36 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Canongate
4? History of Music j ? Dr. Gregory ; David Xllan ;
Lord Cromarty; and many others who have left
$heir ?? footprints on the sands of time.?
There, too, is the grave of the ill-fated Fergusson
the poet, above which is the tombstone placed
at the order of Robert Burns by Gowans, a marble-
-cutter in the Abbey Hill, ?to remain for ever
sacred to the memory of him whose name it bears,?
with the inscription Bums penned :-
? HERE LIES ROBERT FERGUSSON.
Born Sept. sth, 1751. Died October 16th, 1774.
No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,
This simple stone directs pale Scotia?s way
No stoned urn nor animated bust ;
To pour her sorrows o?er her poet?s dust.?
Here, on the 16th of Tune, , -
? Henry Prentice. Died . . . .
Be not curious to know how I lived ;
But rather how yourself should die.?
He was, however, eventually interred at Restalrig.
At least three tenements of three storeys each
would seem to have occupied the site of the church.
One of the picturesque relics of the past in
Edinburgh is the old Canongate Tolbooth, with its
sombre tower and spire, Scoto-French corbelled
turrets, huge projecting clock, dark-mouthed archway,
its moulded windows, and many sculptured
stones. Above the arch is the inscription-
S. L. B.
PATRIA ET POSTERIS 1591 ;
and in a niche are the usual insignia of
1821, Sir Walter Scott att the burgh, the stag?s head and- cross,,
the funeral of John Ballantyne, with the motto SIC ITUR AD ASTRA, while
.and displayed considerable emo- the appropriate niotto ESTO FIDUS surtion.
?He cast his eyes along mounts the inner doorway to the court-
-the overhanging line of the Calton house. At the south-east comer is the
Hill, with its gleaming walls and old shaft of the cross and pillory, near
towers, and then turning to the the entrance to the police-station.
.grave again, ?I feel,? he whispered it is a fine example of the
fices of the reign of Janies
VI. In the tower are two bells,
in Lockhart?s ear, ?I feel as
if there would be less sun-
-shine for me from this day one inscribed SOLI DEO HONOR ET
forth.? 2y GLORIA, 1608, and a larger one,
In May 1880 there was cast in 1796. Between the stately
erected here a monument windows of the Council
.of rose-coloured granite, Hall is a pediment sur-
Wenty-six feet high, by Mr. mounted by a great thistle
Ford of the Holyroad Glass and the legend :-
-Works, ?? In memory of the J. R 6. JUSTITIA ET PIETAS
burgh Castle, situated in , FERGUSSON?S GRAVE. Herein the magistrates
soldiers who died in Edin- VALIDE SUNT PRINCIPIS ABCES.
.the Parish of Canongate,
interred here from the year 1692 to 1880.? It
k very ornate, has on its base sculptured trophies,
-and was inaugurated in presence of General Hope,
his staff, and the 71st Highlanders. Prior to its
erection the spot where so many soldiers have
.found their last home was only a large square patch
covered by grass.
In the ?? Domestic Annals ? we find recorded the
.death, in 1788, of Henry Prentice, by whom the
field culture of the potato was first introduced into.
the county of Edinburgh, in 1746. He had made
.a. little money as a travelling merchant, was an
.eccentric character, and in 1784 sunk A140 with
the managers of the Canongate poorhouse for a
weekly subsistence. He had his coffin made, with
the date of his birth thereon, 1703, and long bad
his gravestone conspicuously placed in the burgh
churchyard, inscribed thus :-
who came as successors
of the abbots of Holyrood as over-lords of the
burgh, held u-eekly courts for the punishment of
offenders, the adjustment of small debts, and
the affairs of the little municipality. That the
building is older than any of the dates upon it, or
that it had apredecessor, the following extracts from
the ?? Burgh Records ? attest :-
?? Vndecimo decembris, an : 1567.
?The quhilk day it was concludit, be the Baillies and
Counsall, to pursew quhatsomever person that is known and
brutit wt the breking of the Tolbooth of this burcht, the
tyme of the furth letting of Janet Robertsoun, being werdit
within the samyn, &c.?
In 1572 the following item occurs :-
?TO sax pynonis (pioneers?) att the Baillies *command
for taking doun of the lintel-stone of the Ruld Tolbooth
window-iij-s vi-d.?
In 1654 several Scottish prisoners of war, con
