26 OLD AND. NEW. EDINBURGH. [Cauongate.
date over a doorway in it, this street had been in
progress in 1768.
At the head of the street, with its front windows
overlooking the Canongate, is the house on the
first floor of which was the residence of Mrs. Telfer
of Scotstown, the sister of Tobias Smollett, who was
her guest in 1766, on his second and last visit to
his native country, and where, though in feeble
health, he mixed with the best society of the
capital,. the men and manners of which he so
graphically portrays in his last novel, ? Humphrey
Clinker,? a work in which fact and fiction are
curiously biended, and in which he mentions that
he owed an introduction into the literary circles to
Dr. Carlyle, the well-known incumbent of Inveresk.
Mrs. Telfer, though then a widow with moderate
means, moved in good society. She has been
described as a tall, sharp-visaged lady, with a hooked
nose and a great partiality for whist. Her brother
had then returned from that protracted Continental
tour, the experiences of which are given in his
(? Travels through France and Italy,? in twovolumes.
The novelist has been described as a tall and handsome
man, somewhat prone to satirical innuendo,
but with a genuine vein of humour, polished
manners, and great urbanity. On the latter Dr.
Carlyle particularly dwefls, and refers to an occasion
when Smollett supped in a tavern with
himself, Hepburn of Keith, Home the author of ?? Douglas,? Commissioner Cardonel, and others.
The beautiful ? Miss R-n,? with whom Jerry
Milford is described as dancing at the hunters?
ball, was the grand-daughter of Susannah Countess
of Eglinton, whose daughter Lady Susan became
the wife of Renton of Lamerton in the Merse.
The wife of the novelist, Anne Lascelles, the Narcissa
of ? Roderick Random,? was a pretty Creole lady, of
a somewhat dark complexion, whom he left at his
death nearly destitute in a foreign land, and for
whom a benefit was procured at the old Theatre
Royal in March, 1784, A sister of Miss Renton?s
was parried to Smollett?s eldest nephew, Telfer, who
inherited the family estate and assumed the name
of Smollett She afterwards. became the Wife of
Sharpe of Hoddam, and, ? strange to say, the lady
whose bright eyes had flamed upon poor Smollett?s
soul in the middle of the last century was living so
lately as 1836.?
The house in which Smollett resided with his
sister in 1766 was also the residence, prior to 1788,
of James Earl of Hopetoun, who in early life had
served in the Scots Guards and fought at Minden,
and of whom it was said that he ? maintained the
dignity 2nd noble bearing of a Scottish baron
with the humility of a Christian, esteeming the
7
religious character of his family to be its highest
distinction. He was an indulgent landlord, a
munificent benefactor to the poor, and a friend to
all.?
No. I St. John Street was the house of Sir-
Charles Preston, Bart., of Valleyfield, renowned for
his gallant defeqce of Fort St. John against the
American general Montgomery, when major of the
Cameronians. No. 3 was occupied by Lord
Blantyre ; No. 5 by George Earl of Dalhousie, who.
was Commissioner to the General Assembly from
1777 to 1782 ; No. 8 was the house of Andrew
Carmichael the last Earl of Hyndford.
In No. 10 resided James Ballantyne, the friend,
partner, and confidant of Sir Walter Scott-when
the Great Unknown-and it was the scene of those
assemblies of select and favoured guests to whom
? the hospitable printer read snatches of the forthcoming
novel, and whetted, while he seemed to
gratify, their curiosity by many a shrewd wink and
mysterious hint of confidential insight into the
literary riddle of the age.? No. 10 must have been
the scene of many a secret council connected with
the publication of the Waverley Novels. Scott
himself, Lockhart who so graphically describesthese
scenes, Erskine, Terry, Sir Tlrilliam Allan,.
George Hogarth, W.S. (Mrs. Ballantyne?s brother),
and others, were frequent guests here. In this.
house Mrs. Ballantyne died in 1829, and Ballantyne?sbrother
John died there on the 16thof June, 1821.
The house is now a Day Home for Destitute
Children.
In No. 13 dwelt Lord Monboddo and his beautiful
daughter, who died prematurely of consumption
at Braid on the 17th of June, 1790, and whom
Burns-her father?s frequent guest there-describes
so glowingly in his ?( Address to Edinburgh : ?-
?? Fair Burnet strikes the adoring eye,
Heaven?s beauties on my fancy shine ;
And own his work indeed divine ! ?
I see the sire of Love on high,
The fair girl?s early death he touchingly commemorates
in a special ode. She was the ornament
of the elegant society in which she moved; she
was her old father?s pride and the comfort of his
domestic life. Dr. Gregory, whom she is said to.
have refused, also lived in St. John Street, as did
Lady Suttie, Sinclair of Barrock, Sir David Rae, and
Lord Eskgrove, one of the judges who tried the
Reformers of 1793, a man of high ability and integrity.
He removed thither from the old Assembly
Close, and lived in St. John Street till his
death in 1804.
Among the residents there in 1784 were Sir
John Dalrymple and Sir John Stewart of Allanbank,
