278 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street
Close was seized, and a battery erected on the
summit thereof to assail the King?s men. In the
?Histone of James Sext? we are told that the
Regent Earl of Mar brought nine pieces of ordnance
up the Canongate to assail the Netherbow Port,
but changed their position to a fauxbourg of the
town, callit Pleasands, ? from whence to batter the
Flodden wall and to oppose a platform of guns
erected on the house of Adam Fullerton.
When this sharp but brief civil disorder ended,
Adam returned to his strong mansion in the Fountain
Close once more, and on the 4th of December,
1572, he and Mr. John Paterson appear together
as Commissaries for the city of Edinburgh, and
the supposition is, that the date, 1573, referred
to repairs upon the house, after what it had
suffered from the cannon of Mar. Thus, says
Wilson, ?the nincit veritu of the brave old
burgher acquires a new force, when we consider
the circumstznces that dictated its inscription, and
the desperate struggle in which he had borne a
leading part, before he returned to carve these
pious aphorisms over the threshold that had so
recently been held by his enemies.?
With a view to enlarging the library of the
College of Physicians, in 1704, that body purchased
from Sir James Mackenzie his house and
ground at the foot of the Fountain Close. The
price paid was 3,500 rnerks (A194 8s. Iod.). To
this, in seven years afterwards, was added an
adjoining property, which connected it with the
Cowgate, ? then a genteel and busy thoroughfare,??
and for which 2,300 merks (A127 15s. 6d.) were
given. From Edgar?s map it appears that the
premises thus acquired by the College of Physicians
were more extensive than those occupied
by any individual or any other public body in
the city. The ground was laid out in gardens
and shrubbery, and was an object of great admiration
and envy to the nobility and gentry, ta
several of whom the privilege of using the pleasure
grounds was accorded as a favour. Considering
the locality now, how strangely does all this
read !
The?whole of the buildings must have been in
a dilapidated, if not ruinous state, for expensive
repairs were found to be necessary on first taking
possession, and the same head of expenditure
constantly recurs in accounts of the treasurer 01
the College; and so early as 1711 a design was
pioposed for the erection of a new hall at the foot
of the Fountain Close ; and after nine years? delay,
2,900 merks were borrowed, and a new building
erected, but it was sold in 1720 for E%oo, as a site
for the new Episcopal Chapel.
Till the erection of St. Paul?s in York Place, the
Fountain Close formed the only direct communication
to this the largest and most fashionable
Episcopal church in Edinburgh, that which was
built near the Cowgate Port in 1771.
Tweeddale?s Close, the next alley on the east,.
was the scene of a terrible crime, the memory of
which, though enacted so long ago as 1806, is still.
fresh in the city. The stately house which gave
its name to the Close, and was the town residence
of the Marquises of Tweeddale, still remains,
though the ? plantation of lime-trees behind it,?
mentioned by Defoe in his ? Tour,? and shown in
seven great rows on Edgais map, is a thing of
the past.
Even after the general desertion of Edinburgh
by the Scottish noblesse at the Union, this fine old
mansion (which, notwithstanding great changes,
still retains traces of magniticence) was for a time
the constant residence of the Tweeddale family.
It was first built and occupied by Dame Margaret
Kerr Lady Yester, daughter of Mark first Earl of
Lothian. She was born in 1572, and was wife of
James the seventh Lord Yester, in whose family
there occurred a singular event. His page, Hepburn,
accused his Master of the Horse of a design
to poison him; the latter denied it; the affair
was brought before the Council, who agreed that
it should be determined by single combat, in 1595,
and this is supposed to have been the last of such
judicial trials by battle in Scotland.
By Lady Yester, who founded the church that
still bears her name in the city, the mansion, with
all its furniture, was bestowed upon her grandson,
John second Earl of Tweeddale (and ninth Lord
Yester), who joined Charles I. when he unfurled
his standard at Nottingham in 1642. Six years
subsequently, when a Scottish army under the
Duke of Hamilton, was raised, to rescue Charles
from the English, the Earl, then Lord Yester, commanded
the East Lothian regiment of 1,200 men,
After the execution of Charles I. he continued
with the regal party in Scotland, assisted at the
coronation of Charles II., and against Crornwell
he defended his castle of Neidpath longer than any
place south of the Forth, except Borthwick. With
all this loyalty to his native princes, he came
early into the Revolution movement, and in 1692
was created, by William III., Marquis of Tweeddale,
with the office of Lord High Chancellor of
Scotland, and died five years afterwards.
