APPENDIX. 427
1742.-Of this date is Edgar’s map of Edinburgh, engraved for Maitland’s History of Edinburgh. It was
drawn by W illiam Edgar, architect, for the purpose of being published on a much larger scale ; but he died before
this could be accomplished, when it was fortunately engraved by Maithnd, on a scale sdiciently large for reference
to most of its details. It is of p a t value a an accurate and trustworthy ground-plan of the city almost
immediately before the schemes of civic reform began to modify ita ancient features. A very useful companion
to this is a large map, “ including all the latest improvements,” and dedicated to Provost Elder in 1793. It contains
a very complete reference to all the closes and wynda in the Old Town, many of which have since disappeared,
while alterations in the names of those that remain add to the value of this record of their former nomenclature.
1753.-A s mall folio plate of Edinburgh from the north-west, bearing this date, is engraved from a drawing
by Paul Sandby. It appears to have been taken from about the site of Charlotte Square, though- the town ie
represented at a greater distance. Ita chief value arises from the idea it gives of the site of the New Town, consisting,
on the west side of the Castle, where the Lothian Road has since been made, of formal rows of treee, and
beyond them a great extent of ground mostly bare and unenclosed. Old St Cuthbert’s Church is seen at the
foot of the Castle rock, with a square central tower surmounted by a low spira
In 1816 an ingenious old plan of Edinburgh and ita environs wa published by Kirkwood, on a large
scale. He has taken Edgar as his authority for the Old Town; South Leith from a survey by Wood in
1777 ; the intervening ground, including North Leith and the site of the New Town from a survey made in
1759, by John Fergus and Robert Robinson; and the south of Edinburgh, including the whole ground to
the POW Burn, from another made the same year by Jahn Scott. It is further ‘embellished with a reduced
copy of the view of 1580, and a plan of Leith made in 1681. The names of most of the proprietors of ground
are given from the two last surveys, belonging to the town, and the whole forms B tolerably complete and
curious record of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh about the middle of the eighteenth century.
Gough remarks, in his British Topography, with reference to John Clerk, Esq. of Eldin,-whose amateur
performances with the etching needle are coveted by collectors of topographical illustrations, on account of their
rarity, a few impressions only having been printed for private distribution,-“ I am informed he intends to etch
some views of Edinburgh of large size, having made some very accurate drawings for that purpose.’’ Two of
these, at 1 east, have been etched on narrow plates, about fifteen inches long. One of them, aLview from the north,
has Lochend and Logan of Restalrig’s old tower in the foreground ; with the initials J. C., and the date 1774
The other is from the head of the Links, with Wrychtishousis’ mansion in the foreground. They are not, however,
so accurate as Qough-or more probably his Scottish authority, Mr George Paton-had anticipated
To thia list we may add a south view of Edinburgh 1 y Hollar, on two sheets. We have never seen a copy of
it, nor met with any person who has seen more than one of the sheets, now at Cambridge. It is very rare, has
no date, and is perhaps, after all, only a copy of Qordon’s bird’s-eye view. Gough mentions an ancient drawing
of Edinburgh preserved in the Charter Room of Heriot’s Hospital, but no such thing is now known to exist,
although the careful researches of Dr Steven, in the preparation of his History of the Hospital, could hardly have
failed to discover it, had it still remained there.
Of modern views the best is that drawn by W. H. Williams, or a he is more frequently styled, Grecian
Williams, and engraved on a large scale, with great ability and taste, by William Miller. It is taken from the
top of Arthur’s Seat, so that it partakes of the character of a bird’seye view, with all the beauty of correct perspective
and fine pictofical effect.
A rare and interesting print published in 1751, engraved from a drawing by Paul Sandby, preserves a view
of Leith at that period. It ia taken from the old east road, and, owing to the nature of the ground, and the site
of the town being chiefly a declivity towards the river, little more is seen than the nearest rows of houses and
the steeple of St Mary‘s Church. The rural character of the neighbouring downa, however, is curious, a well
as a singular looking old-fashioned carriage, which forms one of the moat prominent objects in the view.
428 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
IIL CHURCHES.
