OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
after nnmixous schemes and suggestions, the North
Bridge was widened in 1873, after designs by
Messrs. Stevenson. The average number of footpassengers
traversing this bridge daily is said to
be considerably in excess of go,ooo, and the
number of wheeled vehicles upwards of 2,000.
The ground at the north-east end of the bridge
has been so variously occupied in succession by an
edifice ?named Dingwall?s Castle, by Shakespeare
Square, and the oldTheatre Royal, with its thousand
memories of the drama in Edinburgh, and latterly
Jay the new General Post Office for Scotland, that we must devote a chapter or two to that portion
? of it alone.
CHAPTER XLIII.
EAST SIDE OF THE NORTH BRIDGE.
Diogwall?s Castle-Whitefield?s ? Preachings?-History of the Old Theatre Royal-The Building-David Ross?s Management--Leased to
Mr. Foote-Then to Mr. Digges-Mr. Moss-- Yates-Next Leased to Mr. Jackson-The Siddons Fumre-Reception of the Great
Actress-ME. Baddeley-New Patent-The Playhouse Riot-?The Scottish Roscius ?-A Ghost-Expiry of the Patent.
BUILT no one knows when, but existing during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there stood
on the site now occupied by the new General Post
Office, an edifice named Dingwall?s Castle. In
1647, Cordon of Rothiemay, in his wonderfully
distinct and detailed bird?s-eye view of the city,
represents it as an open ruin, in form a square
tower with a round one at each angle, save on the
north-east, where one was fallen down in part. All
the sloping bank aiid ground between it and the
Trinity College church are shown as open, but
bordered on the west by a line of houses, which he
names Niniani Suburbium seu nzendicorum Fatea
(known latterly as the Beggar?s Row), and on the
west and north by high walls, the latter crenellated,
and by a road which descends close to the edge
of the loch, and then runs along its bank straight
westward.
This stronghold is supposed to have derived its
name from Sir John Dingwall, who was Provost of
the Trinity College church before the Reformation ;
and hence the conclusion is, that it was a dependency
of that institution. He was one of the
first Lords of Session appointed on the 25th May,
1532, at the formation of the College of Justice,
and his name is third on the list.
Of him nothing more is known, save that he
existed and that is all. . Some fragments of the
castle are still supposed to exist among the buildings
on its site, and some were certainly traced
among the cellars of Shakespeare Square on its demolition
in 1860.
During the year 1584 when the Earl of Arran was
Provost of the city, on the 30th September, the
Council commissioned Michael Chisholm and others
to inquire into the order and condition of an ancient
leper hospital which stood beside Dingwall?s Castle;
but of the former no distinct trace is given in
Cordon?s view.
In Edgar?s map of Edinburgh, in 1765, no indication
of these buildings is given, but the ground
occupied by the future theatre and Shakespeare
Square is shown as an open park or irregular
parallelogam closely bordered by trees, measuring
about 350 feet each way, and lying between the
back of the old Orphan Hospital and the village
of Multrie?s Hill, where now the Register House
stands.
It was in this park, known then as that of the
Trinity Hospital, that the celebrated Whitefield
used yearly to harangue a congregation of all creeds
and classes in the open air, when visiting Edinburgh
in the course of his evangelical tours. On his
coming thither for the first time after the Act
had passed for the extension of the royalty,
great was his horror, surprise, and indignation, to
find the green slope which he had deemed to be
rendered almost sacred by his prelections, enclosed
by fences and sheds, amid which a theatre was in
course of erection.
The ground was being ?appropriated to the
service of Satan. The frantic astonishment of the
Nixie who finds her shrine and fountain desolated
in her absence, was nothing to that of Whitefield.
He went raging about the spot, and contemplated
the rising walls of the playhouse with a sort of grim
despair. He is said to have considered the circumstance
as a positive mark of the increasing wickedness
of society, and to have termed it a plucking up
of God?s standard, and a planting of the devil?s in
its place.?