The next occupant of the house, John, second
Marquis, received LI,OOO for his vote at the
Union, and was one of the first set of sixteen
representative peers. The last of the family who
High Street.] THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY. 279
resided here was John, fourth Marquis, who was
Secretary of State for Scotland from 1742 till 1745,
when he resigned the office, on which the Government
at once availed themselves of the opportunity
for leaving it vacant, as it has remained ever since.
He died in 1762, and soon after the carriageentrance
and the fine old terraced garden of the
house, which lay on the slope westward, were
removed to make way for the Episcopal church in
the Cowgate-doomed in turn to be forsaken by
its founders, and even by their successors.
From the Tmeeddale family the mansion passed
into the hands of the British Linen Company, and
became their banking house, until they deserted it
for Moray House in the Canongate, from which they
ultiniatelymigrated to a statelier edifice inSt. Andrew
Square. This company was originally incorpo-
Tated by a charter under the Privy Seal granted by
George 11. on the 6th of July, 1746, at a time
when the mind of the Scottish people was still
agitated by the events of the preceding year and
the result of the battle of Culloden; and it was
deemed an object of the first importance to tranquillise
the country and call forth its resources, so
that the attention of the nation should be directed
to the advantages of trade and manufacture. With
this view the Government, as well as many gentlemen
of rank and fortune, exerted themselves to
promote the linen manufacture, which had been
lately introduced, deeming that it would in time
become the staple manufacture of Scotland, and
provide ample employment for her people, while
.extensive markets for the produce of their labour
would be found alike at home and in the colonies,
then chiefly supplied by the linens of Germany.
By the Dukes of Queensberry and Argyle, who
became the first governors of the British Linen
Company, representations to this effect were made
to Government, and by the Earls of Glencairn, Eglinton,
Galloway, Panmure, and many other peers,
together with the Lord Justice Clerk Fletcher of
Saltoun, afterwards Lord Milton, who was the first
deputy governor, and whose mother, when an exile
in Holland during the troubles, had secretly obtained
a knowledge of the art of weaving and of
dressidg the fine linen known as ? Holland,? and
introduced its manufacture at the village of Saltoun;
by the Lord Justice Clerk Alva ; Provost George
Drummond ; John Coutts, founder of the famous
banking houses of Forbes and Co., and Coutts
and Co. in the Strand; by Henry Home, Lord
Kames ; and many othqs, all of whom urged the
establishment of the company, under royal sanction,
and offered to become subscribers to the undertaking.
A charter was obtained in accordance with their
views and wishes, establishing the British Linen
Company as a corporation, and bestowing upon
it ample privileges, not only to manufacture and
deal in linen fabrics, but also to do all that
might conduce to the promotion thereof; and
authority was given to raise a capital of ~roo,ooo,
to be enlarged by future warrants under the
sign manual of his Majesty, his heirs and successors,
to such sums as the affairs of the company
might .require. After this the company engaged to
a considerable extent in the importation of flax and
the manufacture of yarns and linens, having warehouses
both in Edinburgh and London, and in its
affairs none took a more active part than Lord
Milton, who was an enthusiast in all that related to
the improvement of trade, agriculture, and learning,
in his native country; but it soon became apparent
that the company ? would be of more utility, and
better promote the objects of their institution, by
enlarging the issue of their notes to traders, than
being traders and manufacturers themselves.?
By degrees, therefore, the company withdrew
from all manufacturing operations and speculations,
and finally closed them in 1763, from which year
to the present time their business has been confined
to the discount of bills, advances on accounts,
and other b.ank transactions, in support of Scottish
trade generally, at home and abroad. ?By the
extension of their branch agencies to a great number
of towns,? to quote their own historical report, ? and
the employment in discounts and cash advaqces of
their own funds, as well as of that portion of the
formerly scanty and inactive money capital of Scotland
which has been lodged with the company, they
have been the means of contributing very materially
to the encouragement of useful industry throughout
Scotland, and to her rapid progress in agricultural
and mechanical improvements, and in commercial
intercourse with foreign countries. As regards the
particular object of the institution of the companythe
encouragement of the linen manufa.cture-considerably
more than half of the flax and hemp
imported into the United Kingdom, is now (in
1878) brought to the Scottish ports.?
Now the bank has nearly eighty branch or subbranch
offices over all Scotland alone. The company?s
original capital of AIOO,OOO has been
gradually increased under three additional charters,
granted at different times, under the Great Seal
By Queen Victoria, their fourth charter, dated 19th
March, 1849, ratifies and confirms all, their privileges
and rights, and power was given to augment
their capital to any sum not exceeding A r,5oo,ooo
in all, for banking purposes. The amount of new
