The Old High S:hoo!.l THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 287
college, the pulpits, desks, lofts, and seats, were;
says Nicol, (( dung down by these English sodgeris,
and burnt to asses.?
When the congregation of the abbey church
were compelled by James VII. to leave it in 1687,
they had to seek accommodation in Lady Yester?s
till another place of worship could be provided
for them. A small cemetery adjoined the church ;
it is now covered with buildings, but was still
in use about the close of the last and beginning
of the present century, and many seamen of the
Russian fleet, which lay for a time at Leith, and
who died in the infirmary, were buried there.
In 1803 the old church was taken down, and a
new one erected for 1,212 sitters, considerably to
the westward of it, was opened in the following
year. Though tasteless and nondescript in style,
it was considered an ornament to that part of
the city.
The tomb of the foundress, and the tablet recording
her good works, are both rebuilt into
this new fane ; but it seems doubtful whether her
body was removed at the same time. The parish
is wholly a town one, and situated within the city;
it contains 64,472 square yards
With diffidence, yet with ardour and interest, we
now approach the subject of the old High School
of Edinburgh-the famous and time-honoured
SchZa Regia Edineprsis-so prominently patronised
by James VI., and the great national importance of
which was recognised even by George IV., who
gave it a handsome donation.
Scott, and thousands of others, whose deeds and
names in every walk of life and in every part of
the globe have added to the glory of their country,
have conned their tasks in the halls of this venerable
institution. In the roll of its scholars,?
says Dr. Steven, ?are the names of some of the
most distinguished men of all professions, and who
have filled important situations in all parts of the
world, and it is a fact worth recording that it includes
the names of three Chancellors of England,
all nafives of Edinburgh-Wedderbum, Erskine,
and Brougham.?
Learning, with all the arts and infant science
too, found active and munificent patrons in the
monarchs of the Stuart line ; thus, so early as the
sixth Parliament of James IV., it was ordained
that all barons and freeholders of substance were
to put their eldest sons to school after the age of
six or nine years, there to remain till they were
perfect in Latin, ?( swa that they have knowledge
and understanding of the lawes, throw the quhilks
justice may remaine universally throw all the
tealme.? Those who failed to conform to this
Act were to pay a fine of twenty pounds. But
Scotland possessed schools so early as the twelfth
century in all her principal towns, though prior
to that period scholastic knowledge could only
be received within the walk- of the monasteries.
The Grammar School of Edinburgh was originally
attached to the abbey of Holyrood, and as the
demand for education increased, those friars whose
presence could be most easily dispensed tvith at the
abbey,were permitted by the abbot and chapter
to become public teachers within the city.
The earliest mention of a regular Grammar
School in Edinburgh being under the control of
the magistrates is on the 10th January, 1519, ?the
quhilk day, the provost, baillies, and counsall
statutis and ordains, fot resonabie caussis moving
thame, that na maner of nychtbour nor indwe!ler
within this burgh, put thair bairins till ony particular
scule within this toun, boi to fhe pnircipal
Grammw Smlc of the samyn,? to be taught in
any science, under a fine of ten shillings to the
master of the said principal school.
David Vocat, clerk of the abbey, was then at
the head of the seminary, enjoying this strange
monopoly; and on the 4th September, 1524,
George, Bishop of Dunkeld, as abbot of Holyrood,
with consent of his chapter, appointed Henry
Henryson as assistant and successor to Vocat,
whose pupil he had been, at the Grammar School
of the Canongate.
Bya charter of James V., granted under the
great seal of Scotland, dated 1529, Henryson had
the sole privilege of instructing the youth of
Edinburgh; but he was ?also to attend at the
abbey in his surplice on all high and solemn
festivals, there to sing at mass and evensong, and
make himself otherwise useful in the chapel.
According to Spottiswood?s Church History,
Henryson publicly abjured Romanism so early .as
1534, and thus he must have left the High School
before that year, as Adam Melville had become
head-master thereof in 1531. The magistrates of
the city had as yet no voice in the nomination of
masters, though the whole onus of the establishment
rested on them as representing the citizens ; and
in 1554, as we have elsewhere (VoL I. p. 263)
stated, they hired that venerable edifice, then at
the foot of Blackfriars Wfnd-once the residence
of -Archbishop Ekaton and of his nephew the cardinal-
as a school; but in the following year they
were removed to another house, near the head of
what is named the High School Wynd, which had
been built by the town for their better accommodation.
The magistrates having obtained from Queen
