268 OLD ANI) NEW EDINBURGH [Candlemaker Row.
and weekly thirty-two carriers put up in the same
quarter.
In that year the Candlemaker?s Row was the
scene of a tragedy that excited great attention at
the time-the slaughter of a noted ruffian named
John Boyd, an inhabitant of the street, by Dr. Symons
of the 51st or Edinburgh Regiment of Militia,
on the night of the 2nd August, for which, after
being out on bail under cf;~oo, he was brought
before the High
Court of Justiciary
onacharge of murder.
It would appear
that about midnight
Dr. Symons, after
being at a dinnerparty
in Buccleuch
Place, was on his
way through the Row
to the Castle, accompanied
by Lieutenant
Ronaldson of
the same regiment,
when opposite Paterson?s
Inn they were
attacked by two men,
one of whom, a
notorious disturber of
the peace, struck the
doctor a blow behind
the neck, and subsequently
attempted
to wrest his sword
away, knocking him
down and kicking
him at the same time.
Staggering to his
feet,and burning with
rage, the doctor drew
In the open space referred to, eastward of Candlemaker
Kow, Gordon of Rothiemay shows us (see
p. 261) the ancient buildings known as the Society,
forming an oblong quadrangle, lying east and west,
with open ground to the north and south, the
former sloping down to the Cowgate, and planted
with trees. These buildings, the last of which
-a curiously picturesque group, long forming the
south-east quarter of what was latterly Brown
TABLET ON THE CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE.
(Frum a Photogva$h Zy A2rxaudw A. Ingtis.)
his sword and pursued his assailant down the
Row to Merchant Street, when a fresh struggle
ensued, and Boyd was run through the body
and left bleeding in the gutter, where he was
found dead, while the doctor was totally ignorant
that he had injured him so severely. The generally
infamous character of the deceased being proved,
the Lord Justice Clerk, Charles Hope, summed up
to the effect, ? that the charge of murder was by no
means brought home to the prisoner j that what he
had done was altogether in self-defence, and the
matural impulse of the moment, from being attacked,
beaten, knocked down, and grievously insulted.?
The jury returned a verdict of (? Not Guilty,? and
the doctor was dismissed from the bar, and lived
long years after as a practitioner in the country.
Square - were only
removed when Charnbers
Street was made
in 1871, and were ,
built by a society of
brewers established
in 1598.
It was built upon
a piece of ground
that belonged of old
to the convent of
Sienna (at the
Sciennes), and was a
corporation for the
brewing of ale and
beer, commodities
which have ever been
foremost among the
staple productions of
Edinburgh, and the
name of ?Society?
accorded to that
quarter, remained as
a- tradition of the
ancient company long
after it had passed
away. An Englishman
who visited
Edinburgh in 1598,
wrote :-?? The Scots
drink pure wines, not with sugar as the English j
yet at feasts they put comfits in the wine, after the
French manner, but they had not our vintners?
fraud to mix their wines. I did never see nor
hear that they have any public inns; but the
better sort of citizens brew ale, their usual drink,
which will distemper a stranger?s body.?
The usual allowance of ale at table then, was a
chopin, equal to about an imperial pint, to each
person. Though Edinburgh ale is still famous,
private brewing is no longer practised.
A curious fragment of the old town wall was
built into the southern edifices of the Society, and
portions of them may remain, where an old established
inn once stood, long known as the HoZe in
fht WaU.
C a n d l d a Raw.] GEORGE BROWN. 269 ?
school ; but Lord Hailes, after removing from
Todrig?s Wynd, occupied a house in ?The So-
. ciety,? before locating himself in New Street.
Brown Square, now nearly swept away, was a
small oblong place, about zoo feet east and west,
by 150 north and south. During the long delay
which took place between the first project of having
a New Town, and building a bridge that was to
lead to it, a rival town began to spring up in
another quarter, which required neither a bridge
nor an Act of Parliament, nor even the unanimity
of several interested proprietors to mature it, and
it soon became important enough to counteract for
some years the extension by the ridge of the Lang
In this quarter a fashionable boading-school
for young ladies was established in the middle of
$he last century by Mrs. Janet Murray, widow of
Archibald Campbell, collector of the customs at
Prestonpans. She died in the Society in 1770,
and the establishment was then conducted by her
friends under the name of ? Mrs. Murray?s Boarding
School?
To those who remember it in its latter days the
locality seems a strange one for a young ladies?
On the ground acquired so cheaply he proceeded
at once to erect, in 1763-4, houses that were
deemed fine mansions, and found favour with the
upper classes, before a stone of the New Town
was laid. Repenting of their mistake, the magistrates
offered Mr. Brown Az,ooo for the grouid;
but he, perceiving the success of his scheme, demanded
Lzo,ooo, so the city relinquished the
idea The square was quickly finished on nearly
three sides, including the Society, znd one old
mansion having an octagon turnpike stair, dated
17 18, at the north-east corner next Crombie?s Close,
and became filled with inhabitants of a good class
while George Square rose collaterally with it.
~
Dykes. This might have been prevented had the
magistrates contrived to acquire a piece of ground
south of the Old Town, which was offered to them
for only ~ I , P O O , but which was purchased by a
builder and architect namedGeorge Brown, abrother
of Brown of Lindsaylands and Elliston. He was
the projector and builder of George Square, and
Jso built the large house of Bellevue (for General
Scott of Balcomie), which stood so long in Dmmmond
Place.
THE CUNZIE HOUSE, CANDLEMAKER ROW,
