102 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Galton Hill,
thirteenth century, it was not until 1518, when the
Provost James, Earl of Arran, and the Bailies of the
city, conveyed by tharter, under date 13th April, to
John Malcolme, Provipcial of the Carmelites, and
his successors, their lands of Greenside, and the
chapel or kirk of the Holy Cross there, The
latter had been an edifice built at some remote
period, of which no record now remains, but it
served as the nucleus of this CarmeIite monastery,
nearly the last of the religious foundations in
Scotland prior to the Reformation.
In December, 1520, the Provost (Robert Logan
.of Coatfield), the 3ailies and Council, again con-
Jerred the ground and place of ? the Greensyde to
the Freris Carmelitis, now beand in the Ferry, for
their reparation and bigging to be maid,? and Sir
Thomas Cannye was constituted chaplain thereof.
From this it would appear that the friary had
,been in progress, and that till ready for their
Teception the priests were located at the Queens-
.ferry, most probably in the Carmelite monastery
built there in 1380 by Sir George Dundas of
that ilk. . In October, 1525, Sir Thomas, chaplain
.of the pkce and kirk of the Rood of Greenside,
got seisin ?thairof be the guid town,?
.and delivered the keys into the hands of the
magistrates in favour of Friar John Malcolmson,
.??Jro mareraZZ (sic) of the ordour,?
In 1534, two persons, named David Straiton
and Norman Gourlay, the latter a priest, were
tried for heresy and sentenced to be burned at
the stake. On the 27th of August they were
d e d to the Rood of Greenside, and there suffered
.that terrible death. After the suppression of the
-order, the buildings mus, have been tenantless
until 1591, when they were converted into a
hospital for lepers, founded by John Robertson,
a benevolent merchant of the city, ?pursuant to
a vow on his receiving a signal mercy from God.?
? At the institution of this hospital,? says Arnot,
.?? seven lepers, all of them inhabitants of Edinburgh,
were admitted in one day. The seventy of the
lregulations which the magistrates appointed to be
.observed by those admitted, segregating them
from the rest of mankind, and commanding them
to remain within its walls day and night, demonstrate
the loathsome and infectious nature of the
distemper.? A gallows whereon to hang those
who violated the rules was erected at one end of
the hospital, and even to open its gate between
sunset and sunrise ensured the penalty of death.
It is a curious circumstance that, though not a
stone remains of the once sequestered Carmelite
monastery, there is still perpetuated, as in the case
of the abbots of Westminster, in the convent of the
Carmelites at Rome, an official who bears the title
of IZ Padre Priore rii Greenside. (?Lectures on
the Antiquities of Edin.,? 184s.)
In- the low valley which skirts the north-eastern
base of the hill, now occupied by workshops and
busy manufactories, was the place for holding
tournaments, open-air plays, and revels.
In 1456 King James 11. granted under his
great seal, in favour of the magistrates and community
of the city and their successors for ever,
the valley and low ground lying betwixt the rock
called Cragingalt on the east, and the common
way and passage on the west (now known as Greenside)
for performing thereon tournaments, sports,
and other warlike deeds, at the pleasure of the
king and his successors. This grant was &ted
at Edinburgh, 13th of August, in presence of the
Bishops of St, Andrews and Brechin, the Lords
Erskine, Montgomery, Darnley, Lyle, and others,
This place witnessed the earIiest efforts of the
dramatic muse in Scotland, for many of those pieces
in the Scottish language by Sir David Lindesay,
such as his ?? Pleasant Satyre of the Three Estaits,?
were acted in the play field there, ?when weather
served,? between 1539 and 1544 ; but in consequence
of the tendency of these representations to
expose the lives of the Scottish clergy, by a council
of the Church, held at the Black Friary in March,
1558, Sir David?s books were ordered to be burned
by the public executioner.
? The Pleasant Satyre ? was played at Greenside,
in 1544, in presence of the Queen Regent, ?as is
mentioned,? says Wilson, ?by Henry Charteris, the
bookseller, who sat patiently nine hours on the
bank to witness the play. It so far surpasses any
effort of contemporary English dramatists, that it
renders the barrenness of the Scottish muse in .
this department afterwards the more apparent.?
Ten years subsequent a new place would seem
to have been required, as we find in the ?Burgh
Records? in 1554, the magistrates ordaining their
treasurer, Robert Grahame, to pay ?? the Maister
of Werke the soume of xlij Zi xiij s iiij d, makand
in hale the soume of IOO merks, and that to
complete the play field, now bigging in the
Greensid.?
This place continued to be used as the scene of
feats of arms until the reign of Mary, and there,
Pennant relates, Bothwell first attracted her attention,
by leaping his horse into the ring, after
galioping ?down the dangerous steeps of the
the adjacent hill ?-a very apocryphal story. Until
the middle-of the last century this place was all
unchanged. ? In my walk this evening,? he writes
in 1769, ?I passed by a deep and wide hollow
?