The edifice which he then saw in course of
erection was destined, for ninety years, to be inseparably
connected with the more recent rise of
the drama in Scotland generally, in Edinburgh in
particular, and to be closely identified with all the
artistic and scenic glories of the stage. It was
long a place replete with interest, and yet recalls
THE OLD THEATRE ROYAI,. 341 North Bridge.]
happy reminiscences and bright associations in the
minds of thousands; and it was one of the very
few theatres that, escaping the ravages of fire,
attain to a good old age.
Prior to the reign of George 111. there was not
a single theatre in Scotland countenanced by the
law of the land. One which was erected in Glasgow
in 1752, and on which a military guard
mounted nightly, was
demolished about two
years after, by a mob
when returning from
one of Whitefields
sermons ; but when
the New Town' of
Edinburgh was projected,
a clause was introduced
into the Act
empowering t h e
Crown to grant royal
letters patent for the
establishment of a
theatre in Edinburgh.
Mr. David ROSS,
manager of a small
one then existing,
amid many difficulties,
in the Canongate,
and latterly of Covent
Garden Theatre -a
respectable man, who
had managed two
houses in Londonobtained
the patent,
and the foundationstone
of the new
theatre was laid on the
16th of March, 1768.
prologue, which was written by Janies Boswell,
who, in the following lines, referred to the new
theatre as the first one licensed in Scotland :-
" Whilst in all points with other lands she vied,
The stage alone to Scotland was denied :
Mistaken zeal, in times of darkness bred,
O'er the best minds its gloomy vapours spread ;
Taste and religion were opposed in strife.
.---.*---
GEORGE DRUXMOND, LORD PROVOST.
(From f :e E i i , ~ a v . n ~ by Mac&enzie, ofter ih2 Original in the Rwal
In$mra*y.)
. .
In the stone was laid a silver plate, inscribed thus:-
'' The first stone of this new theatre was laid on the 16th
day of March, in the year of our Lord 1768, by David Ross,
patentee and first proprietor of a licensed stage in Scotland.
May this theatre tend to promote every moral and every
virtuous principle, and may the representations be such
*' To make mankind in conscious virtue bold,
Live on each scene and be what they behold."
But Mr. ROSS'S first legitimate performances as
a licensed manager took place in the old theatre,
which opened unusually late in the season, owing
to a dreadful riot' that happened in January, and
the repairs incident to which occupied ten months,
during which there were no representations whatever.
Ross opened then, with the patented company
on the 9th of December, 1767, with the
tragedy of the RnrZ of Essex. He spoke the
And 'twas a sin to view
this glass of life !
When the muse ventured,
the ungracious task,
To play elusion with unlicensed
mask,
Mirth was restrained ty
statutory awe,
And tragic greatness feared
the scourge of law ;
Illustrious heroes errant
vapants seemed,
And gentlest nymphs were
sturdy begsnrs
deemed."
By the proposals
for building this new
theatre, according to
the S o t s Mugazine for
1768, Mr. Ross had
to raise Lz,.joo by
twenty-five shares, at
LIOO per share, for
which the subscribers
were to receive 3 per
cent., and free access
to all performances
and every part of the
house, except behind
the scenes. "The
house is to be IOO feet
in length by 50 broad.
To furnish new scenes, wardrobe,- and necessary
decorations will, it is computed, cost A1,500
more: and the whole building, &c., is to be insured
for A4,000, and mortgaged as security to pay the
interest. As it would be impossible to procure
good performers should the tickets continue at the
low prices now paid, it is proposed to make the
boxes qs., the pit 3s., the first gallery zs., and the
upper IS. For these prices, says Mr. ROSS, this
stage shall vie with those of London and Dublin.
There shall be five capital men-actors, one good
man-singer, one second ditto ; three capital womenactresses,
two capital women-singers, one capital
man-dancer, and one woman ditto; the rest as
good as can be had : the orchestra shall be conducted
with a good first fiddler, as a leader, a harpsichord,
and the rest of the band persons of merit."
