High Street.] ANDRO HART. 229
caunt-a very common kind of ghost story-we
are told, was related by the minister (of course)
who was in the house on this occasion, to John
Duke of Lauderdale (who died in 1682), in pre-
.sence of many other nobles. After this the house
was again deserted ; yet another attempt was
made to inhabit it - probably rent-free -by .a
courageous and drink-loving old soldier and his
wife; but towards midnight the candle began to
burn blue, and the grisly
old head was seen to
hover in mid-air, on
which the terrified couple
fled, and Mary Kings
Close was finally aban-
.doned to desolation and
.decay. No record of its
,inmates in the flesh has
.ever been handed down,
.and thus the name of the
place is associated with
its goblins alone.
Professor Sinclair, who
wrote the history of
these, was author of
several very learned
works on astronomy,
navigation, mathematics,
and so forth; but he
also favoured the world
with .a strange ?Dis-
.course concerning Coal ?
-a compound of science
.and superstition, containing
an account of the
witches of Glenluce, Sinclair
being, like many
.other learned men of his
time, a firm believer in
the black art.
Passing Writers? Court
.and the Royal Exchange,
both of which have been
Meter,? and other works that issued from his
press. He flourished in the reign of James VI.,
and previous to 1600 he was in the habit of importing
books from the Continent ; but about 1601
he printed, at his own expense, several works in
Holland ; and subsequently commenced business
as a printer in those premises in the High Street
which, two centuries after his death in 1621, became
the residence of the great bibliopole, Pro-
STAMP OFFICE CLOSE
already described, we come to the once famous
alley, Craig?s Close, the lower end of which, like
the rest of such thoroughfares in this quarter,
has been removed to make way for Cockburn
Street.
The old tenement which faces the High Street at
the head of this close occupies the site of the
open booth or shop of Andro Hart, the famous
.old Scottish printer ; and therein was, of course,
exposed for sale his well-known Bible, which has
always been admired for its beautiful typography;
h i s Barbour?s ?Bruce,? his ? Psalms in Scottish
vost Creech, and of that
still greater one, Archibald
Constable.
A little way down the
close on the east side was
the printing - house of
Andro Hart, apicturesque
and substantial stone
tenement, with finely
moulded windows divided
by mullions, and
having the Sinclair arms
on the bed-corbel of the
crow-stepped gable.
Over the old doorway
was the legend and date,
My h i p is in Chrisf, A.
S. M K., 1593,? under a
label moulding. In 1828
there was presented to
the Antiquarian Museum
by Mr. Hutchison, printer, .
a very fine Scottish spear,
which had been preserved
from time immemorial in
the old printing-house of
Andro Hart, and is confidently
believed to have
been his-perhaps the
same weapon with which
he sallied forth to take
part in the great tumult
of 1596, when the king
was besieged in the Tolbooth
; for Caldenvood and others- distinctly tell
us that the old printer was one of the foremost in
the disturbance, and roused so much the indignation
of the king, James VI., that he was sent
prisoner to the Castle in February, 1597, together
with two other booksellers, James and Edward
Cathkin.
In 1759 a dromedary and camel were exhibited
at the head of Craig?s Close, where they seem to
have been deemed two wonder9 of the world, and,
according to the Edinbwgh NMaZd and ChronicZc
for that year, itwas doubted whether there were other
