35s OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
amounted to twenty-three persons, including lettercarriers.
Ten years afterwards thirty-one were
required, and in 1794 the Inland Office, including
the letter-carriers' branch, consisted of twenty-one
persons.
The Edinburgh Post-office, for a long time after
its introduction and establishment, was conducted
solely with a view to the continuance and security of
the correspondence of the people, and thus it
frequently had assistance from the Scottish Treasury;
and if we except the periods of civil war, when a
certain amount of surveillance was exercised by the
Government, as a measure of State security, the
office seems to have been conducted with integrity
and freedom from abuse.
In 1796, Thomas Elder of Forneth, at one time
Lord Provost, was Deputy Postmaster-General; in
1799 and 1802, William Robertson, and Trotter,of
Castlelaw, succeeded to that office respectively.
It was held in 1807 by the Hon. Francis Gray,
afterwards fifteenth Lord Gray of Kinfauns ; and
in 1810 the staff amounted to thirty-five persons,
letter-carriers included.
In April, 1713, the Post-office was in the first
flat of a house opposite the Tolbooth, on the north
side of the High Street-Main's shop, as we have
stated. At a later period it was in the first floor
I ~ t ' a house near the Cross, above an alley, to which it
gave the name of the Post-ofice Close. From thence
it was removed to the Parliament Close, where its
internal fittings were like those of a shop, the letters
were dealt across a counter, and the whole out-door
business of the city was conducted by one lettercarrier.
After being for a time in Lord Covington's
house, it was removed to one already mentioned
on the west side of the North Bridge, and from
thence to a new office (now an hotel) on the Regent
Bridge in 1821. For ten years before that period
James twelfth Earl of Caithness was Deputy Postmaster-
General ; and in the year preceding the removal
there, the Edinbzcrgh WeeklyJournaZ says, that
by order of the Depute Lyon King of Arms, and
the Ushcr of the White Rod, the new coat of the
royal arms of Britain, put thereon, was torn
down and removed, "as derogatory to the independance
of Scotland," Le., wrongly quartered, giving
England precedence. Another and correct coat of
arms was substituted, and remained there till the
present building was erected.
In 1823, Sir David Wedderburn, Bart., of Ballendean,
was appointed Postmaster-General of
Scotland, an office afterwards abolished.
In 1856 the establishment on the Regent Bridge
consisted of 225 officials, of whom 114 were lettercarriers,
porters, and messengers, and the average
number of. letters passing through arid delivered
in Edinburgh daily was estimated at 75,000. The
nuniber of mail-bags received daily was 5x8, and
the number despatched 350. The amount of money
orders issued and paid showed a sum of A;1,758,079
circulating annually through the department in
Scotland.
On the 23rd of October, 1861, the foundationstone
of the new General Post-office was laid, on
the east side of the North Bridge, by the late
Prince Consort, amid much state and ceremony,
the letter-carriers, all clad for the first time in blue,
in lieu of their old scarlet, being drawn up in
double rank within the galleries which occupied the
site of the old Theatre and which were crowded
by a fashionable audience. This was almost the
last act of Prince Albert's public life, as he died
two months subsequently. At his suggestion the
crowning row of vases was added to the fapde.
As finished now, it stands behind a pavement
of Caithness slabs forty-three feet broad, and is
from designs by the late Mr. Robert Matheson, of
H.M. Board of Works in Scotland. Built of fine
white stone from Binny quarry, in the neighbourhood
of the city, its style of architecture is a
moderately rich Italian type. It presents an
ornamental main front of 140 feet to Princes
Street, and another equally ornamental front, or
flank, of 180 feet to the North Bridge, with a rearfront,
which is also ornate, of ~qo'feet, to the deep
valley where once the North Loch lay.
The flank to the Waterloo Place Buildings is
somewhat plainer than the others, and measures
160 feet. The edifice rises in the central part of
each of these three ornamental fronts, to the height of
two stately storeys above the street level, and has
at the corners wings, or towers, a storey higher, and
crowned with rows of massive and beautifully
sculptured vases. On the south front it descends
to the depth of 125 feet from the summit of
these towers, and thus presents a very imposing
appearance.
This. office, the chief one for all Scotland, cost,
including the site, Ar 20,000, and was first opened
for business on the 7th of May, 1866. The entire
staff, from t4e Surveyor-General downwards, consisted
in 1880 of 429 persons; whose salaries,
wages, and allowances, amounted to A38,427.
Connected, of course, with the head office, there
were in Edinburgh, Leith, and the suburbs, in
1880, receiving-offices and pillar-boxes."
