336 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
from somewhere about Coltbridge, to fill, and run
through the North Loch, which would be of great
advantage to the convenience, beauty, cleanliness,
and healthiness of the town.? ,
In the next paragraph this far-seeing nobleman
suggests the canal between the Forth and Clyde ;
but all that he projected for Edinburgh, by means
of his bridges, has. been accomplished to the full,
and more than he could ever have dreamt of
I in 1763, and a proper foundation sought for the
erection, which, however, is only indicated by
two dotted parallel lines in Edgar?s plan of the
city, dated 1765, which ?shew ye road along ye
intended bridge,? which was always spoken of as
simply a new way to Leith.
The first stone was deposited on? the 1st of
October, 1763, and Kincaid relates that in 1794
?some people very lately, if not yet alive, have posi-
PALACE OF MARY OF GUISE, CASTLE HlLL. (Fmm a Drawing6y W. B. Scotf).
The North Bridge, as a preliminary to the
formation of the New Town, was first planned by
Sir William Bruce of Kinross, architect to Charles
II., and his design ? is supposed to be now lying
in the Exchequer,? wrote Kincaid in 1794; but
another plan would seem to have been prepared
in 1752, yet no steps were taken for furthering the
execution of it till 1759, when the magistrates
applied for a Bill to extend the royalty over the
ground on which the New Town stands, but were
defeated by the vigorous opposition of the landholders
of the county.
.After four years? delay the city was obliged to
set about building the bridge without having any
Bill for it. , By the patriotic exertions of Provost
Drummond a portion of the loch was drained
tively asserted that Provost Drummond declared
to them that he only began to execute what the
Duke, afterwards James VII., proposed.?
This auspicious event was conducted with all
the pomp and ceremony the city at that time
afforded. George Drummond, the Lord Provost,
was appointed, as being the only former Grand-
Master present to act in this position, in the absence
of the then Grand-Master, the Earl of Elgin, The
various lodges of the Freemasons assembled in
the Parliament House at two in the afternoon;
from thence, escorted by the City Guard acd
two companies of militia, they marched three
abreast, with all their insignia, the junior lodges
going first, down Leith Wynd, from the foot of
which they turned westward along the north bank
