I00
THE Calton Hill, till the erection of the Regent
Bridge, was isolated from the line of Princes
Street, and rises to the altitude of 355 feet above
the level of the sea, presenting an abrupt and
rocky face to the south-west, and descending in
other directions by rapid but not untraversable
declivities. ?Calton, or Caldoun, is admitted to
be a hill covered with bushes,? according to
Dalrymple?s 6?Annals?; but with reference to the
OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
forest of Drumsheugh, by which it was once
surrounded, it ,is more likely to be Choille-dun.
In the oldest views we possess of it, the hill is
always represented bare, and denuded of all trees
and bushes, and one lofty knoll on the south was
long known as the Miller?s Knowe. In some of
the earlier notices of this hill, it is called the
Dow Craig. The Gaelic Dhu, or Black Craig, is
very appropriate for this lofty mass of trap rock,
[Calton HilL
by the railway terminus and Waverley Bridge. The
former extends eastward under the North Bridge,
and occupies a great space, including the sites on
which stood old streets, two churches, and two
hospitals, wkich we have already described, a
public market, and -superseding the original
termini, but retaining some of the works pertaining
to the Edinburgh and Glasgow, the North
British, and the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee
Railways. Between 1869 and 1873 it underwent
extensive reconstruction and much enlargement.
It has a pedestrian access, about twelve feet wide,
from the north-east corner of the Green Market,
and a spacious carriage-way round the western
side of that market and from the Old Town by the
Waverley Bridge, and serves for the entire North
British system, with pleasant and sheltered accommodation
for the arrival and departure of trains.
The site of the Little Mound we have referred
to is now occupied by the Waverley Bridge, which,
after. striking rectangularly from Princes Street,
about 270 yards westward of the new post office,
crosses the vale of the old loch, southward to the
foot of Cockburn Street. The bridge was originally
a stone railway structure, consisting of
several arches that spanned the Edinburgh and
Glasgow lines, and afforded carriage access to all
the three original termini. Proving unsuitable for
the increased requirements of the station, it was
in 1870-3 replaced by a handsome iron skew
bridge, in three reaches, that are respectively 3 10,
293, and 276 feet in length, with 48 feet of a
carriage-way and 22 feet of footpaths.
The Green Market, which lies immediately westward
of the block of houses at the west side of the
North Bridge, occupies, or rather covers, the
original terminus of the Edinburgh, Perth, and
Dundee Railway, and was formed and opened on
the 6th March, 1868, in lieu of the previous
market at the eastern end of the valley, removed
by the North British Railway. It stands on a
basement of lofty arches, constructed of strength
sufficient to bear the weight of such a peculiar
edifice. It was covered by an ornamental terraced
roof, laid out in tastefully-arranged gardens, level
with Princes Street, and having well lights and
a gallery; changes, however, were. effected in
1877, when it was to suffer encroachment on
its roof by the street improvements, and when
it received a further ornamentation of the former,
and acquired at its north-west corner a handsome
staircase. In the spacious area of this
edifice, promenade concerts, cattle and flower
shows, are held.
The East Princes Street Gardens, which extend
from the Waverley Bridge to the east side of the
Mound, after being, as we have said, a nursery,
were first laid out in 1830, and after suffering some
mutilation and curtailment by the formation of the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, w2;?e re-formed
and ornamented anew in 1849-50, at the expense
of about £4,500.
The high graduated banks with terraced walks
descend to a deep central hollow, and comprise
within their somewhat limited space a pleasant
variety of promenade and garden ground.
Calton HiF.1 THE FAIRY BOY. I01
and it is rendered by Gordon of R othiemay in his
view, in 1647, by its Latin equivalent, Nzkelli Rzlpes.
?In a titledeed of the eighteenth century,? says
Wilson, ?the tenement of land in Calton, called
the Sclate Land, is described as bounded on the
east by McNeill?s Craigs, possibly a travesty of
Gordon?s Nigelli Rupes.?
Concerning an execution there in September,
Ij.54, we have the following items in the City
Accounts :-
midnight on the bare and desolate scalp of the
Calton Hill.
The Lords Balmerino were superiors of the hill,
until the Common Council purchased the superiority
from the last lord of that loyal and noble
family, who presented the old Calton buryingground
to his vassals as a place of sepulchre, and
it is said, offered them the whole hill for A40.
At the extreme eastern end of the hill were the
Quarry Holes, some places where stone had been
WEST PRINCES STREET GARDENS, 1875.
? Item, the . . day of . . . 1554, for taking of
ane gret gibet furth of the Nether Tolbooth, and
beiring it to the hecht of the Dow Craig to haif
hangit hommill [beardless] Jok on, and bringing it
again to Sanct Paullis Wark, xijd.?
?Item, for cords to bynd and hang him with,
viijd.?
Again, in the Diurnal of Occurrents, under date
1571, we read of a battery erected on ?the Dow
Craig above Trinitie College, to ding and siege the
north-east quarter of the burgh ? during the contest
against the Queen?s-men.
Among many old superstitions peculiar to Leith
was one of the Fairy Boy, who acted as drummer
to certain elves that held a weekly rendezvous at
excavated. This lonely spot was famous as a
rendezvous for those who fought duels and private
rencontres, and there it was, that during the wars
of the Reformation, in 1557, a solemn interview
took place between the Earls of Arran and Huntly
and certain leaders of the Congregation, including
the Earls of Argyll and Glencairn, and the Lord
James Stewart, with reference to the proceedings
of the Queen Regent.
At the western side of the hill stood the Carmelite
monastery of Greenside, the name of which
is still preserved in a street there, and which must
have been derived from the verdant and turfy slope
1 that overhung the path to Leith. Though these
~ White Friars were introduced into Scotland in the
