York Place.] DR. ABERCROMBIE. 187
imagined, but can scarcely be described,? says the
CaZedonian Mercury of the 18th March. ?? From
eighty to a hundred persons, ladies as well as
gentlemen, were precipitated in one mass into an
apartment below, filled with china and articles of
vertu. The cries and shrieks, intermingled with
exclamations? and ejaculations of distress, were
heartrending ; but what added to the unutterable
agony of that awful moment, the density of the
cloud of dust, impervious to the rays of light, produced
total darkness, diffusing a choking atmosphere,
which nearly stifled the terrified multitude,
and in this state of suspense they remained several
minutes.? Among the mass of people who went
down with the floor were Lord Moncrieff, Sir
James Riddell of Ardnam~rchan, and Sir Archi-
. bald Campbell of Succoth. Many persons were
most severely injured, and Mr. Smith, banker, of
Moray Place, on whom the hearth-stone fell, was
killed.
. York Place, the continuation of this thoroughfare
to Queen Street, is nearly all unchanged since
it was built, and is broad and stately, with spacious
and lofty houses, which were inhabited by Sir
Henry Raeburn, Francis Homer, Dr. John Abercrombie,
Dr. John Coldstream, Alexander Geddes,
A.R.A., and other distinguished men.
No. 10 was the abode of Lord Craig, the successor
on the bench of Lord Hailes in 1792, and
whose well-known attainments, and especially his
connection with the Mirror and bunger, gave his
name an honourable place among local notorieties.
He was the cousin-german of the celebrated Mrs.
McLehose, the Clarinda of Robert Burns, and to
her he bequeathed an annuity, at his death, which
occurred in 1813. His house was afterwards occupied
by the gallant Admiral Sir David Milne, who,
when a lieutenant,. took possession of the P i p e
frigate, after her surrender to the Blanche, in the
West Indies ; captured L z Seine,, in I 798, and Lu
Vengeance, of 38 guns, in I 800, and who commanded
the hprepable, in the attack on Algiers, when he
was Rear-Admiral, and had 150 of his crew killed
and wounded, as Brenton records in his ?Naval
History.? He died a Knight Grand Cross of the
Bath, and left a son, Sir Alexander Milne, also
K.C.B., and Admiral, more than once commander
of fleets, and who first went to sea with his father
in the flag-ship hander, in 1817. Sir David died
on board of a Granton steamer, when returning
home, in 1845, and was buried at Inveresk.
Doctor John Abercrombie, Physician to Her
Majesty, lived in No. 19, and died there in 1844,
aged 64. He was a distinguished consulting
physician, and moral writer, born at Aberdeen, in
1781; F,RC.S. in 1823; and was author of
? Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers,?
which has gone through many editions, ?The Philosophy
of the Moral Feelings,? &c. His bust is
in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Concerning his death, the following curious story
has found its way into print. A Mrs. M., a native
of the West Indies, was at Blair Logie at the time
of the demise of Dr. Abercrombie, with whom she
had been very intimate. He died suddenly, without
any previous indisposition, just as he was about to
enter his carriage in York Place, at eleven o?clock
on a Thursday morning. On the night between
Thursday and Friday Mrs. M. dreamt that she saw
the whole family of Dr. Abercrombie dressed entirely
in white,dancing a solemn hneral dance, upon which
she awoke, wondering that she should have dreamt
anything so absurd, as it?was contrary to their
custom to dance on any occasion. Immediately
afterwards her maid came to tell her that she had
seen Dr. Abercrombie reclining against a wall
?with his jaw fallen, and a livid countenance,
mournfully shaking his head as he looked at her.?
She passed the day in great uneasiness, and wrote
to inquire for the Doctor, relating what had h i p
pened, and expressing her conviction that he was
dead, and her letter was seen by several persons
in Edinburgh on the day of its amval.
No. 22 was the house of Lord Newton, known
as the wearer of ? Covington?s gown,? in memory
of the patriotism and humanity displayed by the
latter in defending the ?Jacobite prisoners on their
trial at Carlisle in 1747. His judicial talents and
social eccentricities formed the subject of many
anecdotes. He participated largely in the bacchanalian
propensities so prevalent among the legal
men of his time, and was frequently known to put
?? three lang craigs ? (i.e. long-necked bottles of
claret) ? under his belt ? after dinner, and thereafter
dictate to his clerk a paper of more than skty pages.
The MS. would then be sent to press, and the
proofs be corrected next morning at the bar of the
Inner House.
He would often spend the whole night in con,
vivial indulgence at the Crochallan Club, perhaps
be driven home to York Place about seven in the
morning, sleep for two hours, and be seated on the
bench at the usual hour. The French traveller
Simond relates his surprise ?on stepping one
morning into the Parliament House to find in the
dignified capacity and exhibiting all the dignified
bearing of a judge, the very gentleman with whom
he had just spent a night of debauch and parted
from only one hour before, when both were excessively
intoxicated.?
.
