300 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Wynd.
broad and spacious thoroughfare, named St. Mary?s
Street, presenting on its eastern side a series of
handsome fapdes, in the Scottish domestic style,
with a picturesque variet)iof outline and detail.
edifice a relic of one of the older ones, a lintel
inscribed thus, with the city motto :-
NISI . DEVS . FRVSTRA.
I B 1523 E L
C H A P T E R X X X V I I .
LEITH WYND.
Leith Wynd-Our Lady?s Hompita-Paul?s Work-The Wall of r540-Its Fall in 1854-The ?Happy Land?-Mary of Gueldres-Trinity
College Church-Some Particulars of its Charter-Interior View- Decorations-Enlargement of the Establishment-Privileges of its
Ancient Officers-The Duchess of Lennox-Lady Jane Hamilton-Curious Remains-Trinity Hospital-Sir Simon Preston?s ? Public
Spirit ?-Become5 a Corporation Chariw-Description of BuildinpPmvisions for the Inmates-Lord Cockburn?s Female Pensioner- .
basement of which is occupied by spacious shops,
and which stands upon the site of the old ?White
Horse ? Inn, as an inscription built into the wall
records thus :-
Edin6urgic, I& Augwt, 1773, on his m.emorabZe four to the
Hebrides, occuj.ied the Zargerpavt (If the si& .f f h i Eui(ding.?
There is also built into another part of the
? I Boyd?s Inn, at which DY. Samuel phnson oflived in .
Demolition of the Hospital-Other Charities.
THE connecting link between St. Mary?s Wynd
and Leith Wynd was the Nether Bow Port, a barrier,
concerning the strength of which that veteran
marshal, the Duke of Argyle, spoke thus in the
debate of 1736 in reference to the Porteous mob:-
. ?? The Nether Bow Gate, my Lords, stands in a
narrow street; near it are always a number of
coaches and carts. Let us suppose auother insurrection
is to happen. In that case, my Lords,
should the conspirators have the presence of mind
to barricade the street with these carriages, as may
? be done by a dozen of fellows, I affirm, and I
appeal for the truth of what I advance to any man
of my trade, who knows the situation of the place,
if five hundred men may not keep out ten thousand
for a longer time than that in which the mob
executed their bloody designs against Porteous.?
From the end of this gate, and bordered latterly
on the west by the city wall, Leith Wynd, which
is now nearly all a thing of the past, ran down
the steep northern slope towards the base of the
Calton Hill.
In the year 1479, Thomas Spence, Bishop of
many who are honorary, but subscribe to the Association,
the objects of which are to promote sobriety,
religious deportment, and a brotherly feeling among
young men of the Catholic faith. It contains a
library and reading room, lecture and billiard room.
It has a dramatic association, and by the committee
who conduct it no means are left untried to increase
the moral culture of the members,
Aberdeen, previously of Galloway, and Lord Privy
Seal, founded, at the foot of Leith Wynd, and on
the east side thereof, a hospital for the reception
and entertainment of twelve poor men, under the
name of ?? the Hospital of our Blessed Lady, in Leith
Wynd :? and subsequently it received great augmentations
to its revenues from other benefactors ;
but at first the yearly teinds did not amount to
twelve pounds sterling, according to Arnot. From
the name afterwards given to it, we are led to suppose
that among the future benefactions there had
been added a chapel or altarage, dedicated to St.
Paul.
The records of Parliament show that somewhere
in Edinburgh there were a hospital and chapel dedicated
to that apostle, and that there was a chapel
dedicated to the Virgin in 1495, by Sir William
Knolles, Preceptor of Torphichen, who fell with
King James at Flodden.
The founder of the hospital in Leith Wynd died
at Edinburgh on the rgth of April, 1480, and was
buried in the north aisle of Trinity College church,
near his foundation.
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