North Loch. J T,HE BOARD OF
was almost a permanent place for caravans and
wild beast shows. A row of miserable temporary
workshops, and at one time a little theatre, dis.
figured its western side. Among other edifices that
were there until about 1850 was the huge wooden
peristrophic Rotunda, which was first opened in
1823 to exhibit some great pictures of the battles
of Trafalgar and Waterloo.
In the same year was laid the foundation of the
Royal Institution, after the protracted and laborious
process of driving about 2,000 piles into the site, to
make firm the travelled earth at its southern end.
Though founded in 1823, it was notfinally completed
until 1836, after designs by W. H. Playfair, at a cost
of ~40,000. As shown in the view on the next
page, it was at first without enrichment in the
pediments, and was finished above the cornice,
by a plain parapet all round, with a base and
moulding ; and had eight la?rge pedestals, intended
for statues, against the walls, between the flat
Grecian pilasters. The building was, however,
subsequently largely altered and improved. It is
in the pure Doric style of Pericles, and forms an
oblong, nearly akin in character to that of a
peripteral temple, with fluted columns all rising
from a uniform base of steps, and surmounted by
n pure Greek entablature. There projects from
its north front a triple octostyle portico, and from its
south front a double octostyle portico, and the
pediments of both are filled with beautifully-carved
Greek scroll-work and honeysuckle, From the
flanks of these, at both ends, there projects
a distyle poytico. Behind the apex of the northern
portico, facing Hanover Street, is a colossal
statue of Queen Victoria, seated, with crown,
sceptre, and robes of state, sculptured by Steel.
Eight sphinxes adorn the four angles of this stately
edifice, which, like all others in the New Town, is
built of pure white freestone, and contains a
school of design, a gallery of sculpture, the
antiquarian museum, the apartments of the Royal
Society, and those of the Board of Trustees for
Manufactures in Scotland. We shall treat of the
last first.
By the fifteenth article of the Treaty of Union
with England, among other provisions for giving
Scotland some equivalent for the increase of duties
of Customs and Excise, it was agreed that for some
years Az,ooo per annum should be applied by the
new Imperial Parliament towards the encouragement
and formation of manufactures in the coarse
wool of those counties that produced it, and afterwards
to be wholly employed towards ?? encouraging
and promoting the fisheries and such other
mmufactwes and improvements in Scotland as
MANUFACTURES. 83
may conduce to the general good of the United
Kingdom.?
In 1718 this A2,ooo was made payable for ever
out of the Customs and Excise in Scotland. In
1725 an addition was made to this sum by an Act
which provided that when the produce of threepenceper
bushel to be laid on malt should exceed
~ 2 0 , 0 0 0 per annum, such surplus should be added
to it and applied to the same purposes, In 1726
the Crown was empowered to appoint twenty-one
trustees, who were named in 1727 by letters
patent, which prescribed their duties and the plan
for expending the funds at their disposal in the
encouragement of the woollen, linen, and hempen
manufactures and the Scottish fisheries, which had
always been fostered by the Stuart kings, as numeroys
laws, enacted by the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and
Sixth Jameses, attest.
Bitt in regarding a Scottish institution which
now occupies a place so conspicuous in the eye
of the public, it is curious to trace the difficulties it
had to contend with, in consequence of the lack of
local government and the monetary vacuum caused
byaconflict between the banks. On the 26th of
June, I 7 28, Duncan Forbes, then Lord Advocate,
wrote to the Duke of Newcastle :-? The trustees
appointed by His Majesty for taking care of the
manufactures proceed with great zeal and industry ;
but at present credit is run so low, by a struggle
between the bank lately erected by His Majesty and
the old bank, that money can scarcely be found to
go to market with.?
Matters, however, improved, and the activity
and use of the Board were shown in the promotion
of the linen manufacture, which, under the stimulus
given by premiums, rose from an export sale of
2,183,978 yards in 1727 to 4,666,011 yards in
1738, 3,358,098 yards in 1748, and 12,823,048
yards in 1764.
In 1766 the trustees opened a hall in Edinburgh
(The British Linen Hall) for the custody and sale
of Scottish linens, which the owners thereof might
sell, either personally or by their factors. ?For
whatever period the goods should remain in the
hall unsold,? says Amot, ? their respective owners
pay nothing to the proprietors of the hall; but
upon their being sold, 5 per cent. upon the value
of the linens sold is demanded by way of rent. As
the opening of this hall was found to be attended
with good consequences to the linen manufactures,
so in 1776 the trustees extended it upon the
same terms to the woollen manufactures of Scotland.?
Under these trustees and their successors the
business of the Board was camed on until 1828
