settled there for the improvement of their manufactures.’
We have found, however, in a copy of Lord Hailed Annals, a manuscript note, apparently
written while this little community of foreign artisans were still industriously plying their
looms, in which they are described as a body of French refugees, who 0ed to this country
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, and settling on the open common that
then lay between Broughton and the old capital, they attempted to establish a silk manufactory.
A large plantation of mulberry trees is said to have been laid out by them on the
slope of Moutrie’s Hill, and other provision made for carrying on the whole operations of
the silk manufacture there. It is well known, that about 50,000 French refugees fled to
England at that period, the majority of them settled at Spitalfield, while the remainder
scattered themselves over the kingdom. To a body of these unfortunate wanderers the
hamlet of Picardy most probably owed its origin. The failure of their mulberry plantations
here, as in other parts of the kingdom, no doubt compelled them to abandon their project ;
and their experience was probably afterwards made use of in the weaving of linen, on the
institution of a company for the encouragement of its manufacture in 1i46. Since then
this chartered body has devoted its large capital exclusively to the purposes of banking ;
and it is now one of the most wealthy and influential banking companies of Scotland.
One other locality of considerable interest in the same neighbourhood is the low valley
of Greenside, which skirts the northern base of the Calton HilL Though now exclusively
occupied by workshops and manufactories, or by modern dwellings of a very humble character,
it formed in ancient times a place of considerable importance. It was bestowed on
the citizens by James 11.) as an arena for holding tournaments and the like martial sports
of the age; and, according to Pennant, it continued to be used for such feats of arms even
in the reign of Queen Mary. Here, he relates, during a public tournament, ‘‘ the Earl
of Eothwell made the fwst impression on the susceptible heart of Mary Stuart, having
galloped into the ring down the dangerous steeps of the adjacent hilL”O The rude Earl,
however, trusted as little to feats of gallantry as to love for the achievement of his unscrupulous
aims ; and this may rank among the many spurious traditions which the popular
interest in the Scottish Queen has given rise to. A chapel dedicated to the Holy Rood
stood in the valley of Greenside at a remote period, and served, in the year 1518, as the
Walka in Edi11burg4 p. 217. ’ Pennant’s Tour, voL i p. 70.
