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
