High Street I ST. CECILTA?S HALL. 25 I
years, and in June, 1749, died in a cottar?s humble
dwelling at Idragal, seventeen years after her abduction
on that evening of January from her house
in Niddry?s Wynd.
On the east side of Niddry?s Wynd, at the foot
thereof, and resting on the Cowgate, was St.
Cecilia?s Hall, an oval edifice, having a concave
ceiling, and built in 1762 by Robert Mylne, the
architect of Blackfriars Bridge (lineal descendant
of the royal master-masons) ?after the model
of the opera at Yarma,? says Kincaid. The orchestra
was placed over the north end, and therein
was placed a fine organ. It was seatqd for 500
persons.
The Musical Society of Edinburgh, whose weekly
concerts formed one of the most delightful entertainments
in the old city, dated back to the otherwise
gloomy era of 1728. Yet from ? Fountainhall?s
Decisions ? we learn that so far back as 1694
an enterprising citizen named Beck ?erected a
concert of music? somewhere in the city, which
involved him in a lawsuit with the Master of the
Revels. Even before I 7 28 several gentlemen, who
were performers on the harpsichord and violin, had
taken courage, and formed a weekly club at the
Cross Kys tavern, ?kept,? says knot, ?by one
Steil, a great lover of musick, and a good singer
of Scots songs.? Steil is mentioned in the Latin
lyrics of Dr. Pitcairn, who refers to a subject of
which he was fully master-the old Edinburgh
taverns of Queen Anne?s time. At Pate Steil?s the
common entertainment consisted in playing the
concertos and Sonatas of Corelli, then just published,
and the overtures of Handel. A governor, deputygovernor,
treasurer, and five directors, were annually
chosen to direct the affairs of this society, which
consisted of seventy members. They met in St.
Mary?s Chapel from 1728 till 1762, when this hall
was built for them.
Fc: some years the celebrated Tenducci, who is
mentioned in O?Keefe?s ? Recollections? in 1766 as
a famous singer of Scottish songs, was at the head of
the band ; and one great concert was given yearly
in honour of St. Cecilia, when Scottish songs were
among those chiefly sung. When the Prince of
Hesse came over, in 1745, with his 6,000 mercenaries,
to fight against the Jacobites, he was specially
entertained here by the then governor of the
Musical Society, Lord Drummore, Hugh Dalrymple.
The prince was not only a dilettante, but.a good
performer on an enormous violoncello. ?? Few
persons now living,? says Dr. Chambers in 1847,
? recollect the elegant concerts that were given
many years ago in what is now an obscure part of
our ancient city, known by the name- of St.
zecilia?s Hall,? and still fewer may remember them
On the death of Lord Drummore, in 1755, the
iociety performed a grand concert in honour of his
nemory, when the numerous company were all
lressed in the deepest mourning.
In I 7 63 the concerts began at six in the evening ;
n 1783 an hour later.
To the concertos of Corelli and Handel in the
iew hall, were added the overtures of Stamitz,
Bach, Abel, and latterly those of Haydn, Pleyel,
ind the magnificent symphonies of Mozart and
Beethoven. The vocal department of these old
:oncerts consisted of the songs of Handel, Arne,
;luck, and Guglielmi, with a great Infusion o f
jcottish songs, for as yet the fashionables of Ediniurgh
were too national to ignore their own stirring
nusic, and among the amateurs who took the lead
is choristers were the wealthy Gilbert Innes of
stow, Mr. Alexander Wight, advocate, Mt. John
Russell, W.S., and the Earl of Kellie, who on one
Iccasion acted as leader of the band when perbrming
one of six overtures of his own composition;
and though last, not least, Mr. George
rhomson, the well-known editor of the ? Melodies
>f Scotland.?
A snpper to the directors and their friends
it Fortune?s tavern always followed an oratorio,
where the names of the chief beauties who had
yaced the hall were toasted in bumpers from
;lasses of vast length, for exuberant loyalty to beauty
was a leading feature in the convivial meetings of
those days.
?Let me call to mind a few of those whose
lovely faces at the concerts gave us the sweetest
test for music,? wrote George Thomson, who died
in 1851, in his ninety-fourth year :-??Miss Cleghorn
of Edinburgh, still living in single blessedness ;
Miss Chalmers of Pittencrief, who married Sir
CVilliam Miller of Glenlee, Bart. ; Miss? Jessie
Chalmers of Edinburgh, who married Mr. Pringle
of Haining; Miss Hay of Hayston, who married
Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Bart. ; Miss
Murray of Lintrose, who was called the Flower of
Strathmore, and upon whom Burns wrote the song,
Brjhe, hlythe, and merry was she,
Blythe was she but and ben;
And blythe in Glenturit glen?
low.
Blythe by the bank? of Earn,
She married David Smith, Esq., of Methven,
one of the Lords of Session; Miss Jardine of
Edinburgh, who married Home Drunimond of
Blairdrummond, their daughter, if I mistake not,
is now Duchess of Athole; Miss Kinloch of Gilmerton,
who married Sir Foster Cunliffe of Acton
