OLD AND NEW EDINEURGH. LSouth Bridge. 376
In 1837 he succeeded Professor Macvey Napier
as Librarian to the Signet Library ; and when the
new and noble library of the University was opened
he volunteered to arrange it, which he did with
all the ardour of a bibliomaniac. Hewas made
LL.D. of his native university in 1864, and is
believed to have edited and annotated fully 250
rare works on Scottish history and antiquities.
True to its old tradition, No. 49 is still a booksellefs
shop, held by the old firm of Ogle and
Murray.
In No. 98 of the Bridge Street are the Assay
Office and Goldsmith?s Hall, The former is open
on alternate days, when articles of gold and silver
that require to be guaranteed by the stamp of
genuineness, are sent in and assayed. The assay
master scrapes a small quantity of metal off each
article, and submits it to a test in order to ascertain
the quality. The duty charged here on each ounce
of gold plate is 17s. 6d., and on silver plate IS. 6d
One of the earliest incorporated trades of Edinburgh
was that of the hammermen, under which
were included the goldsmiths, who, in 1586, were
formed into a separate company. By the articles
of it, apprentices must serve for a term of seven
years, and masters are obliged to serve a regular
apprenticeship of three years or more to make
them more perfect in their trade. They were,
moreover, once bound to give the deacon of the
craft sufficient proof of their knowledge of metals,
and of their skill in the working thereof. By a
charter of James VI., all persons not of the corporation
are prohibited from exercising the trade of
a goldsmith within the liberties of Edinburgh.
King James VII. incorporated the company by
a charter, with additional powers for the regulation
of its trade. Those were granted, so it runs, ? because
the art and science of goldsmiths is exercised
in the city of Edinburgh, to which our subjects
frequently resort, because it is the seat of our
supreme Parliament, and of the other supreme
courts, and there are few goldsmiths in other
cities.?
In virtue of the powers conferred upon it, the
company, from the date of its formation, tested
and stamped all the plate and jewellery made in
Scotland. The first stamp adopted was the tipletowered
castle, or city arms. ?In 1681,? says
Bremner, in his ?? Industries of Scotland,? ?a letter
representing the date was stamped on as well as
the castle. The letter A indicates that the article
bearing it was made in the year between the 29th
of September, 1681, and the same day in 1682 ;
the other letters of the alphabet, omitting j and
w, representing the succeeding twenty-three years.
Each piece bore, in addition to the castle and date
letter, the assay-master?s initials. Seven alphabets
of a different type have been exhausted in recording
the dates ; and the letter of the eighth alphabet,
for 1869, is an Egyptian capital M. In 1759 the
standard mark of a thistle was substituted for the
assay-master?s initials, and is still continued. In
1784 a ?duty-mark? was added, the form being
the head of the sovereign. The silver mace of.
the city of Edinburgh is dated 1617 ; the High
Church plate, 1643.?
The making of spoons and forks was at one
time an extensive branch of the silversmith trade
in Edinburgh ; but the profits were so small that
it has now passed almost entirely into the hands
of English manufacturers.
The erection of this bridge led to the formation of
Xunter?s Square and Hair Street, much about the
same time and in immediate conjunction with i t
The square and street (where the King?s pnntingoffice
was placed) were both named from Sir James
Hunter Blair, who was Provost of the city when
the bridge was commenced, but whose death at
Harrogate, in 1789, did not permit him to see
the fine1 completion of it.
Number 4 in this small square, the north side
of which is entirely formed by the Tron Church,
contains the old hall of the Merchant Company of
Edinburgh, which was formed in 1681.
But long previous to that year the merchants OF
the city formed themselves into a corporation,
called the guildry, from which, for many ages, the
magistrates were exclusively chosen ; and, by an
Act of Parliament passed in the reign of James
III., each of the incorporated trades in Edinburgh
was empowered to choose one of their number to
vote in the election of those who were to govern
the city, and this guildry was the parent of the
Merchant Company. ?It was amidst some of the
most distressing things in our national histovhangings
of the poor ?hill folk? in the Grassmarket,
trying of the patriot Argyle for taking
the test-oath with an explanation, and so forththat
this company came into being. Its nativity
was further heralded by sundry other things of
a troublous kind affecting merchandise and its
practitioners.??
The merchants of Edinburgh, according to Amot,
were erected into a bodp-corporate by royal charter,
dated 19th October, 1681, under the name of The
Company of Merchants of fhe Cig of Edinburgh.
By this charter they were empowered to choose a
Preses, who is called ? The Master,? with twelve
assistants, a treasurer, clerk, and officer. The
company were further empowered to purchase
