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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II

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singular groups of huge, irregular, and diversified tenements that could well be conceived. Here a stunted little timber dwelling black with age, and ~ beyond it a pile of masonry, rising, storey above storey, from some murky propound that left its chimneys, scarcely rivalling those of its dwarfish MAHOGANY LAND- (Fmm a Mrafured Drawing & T. Hnmihn, #dIiskcd in 1830.) case of his is thus reported by Lord Fountainhall, under date July 6th, 1709 :- ?? Duncan Campbell, of Ashfield, giving himself out to be the best lithotomist and cutter for the stone, pursues Mungo Campbell, of Netherplace, that he being under the insupportable agony of the neighbours, after climbing thus far from their foundations in the depths below.? The Edinburgh Gazeffe for July, 1702, informed the public that Duncan Campbell, of Ashfield, chirurgeon to the city of Glasgow, was receiving patients in his lodging at the foot of the West Bow, and that he was great in operations for stone, having ?cutted nine score persons without the death of any, except five?; and one astounding I gravel, and was kept down in his bed by two ser- ? vants, sent for the said Duncan to cure him, who leaving the great employment he had, waited on him for several weeks ; and by an emaciating diet, fitted him for the operation, then cut him and brought away a big stone of five ounces? weight, and since that time he has ehjoyed better health, for which extraordinary cure all he got in hand was seventeen guineas ; whereas, by his attendance
Volume 2 Page 320
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West Bow.1 THE TEMPLE LANDS. 321 and diversion from other patients, and his lucrum assans, he has lost more than &so sterling, and craves that sum as his fee and the recompense of his damage.? But as it was represented for the Laird of Netherplace, that he had done his work unskilfully, and In the city the order possessed several flat-roofed tenements, known as the Temple Lands, and one archway, numbered as 145, on the south side of the Grassmarket, led to what was called the Temple Close, but they have all been removed. It was a lofty pile, and is mentioned in a charter of that the sum of seyenteen guineas was sufficient payment. At the foot of the Bow, and on the west side chiefly, were a few old tenements, that, in consequence of being built upon ground which had originally belonged to the Knights of the Temple, were styled Templar Lands, and were distinguished by having iron crosses on their fronts and gables. In the ?Heart of Midlothian,? Scott describes them as being of uncommon height and antique appearance ; but of late years they have all disappeared. It was during the Grand Mastership of Everhard de Bar, and while that brave warrior, with only 130 knights of the order, , was fighting under the banner of Louis VII. at Damascus, that the Grand Priory of Scotland was instituted, ~~ KOMIEU?S HOUSE. ( F Y o ~ a Measured Dnrwing by T. Hamilton, pzr6Zislud in 1830.) and the knight who presided over it was then styled Magziter Domus T?YZi in Sotid, when lands were bestowed on the order,first by King David I., and then by many others. To all the property belonging to the Temple a great value was attached, from the circumstance that it afforded, until the extinction of heritable jurisdictions in 1747, the benefit of sanctuary; thus the Temple tenements in Fifeshire are still termed houses of refuge. Tempillands, lyand next ye Gray Friers? Yard;? and in 1598, ?a temple tenement lyand near the Gray Friars ? Yett ? was confirmed to James Kent (Torphichen Charters). On these the iron cross was visible in 1824. On the dissolution of the order all this property in Scotland was bestowed upon their rivals, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem ; and the houses referred to became eventually a part of the barony of Drem (of old a Temple Priory) in Haddingtonshire, the baron of which used to hold courts in them occasionally, and here, till I 747, were harboured persons not free of the city corporations, I to the great annoyance of the adherents of local monopoly ; but so lately as 1731, on the 24th of August, the Temple vassals were ordered by the Bailie of Lord Torphichen, to erect the cross of St. John ?on the Templelands within Burgh, amerciating [fining] such as did not affix the said cross.?? This was a strange enactment in a country where it is still doubtful whether such an emblem can figure as an ornament upon a tomb or church. CIearly there must have been some disinclination to affix the crosses, otherwise the regulation would scarcely have been passed. buildings shops templar knights
Volume 2 Page 321
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