314 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. (The West Bow.
thundering back again; being neither more nor
less than Satan come in one of his best equipages
to take home the major and his sister after
they had spent a night?s leave of absence in their
terrestrial dwelling.?
Scott also tellsus inhis ?Letters on Demonology,?
that bold indeed was the urchin who approached
the gloomy house, at the risk of seeing thC major?s
enchanted staff parading the desolate apartments,
.or hearing the hum of the necromantic wheel which
procured for his sister such a reputation as a spinner.
About the beginning of the present century,
according to the author above quoted, when Weir?s
house was beginning to be regarded with less
superstitious terror, an attempt was made by the
luckless proprietor to find one bold enough to
;become his tenant, and such an adventurer was
yrocured in the person of a dissipated old soldier
named William Patullo, whose poverty rendered
him glad to possess a house at any risk, on the low
terms at which it was offered; and the greatest
interest was felt by people of all ranks in the
city, on its becoming known that Major Weir?s
house was about to have a mortal tenant at last !
Patullo and his spouse felt rather flattered by
the interest they excited ; but on the first night, as
the venturesome couple lay abed, fearful and wakeful,
?a dim uncertain light proceeding from the
sathered embers of their fire, and all being silent
around them-they suddenly saw a form? like
that of a calf, which came forward to the bed,
and setting its fore-feet upon the stock, looked
steadfastly at the unfortunate pair. When it had
contemplated them thus for a few minutes, to their
great relief it took itself away, and, slowly retiring,
vanished from their sight. As might be expected,
they deserted the house next morning; and for
another half century no other attempt was made to
embank this part of the world of light from the
aggressions of the world of darkness.?
But even the world of spirits could not withstand
the Improvement Commission, and the
spring of 1878 saw the house of the wizard
numbered with the things that are no more in this
quarter of Edinburgh, and to effect the removal of
which the Commissioners gave freely the sum of
~ 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 .
Behind the abode of the major in the West Bow,
but entered from Johnstone?s Close, Lawnmarket,
was another very remarkable old house which was
demolished about the same time.
Memorials,?
that it exhibits an interior ?? abounding with plain
arched recesses and corbelled projections, scattered
throughout in the most irregular and lawless fashion,
Of this building Wilson says in his
and with narrow windows thrust into the oddest
corners, or up even above the very cornice of the
ceiling, in order to catch every wandering ray of
light, amid the jostling of its pent-up neighbourhood.
A view of the largest apartment is given in the
Abbotsford edition of the Waverley novels, under
the name of the ? Hall of the Knights of St. John,
St John?s Close, Canongate.? ? But he adds that he
had failed in every attempt to obtain any clue to the
early history of this mysterious edifice which tradition
thus associated with the soldier-monks of Torphichen.
Discoveries made in the course of its demolition
added to the mystery concerning it. In the stair
leading from the court to the hall there was a
quaint holy-water font; and in clearing out the
interior, it was found that the ceiling had at one
time been beautifully painted with flowers and
geometric designs. In the great open chimney-place
of the hall there were, singularly enough, two mall
windows; and in the heart of the massive walls
were found secret stairs that led from the hall to
rooms above it
In addition to these secret passages, the walls
disclosed four recesses that had been faced with
stone, and which concealed the relics of more than
one crime or mystery that will never be unravelled.
One held the skeleton of a child, with its cap and
part of its dress; and in the other there were
quantities of human bones. In a built-up cupboatd
a large vertebral bone of a whale was discovered.
?? The beams of the hall,? says the Scotsman of 8th
February, 1878, ?( and indeed of the whole house,
were of oak, which, according to tradition, was
grown on the Burghmuir, and, with the exception
of the ends which had been built into the wall, the
wood was found to be perfectly sound and beautifully
grained.?
Immediately opposite the close that led to the
house of Major Weir, and occupying nearly the site
of the present St John?s Free Church, stood an old
tenement, which bore the date 1602, with the arms
of the Somerville family, and the initials P. S. and
J. W., being those of a once worthy and wealthy
magistrate and his wife, whose son Bartholomew
Somerville was a benefactor to the University of
Edinburgh, when that institution was in its infancy.
The architrave of the door bore also the legend
IN. DOMINO. CONFIDO.
A narrow spiral stair led to a lofty wainscoted
room, with a fine carved oak ceilipg, on the second
floor. This was the first Edinburgh Assembly
Room, off which was a closet or recess, forming an
out-shot over the street, wherein the musickm
