21% OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nether Bow.
with cannon stone-shot in 1544, ere advancing
;against the Castle. ? They hauled their. cannons
up the High Street by force of men to the ButteI
Tron, and above,? says Calderwood, ? and hazarded
a shot against the fore entrie of the Castle (i.e.,
the port of the Spur). But the wheel and axle 01
.one of the English cannons was broken, and some
of their men slain by shot of ordnance out of the
Castle j so they left that rash enterprise.?
In 1571, during the struggle between Kirkaldy
.and the Regent Morton, this barrier gate played a
prominent part. According to the ?Diurnal of
Qccurrents,? upon the nznd of August in that year,
the Regent and the lords who adhered against the
.authority of the Queen, finding that they were
totally excluded from the city, marched several
bands of soldiers from Leith, their head-quarters,
.and concealed them under cloud of night in the
I closes and houses adjoining the Nether Bow Port.
At five on the following morning, when it was
supposed that the night watch would be withdrawn,
six soldiers, disguised as millers, approached the
.gates, leading horses laden with sacks of meal,
which were to be thrown down as they entered, so
.as to preclude the rapid closing of them, and while
they attacked and cut down the warders, with those
weapon? which they wore under their disguise, the
.men in ambush were to rush out to storm the
-town, aided by a reserve, whom the sound of their
trumpets was to summon from Holyrood. ?But
the eternal God,? says the quaint old journalist we
quote, ? knowing the cruel1 murther that wold have
beene done and committit vponn innocent poor personis
of the said burgh, wold not thole this interpryse
to tak successe; but evin quhen the said
meill was almaist at the port, and the said men of
war, stationed in clois headis, in readinesse to
enter at the back of the samyne it chanced that
a burgher of the Canongate, named Thomas Barrie,
passed out towards his hcuse in the then separate
burgh, and perceiving soldiers concealed on every
hand, he returned and gave the alarm, on which
the gate was at once barricaded, and the design of
the Regent and his adherents baffled.
This gate having become ruinous, the magis
trates in 1606, three years after James VI. went to
England, built a new one, of which many views are
preserved. It was a handsome building, and quite
enclosed the lower end of the High Street. The
arch, an ellipse, was in the centre, strengthened by
round towers and battlements on the eastern or
external front, and in the southern tower there was
a wicket for.foot passengers. On the inside of the
arch were the arms of the city. The whole building
was crenelated, and consisted of two lofty
storeys, having in the centre a handsome square
tower, terminated by ii pointed spire. It was
adorned by a statue of James VI., which was
thrown down and destroyed by order of Oliver
Cromwell, and had on it a Latin inscription, which
runs thus in English :-
?Watch towers and thundr?ng walls vain fences prove
No guards to monarchs like their people?s love.
Jacobus VL Rex, Anna Regina, 1606.?
This gate has been rendered remarkable in history
by the extra-judicial bill that passed the
House of Lords for razing it to theground, in consequence
of the Porteous mob, For a wonder, the
Scottish members made a stand in the matter, and
as the general Bill, when it came to the Commons,
was shorn of all its objectionable clauses, the
Nether Bow Port escaped.
In June, 1737, when the officials of Edinburgh,
who had been taken to London for examination
concerning the not, were returning, to accord them
a cordial reception the citizens rode out in great
troops to meet them, while for miles eastward the
road was lined by pedestrians. The Lord Provost,
Alexander Wilson, a modest man, eluded the ovation
by taking another route ; but the rest came in
triumph through the city, forming a procession of
imposing length, while bonfires blazed, all the bells
clanged and clashed as if a victory had been won
over England, and the gates of the Nether Bow
Port, which had been unhooked, were re-hung and
closed amid the wildest acclamation.
In 1760 the Common Council of London having
obtained an Act of Parliament to remove their city
gates, the magistrates of Edinburgh followed suit
without any Act, and in 1764 demolished the
Nether Bow Port, then one of the chief ornaments
of the city, and like the unoffending Market Cross,
a peculiarly interesting relic of the past. The
ancient clock of its spire was afterwards placed
in that old Orphan?s Hospital, near Shakespeare
Square, where it remained till the removal of the
latter edifice in 1845, when the North British Railway
was in progress, and it is now in the pediment
between the towers of the beautiful Tuscan edifice
built for the orphans near the Dean cemetery.
Hig5 Street.! BISHOP BOTHWELL. 219 .
CHAPTEX X Y v r .
THE. HIGH STREET ( ~ ~ ~ f h t d ) .
