166 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew squan. I
CHAPTER XXII.
ST. ANDREW SQUARE.
St Andrew Square-List of Early Residents-Count Bomwlaski-Miss Gordon or Cluny-Scottish Widows? Fund-Dr. A. K. Johnston-
Scottish Provident Institution-House in which Lord Brougham was Born-Scottish Equitable Society-Chancrir of Amisfield-Douglas?s
Hotel-Sir Philip Ainslic-British Linen Company-National Bank-Royal Bank-The Melvillc and Hopctoun Monuments-Ambrosc?r
Tavern.
BEFORE its conversion iiito a place for public
offices, St. Andrew Square was the residence of
many families of the first rank and position. It
measures 510 feet by 520. Arnot speaks of it as
?the finest square we ever saw. Its dimensions,
indeed, are, small when compared with those in
London, but the houses are much of a size. They
are of a uniform height, and are all built of freestone?
The entire square, though most of the original
houses still exist, has undergone such changes that,
says Chambers, . ? the time is not far distant when
the whole of this district will meet with a fate
similar to that which we have to record respecting
the Cowgate and Canongate, and when the idea of
noblemen inhabiting St. Andrew Square will seem,
to modem conceptions, as strange as that of their
living in the,Mint Close.?
The following is a list of the first denizens of
the square, between its completion in 1778 and
1784.:-
I. Major-General Stewart.
2. The Earl of Aboyne. He died here in his sixty-eighth
year, in 1794. He was the eldest son of John, third Earl of
Aboyne, by Grace, daughter of Lockhart of Carnwath,
afterwards Countess of Murray.
3. Lord Ankerville (David Ross).
5. John, Viscount Arbuthnott, who died 1791.
6. Dr. Colin Drummond.
7. David Hume, afterwards Lord Dreghorn.
8. John Campbell of Errol. (The Earls of Em1 have
ceased since the middle of the seventeenth century to possess
any property in the part from whence they took their
ancient title.)
11. Mrs Campbell of Balmore.
13. Robert Boswell, W.S.
15. Mrs. Cullen of Parkhead.
16. Mrs. Scott of Horslie Hill.
18. Alexander Menzies, Clerk of Session.
19. Lady Betty Cunningham.
20. Mrs Boswell of Auchinleck
Boswell,? R. Chambers, 1824).
22. Jams Farquhar Gordon, Esq.
23. Mrs. Smith of Methven.
24 Sir John Whiteford. (25 in ? Williamson?s Directory.?)
25. William Fergusson pf Raith.
26. Gilbert Meason, Esq., and the Rev. Dr. Hunter.
27. Alexander Boswell, Esq.(aftemards Lord Auchinleck),
and Eneis Morrison, Esq.
28. Lord Methven
30. Hon. Mrs. Hope.
32. Patrick, Earl of Dumfries, who died in 1803.
(mother of ?Corsica
33. Sir John Colquhoun.
34. George, Earl of Dalhousie, Lord High Commissioner,
35. Hon. Mrs. Cordon.
38. Mrs. Campbell of Saddel, Cilbert Kerr of Stodrig,
and Sir William Ramsay, Bart., of Banff House, who died
in 1807.
By 1784, when Peter Williamson published his
tiny ? Directory,? many changes had taken place
among the occupants of the square. The Countess
of Errol and Lord Auchinleck were residents, and
Thomas, Earl of Selkirk, had a house there before
he went to America, to form that settlement in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence which involved him in so much
trouble, expense, and disappointment. No. I was
occupied by the Countess of Leven ; the Earl of
Northesk, KC.B., who distinguished himself afterwards
as third in command at Trafalgar, occupied
No. 2, now an hotel; and Lord Arbuthnott had
been suceeeded in the occupancy of No. 5 by
Patrick, Lord Elibank, who married the widow of
Lord North and Grey.
By 1788 an hotel had been started in the
square by a man named Dun. It was there that
the celebrated Polish dwarf, Joseph Borowlaski,
occasionally exhibited himself. In his memoirs,
written by himself, he tells that he was one of a
family of five sons and one daughter, ?,and by one
of those freaks of nature which it is impossible to
account for, or perhaps to find another instance of
in the annals of the human species, three of these
children were above the middle stature, whilst the
two others, like myself, reached only that of children
at the age of four or five years.?
Notwithstanding this pigmy stature, the count,
by his narrative, would seem to have married, performed
many wonderful voyages and travels, and
been involved in many romantic adventures. At
thirty years of age his stature was three feet three
inches. Being recommended by Sir Robert Murray
Keith, then Eritish Ambassador at Vienna, to visit
the shores of Britain, after being presented, with
his family, to- royalty in London, he duly came to
Edinburgh, where, according to Kay?s Editor, ?? he
was taken notice of by several gentlemen, among
others by Mr. Fergusson, who generously endeavoured
by their attentions to sweeten the bitter
cup of life to the unfortunate gentleman.?
