138 - OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [West Church.
mode of procedure, made no resistance; and so
.active were the workmen that before sunset the
road was sufliciently formed to allow the bettor to
drive his carriage triumphantly over it, which he
did amidst the acclamations ofa great multitude of
persons, who flocked from the town to witness the
-issue of this extraordinary undertaking. Among
-the instances of temporary distress occasioned to
-the inhabitants, the most laughable was that of a
-poor simple woman who had a cottage and small
cow-feeding establishment upon the spot. It ap-
.pears that this good creature had risen early, as
usiial, milked her cows, smoked her pipe, taken
her ordinary matutinal tea, and lastly, recollecting
that she had some friends invited to dine kith her
cupon sheep-head and kail about noon, placed the
pot upon the fire, in order that it might simmer
peaceably till she should return from town, where
she had to supply a numerous set of customers with
the produce of her dairy. Our readers may judge
the consternation of this poor woman when, upon
her return from the duties of the morning, she
found neither house, nor byre, nor cows, nor fire,
nor pipe, nor pot, nor anything that was here
upon the spot where she had left them but a few
hours before. All had vanished, like the palace of
Aladdin, leaving not a wrack behind.?
Such was the origin of that broad and handsome
street which now leads to where the Castle Barns
:stood of old.
The Kirkbraehead House was demolished in
1869, when the new Caledonian Railway Station
was formed, and with it passed away the southern
portion of the handsome modern thoroughfare
named Rutland Street, and several other structures
.in the vicinity of the West Church.
Of these the most important was St. George?s
Free Church, built in 1845, at the north-east corner
.of Cuthbert?s Lane, the line of which has since been
turned into Rutland Street, in obedience to the
inexorable requirements of the railway.
During its brief existence this edifice was alone
famous for the ministrations of the celebrated Rev.
Robert Candlish, D.D., one of the most popular of
Scottish preachers, and one of the great leaders of
the ? Non Intrusion ? party during those troubles
-which eventually led to the separation of the
.Scottish Church into two distinct sections, and the
establishment of that Free Kirk to which we shall
have often to refer. He was born about the commencement
of the century, in 1807, and highly
aegarded as a debater. He was author of an
.?Exposition of the Book of Genesis,? works on
4? The Atonement,? ?6 The Resurrection,? ? Life of
a Risen Saviour,? and other important theological
books. In 18Gr he was Moderator of the Free
Church Assembly.
The church near St. Cuthbert?s was designed by
the late David Cousin in the Norman style of
architecture, and the whole edifice, which was
highly ornate, after being carefully taken down, was
re-constructed in its own mass in Deanhaugh Street,
Stockbridge, as a free church for that locality.
While the present Free St. George?s in Maitland
Street was in course of erection, Dr. Candlish
officiated to his congregation in the Music Hall,
George Street. He died, deeply regretted by them
and by all classes, on the 19th of October, 1873.
The next edifice of any importance demolished
at the time was the Riding School, with the old
Scottish Naval and Military Academy, so long
superintended byan old officer of the Black Watch,
and well-known citizen, Captain, John Orr, who
carried one of the colours of his regiment at
Waterloo. It was a plain but rather elegant Grecian
edifice, under patronage of the Crown, for train-,
ing young men chiefly for the service of the royal
and East India Company?s services, and to all the
ordinary branches of education were added fortification,
military drawing, gundrill, and military
exercises; but just about the time its site was
required by the railway the introduction of a
certain amount of competitive examination at military
colleges elsewhere rendered the institution
unnecessary, though Scotland is certainly worthy
of a military school of her own. Prior to its extinction
the academy sufficed to send more than a
thousand young men as officers into the army,
many of whom have risen to distinction in every
quarter of the globe.
The new station of the Caledonian Railway,
which covered the sites of the buildings mentioned,
and with its adjuncts has a frontage to the Lothian
Road of 1,100 feet (to where it abuts upon the
United Presbyterian Church) by about 800 feet at
its greatest breadth, forms a spacious and handsome
terminus, erected at the cost of more than it;~o,ooo,
succeeding the more temporary station at first
projected on the west side of the Lothian Road,
about half a furlong to the south, andivhich was
cleared and purchased at an enormous cost. It is
a most commodious structure, with a main front
103 feet long and zz feet high, yet designed only
for temporary use, and is intended to give place to
a permanent edifice of colossal proportions and
more than usual magnificence, with a great palatial
hotel to acljoin it, according to the custom now so
common as regards great railway termini.
George Street.] THE BLACKWOODS. I39
CHAP,TER XIX.
GEORGE STREET.