TRONCH nRcE.-The Tron Church, or Christ’s Church at the Tron, as it should be more correctly termed,
ia one of two churches founded about the year 1637, in consequence of want of accommodation for the citizens
in the places of worship then existing. They proceeded very slowly, impeded no doubt by the political disturbances
of the period. In 1647 the Church at the Tron was so far advanced as to admit of its being used for
public worship, but it was not entirely finished till 1663. On the front of the tower, over the great doorway,
a large ornamental panel bears the city arms in alto ~eEieuo, and beneath them the inscription BDEM HANO
CHRISTO ET ECCLESI~ SACBARUNT CIVES EDINBURQENSES, ANNO DON. MDCXLI. Some account has been given
@age 260) of the changes effected on the church in opening up the southern approaches to the city, in the
year 1785. It is finished internally with an open timber roof, somewhat similar to that in the Parliament
House j but its effect has been greatly impaired by the shortening of the church when it was remodelled externally.
In 1884 the old steeple was destroyed by fire. It wa built according to a design frequently repeated
on the public buildings throughout Scotland at that period, but the examples of which are rapidly disappearing.
Old St Nicholas’s Church at Leith still preserves the model on a small scale, and the tower of Glasgow College
is nearly a facsimile of it. The old tower of St Mary’s Church, as engraved in our view of it, was another
nearly similar, but that has been since taken down ; and a destructive fire has this year demolished another
similar erection at the Town Hall, Linlithgow. The site chosen for the second of the two churches projected
in 1637 was the Castle Hill, on the ground now occupied by the Reservoir. The building of the latter church
was carried to a considerable extent, as appears from cfordon’s View of Edinburgh, drawn about ten years later ;
but the Magistrates discovering by that time that it was much easier to project than to build such edifices, they,
according to Arnot, “pulled down the unfinished church on the Caste1 Hill, and employed the materials in
erecting the Tron.” There is good reason, however, for believing that Arnot is mistaken in this account of the
interruption of the former building. It is unquestionable, at any rate, that at no period since the Reformation
has the same zeal been manifested for religious foundations as appears to have prevailed at that period. In
1639, according to Amot, David Machall, merchant burgess of Edinburgh, left three thousand five hundred
merks, or, as in the Inventar of Pious Donations, I‘ 1000 merks yearly, to maintain a chaplain in the Tron
Church of Edin’ to mak Exercise every Sunday from 8 to 9 in the morning.” In 1647, Lady Yester.founded
the church that bears her name ; and in 1650, Thomas Noodie, or as he is styled in Slezer‘s Theatrum Scotia,
Sir Thomas Moodie of Sachtenhall, bequeathed the mm of twenty thousand merks to the Town Council, in
trust, for building a church in the town, and which, after variou.3 projects for its application to different purposes,
was at length made use of for providing a church for the parishioners of the Canongate, on their ejection
from Holyrood Abbey by James VII. in 1687. Such does not seem to be a period when a church which had
been in proopess for years, and, as would appear from Gordon’s View, was advancing towards completion,
would be deliberately levelled with the ground, from the difficulty of raising the necessary funds. The following
entry in the Inventar of Pious Donations, throws new light both on this and on the object of Moodie’s
bequest : ‘‘ Tho’ Mudie left for the re-edyfing to the Kirk that was throwne doun by the English in the Castle
Hill of E@, 40,000 merks,-but what is done fin I know not.” There is added on the margin in a later
hand, seemingly that of old Robcrt Milne, circa 1700.; “ The Wigs built the Canongate Kirk yrw’.” From this
it appears that the church on the Castle Hill shared the same fate as the old Weigh-house, its materials having
most probably been converted into redoubts for Cromwell’s artillery, during the siege of the Castle, for which
purpose they lay very conveniently at hand. In the year 1673, a bell, which cost 1490 merla and 8 shillings
Scots, was hung up in the steeple, and continued weekly to summon the parishioners to church till the Great
Fire of 1824, when, after han@g till it was partly melted by the heat, it fell with a tremendous crash among
the blazing ruins of the steeple, Portions of it were afterwards made into quaichs and other similar memorials
