2 ~ 6 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street
specially excepted out of Cromwell?s act of indemnity
for his loyalty), and David Earl of Wemyss.
In the Edinburgh Courant for October 16th,
1707 (then edited by Daniel Defoe), we have the
following advertisement from a quack in this
locality :-
Bow ot Edinburgh, at Williani Muidies, where the
Scarburay woman sells the same.?
Here, in the Nether Bow, dwelt a humble wigmaker
and barber, named Falconer, whose son
William, author of the beautiful and classic poem,
?The Shipwreck,? was born in 1730. The Nethei
KNOX?S BED-ROOM.
There is just now come to town the excellent
Scarburay Water, good for all diseases whatsomever,
except consumption ; and this being the time
of year for drinking the same, especially at the fall
of leaf and the bud, the price of each chapin bottle
is fivepence, the bottle never required, or three
shillings (Scots, gd. English) without the bottle.
Any person who has a mind for the same may
come to the Fountain Close within the Nether
Bow was his playground in early years, and
there-ere he became an apprentice on board a
merchant vessel at Leith-with his deaf and dumb
brother and sister, he shared in the sports and
frolics of those who have all but himself long since
passed into the realm of oblivion. As a poet, Falconer?s
fame rests entirely on ?The Shipwreck,?
which is a didactic as well as descriptive poem,
and may well be recommended to the young sailor,
Xigh Street.] EXCISE OFFICE. 217
not only to inspire his enthusiasm, but improve his
seamanship ; and there was something prophetic
in the poem, as the frigate Azlroru, in which he
served, perished at sea in 1769.
Eastward of Knox?s manse is an old timberfronted
land, bearing the royal arms of Scotland
on its first floor, and entered by a stone turnpike,
the door of which has the legend Beus Benedictat,
and long pointed out as the excise office of early
times. ? The situation,? says Wilson, ? was peculiarly
convenient for guarding the principal gate of
das?s splendid mansion in St. Andrew?s Square,
now occupied by the Royal Bank. This may be
considered its culminating point It descended
thereafter to Bellevue House, in Drummond Place,
built by General Scott, the father-in-law of Mr.
Canning, which house was demolished in 1846 in
completing the tunnel of the Edinburgh and Leith
Railway; and now we believe the exciseman no
longer possesses a local habitation ? within the
Scottish capital.?
The interesting locality of the Nether Bow takes
the city, and the direct avenue (Leith Wynd) to
the neighbouring seaport. . . . . . Since
George 11.?~ reign the excise office had as many
rapid vicissitudes as might mark the ?areer of a
profligate spendthrift. In its earlier days, when a
floor of the old land in the Nether Bow sufficed
for its accommodation, it was regarded as foremost
among the detested fruits of the Union. From
thence it removed to more commodious chambers
in the Cowgate, since demolished to make way for
the southern piers of George IV. bridge. Its next
resting place was the large tenement on the south
side of Chessel?s Court in the Canongate, the scene
of the notorious Deacon Brodie?s last robbery.
From thence it was removed to Sir Lawrence Dun-
28
its name from the city gate, known as the Nether
Bow Port, in contradistinction to the Upper Bow
Port, which stood near the west end of the Eigh
Street. This barrier united the city wall from St.
Mary?s Wynd on the south to the steep street known
as Leith Wynd on the north, at a time when, perhaps,
only open fields lay eastward of the gate,
stretching from the township to the abbey of Holyrood.
The last gate was built in the time of Tames
VI. ; what was the character of its predecessor
we have no means of ascertaining; but to repair it,
in 1538, as the city cash had run low, the magistrates
were compelled to mortgage its northern
vault for IOO rnerks Scots; and this was the gate
which the English, under Lord Hertford, blew open
