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. 73 ‘ suits of ancient and rusted armour, interchanged with massive stone scutcheons bearing (crescents), double tressures Aowered and countedowered, wheat-sheaves, coronets, and so forth,’ to all of which the love-sick page was utterly indifferent. . In a charter granted by the Provost and Magistrates of Edinburgh to Ebenezer M‘CulIoch, one of the Managers of the ‘British Linen Manufactory,’ in the year 1748, the ground now partly occupied by Whiteford House is described as ‘All and Whole that area and ruins which formerly belonged to the Earls of firinton, and now to us.’ From the record of the relative proceedings by the Town Council, it appears that the dimensions of the ‘ area ’ were as follows : ‘from east to west, fronting to the high street of the Canongate, seventy-two feet four inches ; from east to west, fronting to the road leading by the north side of the Canongate, sixty-two feet ; and from south to north, two hundred and fourteen feet.’ The ‘ruins’ appear to have long since been levelled to the ground ; but during some very recent excavations a few WHITGPOXD HOUSE. yards to the south of Whiteford House, several underground arches were brought to light, which in all probability formed a portion of the ancient edifice of the Setons. ShortIy after M‘Culloch’s purchase, the property was sold to Andrew Fletcher of Salton, Lord Justice-clerk; and after passing through the hands of various owners, it was acquired, in 1769, by John Coutts, merchant in Edinburgh, ancestor of the accomplished and philanthropic Baroness Burdett-Coutts. The year following, a portion of the area was sold to John Grant, a Baron of Exchequer, who appears to have previously purchased the remainder, as he obtained authority from t h e a e a n of Guild Court, in the summer of 1766, to build the present Whiteford House. It was inhabited for many years, till his death in 1833, by Sir William Macleod Bannatyne, raised to the Bench as Lord Bannatyne in 1799, whose conversa- K

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74 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. tional powers and pleasing manners are still remembered by a few of the oldest denizens of the Scottish Metropolis. For a good many years Whiteford House has been occupied by a large typefounding establishment, its present tenants being the ‘ Marr Typefounding Company,’ formerly in New Street j while the owner of the property is Mrs. Gosnell ( d e Sinclair), now residing in London. On the same side of the Canongate as Whiteford House, but much higher up, is ‘ Seton’s Close,’ now numbered 267. ‘ Seton’s Land’ is mentioned in a song embraced in a manuscript collection compiled about 1760, and printed in the second volume of Chambers’s Traditions of Edzkbu~h, where it is stated that there was another house in the now extinct Libberton’s Wynd, distinguished by the name of ‘ Seton’s Land.’ The song celebrates the charms of a certain ‘ bonnie Mally Lee,’ and the couplet which refers to ‘Seton’s Land’ runs as follows :- ‘ Frae Setun’s Land a Countess fair looked owre a window hie, And pined to see the genty shape of bonnfe Mally Lee.’ Although the city of Edinburgh no longer contains any lapidarian record of the family of Seton,-to say nothing of Pinkie in the neighbourhood of Musselburgh,-we have only to cross the eastern border of the county, in order to find several important indications of their former renown. The site of the oid Palace of Seton, ‘ one of the glories of the Lothians,’ is occupied by an uninteresting modern mansion in the English Baronial style, for which we are indebted to a certain ‘barbarous Celt,’ by whom the earlier edifice was most wantonly demolished about the year 1790. ‘Round about it, in the shape of old walls and abutments, venerable trees and an ancient orchard, are the scattered remains of the departed Palace ; but there remains one object truly warthy of representing the ancient magnificence of the spot, in the ruins of the Collegiate Church endowed by the House of Seton, which they proudly placed, in the fulness of their patronising and protecting power, within the cincture of their Palace walls.’ . , . ‘ Scotland owes many of her architectural ornaments to the munificent taste of the family of Seton. They built Seton Church, and the Palace adjoining it, which has now disappeared. They built, according to their family historian, the old bridge of Musselburgh, which tradition makes a Roman work. That peculiar and beautiful structure, Winton House, was erected as a mansion for the head of the family. Lastly, Alexander Seton, Earl of Dunfermline, who added the ornamental parts to

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