Major Andrew Faser-The Father of Miss Femer-Grant of Kilgraston-William Blackwoad and his Magazine-The Mother of Sir Waltn
Scott-Sir John Hay, Banker-Colquhoun of Killermont-Mrs. Murray of Henderland-The Houses of Sir J. W. Gomon, Sir Jam-
Hall. and Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster-St. Andrew's Church-Scene of the Disruption-Physicians' Hall-Glance at the Histcry of thecollege
of Physicians-Sold and Removed-The Commercial Bank-Its Constitution-Assembly Rooms-Rules of 17+Banquet to Black
Watch-" The Author of Waverley"-The Music Hall-The New Union Bank-Its Formation, &c.-The Mlasonic Hall-Watsoa'E
Pictureof Bums-Statues of George IV., Pitt, and Chalmers. .
PREVIOUS to the brilliant streets and squares
erected in the northern and western portions of
new Edinburgh, George Street was said to have no
rival in the world ; and even yet, after having undergone
many changes, for combined length, space,
uniformity, and magnificence of vista, whether
viewed from the east or west, it may well be
pronounced unparalleled. Straight as an arrow
flies, it is like its sister streets, but is 1x5 feet
broad. Here a great fossil tree was found in 1852.
A portion of the street on the south side, near
the west end, long bore the name of the Tontine,
and owing to some legal dispute, which left the
houses there mfinished, they were occupied as
infantry barracks during the war with France.
Nos. 3 and 5 (the latter once the residence of
Major Andrew Fraser and cf William Creech the
eminent bookseller) forni the office of the Standard
Life Assurance Company, in the tympanum of
which, over four fine Corinthian pilasters, is a
sculptured group from the chisel of Sir John Steel,
representing the parable of the Ten Virgins. In
George Street are about thirty different insurance
offices, or their branches, all more or less ornate
in architecture, and several banks.
In No. 19, on the same side, is the Caledonian,
the oldest Scottish insurance company (having
been founded in June, 1805). Previously the
office had been in Bank Street. A royal charter
was granted to the company in May, 1810, and
twenty-three years afterwards the business of life
assurance was added to that of fire insurance.
No. 25 George Street was the residence (from
1784 till his death, in 18zg), of Mr. James Ferrier,
Principal Clerk of Session, and father of Miss
Susan Ferrier, the authoress of " Marriage," &c.
He was a keen whist player, and every night of his
life had a rubber, which occasionally included Lady
Augusta Clavering, daughter of his friend and client
John, fifth Duke of Argyll, and old Dr. Hamilton,
usually designated " Cocked Hat " Hamilton, from
the fact of his being one of the last in Edinburgh
who bore that head-piece. When victorious, he
wcdd snap his fingers and caper about the room,
to tbe manifest indignation of Mr. Ferrier, who
would express it to his partner in the words, "Lady
Augusta, did you ever see such rediculous leevity
in an auld man 7 " Robert Burns used also to be
a guest at No. 25, and was prescnt on one occasion
when some magnificent Gobelins tapestry arrived
there for the Duke of Argyll on its way to Inverary
Castle. Mrs. Piozzi also, when in Edinburgh, dined
there. Next door lived the Misses Edmonstone,
of the Duntreath family, and with them pitched
battles at whist were of frequent nightly occurrence.
These old ladies figure in " Marriage " as
Aunts Jacky, Grizzy, and Nicky; they were grandnieces
of the fourth Duke of Argyll. The eldest
Miss Ferrier was one of the Edinburgh beauties in
her day ; and Bums once happening to meet her,
while turning the corner of George Street, felt suddenly
inspired, and wrote the lines to her enclosed
in an elegy on the death of Sir D. H. Hair. Miss
Ferrier and Miss Penelope, Macdonald of Clanronald,
were rival belles ; the former married
General Graham ot Stirling Castle, the latter Lord
Belhaven.
In No. 32 dwelt Francis Grant of Kilgraston,
father of Sir Francis Grant, President of the Royal
Academy, born in 1803 ; and No. 35, now a shop,
was the town house of the Hairs of Balthayock, in
Perthshire.
No. 45 has long been famous as the establishment
of Messrs. Blackwood, the eminent publishers.
William Blackwood, the founder of the magazine
which stills bears his name, and on the model of
which so many high-class periodicals have been
started in the sister kingdom, was born at Edinburgh
in 1776, and after being apprenticed to the
ancient bookselling firni of Bell and Bradfute, and
engaging in various connections with other bibliopoles,
in 1804 he commenced as a dealer in old
books on the South Bridge, in No. 64, but soon
after became agent for several London publishing
houses. In 1S16 he disposed of his vast stock of
classical and antiquarian books, I 5,000 volumes in
number, and removing to No. 17 Princes Street,
thenceforward devoted his energies to the business
of a-general publisher, and No. 17 is to this day a
bookseller's shop.
