Cpormgate.1 SIR THOMAS DALYELL. I9
Often did her maid go with morning messages to her
friends, inquiring, with her, compliyents, after their
per cats. Good Miss Ramsay was also a friend
to horses, and indeed to all creatures. When she
observed a carter ill-treating his horse she would
march up to him, tax him with cruelty, and by the
very earnestness of her remonstrances arrest the
barbarian?s hand. So, also, when she saw one
labouring in the street with the appearance of
defective diet, she would send rolls to its master,
entreating him to feed theanimal. These peculiarities,
though a little eccentric, are not unpleasing;
and I cannot be sony to record those of the
daughter of one whose head and heart were an
honour to his country.? .
The hideous chapel of ease built in New Street
in 1794 occupied the site of the houses of Henry
Kinloch and the Earls of Angus, the latter of which
formed during the eighteenth century the banking
office of the unfortunate firm of Douglas, Heron,
and Co., whose failure spread ruin and dismay
far and wide in Scotland.
Little Jack?s Close, a narrow alley leading by a
bend into New Street, and Big Jack?s Close, which
led to an open court, adjoin the thoroughfare of
1760, and both are doubtless named from some
forgotten citizen or speculative builder of other
days.
In the former stood the hall of the once wealthy
corporation of the Cordiners or Shoemakers of the
Canongate, on the west side, adorned with all
the insignia of the craft, and furnished for their
convivalia with huge tables and chairs of oak, in
addition to a carved throne, surmounted by a
crowned paring-knife, and dated I 682, for the
solemn inauguration of King Crispin on St. Crispin?s
Day, the 25th of October.
This corporation can be traced back to the 10th
of June, 1574, when William Quhite was elected
Deakon of the Cordiners in the Canongate, in
place of the late Andrew Purvis.
It was of old their yearly custom to elect a
king, who held his court in this Corporation Hall,
from whence, after coronation, he was borne in
procession through the streets, attended by his
subject souters clad in fantastic habiliments. Latterly
he was conducted abroad on a finelycaparisoned
horse, and clad in ermined robes,
attended by mock officers of state and preceded
-
1s Geordie Cranstoun, who figures twice in Kay?s
memarkable portraits.
In Big Jack?s Close there was extant, until
within a few years ago, the town mansion of
Seneral Sir Thomas Dalyell of Binns, commanderm-
chief of the Scottish forces, whose beard remained
mcut after the death of Charles I., and who raised
the Scots Greys on the 25th of November, 1681,
ind clad them first in grey uniform, and at their
head served as a merciless persecutor of the outlawed
Covenanters, with a zest born of his service
in Russia. The chief apartment in this house
has been described as a large hall, with an arched
or coach root adorned, says Wilson, with a painting
of the sun in the centre, surrounded by gilded rays
on an azure dome. Sky, clouds, and silver stars
filled up the remaining space. The large windows
were partially closed with oak shutters in the old
Scottish fashion. ? The kitchen also was worthy OF
notice, for a fireplace formed of a plain circular
wch, of such unusual dimensions that popular
credulity might have assigned it for the perpetration
of those rites it had ascribed to him of spitting
and roasting his miserable captives! . . . . .
A chapel formerly stood on the site of the open
court, but all. traces of it were removed in 1779.
It is not at all inconsistent with the character of
the fierce old Cavalier that he should have erected
a private chapel for his own use.?
It was to this house in Big Jack?s Close that
the Rev. John Blackadder was brought a prisoner
in 1681, guarded by soldiers under Johnstone, the
town major, and accompanied by his son Thomas,
who died a merchant in New England, and where
that interview took place which is related in
? Blackadder?s Memories,? by D. A. Crichton :-
? I have brought you a prisoner,? said Major-
Johnstone.
?Take him to the guard,? said Dalyell, who was
about to walk forth.
On this, the poor divine, whose emotions must
have been far from enviable in such a terrible presence,
said, timidly, ? May I speak with you a little,
sir ? ? ?? You have already spoken too much, sir,? replied
Dalyell, whose blood always boiled at the sight of a
Covenanter, ?and I should hang you with my own
hands over that outshot ! ?
On this, Major Johnstone, dreading what might
