34 OJ,D AND NEW EDINBURGH. -. -
by a clause in one of the Acts of the North British
Railway; and since 1847 it has fortunately become
the property of the Free Church of Scotland, by
whom it is now used as a training college or nor.
mal school, managed by a rector and very efficient
staff,
On the Same side, but to the eastward, is Milton
House, a large and handsome mansion, though
heavy and sombre in style, built in what had been
originally the garden of Lord Roxburghe?s house,
or a portion thereof, during the eighteenth century,
by Andrew Fletcher of Milton, raised to the bench in
1724 in succession to the famous Lord Fountainhall,
and who remained a senator of the Court of
Session till his death. He was the nephew of the
noble and patriotic Fletcher of Salton, and was an
able coadjutor with his friend Archibald the great
Duke of Argyle, during whose administration he
exercised a wise control over the usually-abused
Government patronage in Scotland. He sternly
discouraged all informers, and was greatly esteemed
for the mild and gentle manner in which he used his
authority when Lord Justice Clerk after the battle
of Culloden.
From the drawing-room windows on the south a
spacious garden extended to the back of the
Canongate, and beyond could be seen the hill of
St. Leonard and the stupendous craigs. Its walls
are still decorated with designs and landscapes,
having rich floral borders painted in distemper,
and rich stucco ceilings are among the decorations,
and ? interspersed amid the ornamental borders
there are various grotesque figures, which have the
appearance,? says Wilson, ? of being copies, from
an illuminated missal of the fourteenth century.
They represent a cardinal, a monk, a priest, and
other churchmen, painted with great humour and
drollery of attitude and expression. They so entirely
differ from the general character of the composition,
that their insertion may be conjectured to
have originated in a whim of Lord Milton?s, which
the artist has contrived to execute without sacrificing
the harmony of his .design.?
Lord Milton was the guardian of the family of
Susannah Countess of Eglinton for many years,
and took a warm and fatherly interest in her beautiful
girls after the death of the earl in 1729 ; and
the terms of affectionate intimacy in which he stood
with them are amusingly shown in ? The petition of
the six vestal virgins of Eglinton,? signed by them
all, and addressed ? To the Honourable Lord Milton,
at his lodgings, Edinburgh,? in I 735-a curious
and witty production, .printed in the ?Eglinton
Memorials.?
Lord Milton died at his house of Brunstane,
[Canangate. -
near Musselburgh, on the 13th of December, 1766,
aged seventy-four. Four years after that event the
Scots Magazine for 1770 gives us a curious account
of a remarkable mendicant that had long haunted
his gates:--? Edinburgh, Sept. 29th. A gentleman,
struck with the uncommon good appearance
of an elderly man who generally sits bareheaded
under a dead wall in the Canongate, opposite to
Lord Milton?s house, requesting alms of those
who pass, had the curiosity to inquire into his
history, and learned the following melancholy account
of him. He is an attainted baronet, named
Sif John Mitchell of Pitreavie, and had formerly
a very affluent estate, . In the early part of his life
he was a captain in the Scots Greys, but was broke
for sending a challenge to the Duke of Marlborough,
in consequence of some illiberal reflections thrown
out by his Grace against the Scottish nation.
Queen Anne took so personal a part in his prosecution
that he was condemned to transportation
for the offence ; and this part of his sentence was,
with difficulty, remitted at the particular instance
of John Duke of Argyle. Exposed, in the hundredth
year of his age, to the inclemencies of the
weather, it is hoped the humane and charitable
of this city will attend to his distresses, and relieve
him from a situation which appears too severe a
punishment for what, at worst, can be termed his
spirited imprudence. A subscription for his annual
support is opened at Balfoufs coffee-house, where
those who are disposed to contribute towards it will
receive every satisfaction concerning the disposal of
their charity and the truth of the foregoing relation.?
The aged mendicant referred to may have been
a knight, but the name of Mitchell is not to be
found in the old list of Scottish baronets, and Pitreavie,
belonged to the Wadlaws.
In later years Milton House was occupied as a
Catholic school, under the care of the Sisters of
Charity, who, with their pupils, attracted considerable
attention in 1842, on the occasion of the first
visit of Queen Victoria to Holyrood, from whence
they strewed flowers before her up the ancient street.
It was next a school for deaf and dumb, anon
5 temporary maternity hospital, and then the property
of an engineering firm.
Where Whiteford House stands now, in Edgar?s
map ?or 1765 there are shown two blocks of
buildings (with a narrow passage between, and a
Zarden 150 feet long) marked, ?Ruins of the Earl
Df Winton?s house,? a stately edifice, which, no
loubt, had fallen into a state of dilapidation from
its extreme antiquity and abandonment after the
attainder of George, fourth Earl of Winton, who
was taken prisoner in the fight at Preston in 1715,
?
