Princes Street.] EDINBURGH IN 1783. 119
vincial towns were combined in the case of Edinburgh
She was the titular capital of Scotland, and
as such, was looked up to with pride and veneration
by the nation at large. She was then the
residence of many of the old Scottish nobility, and
the exclusion of the British from the Continent,
during a long, protracted war, made her, either for
business, society, or education, the favourite resort
of strangers. She was the headquarters of the
legal profession at a time when both the Scottish
bench and bar were rendered illustrious by a numbet
of men celebrated far their learning, eloquence, and
wit. She was the head-quarters of the Scottish
Church, whose pulpits and General Assembly were
adorned by divines of great eminence and piety.
Lastly, she was the chief seat of scholarship, and
the chosen home of literature and science north of
the Tweed.?
With the Edinburgh of those days ,and of the
present we have now deal
CHAPTER XVII.
PRINCES STREET.
A Glance at Society-Change of BIanners, &-The Irish Giants-Poole?s Coffee-house-Shop of Constable 8 Co.-Weir?s Muscum, 1794-
The Grand Duke Nichoh-North British Insurance Life Association4ld Tax Office and New Club-Craig of Ricarton-??he
White Rose of Scotland??-St. John?s Chapel-Its Tower and Vaults, &.-The Scott Monument and its MUseum-The Statues of Professor
Wilson, Allan Ramsay, Adam Black, Sir James Sirnpson, and Dr. Livingstone-The General Improvements in Princes Street.
IN 1774 a proposal to erect buildings on the south
side of Princes Street-a lamentable error in taste
it would have proved-led to an interdict by the
Court of Session, which ended in a reference to
the House of Lords, on which occasion Imd
Mansfield made a long and able speech, and the
result was, that the amenity of Princes Street was
maintained, and it became in time the magnificent
terrace we now find it.
Of the city in 1783 some glimpses are given us
in the ?? Letters of Theophrastus,? appended to the
second edition of ?Arnot.? In that year the
revenue of the Post Office was only ~ 4 0 , 0 0 0 .
There were four coaches to Leith, running every
half hour, and there were 1,268 four-wheeled carriages
and 338 two-wheeled paying duty. The
oystercellars had become numerous, and were
places of fashionable resort. A maid-servant?s
wages were about f;4 yearly. In 1763 they wore
plain cloaks or plaids; but in 1783 ?silk, caps,
ribbons, ruffles, false. hair, and flounced. petticoats.?
In 1783 a number of bathing-machines had been
adopted at Leith. People of the middle class and
above it dined about four o?clock, after which no
business was done, and gentlemen were at no pains
to conceal their impatience till the ladies retired.
Attendance at church . was, much neglected, and
people did not think it ?genteel? to take their
domestics with them. ?In 1783 the daughters
even of tradesmen consume the moriings at the
toilet (to which rouge is now an appendage) or in
strolling from the perfumer?s to the milliner?s.
They would blush to be seeri at market. The
cares of the family devolve upon a housekeeper,
?
and Miss employs those heavy hours when she
is disengaged from public or private amusements
in improving her mind from the precious stores of
a circulating library.? In that year a regular cockpit
was built for cock-fighting, where all distinctions
of rank and character were levelled. The weekly
concert of music began at seven o?clock, and
mistresses of boarding-schools, &c., would not allow
their pupils to go about unattended ; whereas,
twenty years before ?young ladies might have
walked the streets in perfect security at all hours.?
In I 783 six criminals lay under sentence of death
in Edinburgh in one week, whereas it1 1763 three
was an average for the whole kingdom in a year.
A great number of the servant-maids still continued
? their abhorrence of wearing shoes and stockings
in the morning.? The Register House was unfinished,
?? or occupied by pigeons only,? and the
Records ? were kept in a dur.geon called the high
Parliament House.?
The High Street alone was protected by the
guard. The New Town to the north, and all the
streets and new squares to the south, were totally
unwatched ; and the soldiers of the guard still preserved
?the purity of their native Gaelic, so that
few of the citizens understand, or are understood
by them ;? while the king?s birthday and the last
night of the year were ?? devoted to drunkenness,
outrage, and riot, instead of loyalty, peace, and
harmony,? as of old.
One of the earliest improvements in the extended
royalty was lighting it with oil lamps; but in
the Adnerh?ser for 1789 we are told that ?while all
strangers admire the beauty and regularity of the
