Edinburgh Past and Present

All Books Kay's Originals Vol. 1 Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Edinburgh Past and Present Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

Go to: « Kay's Originals Vol. 1 « Kay's Originals Vol. 2 « Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Edinburgh Past and Present Cover Title Pages Contents Ch I: General Description of Edinburgh Ch II: The Old Town Ch III: Edinburgh from Warriston Cemetery Ch IV: Historical and Descriptive Notes Ch V: Modern Dwellings of the People Ch VI: Queensferry to Mussleburgh, Along the Shore Ch VII: Roslin, Hawthornden, and The Vale of The Esk Ch VIII: Outline of the Geology of Edinburgh and Its Neighbourhood » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 63 ~- created a Baronet, and retired to Garscube, his paterna1 estate. On Sir Islay Campbell Ieaving Park Place, his only son-who on the retirement of his father had been raised to the Bench as Lord Succoth, and had for some years occupied No. 4-removed to the larger mansion, No. I. In 1795, Craufurd Tait, the only son of Rlr. John Tait of Harviestoun, married a daughter of Sir Islay Campbell. Mr. John Tait soon afterwards gave up his house, No. 2, and his business, in favour of his son, and died on his estate of Harviestoun in 1800. No. 3 continued to be inhabited by Mr. Honyman, who became a Judge of the Court of Session as Lord Armadale, and married a daughter of the celebrated Lord Justice-clerk Braxfield. Being a great party man, No. 3 became a resort of the Whigs of the day, as No. I was of the Tory party. the Major greeting for his parritch ’ was enacted, and really took place. It was in No. 3 that EDlNBUXCH ACAUEMY. Commissions in the army were then given to those having great interest, as a gift or pension to the fathers, in the shape of a provision for a child, and even some young Iadies, it is said, actually held commissions as captains of dragoons, and drew pay as such, white children in the nursery in the same way got rank in the army. Lord Armadale having a large family, and being a great politician and jobber, was not unnaturally one so to benefit. But as it turned out, the commission in this case was not ill bestowed on ‘ the Baby Major,’ for he afterwards died gallantly on the field of battle. On Lord -___

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64 EDJNBUKGH PAST AND PRESENT. ~ Armadale’s retirement from the Bench, he was made a Baronet, and he sold his house to Mr. Selkrig, a well-known accountant, who shortly afterwards died in it. It was then purchased by Mr. Archibald Constable,’ the great publisher, who resided in it till his death in 1827. No. I and No. z remained, until they were about to be demolished, in the respective families of their first proprietors ; but No. z was the only one of the four houses which continued to the last in the possession of, and inhabited by, the family of the original proprietors. In it, on the z 1st December 181 I, Archibald Campbell Tait, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, was born. He was the seventh son of Craufurd Tait and Susan Campbell. From this house he went for a year to the High School, and for the subsequent three years he went daily to the ‘Edinburgh Academy.’ He was accompanied every morning by Thomas Constable, his immediate neighbour and dear friend through life, and by his cousin from No. I, Ramsay Campbell, who in after life became Rector of Aston in Yorkshire, and died a few years ago in his cousin’s arms at the Archiepiscopal country residence of Addington. In those days there was no George IV. Bridge, and the first part of the nearly two miles walk, or rather run, was (as a short cut) through dirty lanes or ‘ closes,’ till the Mound was reached. Whenever in after life the Archbishop came to Edinburgh, his home was in No. 2 Park Place, and his elder surviving brothers continued to live in it till they were persuaded to migrate, and forward the views of the University. The Leaving Park Place ’ has become almost a matter of history from the touching lines of a modem Scotch poet and distinguished Judge, Lord Neaves. ‘Ross House,’ among its other changes, was for above thirty years a Lying-in Hospital, under the special care of Dr. James Hamilton, of European celebrity, and within its walls-for good or for evil-many thousands of the human race came into existence. The situation of Park Piacc may perhaps be best known in future by the Univcsiiy Music Hair, which about twelve years ago the proprietors of that private street allowed to - be erected in the park immediately to the east of them, and over which they had a servitude. The &e of the convent of St. Catherine of Sienna, a little to the south of the East Meadows, is marked by a suitable inscription on an iron tablet placed there by Mr. George Seton, ddvocate, an accomplished scholar and antiquary, who has preserved some of the stones of the ancient edifice in the - 1 Before coming to Park Place, Mr. Constable resided at the beautiful and interesting mansion of Craigcrook.

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