Canongate1 SIR JOHN WHITEFORD OF THAT ILK 35
but who, after being sentenced to death, escaped to
Rome, where he died in 1749, without issue, aceording
to Sir Robert Douglas ; and, of course, is
:the same house that has been mentioned in history
as the Lord Seton?s lodging ?? in the Cannogait,?
wherein on his arrival from England, ?.? Henrie Lord
Dernlie, eldest son of Matho, erle of Lennox,? re-
:sided when, prior to his marriage, he came to Edinburgh
on the 13th of February, 1565, as stated in
the ?? Diurnal of Occurrents.?
In the same house was lodged, in 1582, according
to Moyse, Mons. De Menainville, who came
as an extra ambassador from France, with instructions
to join La Motte Fenelon. He landed at
Burntisland on the 18th of January, and came to
Edinburgh, where he had an audience with Janies
VI. on the 23rd, to the great alarm of the clergy,
who dreaded this double attempt to revive French
influence in? Scottish affairs. One Mr. James
Lawson ?? pointed out the French ambassaye?
as the mission of the King of Babylon, and characterised
Menainville as the counterpart of the
blaspheming Rabshakeh.
Upon the 10th February, says Moyse, ?La Motte
having received a satisfying answer to his comniission,
with a great banquet at Archibald Stewart?s
lodgings in Edinburgh, took his journey homeward,
and called at Seaton by the way. The said Monsieur
Manzeville remained still here, and lodging
at my Lord Seaton?s house in the Canongate, had
daily access to the king?s majesty, to whom he
imparted his negotiations at all times.?
In this house died, of hectic fever, in December,
1638, Jane, Countess of Sutherland, grand-daughter
af the first Earl of Winton. She ?was interred at
the collegiat churche of Setton, without any funeral1
ceremoney, by night.?
In front of this once noble mansion, in which
Scott lays some of the scenes of the ?Abbot,?
there sprang up a kind of humble tavern, built
chiefly of lath and plaster, known as ?Jenny Ha?s,?
from Mrs. Hall, its landlady, famous for her claret.
Herein Gay, the poet, is said to ??have boosed
during his short stay in Edinburgh ;? and to this
tavern it was customary for gentlemen to adjourn
after dinner parties, to indulge in claret from the
butt.
On the site of the Seton mansion, and surrounded
by its fine old gardens, was raised the present
edifice known as Whiteford House, the residence of
Sir John Whiteford, Bart., of that ilk and Ballochof
the early patrons of Burns, who had been htre
duced to him by Dr. Mackenzie, and the grateful
bard never forgot the kindness he accorded to him.
The failure of Douglas, Heron, & Co., in whose
bank he had a fatal interest, compelled him to
dispose of beautiful Ballochmyle, after which he
resided permanently in Whiteford House, where
he died in 1803. To the last he retained a military
bearing, having served in the army, and been a
major in 1762.
Latterly, and for many years, Whiteford House
was best known as the residence of Sir William
Macleod Bannatyne, who was raised to the bench
on the death of Lord Swinton, in 1799, and was
long remembered as a most pleasing example of the
old gentleman of Edinburgh ?before its antique
mansions and manners had fallen under the ban
of modern fashion.?
One of the last survivors of the Mirror Club,
in private life his benevolent and amiable qualities
of head and heart, with his rich stores of literary
and historical anecdote, endeared him to a numerous
and highly distinguished circle of friends. Robert
Chambers speaks of breakfasting with him in Whiteford
House so late as 1832, ?on which occasion
the venerable old gentleman talked as familiarly
of the levees of the sous-nziniske for Lord Bute in
the old villa at the Abbey Hill as I could have
talked of the Canning administration, and even
recalled, 2.5 a fresh picture of his memory, his father
drawing on his boots to go to make interest in
London on behalf of some men in trouble for
the ?45, particularly his own brother-in-law, the
Clanranald of that day.? He died at Whiteford
House on the 30th of November, 1833, in the
ninety-first year of his age. His mansion was
latterly used as a type-foundry.
On the south side of the street, nearly opposite
the site of the Seton lodging, the residence of the
Dukes of Queensberry still towers up, a huge, dark,
gloomy, and quadrangular mass, the scene of much
stately life, of low corrupt intrigue, and in one
instance of a horrible tragedy.
It was built by Lord Halton on land belonging
to the Lauderdale family; and by a passage in
Lord Fountainhall?s folios would seem to have been
sold bp him, in June, 1686, to William first Duke
of Queensbeny and Marquis of Dumfries-shire, Lord
High Treasurer and President of the Council,a
noted money-lender and land-acquirer, who built
the castle of Drumlanrig, and at the exact hour
.
niyle, a locality in Ayrshire, on which the muse of whose death, in 1695, it is said, a Scottish
of Bums has conferred celebrity, and whose father skipper, being in Sicily, saw one day a coach and
is said to have been the prototype of Sir Arthur ,six driving to flaming Mount Etna, while a dia-
Wardour in the ?Antiquary.? Sir John was one 1 bolical voice was heard to exclaim, ?Way for the
