375 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moultray?s Hill.
country where pedigree is the best ascertained of
any in the world, the national record of armorial
bearings, and memoirs concerning the respective
families inserted along with them, are far from
being the pure repositary of truth. Indeed, there
have of late been instances of genealogies inrolled
in the books of the Lyon Court, and coats of arms
with supporters and other marks of distinction
being bestowed in such a manner as to throw
ridicule upon the whole science of heraldry.?
For a time tlie office was held by John Hooke
Campbell, Esq., with a salary of A300 yearly.
Robert ninth Earl of Kinnoul, and Thomas tenth
Earl, held it as a sinecure in succession, with a
salary Of A555 yearly ; for each herald yearly,
and for each pursuivant A16 13s. 4d. yearly were
paid ; and on the death of the last-named earl, in
1866, the office of Lord Lyon was reduced to a
mere Lyon Ring, while the heralds and pursuivants
were respectively reduced to four each in number,
who, clad in tabards, proclaim by sound of trumpet
and under a guard of honour, at the market cross,
as of old, war or peace with foreign nations, the
proroguing and assembly of Parliament, the election
of peers, and so forth.
The new Register House stands partly behind
the old one, with an open frontage in West
Register Street, towards Princes Street. It was
built between 1857 and 1860, at a cost of &27,000,
from designs by Kobert Matheson. It is in a
species of Palladian style, with Greek details. It
serves chiefly as the General Registry Ofice for
births, deaths, and marriages, with the statistical
and index departments allotted thereto. A supplemental
building in connection with both houses
was built in 1871, from designs by the same architect.
It is a circular edifice, fifty-five feet in
diameter, and sixty in height, relieved by eight
massive piers and a dado course, surmounted by a
glazed dome, that rises within a cornice and balustrade.
It serves for the reception of record volumes
in continuation of those in the old Register House.
In the new buildings are various departments
connected with the law courts-such as the Great
Seal Office, the Keeper of the Seal being the Earl
of Selkirk; and the office of the Privy Seal, the
keeper of which is the Marquis of Lothian.
The latter was first established by James I., upon
his return to Scotland in 1423. In ancient times,
in the attestation of writings, seals were commonly
affixed in lieu of signatures, and this took place
with documents concerning debt as well as with
writs of more importance. In writs granted by
the king, the affixing of his seal alone gave them
.
sufficient authority without a signature. This seal
was kept by the Lord High Chancellor; but as
public business increased, a keeper of the Privy or
King?s Seal was created by James I., who wished
to model the officials of his court after what he
had seen in England ; and the first Lord Keeper
of the Privy Seal, in 1424 was Walter Footte,
Provost of Bothwell. The affixing of this seal to
sny document became preparatory to obtaining the
great seal to it. It was, however, in some cases, a
sufficient sanction of itself to several writs which
were not to pass the great seal; and it came at
length to be an established rule, which holds good
to this day, that the rights of such things as might
be conveyed among private persons by assignations
were to pass as grants from the king under his
privy seal alone ; but those of lands and heritages,
which among subjects are transmitted by disilositions,
were to pass by grants from the king under
the great seal. ?Accordingly, the writs in use to
pass under the privy seal alone were gifts of offices,
pensions, presentation to benefices, gifts of escheat,
ward, marriage and relief, z r l t i m r s hares, and such
like ; but as most of tlie writs which were to pass
under the great seal were first to pass the privy
seal, that afforded great opportunity to examine
the king?s writs, and to prevent His Majesty or his
subjects from being hurt by deception or fraud.?
In the new Register House are also the Chancery
Office, and the Record of Entails, for which an Act
was first passed by the Parliament of Scotland in
1685, the bill chamber and extractor?s chamber, the
accountant in bankruptcy, and the tiend office, Src.
In front of the flights of steps which lead to the
entrance of the original Register House stands the
bronze equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington,
executed bySir John Steell, RS.A.,a native sculptor.
The bust taken for this figure so pleased the old
duke that he ordered two to be executed for him,
one for Apsley House, and the other for Eton. It
was erected in 1852, amid considerable ceremony,
when there were present at the unveiling a vast
number of pensioners drawn up in the street, many
minus legs and arms, while a crowd of retired
officers, all wearing the newly-given war-medd,
occupied the steps of the Register House, and were
cheered by their old comrades to the echo. Many
met on that day who had not seen each other since
the peace that followed Waterloo ; and when the
bands struck up 5uch airs as ?The garb of old
Gaul,? and ?The British Grenadiers,? many a
withered face was seen to brighten, and many an
eye grew moist; staffs and crutches were brandished,
and the cheering broke forth again and again.
