Edinburgh Bookshelf

Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III

Search

Canongate] SIR ARCRIBALD ACHESON. 27 polished ashlar, with sculptured dormer windows, dine stringcourses, and other architectural details of :the period. The heavily moulded doorway, which measures only three feet by six, is surmounted by &he date 1633, and a huge monogram including the initials of himself and his wife Dame Margaret Hamilton. Over all is a cock on a trumpet and scroll, with the motto Yzgilantibzls. He had been a puisne judge in Ireland, and was first knighted by Charles I., for suggesting the measure of issuing out a commission under the great seal for the sltr- If Hawthornden and of Sir William Alexander Earl of Stirling. A succession of narrow and obscure alleys ollows till we come to the Horse Wynd, on the LINTEL ABOVE THE DOOR OF SIR A. ACHESON?S HOWL east side of which lay the royal stables at the time of Darnley?s murder. In this street, on the site of a school-house? &c., built by the Duchess of Gordon for the inhabitants of the Sanctuary, stood an old tenement, in one of the rooms on the first floor of which the first rehearsal of Home?s ?? Douglas ? took place, and in which the reverend author was assisted by several eminent lay and clerical friends, among whom were Robertson and Hume the historians, Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk and the author taking the leading male parts in the cast, while the ladies were represented by the Rev. Dr. Blab and Professor Fergusson. A dinner followed in the Erskine Club at the Abbey, when they were joined by the Lords Elibank, Kames, Milton, and Monboddo. To the south of this house was the town mansion of Francis Scott Lord Napier, who inherited that barony at the demise of his grandmother, Lady Napier, in 1706,and assumed the name of Napier, and died at a great old age in 1773. At its southern end the wynd was closed by an arched gate in the long wall, which ran from the Cowgate Port to the south side of the Abbey Close. CHAPTER V. THE CANONGATE (continued). ?Separate or Detached Edifices therein-Sir Walter Scott in the CanongattThe Parish C%urch-How it came to be built-Its Official Position --Its Burying Ground-The Grave of Ferguuon-Monument to Soldiers interred there-Ecceotric Henry Prentice-The Tolhth- Testimony as to its Age-Its later uses-Magdalene Asylum-Linen Hall-Moray House-Its Historical Associations-The Winton House -Whiteford House-The Dark Story of Queensbemy House. THE advancing exigencies of the age and the of the court suburb, but there still remain some necessity for increased space and modern sanitary ? to which belong many historical and literary improvements have made strange havoc among the I associations of an interesting nature. Scott was ald alleys and mansions of the great central street ~ never weary of lingering among them, and recalling
Volume 3 Page 27
  Shrink Shrink   Print Print   Pictures Pictures