HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 65
form of a cairn within his grounds at St. Bennet’s.
demolished in 1871.
Convent of St. Margaret’s, about a miIe to the westward.
The last fragment was
We give an Engraving of the entrance to the modern
CA~RN AT sr. BENNET’S.
Beside Ashfield Villa, at the north-eastern extremity of Chamberlain
Road, leading from Greenhill Gardens to Merchiston, is a small unroofed
enclosure, which appears to have been used as a place of burial during the
last visitation of the Plague in the year 1645. The entrance door is sur-
ENTRANCE TO ST. YARGARET’S CONVENT.
mounted by a pedimental stone, bearing the letters I * L and E * R, with the
date 1645; and on the inner side of the west wall is a large incised slab,
measuring 6 feet 8 inches by rather more than 3 feet. The upper portion
66 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT.
of this slab, contaiiiing the shield of arms, appears in the annexed Engraving;
the lower portion is occupied with the inscription, which we give below :--
THIS SAINT WHOS CORPS LYES BU
LET ALL POSTERITIE ADMEIR
FOR VPRIGHT LIF IN GODLY FEIR
WHEN IUDGMENTS DID THIS LAND
HE WITH GOD WAS WALKING FOUND
FOR WHICH FROM MIDST OF FEIRS [?I
HEIR TO BE INTERRD BOTH HE
AND FREIhD BY PROVIDENC AGRIE
NO AGE SHAL LOS HIS MEMORIE
RIED HEIR!
SURROUND
HE'S CROUND .
HIS AGE 53 DIED
1645.
According to local tradition, the monument commemorates John Lawson
of Greenhill, Treasurer or Chamberlain of Edinburgh, who, with his friend
Hugh Wright (after whom ' Wright's Houses' is said to be named), was
most devoted in his attention to the sufferers from the plague in the year above
referred to ; and having himself fallen a victim to the fatal epidemic, was
buried within the enclosure, which then probably formed a conspicuous object
on the old Borough Muir.1 While the initials (I L), on each side of the
the author makes some unaccountable mistakes respecting the arms, motto, and initials.
1 The slab is mentioned in Dr. Wilsan's AZmrOriaZs of Edindurgh (i. 165), where, however,
