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
North Bridge.] CONTRACT FOR BUILDING THE NORTH BRIDGE. 337
of the old loch, to the excavation where the
stone lay, As they proceeded a ?band of the
fraternity,? says the Edinburgh Museunr for 1763,
? I accompanied with French horns and other instrumental
music, sung several fine airs, marches, &c.
The Grand-Master, surrounded by about 600
brethren, and in view of an infinite crowd of
spectators, after having applied severally the
square, the plumb, level, compass, and the mallet,
and used other ceremonies and symbols common
.on such occasions, laid the stone, amid the acclamation
and applause of all present.?
There were placed in the cavity of the stone
three medals struck for the occasion. On one was
an elevation of the intended bridge, on another
a profile of George 111. The last one bore a
repetition of the inscription, which is cut on the
stone in large capital letters.
By five o?clock the ceremony was over, and the
brethren marched in procession to the Assembly
Hall, where they passed the evening ?with that
social cheerfulness for which the society is so
eminently distinguished.?
Still the bridge was not proceeded with, and there
would seem to have been some indecision as to who
was to be the architect thereof, as in the Edinburgh
Advertiser of 19th February, 1765, we read that
?the committee appointed to judge of the several
plans given in for erecting a bridge over the North
Loch, determined in favour of No. 5, This turns
out to be the performance of Mr. David Henderson,
mason and architect at Sauchie, near Alloa,
who lately published proposals for printing a book
of architecture. On account of his plan he is
entitled to the reward of thirty guineas.?
Henderson?s design, however, was not adopted.
It had been forwarded in consequence of the
following advertisement, which appeared in the
Scottish papers in the January of that year :-
?The Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Tom Council of
Edinburgh, being sensible of the great advantage which will
accrue to this city and to the public in general from having
a proper communication befweera fke High Street andthe
fildi on the nmth, have unanimously resolved to follow out
the design of making one, and have appointed a committee
of their number for carrying the scheme into execution.
? This public notice is therefore made, inviting all architects
and others to give in plans and elevations for making a
communication, by bridge or otAm>e, from the Cap-and-
Feather Close, in a straight line to the o?posite side, leading
to the Multer?s Hill, with an equal declivity of one foot
in eighteen to one in seventeen. Such persons as intend to
give in plans and elevations must send them sealed, addressed
to the Lord Provost, to the care of Mr. James Tait, or Mr.
Alexander Duncan, Depute Town Clerks, at the Council
Chamber, on or before the first day of February next.
Within the plan, upon a separate piece of paper, sealed up,
43
the person offering the plan will write his name, the seal of
which paper is not to be broke [sic] up, unless the plan it
belongs to is approven.
? The person whose plan is approved of will receive thirty
guineas, or a medal of that value. . . . . It is expected
that the plans to be given in will be done in such a manner
as that estimates of expense may be made from them ; and
it is required that the breadth of the bridge betwixt the
parapets be 40 feet? (Editzburgh Advn?isn; voL iii. p. 22).
On the 1st of August, 1765, the contract for the
erection of the bridge was signed, the parties being
the magistrates of Edinburgh on the one hand, and
on the other William Mylne, architect, descendant
of the hereditary Master Masons of Scotland; and
brother of Robert Mylne. The work was to ?be
completed by Martinmas, 1769, and to be upheld
for ten years, for the sum of LIO, 140 ; but of the
great sum which it is said to have cost, viz.;
~ ~ 8 , 0 0 0 , after selling the areas, on the east, west,
and at the south end, which drew about x3,000,
there remained xz5,ooo of nett expenditure.
By the contract, the bridge was to consist of five
arches, three of 27 feet span, and two of 20 each ;
the four piers to be 13 feet 6 inches thick in the
body. There were to be two abutments, 8 feet
thick, with wing walls and parapets ; those on the
west to terminate at hfylne?s Square ; those on the
east to be carried no farther than Shearer?s Land.
The length from the north to the south pedestal
on the west side to be 1,134 feet, with 40 feet
between the parapets; but 50 to be between them
from the north end of the south abutment to the
north end of Mylne?s Square, This difference is
apparent on the bridge to the present day.
?The earth to be dug out at the charge of Mr.
hiylne, and to be by him moved to such places
as shall be necessary to fill up any part of the
spaces over the arches. The foundations to be
sunk to the rock, or natural earth, which has never
been moved ; or if the natural foundation be bad,
it is to be.properly assisted and made good by
art.?
So actively and diligently did Mr. Mylne set
about his work, that by the midsunimer of 1769
the arches were all completed, the keystone of the
first of the three larger ones ?was struck on
Saturday, May 11, 1768.? .
An unforeseen difficulty occurred, however, in the
course of the work. As the north part of the hill
on which the old city stands is extremely steep, it
had been found convenient in early times to throw
the earth dug from the foundations of the ancient
wynds and closes towards the North Loch ; thus
the whole mass then consisted almost entirely of
travelled earth. Unaware of. this, to some extent,
Mylne ceased to dig at a place where there were no
