[PleaMnce. 382 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
thoroughfare named Chambers Street, to which the
school was transferred in the winter of 1873-4,
The new edifice cost ~ 3 , 0 0 0 , but the accommodation
is more suitable and ample than that of the
old. Though for many years the directors adhered
to their original plan of confining the subjects of instruction
to Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and
Mathematics, in later years, at the request of a
number of students, the range of education was
greatly enlarged. Hence, classes for English Language
and Literature were instituted in 1837 ; for
History and Economic Science in 1877 ; for Physiology
in 1863 ; for French in 1843 ; German in
1866 ; Latin in 1874 ; Botany in 1870 ; Pitman?s
Short-hand in 1873 ; Greek in 1875 j Geology in
1872 ; Biology, Free-hand Drawing, and the Theory
of Music, in 1877. In April, 1879, the institution
was handed over to the Heriot Trust, as a People?s.
College, at a meeting presided over by the Hon..
Lord Shand, a patron of the school.
CHAPTER XLIX.
THE PLEASANCE AND ST. LEONARDS.
The Convent of St. Mary-Friends? Buria! Place-Old Chirurgeons? Hall-Surgeon Square-? Hamilton?s Folly ?-The Gibbet-Chapel an&
Hospital of St. Leonard-Davie Deans? Cottage-? The Innocent Railway ?-First Public Dispensary.
AT a period subsequent to the panic after Flodden
there was built across the junction of St. Mary?s
Wynd with the Pleasance, parallel with the south
back of the Canongate, an arched barrier named
St. Mary?s Port. South of this, sixty yards from the
south-east angle of the city wall and near the foot
of the present Roxburgh Street, stood the convent
of St. Mary) which must have been a branch of the
Franciscan House of ? S. Maria di Campagni,? so
much patronised by Pope Urban II., in the Parmese
city of Placentia-as the latter name was given to
the foundation in Edinburgh, long since corrupted
into Pleasance, though the place was of old called
Dearenough. It is unknown by whom or when it
was founded, and nothing of it now remains save
a fine piece of alabaster carving, representing our
Saviour brought before the Jewish high-priest,
which was discovered among its ruins, and presented
to the Antiquarian Museum in 1781.
The name of Pleasance is borne by the narrow,
quaint, and straggling street southward till it joins
the other ancient suburb of St. Leonard, of which
it seems to have formed a portion, as proved by a
charter of Charles I. confirming the magistrates in
the superiority of ? the town of St. Leonard.? In it
are many houses, or the basements thereof, that
date from the early part of the sixteenth century.
St. John?s Hill and this now absorbed village
occupy the long ridge that overlooks the valley
at the base of the Craigs, and the whole of which
seems to have been the ecclesiastical property in
earlier ages of several foundations, all of which
were subject to the Abbots of Holyrood.
On the east side of the street is still a great
quadrangular edifice, called Bell?s Brewery (long
famous for its ale), which is shown as such in
Edgar?s Map in 1765, and was nearly consumed by
fire in 1794 ; and near it is still the Friends? meeting-
house and burial-ground, in which are interred
the Millars of Craigantinie, the Hereditary Master
Gardeners to the king. This sect, whose members
underwent much persecution in the early part 06
the eighteenth century, and were often arrested
by the town guard for preaching in the streets, and
thrust into the Tolbooth, had their first place of
worship in Peebles Wynd, where it was built in
1730. ? Though it was roofed,? says the Cmranf
for September, ? there is as yet no window in it;
but some merrily observe these people have light
within.?
On the west side of the Pleasance, and immediately
within the south-east angle of the city wall
referred to, stood the old Chirurgeons? Hall, in the
High School yards. The surgeons and barbers
were formed into a corporation by the town-council
on the 1st of July, 1505 j under the seal of cause,
or charter, certain rules were prescribed for the
good order of this fraternity. On the 13th of
October in the following year James V. ratified
this charter; and Queen Mary, says Arnot, ?in!
consideration of the great attendance required of
surgeons upon their patients, granted them an ex.
emption from serving upon juries, and from watch
ing and warding within the city of Edinburgh,
privileges which were afterwards confirmed by
Parliament.?
On the 25th of February, 1657, the surgeons and:
apothecaries were, at their request, united into
one community. This was ratified by Parliament,
and from that time the corporation ceasd
