I 26 ? OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [PrinerSSma.
The tower, as originally designed, terminated in
an open lantern, but this fell during a tempest of
wind in January, 1818. In a letter to his friend,
Willie Laidlaw, Sir Walter Scott refers to the event
thus :-?I had more than an anxious thought
about you all during the gale of wind. The Gothic
pinnacles were blown from the top of Bishop
Sandford?s Episcopal chapel at the end of Princes
Street, and broke through the roof and flooring,
doing great damage. This was sticking the horns
of the mitre into the belly of the church. The
devil never so well deserved the title of Prince of
Power of the Air since he has blown down this
handsome church, and left the ugly mass of new
buildings standing on the North Bridge.?
The bishop referred to was the Rev. Daniel Sand-
? ford, father of the accomplished Greek scholar, Sir
Daniel Keyte Sandford, D.C.L., who was born at
Edinburgh in February, 1798, and received all the
rudiments of his education under the venerable
prelate, who died in 1830.
The interior of St. John?s Church is beautiful,
and presents an imposing appearance ; it contains
a very fine organ, and is adorned with richlycoloured
stained-glass windows. The great eastern
window, which is thirty feet in height, contains the
figures of the twelve apostles, by Eggington of
Birmingham, acquired in 1871. There is also
a magnificent reredos, designed by Peddie and
Kinnear.
In this church ministered for years the late Dean
Ramsay, the genial-hearted author of ? Reminiscences
of Scottish Life and Character.? A small
cemetery, with two rows of ornamented burial
vaults, adjoin the south side of this edifice, the
view of which is very striking from the West
Churchyard. In these vaults and the little
cemetery repose the remains of many persons
eminent for rank and talent. Among them are
the prince of Scottish portrait painters, Sir Henry
Raeburn, the Rev. Archibald Alison, the wellknown
essayist on ?? Taste,? Dr. Pultney Alison, his
eldest son, and brother of the historian, Sir Archibald.
The Doctor was professor successively of
the theory and practice of physic in the university,
author of several works of great authority in
medical science, and was one of the most philanthropic
men that ever adorned the medica! profession,
even in Edinburgh, where it has ever been
pre-eminently noble in all works of charity ; and he
was the able antagonist of Dr. Chalmers in advocating
the enforcement of a compulsory assessment
for the support of the poor in opposition to the
Doctor?s voluntary one.
There, too, lie James DonaldsoIi, founder of the
magnificent hospital which bears his name j the
Rev. Andrew Thomson, first minister of St. Geoge?s
Church in Charlotte Square, in his day one of the
most popular of the city clergy; Sir Williani
Hamilton, professor of moral philosophy in the
university, and a philosopher of more than
European name ; Catherine Sinclair, the novelist j
Macvey Napier, who succeeded Lord Jeffrey as
editor of the Zdiaburgh Rm2wY and, together
with James Browne, LL.D., conducted the seventh
edition of the ?? Encyclopaedia Britannica?; Sir
William Arbuthnot, who was Lord Provost in
1823; Mrs. Sligo of Inzievar, the sister of Sir
James Outram, ? the Bayard of India?; and many
more of note.
Nearly opposite is a meagre and somewhat
obstn,uztive edifice of triangular form, known as
the Sinclair Fountain, erected in 1859 at the
expense of Miss Catherine Sinclair, the novelist,
and daughter of the famous Sir John Sinclair of
Ulbster, a lady distinguished for her philanthropy,
and is one of the memorials?of her benefactions
to the city.
Among the many interesting features in Princes
Street are its monuments, and taken seriatim,
according to their dates, the first-and first also is
consequence and magnificence-is that of Sir Walter
Scott This edifice, the design for which, by G.
M. Kemp (who lost his life in the canal by
drowning ere its completion), was decided by the
committee on the 30th of April, 1840, bears a
general resemblance to the most splendid examples
of monumental crosses, though it far excels all its
predecessors in its beauty and vast proportions,
beirig 180 feet in height, and occupying a square
area of 55 feet at its base.
The foundation stone was laid in 1840, and in it
was deposited a plate, bearing the following
inscription by Lord Jeffrey, remarkable for its
tenor :-
?This Graven Plate, deposited in the baseof a votive
building on the fifteenth day of August, in the year of
Christ 1840, and mcr bRry io see tk I&& apin td2 aZ2 tlu
surrounding strucfwu have crumbZrd fo dwt the d.ay 01
time, w by human OY ekmmzal vibZence, may then testify to a
distant posterity that his countrymen began on that day to
raise an effigy and architectural mohnent, TO THE MEMORY
OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART., whose admirable writings
were then allowed to have given more delight and suggested
better feeling to a larger class of readers in every rank of
society, than those of any other author, with the exception of
Shakespeare alone, and which were therefore thought likely
to be remembered long after this act of gratitude on the part
of the first generation of his admirers should be forgotten.
?? HE WAS BORN AT EDINBURGH, I5TH AUGUST, 1771,
AND DIED AT ABBOTSFORD, ZIST SEPTEMBER, 1832,?
