24 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Canongate.
Life below Stairs,? which the fraternity of footmen
bitterly resented, and resolved to stop. On the
second night of its being announced, Mr. Love,
one of the management, came upon the stage and
read a letter containing the most bitter denunciations
of vengeance upon all concerned if the piece
should be performed. It was, nevertheless, proceeded
with, and the gentlemen who were in the
theatre having provided accommodation for their
servants in the gallery, the moment the farce began
? a prodigious noise was heard from that quarter.?
occurred till the night of the 14th December, 1756,
when, to the dismay of all Scotland, there was
brought out the tragedy of ? Douglas,? written by
the pen of a minister of the kirk !
The original cast was thus :-Douglas, Mr.
Digges; Lord Randolph, Mr. Younger; Glenalvon,
Mr. Love; Norval, Mr. Hayman; Lady Randolph,
Mrs. Ward ; Anna, Mrs Hopkins.
With redoubled zeal the clergy returned to the
assault, and though they could no more crush the
players, they compelled John Home, the author of
? #I
nounce the orders
that had been
tarnished by a
composition so
unwonted and unclerical,?
Ultimately
he became
captain in the Buccleuch
Fencibles,
and lived long
enough to see the
prejudices of many
of his countrymen
pass away; but he
was long viewed
with obloquy.
?To account for
this extraordinary
phen o me n o n,?
says Dr. Carlisle,
??so far down in
theeighteenth cen-
Theatre from the original proprietors for L648 and
Lroo per annum during the lives of the lessees ;
but he failed in his engagement, and James Callender,
a merchant of the city, undertook to conduct
the business, with Mr. Digges as stage manager.
Callender soon after resigned his charge to Mr.
David Beatt, another citizen, who had ventured in
the past time to read Prince Charles?s proclama.
tions at the Cross. Mr. Love also withdrew from the
charge, and was succeeded by Mr. John Dawson
of Newcastle ; but dissensions arose among the
performers themselves. Two parties were formed in
the theatre, which, during a performance of ? Hamlet,?
they utterly wrecked and demolished, and set
on fire in a riot, to the supreme. delight of all
opponents of the drama.
Legal actions and caunter-actions ensued ; the
house was again fitted up, and nothing of interest
a few well-meaning people and all the zealots of
the time were seriously offended with a clergyman
for writing a tragedy, even with a virtuous tendency,
and with his brethren for giving him countenance.
They were joined by others out of mere envy.?
The Presbytery of Edinburgh suspended all
clergymen who had witnessed the representation
of ?Douglas,JJ and at the same time ?emitted an
admonition and exhortation, levelled against aZZ
who frequented what they supposed to be the
Temple of the Father of Lies, and ordered it to be
read in all the churches within their bounds.?
The personal elegance of Digges and the rare
beauty of Mrs. Bellamy were traditionally remembered
in the beginning of the present century,
and made them even objects of interest to those
by whom their scandalous life was regarded with
just reprehension. They lived in a small countg
CANNONGATE
trespasses. This was the case with Mrs. Bellamy.
Her waiting-maid, Anne Waterstone, who is mentioned
in her ?Memoirs,? lived many years after in
Edinburgh, and continued to the last to adore the
memory of her mistress. Nay, shc was, from this
cause, a zealous friend of all players, and would
never allow a slighting replark upon them to pass
unreproved. It was curious to find in a poor old
Scotchwoman of the humbler class such a sympathy
with the follies and eccentricities of the children
of Thespis.?
The erection of the New Theatre Royal in the
extended royalty eclipsed its predecessor in the
MRS. BELLAMY.
in Peter Williamson?s Directory? as an ? Excellent
Shoemaker and Leather Tormentor.?
The adjoining alley, St. John?s Close, is open
towards St. John?s Street. Narrow and ancient, it
shows over a door-lintel on its west side the
legend, within a sunk panel, THE LORD IS ONLY MY
SUPORT.
Near this a spacious elliptical archway gives
access to St. John?s Street, so named with reference
to St. John?s Cross, a broad, airy, and handsome
thoroughfare, ?one of the heralds of the New
Town,? and associated with the names of many of
the Scottish aristocracy who lingered in the old
The doorway is but three feet wide.
25
- -
that Mrs. Bellamy was extremely fond of singing
birds, and when visiting Glasgow was wont to have
them carried by a porter all the way, lest they
might suffer by the jolting of a carriage, and
people wondered to hear of ten guineas being
expended for such a purpose. Persons under
the social ban for their irregular lives often win the
love of individuals by their benevolence and sweetness
of disposition-qualities, it is to be remarked,
the old Playhouse Close, is a fine specimen of the
Scottish street architecture in the time of Charles I.
It has a row of dormer windows, with another of
storm-windows on a steep roof, that reminds one
of those in Bruges and Antwerp. Over a doorway
within the close is an ornamental tablet, the
inscription on which has become defaced, and the
old theatre itself has long since given place to
private dwellings, In one of these lived, in 1784,
CHESSEL?S BUILDINGS. (From a Drawirg 6y Sforrr,prtblislred in 1820.)
