J48 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street.
that sum has been called. It is expressly provided
by the charter of the bank, granted 5th August,
1831, ?that nothing contained in these presents
shall be construed as intended to limit the responsibility
and liability of the individual partners of
the said Corporation for the debts and engagements
lawfully contracted by the said Corporation, which
responsibility and liability is to remain as valid
and effectual as if these presents had not been
most elegant of any in Britain.? In addition to
the ball-room, ? there is to be a tea-room, fifty
feet by thirty-six, which will also serve as a ballroom
on ordinary occasions ; also a grand saloon,
thirty-eight feet by forty-four feet, besides other
and smaller rooms. The whole expense will be
6,000 guineas, and the building is to be begun
immediately. Another Assembly Room, on a
smaller scale, is to be built immediately by the
INTERIOR OF ST. ANDREW?S CHURCH, GEORGE STREET.
granted, any law or practice to the contrary
notwithstanding.?
The branch of the Clydesdale Bank, a little
farther westward on the other side, is a handsome
building ; but the next chief edifice-which, with
its arcade of three rustic arches and portico, was
long deemed by those obstinately wedded to use
and wont both an eyesore and encroachment on
the old monotonous amenity of George Street, when
first erected-is the Assembly Rooms.
The principal dancing-hall here is ninety-two feet
long by forty-two feet wide, and forty feet high,
adorned with magnificent crystal lustres. ?? The
New Assembly Rooms, for which the ground is
staked out in the new town,? says the Edinburgh
AdvPrtise7 for April, 1783, ?will be among the
inhabitants on the south side of the town; in
George Square,? Eventually this room was placed
in Buccleuch Place. ? Since the peace,? continues
the paper, ? a great deal of ground has been feued
for houses in the new town, and the buildings there
are going on with astonishing rapidity.?
To the assemblies of 1783, the letters of
Theophrastus inform us that gentlemen were in
the habit of reeling ?from the tavern, flustered
with wine, to an assembly of as elegant and
beautiful women as any in Europe;? also that
minuets had gone out of fashion, and country
dances were chiefly in vogue, and that in 1787 a
master of the ceremonies was appointed. The
weekly assemblies here in the Edinburgh seasvn
are now among the most brilliant and best con
?49 _- George S1rret.l THE ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
ducted in Europe; but the regulations as issued for
them a century ago may amuse their frequenters in
the present day, and we copy them verbatim.
?(NEW ASSEMBLY ROOMS,
GEORGE STREET.
(? THE proprietors finding that the mode they proposed for
subscribing to the assemblies this winter has not met with
general approbation, did, at a general meeting, held 12th
January, come to the following resolutions as to the mode of
admission in future :-
?* Subscription books are open at the house of the Mastez
of the Ceremonies, Wlliam Graham, Esq., No. 66, Princes
Street, and Mr. William Sanderson, merchant, in the
Luckenbooths, to either of whom the nobility and gentry
intending to subscribe are requested to send their names and
subscription money, when they will receive their tickets.
The first assembly (of the season) to be on Thursday, the
29th January, 1789.?
Prior to the erection of the adjoining music
hall many great banquets and public meetings
OLD PHYSICIANS? HALL, GEORGE STREET, 1829. (Aftr Shrpkml.)
((1. That the ladies? subscription shall be one guinea.
? 11. That subscriptions for gentlemen who are proprietors
of the rooms shall be one guinea
? 111. That the subscription for gentlemen who are nut,
proprietors of the rooms shall be two guineas.
? IV. That each subscriber shall have twenty-four admission
tickets.
? V. Subscribers when absent to have the power of granting
two of these tickets for each assembly, either to a lady
or gentleman, and no more ; when present, only one ; and no
ticket will procure admittance unless dated and signed by
the granter ; and the tickets thus granted are not transferable.
?VI. Each non-subscriber to pay 3s. at the door on
presenting his ticket.
? VII. Each director is allowed two additional tickets
extraordinary for each asseably, m-hich he may transfer,
addmg the word Dirccfiw to his signature.
?VIII. No admission wit/rout a fkkd on any arcounl
Yriractw.
took place in the great ball-room. One of the
most interesting of these was the second ovation
bestowed on the famous Black Watch in 1816.
There had been a grand reception of the
regiment in 1802, on its return from Egypt, when
a new set of colours, decorated with the Sphinx,
after a prayer by Principal Baird, were bestowed
upon the war-worn Highland battalion on the
Castle Hill by General Vyse, amid a vast concourse
of enthsiastic spectators ; but a still greater
ovstion and a banquet awaited the regiment on
its return to Edinburgh Castle in the year after
Waterloo.
It entered the city in two divisions on the 19th
and 20th March, 1816. Colonel Dick of Tullybole,
who afterwards fell in India, rode at the head