Engravings have made us familiar with the
Princes Street. THE sco-rr MONUMENT. 127
- -
Beattie, James Thomson, and John Home, adorn
the west front j those of Queen Mary, King James
features of this beautiful and imposing structure,
the design of a self-taught Scottish artisan, The
four principal arches supporting the central tower
resemble those beneath the rood-tower of a cruciform
church, while the lower arches in the dia-
! gonal abutments, with their exquisitely-cut details,
resemble the narrow north aisle of Melrose.
? The groined roof over the statue is of the same
design as the roof of the choir of that noble abbey
church so niuch frequented and so enthusiastically
admired by Sir Walter. The pillars, canopies
of niches, pinnacles, and other details, are chiefly
copied from the same ruin, and magnificent views
of the city in every direction are to be had from
its lofty galleries.
It cost A15,650, and from time to time statuettes
of historical and other personages who figure
in the pages of Scott have been placed in its
numerous niches. Among these are Prince Charles
Edward, who directly faces Princes Street, in the
Highland dress, with a hand on his sword; the
Lady of the Lake; the Last Minstrel and Meg
Merrilies-these are respectively ou the four
centres of the first gallery; Mause Headrigg,
Dominie Sampson, Meg Dods, and Dandie
Dinmont, are respectively on the south, the west,
the north, and the east, of the fourth gallery ; King
James VI., Magnus Troil, and Halbert Glendinning,
occupy the upper tier of the south-west
buttress ; Minnie Trofi, George Heriot, and Bailie
Nicol Jarvie, are on the lower tier of it; Amy
Robsart, the Earl of Leicester, and Baron
Bradwardine, are on the upper tier of the northwest
buttress ; Ha1 0? the Wynd, the Glee Maiden,
and Ellen of Lorn, are on the lower tier thereof;
Edie Ochiltree, King Robert I., and Old Mortality,
are on the upper tier of the north-east buttress;
Flora MacIvor, Jeanie Deans, and the Laird of
Dumhiedykes, are on the lower tier of it; the
Sultan Saladin, Friar Tuck, and Richard Cceur de
Lion, are on the upper tier of the south-east buttress
; and Rebecca the Jewess, Diana Vernon, and
Queen Mary, are on its lower tier.
On the capitals and pilasters supporting the roof
are some exquisitely cut heads of Scottish poets :
those of Robert Bums, Robert Fergusson, James
Hogg, and Allan Ramsay, are on the west front;
those of George Buchanan, Sir David Lindsay,
Robert Tannahill, and Lord Byron, are on the
south front; those of Tobias Smollett. Tames sonal form of memorial-namely, great genius,
distinguished patriotism, and the stature and
figure of a demi-god.? To his contemporaries
chisel of Sir John Steel, procured at the cost of
;62,000, was inaugurated under the central arches
in 1846.
Sir Walter is represented sitting with a Border
plaid over his left shoulder, and his favourite highland
staghound, Maida, at his right foot.
A staircase in the interior of the south-west
cluster of pillars leads to the series of galleries to
which visitors are admitted on the modest payment
of twopence. It also gives access to the Museum
room, which occupies the body of the tower, and
therein a number of interesting relics were
deposited at its inauguration in April, 1879.
These are too numerous to give in detail, but
among them may be mentioned a statuette of Sir
Walter, by Steel, a bust of George Kemp, the illfated
architect, with his first pencil sketch of the
monument, and a number of models and paintings
of historical interest ; and on the walls are placed
eight alto-relievo portraits in bronze (by J.
Hutchison, R.S.A.) of Scottish characters of
mark, including James V., James VI., Queen
Mary, John Knox, George Buchanan, the Regent
Moray, the Marquis of Montrose, and Charles I.
In the cdlection are some valuable letters in
the handwriting of Sir Walter Scott ; and the walls
are adorned with some of the old flint muskets,
swords, and drums of the ancient City Guard.
The statue of Professor John Witson, ?? Christopher
North,? at the western corner of the East
Gardens, is the result of a subscription raised
shortly after his death in 1854. A committee for
the purpose was appointed, consisting of the Lord
Justice General (afterwards Lord Colonsay), Lord
Neaves, Sir John Watson Gordon, and others,
and three years after Sir John Steel executed the
statue, which is of bronze, and is a fine representation
of one who is fresh in the recollection of
thousands of his countrymen. The careless ease
of the professois ordinary dress is adopted; a
plaid which he was in the habit of wearing
supplies the drapery, and the lion-like head and
face, fill of mental and muscular power, thrown
slightly upward and backward, express genius,
while the figure, tall, massive, and athletic, corres
ponds to the elevated expression of the countenance..
At its inauguration the Lord President Inglis said,
happily, that there was ?in John Wilson every
element which gives a man a claini to this per-
I., King James V., and Drummond of Hawthornden,
are on the north front.
The white marble statue of Scott, from the
this statue vividly recalls Wilson in his every-day
aspect, as he was wont to appear in his class
room or on the platform in the fervour of his
