Broughton Street.] THE CALEDONIAN THEATRE. 179
was the band of the 78th, where hung the shields
of Picton and Achmuty, and a brilliant star, with
the mottoes Assnye and Mnida. ?Under this
orchestra was a beautiful transparency, representing
an old Scotsman with his bonnet, giving a
hearty welcome to two soldiers of the 42nd and
78th regiments, while a bonny lassie is peeping out
from a cottage door; the background formed a
landscape, with Edinburgh Castle in the distance.?
At eleven o?clock came famous old Neil Gow,
with his band of violins, and the ball-which was
long remembered in Edinburgh-began.
After some time Corri?s Rooms were called the
Pantheon, and in December, 1823, the house was
again opened under the new appellation of the
Caledonian Theatre (which it held for years afterwards),
by Mr. Henry Johnstone, an old Edinburgh
favourite and luckless native of the city.
The papers of the time announce that the dancing
and tumbling of the Pantheon ?are superseded;
and, excepting that melodramas are presented in
place of regular tragedies and comedies, the Caledonian
Theatre in no respect difters in the nature
and style of its entertainments from the regular
theatre.? One of the first pieces brought out was
The. Orphan of Geneva.
?The house is dingy and even dirty,? says the
WeekQIoumaZ for that year, ?< and very defectively
lighted. This is not at all in harmony with Mr.
Johnstone?s usual enterprise, and calls for amendment.
The name of CaZedonian is perhaps conceived
to be a kind of apology for the clumsy
tartan hangings over some of the boxes; but we
can by no means comprehend why the house was
not re-painted. The visitor cannot fail to be immediately
struck with the contrast of its dingy hue, with
the freshness and beauty of the Theatre Royal.?
Mr. Johnstone?s losses compelled him, after a
time, to relinquish management. He left Edinburgh,
and did not return to it till 1830, when
he played four nights .at the same theatre, then
leased by Mr. Bass. Poor Johnstone, an actor
much admired in London, but every wayunfortunate,
eventually went to America.
The theatre was afterwards called the Adelphi,
and was burned in 1853, during the management
of Mr. R. H. Wyndham. On its site was rebuilt
the Queen?s Theatre and Opera House, under the
same enterprising manager, long one of the greatest
theatrical favourites in Edinburgh ; but this also
was destroyed by fire in 1865, when several lives
were lost by the falling of a wall. By a singular
fatality it was a third time completely gutted by
fire ten years afterwards, but was reconstructed in
the latter part of 1875, and reopened in January,
1876, prior to which Mr. and Mrs. Wyndham had
taken their farewell of the stage and of Edinburgh.
It is a h3ndsome building, with a portico, and is
adorned with medallions of Shakspere, Scott,
Molihre, and Goethe. Although erected within the
walls of the theatre burned on the 6th of February,
1875, it is almost entirely a new building internally,
different from all its predecessors, greatly improved,
and seated for 2,300 persons. The works have
been designed and executed by C. J. Phipps, F.S.A.,
architect of the Gaiety Theatre, London.
Immediately adjoining this theatre-the gable
wall being a mutual one-is St. Mary?s Roman
Catholic chapel, now the pro-cathedral of the
Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, whose
residence is in the narrow lane to the northward.
It was built in 1813, from designs by James
Gillespie Graham, architect, at the expense of
iE;8,ooo. In the original elevations more omament
was introduced than it was found there were
funds to execute, as these were chiefly raised by
subscription among the Catholics of Edinburgh,
then a small, and still a poor, congregation. The
dimensions of this edifice within the walls are
IIO feet by 57. The eastern front, in which is
the entrance, is ornamented by two central pinnacles
70 feet high, and the adoption of the Gothic
style in this small chapel jirst led to the adoption
of a similar style in various other re!igious edifices
since erected in the city. It possesses a very good
organ, and above the altar is a fine painting of the
Saviour dead. It was presented to the church by
Miss Chalmers, daughter of Sir G. Chalmers.
Some prelates of the Catholic Church lie buried
before the high altar, among them Bishops
Alexander Cameron and Andrew Carruthers. The
interment of the former excited much interest in
Edinburgh in 1Sz8, the funeral obsequies being in
a style never seen in Scotland since the Reformation,
and also from the general esteem in which
the bishop was held by all. He was born in
1747, and went to the Scottish College at Rome
in 1760, and bore away all the prizes Returning
to Scotland in 1772, he was Missionary Apostolic
in Strathearn till 1780, when he was consecrated
at Madeira, and, succeeding Bishop Hay, had re
sided permanently in Edinburgh since 1806.
