208 OLD AND ?NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
there was born in 1741 his son, the celebrated
statesman, Henry Viscount Melville.
There long abode, on the first floor of the
? Bishop?s Land,? a fine old Scottish gentleman,
?? one of the olden time,? Sir Stuart Thriepland, of
Fingask Castle, Bart., whose father had been attainted
after the battle of Sheriffmuir, which,
however, did not prevent Sir Stuart from duly
taking his full share in the ?45. His wanderings
over, and the persecutions past, he took up his
residence here, and had his house well hung, we
are told, with well-painted portraits of royal per-
He died 1 sonages-but not cf the reipinn house.
One of the most famous edifices on the north
side of the High Street was known as ? the Bishop?s
Land,? so called from having been the town
residence of John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St.
Andrews in 1615, and son of John Spottiswood,
Superintendent of Lothian, a reformed divine, who
prayed over James VI., and blessed him when
an infant in his cradle, in the Castle of Edinburgh.
From him the Archbishop inherited the house,
which bore the legend and date,
BLISSIT .BE .YE. LORD. FOR.ALL. HIS. GIFTIS. 1578.
consequently it must have been built when the Superintendent
(whose father
fell at Flodden) was in
his sixty-eighth year, and
was an edifice sufficiently
commodious and magnificent
to serve as a town
residence of the Primate
of Scotland, who in his
zeal to promote the designs
of James VI. for
the establishment of Episcopacy,
performed the
then astounding task of
no less than fifty journeys
to London.
The ground floor of
the mansion, like many
others of the same age
in the same street, was
formed of a deeply-arched
piazza, the arches of
whichsprang from massive
stone piers. From the
first floor there projected
~.
ALLAN RAMSAY.
(From the Portrait in ihe 1761 Edition e/ has ?Poems.?)
a fine brass balcony, that
must many a time and oft have been hung with gay
garlands and tapestry, and crowded with the fair
and noble to witness the state pageants of old,
such as the great procession of Charles I. to Holyrood,
where he was crowned by the archbishop
King of Scotland in 1633. From this house
Spottiswood was obliged to fly, when the nation
en mnsse resisted, with peremptory promptitude, the
introduction of the Liturgy. He took refuge in
London, where he died in 1639, and was interred
in Westminster Abbey.
In 1752 the celebrated Lady Jane Douglas, wife
of Sir George Stuart of Grantully, and the heroine
of the famous ? Douglas cause,? was an occupant
of ?? the Bishop?s Land,? till she ceased to be
able to afford a residence even there. Therein,
tDo, resided the first Lord President Dundas, and
- -
in 1805, and the forfeited
honours were generously
restored by George IV.
in 1826 to his son, Sir
Patrick M. Thriepland
of Fingask, which had
long before been purchased
back by the money
of his mother, Janet Sinclair
of Southdun.
On the third floor,
above him, dwelt the
Hamiltons of Pencaitland,
and the baronial Aytouns
of Inchdairnie. hlrs.
Aytoun was Isabel, daughter
of Kobert, fourth Lord
Rollo, ? and would sometimes
come down the
stair,? says Robert Chambers,
? lighting herself
with a little waxen taper,
to drink tea with Mrs.
Janet Thriepland (Sir
Patrick?s sister)-for so
she called herself, though unmarried. In the
uppermost floor of all lived a reputable tailor
and his family. All the various tenants, including
the tailor, were on friendly terms with ?
each other-a pleasant. thing to tell of this bit of
the old world, which has left nothing of the same
kind behind it in these days, when we all live at il
greater distance, physical and moral, from each
other.?
This fine old tenement, which. was one of the
most aristocratic in the street till a comparatively
recent period, was totally destroyed by fire in
1814.
Eastward of it stood the town-house of the
Hendersons of Fordel (an old patrician Fifeshire
family), with whom Queen Mary was once
a visitor; but it, too, has passed away, and an