Wton Hill.] THE BURGH OF CALTON. 103 r
beneath the Caltoun Hill, the .place where those
imaginary criminals, witches, and sorcerers in less
enlightened times were burned ; and where at
festive seasons the gay and gallant held their tilts
and tournaments.?
On the north-westem shoulder of the hill stands
the modern Established Church of Greenside, at
the end of the Royal Terrace, a conspicuous and
attractive feature among the few architectural
decorations of that district. Its tower rises IOO feet
above the porch, is twenty feet square, and contains
a bell of 10 cwt.
The main street of the old barony of the Calton
was named, from the ancient chapel which stood
there, St. Ninian?s Row, and a place so called
still exists; and the date and name ST. NINIAN?S
Row, 1752, yet remains on the ancient well. 01
old, the street named the High Calton, was known
as the Craig End.
In those days?a body existed known as the
High Constables of the Calton, but the new
Municipality Act having extinguished the ancient
boundaries of the city, the constabulary, in 1857,
adopted the following resolution, which is written
on vellum, to the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland :-
? The district of Calton, or Caldton, formed at
one time part of the estate.of the Elphinstone
family, one of whom-% James, third son of the
third Lord Elphinstone-was created Lord &Imerino
in 1603-4 In 1631 the then Lord
Balmerino granted a charter to the trades of
Calton, constituting them a society or corporation ;
and in 1669 a royal charter was obtained from
Charles II., erecting the district into a burgh of
barony. A court was held by a bailie appointed
by the lord of the manor, and there was founded in
. connectiontherewith, the Societyof Highconstables
of Calton, who have been elected by, and have
continued to act under, the orders of succeeding
Baron Bailies. Although no mention is made 01
our various constabulary bodies in the ? Municipality
Extension Act, 1856,? the venerable office
of Baron Bailie has thereby become extinct, and
the .ancient burghs of Canongate, Calton, Eastern
and Western Portsburgh, are now annexed to the
city. UnGer these circumstances the constabulary
of Calton held an extraordinary meeting on the
17th of March, 1857, at which, infer alia, the
following inotion was carried with acclamation, viz.
? That the burgh having ceased to exist, the con
stabulary, in order that some of the relics and
other insignia belonging to this body should be
preserved for the inspection of future generations,
unanimously resolve to present as a free gift to the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland the.
following, viz :-Constabulary baton, I 747, moderator?
s official baton, marble bowl, moderator??
state staff, silver-mounted horn with fourteefi
medals, members? small baton; report on the
origin and standing of the High Constables OF
Calton, 1855, and the laws of the society, 1847.??
These relics of the defunct little burgh are
consequently now preserved at the museum in the
Royal Institution.
A kind of round tower, or the basement thereof,
is shown above the south-west angle of the CaltoE
cliffs in Gordon?s view in 1647 ; but of any such
edifice no record remains ; and in the hollow where
Nottingham Place lies now, a group of five isolated
houses, called ? Mud Island,? appears in the maps.
of 1787 and 1798. In 1796, and at many other
times, the magistrates ordained that ? All-hallowfair
be held on the lands of Calton Hill,? as an
open and uncnclosed place, certainly a perilous one,
for tipsy drovers and obstinate cattle. An agriculturist
named Smith farmed the hill and lands
adjacent, now covered by great masses of building,
for several years, till about the close of the 18th
century; and his son, Dr. John Smith, who was
born in 1798, died only in February, 1879, afterbeing
fifty years physician tQ the old charity workhouse
in Forrest Road, .
In 1798, when the Rev. Rowland Hill (thefamous
son of Sir Rowland Hill, of Shropshire).
visited Edinburgh for the first time, he preached
in some of the churches every other day, but the
crowds became so immense, that at last he was
induced to hold forth from a platform erected on
the Calton Hili, where his audience was reckoned.
at not less than 10,000, and the interest excited by
his eloquence is said to have been beyond all
precedent. On his return from the West, he
preached on the hill again to several audiences,.
and on the last of these occasions, when a collection,
was made for the charity workhouse, fully zo,oom
were present. Long years after, when speaking to a.
friend of the multitude whom he had addressed,
there, he said, pleasantly, ? Well do I remember
the spot ; but I understand that it has now been
converted into a den of thieves,? referring to the
gaol now built on the ground where his platform
stood.
The first great cba,nge in the aspect of the hill
was effected by the formation of the Regent Road,
which was cut through the old burying-ground, the
soil of which avenue was decently carted away,
covered with white palls, and full of remnants of
humanity, to the new Calton burying-ground on]
the southern slope ; and the second was the open