1777-82
I 68 OLD. AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew Square.
Natural Phenomena,? and many other scientific
and geographical works that have won the firm
more than European reputation, including the
? Royal Atlas of General Geography,? dedicated tc
her Majesty, the only atlas for which a prize medal
was awarded at the International Exhibition oi
London, 1862. Alexander Keith Johnston, LL.D.,
F.R.S., died on the 9th of July, 1877; but the
firm still exists, though removed to more extensive
premises elsewhere.
No less than twenty-three Societies and Associa.
tions of various kinds have chambers in No. 5,
including the Obstetrical, Botanical, Arboricultural,
and Geological Societies, together with the Scottish
branch of the Army Scripture Readers and Soldiers
Friend Society, the mere description of which would
require a volume to themselves.
In the entire square there are above twenty
insurance societies or their branches, and several
banks, and now it is one of the greatest business
centres in the city.
No. 6 was till 1879 the Scottish Provident In.
stitution, established in I 838, and incorporated
ten years subsequently. It is a mutual assurance
society, in which consequently the whole profits
belong to the assured, the policy-holders at the
same time, by the terms of? the policies and by the
deed of constitution, being specially exempt from
personal liability.
No. 9 was in 1784 the house of Sir Michael
Bruce, Bart., of Stenhouse, in Stirlingshire. He
married a daughter of General Sir Andrew Agnew
of Lochnaw, heritable sheriff of Galloway, and
died in 1795. The whole site is now covered by
the Scottish Widows? Fund ofice.
No 12, once the residence of Campbell of Shawfield,
is now the office of the London Accident
Company; and No. 14, ?which no longer exists,
was in 1810 the office of the Adjutant-General for
Scotland.
In No. 19 (now offices) according to one authority,
in No. 21 (now also offices) according to Daniel
Wilson, was born on the 19th of September, 1779,
Henry, Lord Brougham and Vaux, the future Lord
Chancellor of Great Britain, son of Henry Brougham
.of Scalis Hall, Cumberland, and Brougham Hall,
Westmoreland, by Eleanor, daughter of the Rev.
James Syrne, and maternal niece of Robertson the
Scottish historian.
A. and C Black?s ?? Guide ? assigns the third floor
of No. ZI as the place where Brougham was born.
The birth and existence of this illustrious statesman
depended upon a mere chance circumstance, which
has in it much that is remarkable. His father was
about to be married to a young lady resident near
~ ~ ~
his family seat, to whoni he was passionately attached,
and every preparation had been made for
their nuptials, when the lady died. To beguile his
sorrow young Brougham came to Edinburgh, where,
when idling on the Castie Hill, he chanced to
inquire of a person where he could find a suitable
lodging. By this person he was not directed to
any fashionable hotel, for at that time scarcely such
a thing was known in Edinburgh, but to Mrs.
Syme, sister of Principal Robertson, widow of the
Rev. Mr. Syrne, yhilom minister of Alloa, who
then kept one of the largest boarding-houses in the
city, in the second flat of MacLellan?s Land, at the
Cowgate Head, the windows of which looked up
Candlemaker Row.
There he found quarters, and though it does not
appear that he intended to reside permanently in
Edinburgh, he soon found occasion to change that
resolution by falling in love with Miss Syme, and
forgetting his recent sorrow. He married her, and
after living for a little space with Mrs. Syme, removed
to st. Andrew Square.*
The future Lord Brougham received the first
seeds of his education at the High School, under
Mr. Luke Fraser, and afterwards under Dr. Adam,
author of the ?Roman Antiquities;? and from
there he passed to the University, to become the
pupil of Dugald Stewart, Black, Robertson, and
other well-known professors, prior to his admission
to the Scottish bar in 1800.
No. 22, now the office of the Scottish National
Fire and Life Assurance Company, was for years
the residence of Dr. James Hamilton, who died in
1835, and whose figure was long remarkable in the
streets from his adherence to the three-cornered hat,
the collarless coat, ruffles, and knee-breeches, of a
past age, with hair queued and powdered; foryears
too he was in every way one of the ornaments of
the metropolis.
His grandfather, the Rev. William Hamilton (a
branch of the house of PreSton) was Principal of
the University in 1730, and his father, Dr. Robert
Hamilton, was a distinguished Professor of theology
in I 754.. At an early age the Doctor was appointed
one of the physicians to the infirmary, to Heriot?s,
the Merchant-maiden and Trades-maiden Hospitals,
and he was author of one or two of the most
elegant professional works that have been issued
by the press. The extreme kindliness of his disposition
won him the love of all, particularly of
the poor, With the costume he retained much of
the gentle courtesy and manly hardihood of the
In one of his earlier publications, Robert Chambm states that
Brougham was born at No. 8 Cowgate, and that his father afterwards
moved to No. 7 George Street.