The Ancient Markets-The House of Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney-The Bishop and Queen Mary-His Sister Anne-Sir Williarn Dick.
of Braid-& Colossal Wealth-Hard Fortune-The ? Lamexable State?-Advocates? Close-Sir James Stewart?s House-Andreu
Cmbie, ? I Counsellor Pleydell ?-Scougal?s House-His Picture Gallery-Roxburghe Close-Waniston?s Close-Lmd Philiphaugh?s
House-Bruce of Binning?s Mansion-Messrs. W. and R. Chambers?s Printing and Publkhing Establishment-History of the Firm-
House of Su Thomas Craig-Sir Archibald Johnston of Warnstoa
PREVIOUS to 1477 there were no particular places
assigned for holding the different markets in the
city, and this often caused much personal strife
among the citizens. To remedy this evil, James 1II.j
by letters patent, ordained that the markets for the
various commodities should be held in the following
parts of the city, viz. :-
In the Cowgate, the place for the sale of hay,
straw, grass, and horse-meat, ran from the foot ol
Forester?s Wynd to the foot of Peebles Wynd.
The flesh market was to be held in the High
Street, on both sides, from Niddry?s Wynd to the
Blackfriars Wynd; the salt market to be held in
the former Wynd.
The crames, or booths, for chapmen were to be
set up between the Bell-house and the Tron on the
north side of the street; the booths of the hatmakers
and skinners to be on the opposite side of
the way.
The wood and timber market extended from
Dalrymple?s Yard to the Greyfriars, and westward.
The place for the sale of shoes, and of red barked
leather, was between Forrester?s Wynd and the
west wall of Dalrymple?s Yard.
The cattIe-market, and that for the sale of
slaughtered sheep, wcs to be abaut the Tron-beam,
and so U doun throuch to the Friar?s Wynd ; alsa,
all pietricks, pluvars, capones, conyngs, chekins,
and all other wyld foulis and tame, to be usit and
sald about the Market Croce.?
All living cattle were not to be brought into the
town, but to be sold under the walls, westward of
the royal stables, or lower end of the Grassmarket.
Meal, grain, and corn were to be retailed from
the Tolbooth up to Liberton?s Wynd.
The Upper Bow was the place ordained for the
sale of all manner of cloths, cottons, and haberdashery;
also for butter, cheese, and wool, ?and
sicklike gudis yat suld be weyif? at a tron set
there, but not to be opened before nine A.M. Beneath
the Nether Bow, and about st. Mary?s
Wynd, was the place set apart for cutlers, smiths,
lorimers, lock-makers, ?and sicklike workmen ; and
all armour, p i t h , gear,? and so forth, were to be
sold in the Friday market, before the Greyfriars?.
In Gordon of Rothiemay?s map ?the fleshstocks
? are shown as being in the Canongate,
immediately below the Nether Bow Port.
Descending the High Street, after passing Bank
Street, to which we have already referred, there is
situated one of the most remarkable old edifices in
the city-the mansion of Adam Bothwell, Bishop
of Orkney. It stands at the foot of Byres? Close,
so named from the house of Sir John Byres of
Coates, but is completely hidden from every point
save the back windows of the Dui0 Review office.
A doorway on the east side of the close gives access
to a handsome stone stair, guarded by a curved
balustrade, leading to a garden terrace that overlooked
the waters of the loch. Above this starts
abruptly up the north front of the house, semihexagonal
in form, surmounted by three elegantlycarved
dormer windows, having circular pediments,
and surmounted by a finiaL
On one was inscribed L u s prbique Deo; ona
another, FeZider, infeZix.
In this edifice (long used as a warehouse by
Messrs. Clapperton and Co.) dwelt Adam, Bishop
of Orkney, the same prelate who, at four in the.
morning of the 15th of May, 1567, performed in
the chapel royal at Holyrood the fatal marriage
ceremony which gave Bothwell possession of the.
unfortunate and then despairing Queen Mary.
He was a senator of the College of Justice, and
the royal letter in his favour bears, ?Providing.
always ye find him able and qualified for administration
of justice, and conform to the acts and
statutes of the College.?
He married the unhappy queen after thenew
forms, ?not with the mess, but with preachings,?
according to the ?? Diurnal of Occurrents,? in
the chapel; according to Keith and others, ?in
the great hall, where the Council usually met??
But he seemed a pliable prelate where his own
interests were concerned ; he was one of the first
to desert his royal mistress, and, after her enforced
abdication, placed the crown upon the head of her
infant son ; and in 1568, according to the book of
the ?? Universal Kirk,? he bound himself to preach
a sermon in Holyrood, and therein to confess
publicly his offence in performing a marriage ceremony
for Bothwell and Mary.
As the name of the bishop was appended to that
infamous bond of adherence granted by the Scottish
nobles to Bothwell, before the latter put in practice
his ambitious schemes against his sovereign, it is
