36 EDINBURGH PAsr AND PRESENT. ~ - _ -
intellect, and qiiite incapable of fathering either the wit or wisdom of Timothy
Tickhr. (De Quincey was buried in St. Cuthbert’s Churchyard.)
HAMILTON’S ENTRY.
In Bristo Street, ear at hand, Edward Irving lived a while, and it was
long the haunt of students-some of whom came to eminence-who had Iess
SIR WALTTGR ScOTTS FIRST SCHOOL.
~ ~ _ _ _ _
money than brains and ambition. In Charles Street (No. 7), which lies
betyeen Bristo Street and George Square, Lord Jeffrey was born (the house
is seen in the engraving of Hamilton’s Entry as you look th;ough the pend,
while in the rear there stood, till the autumn of 1875, Sir Walter Scott’s first
school,’ so that this little archway binds together early memories of two of
Scotland’s most gifted sons), and in the third flat of No. 18 Buccleuch PIace
(close at hand), JeKrey, Sydney Smith, and Lord Brougham first projected
the Edivburgh Rmim. Long before, a few yards from this, in the ‘‘Hole
.BUCCLEUCH PLACE.
in the Wa’” of Buccleuch Fend, a certain Lucky PringIe kept an. alehouse
much frequented by William Nicol of the High School (who lived near it),
Burns’s friend, and by Burns himself. At the east end of Sciennes Hillthe
seat of the ancient Convent of St. Catherine of Siena (corrupted into
‘ Sciennes,’ and now pronounced Sheens ’)-stood Adam Fergusson’s house,
where, at a breakfast party, Scott, a boy, met and interchanged courteous
words with the Peasant Poet of Scotland. This altogether may be called
the classic region of Edinburgh, every inch of it bristIing with literary
recollections.
We now approach the Meadows, one of the oldest and finest promenades
in Edinburgh, originally a part of the old Borough Loch. A strip at the
west end of the East Meadow is used as a practice-grouna for the Royal Company
of Archers (Archers’ Hall), while Bruntsfield Links, to the south of
1 The accompanying drawing was made during the process of demolition.