. . -
"By a Government return it appears that in 1880 there pased
through the Scottish Post-ofice 101,948,goo letters, 1z,z84,700 post-cards,
zn,14o,goo book-parcels, and 14,570,700 newspapers In the same year,
the average number of letters delivered to each perran in the population of
the three kingdoms was 35 in England, d in Scotland,and 13" Ireland.
North Bridge.] THE ORPHAN HOSPITAL 359
c
CHAPTER XLVI:
EAST SIDE OF THE NORTH BRIDGE (concZdeJJ.
The Old Orphan Hospital-Its Foundation. Object, and Removal-Lady Glenorchy?s Chapel-Her Disputes with the Presbytery-Dr. SnelI
Jones-Demolition of the Chapel and School-Old Physic Gardens Formed-The Gardens-Sir Andrew Balfm-James Sutherland-
Inundated in x68pSutherland?s Efforts to Improve the Gardcn-Professor Hope.
ABOUT IOO feet east of the bridge, and the same
distance south of the theatre which Whitefield
to his dismay saw built in the park of the Orphan
Hospital, stood the latter edifice, the slender,
pointed spire of which was a conspicuous object in
this quarter of the city.
A hospital for the maintenance and education
of orphan children was originally designed by Mr.
Andrew Gardiner, merchant, and some other
citizens, in 1732. The suggestion met with the
approval of the Society for the Propagation of
Christian Knowledge, then located in what was
anciently named Bassandyne?s Close ; and it was
moreover assisted by liberal subscriptions and
collections at the church doors. At first a house
was hired, and thirty orphans placed in it. According
to Maitland, in November, 1733, the
hospital was founded; it stood 340 feet northwest
of the Trinity College Church, and in its
formation a part of the burial ground attached to
the latter was used.
In 1738 the Town Council granted the hospital
a seal of cause, and in 1742 they obtained royal
letters patent creating it a corporation, by which
most of the Scottish officers of State, and the heads
of different societies in Edinburgh, are constituent
members. This chanty is so extensive in its
benevolence, that children from any part of the
British Empire have the right of admission, SO far
as the funds will admit-indigence, and the
number of children in a poor family being the
None, however, are admitted under the age of
seven, or retained after they are past fourteen, as
at that time of life the managers are seldom at a
loss to dispose of them, ?the young folks,? says
Arnot, ? choosing to follow trades, and the public
entertaining so good an opinion of the manner in
which they have been brought up, that manufacturers
and others are very ready to take them into
their employment. There are about,? he adds, in
1779, ?one hundred orpham maintained in this
hospital.?
This number was increased in 1781, when Mr.
Thomas Tod, merchant in Edinburgh, became
treasurer. It was then greatly enlarged for the
better accommodation of the children, ?? and to
enable them to perform a variety of work, from the
. best title to it.
produce of which the expenses of their education
and maintenance were lessened, and healthy and
cheerful exercise furnished, suitable to their years.?
It is remarkable,? says Kincaid, ? that from
January, 1784, to January, 1787, out of from 130 to
140 young children not one has died. A particular
account of the rise, progress, present state,
and intended enlargement of this hospital was
publisted by the treasurer (Mr. Tod), wherein is a
print of the elevation, with two wings,.which the
managers intend to build so soon as the funds will
permit, when there will be room for zoo orphans.?
In its slender spire hung two bells, and therein
also stood the ancient clock of the Netherbow
Port, now in use at the Dean.
The revenues were inconsiderable, and it was
chiefly supported by benefactions and collections
made at the churches in the city. Howard, the
philanthropist, who visited it more than once, and
made himself acquainted with the constitution and
management of this hospital, Acknowledged it to be
one of the best and most useful charities in Europe.
A portrait of him hangs in the new Orphan Hospital
at the Dean, the old building we have described
having been removed in 1845 by the operations
of the North British Railway, and consequently
being now a thing of the past, like the chapel of
Lady Glenorchy, which shared the same fate at the
same time.
This edifice stood in the low ground, between
the Orphan Hospital and the Trinity College
Church, about 300 feet eastward of the north arch
of the Bridge.
Wilhelmina Maxwell, Viscountess Dowaget of
John Viscount Glenorchy, who was a kind of
Scottish Countess of Huntingdon in her day, was
the foundress of this chapel, which was a plain,
lofty stone building, but neatly fitted up- within
with two great galleries, that ran round the sides
of the edifice, and was long a conspicuous object
to all who crossed the Bridge. It was seated for
2,000 persons, and the middle was appropriated to
the poor, who sat there gratis to the number of
some hundreds. ?? Whether,? says Arnot, ?before
Lady Glenorchy founded this institution there were
churches sufficient for accommodating the inhabitants
we shall not pretend to determine. Such,
indeed, is the demand for seats, and so little arg
