334 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Sheet
There was then in Edinburgn a merchant, named
Charles Jackson, to whom Charles 11. had acted
as godfather in the Kirk of Keith, and Jackson
was a name assumed by Charles after his escape
in the Royal Oak. In consideration of all this,
by an advertisement in the Courant, Mr. Jackson,
as being lineally descended from a stock of
royalists, ?invited all such to solemnise that
memorable day (29th May) at an enclosure called
Charles?s Field, lying a mile south from this city
(where he hath erected a very useful bleachingfield),
and there entertained them with a diversity
of liquors, fine music, 8rc.?
He had a huge bonfire lighted, and a tall pole
erected, with a large banner displayed therefrom,
and the royal oak painted on it, together with
the bark in which his sacred majesty made his
escape, and the colonel who accompanied him
?The company around the bonfire drank Her
Majesty Queen Anne?s health, and the memory ot
the happy Restoration, with great mirth and demonstrations
of loyalty. The night concluded with
mirth, and the standard being brought back to Mr.
Jackson?s lodgings, was carried by ZoyaZ gentlemen
bareheaded, and followed by several others with
trumpets, hautboys, and bagpipes playing before
them, where they were kindly entertained.? (Reliquiz
Scofia.)
CHAPTER XXXIX.
NICOLSON STREET AND SQUARE.
Lady Nicolson-Her Pillar-Royal Riding School-M. Angelo-New Surgeons? Hall-The Earl of Leven-Dr. Barthwick Gilchrist-The Blind
Asylum-John Madmen-Sir David WilkicRaxburgh Parish-My Glenorchy?r Chapel.
NICOLSON STREET, which runs southward to the
Cross Causeway, on a line with the South Bridge,was
formed about the middle of the eighteenth century,
on the grounds of Lady Nicolson, whose mansion
stood on an area now covered by the eastern end
of North College Street ; and a writer in a public
print recently stated that the house numhered as
82 in Nicolson Street, presently occupied as a
hotel, was erected for and occupied by her after
the street was formed.
In Shaw?s ? Register of Entails ? under date of
Tailzie, 7th October, 1763, and of Registration, 4th
December, 1764, is the name of Lady Nicolson
(Elizabeth Carnegie), relict of Mr. Tames Nicolson,
with note of the lands and heritable subjects in
the shire of Edinburgh that should belong to her
at her death.
In Edgar?s plan for 1765, her park, lying eastward
of the Potterrow, is intersected by the ?New
Road,? evidently the line of the present street, and
at its northern end is her mansion, some seventy
feet distant from the city wall, with a carriage gate
and lodge, the only other building near it being the
Royal Riding School, with its stables, on the site of
the present Surgeons? Hall.
On the completion of Nicolson Street, Lady
Nicolson erected at its northern end a monument
to her husband. It was, states Amot, a fluted
Corinthian column, twenty-five feet two inches in
height, with a capital and base, and fourteen inches
diameter. Another account says it was from
thirty to forty feet in height, and had on its pedestal
an inscription in Latin and English, stating that
Lady Nicolson having been left the adjacent piece
of ground by her husband, had, out of regard for
his memory, made it to be planned into ?? a street,
to be named from him, Xicolson Street.?
On the extension of the thoroughfare and ultimate
completion of the South Bridge, from which
it was for some years a conspicuous object, it was
removed, and the affectionate memorial, instead
of being placed in the little square, with that barbarous
want of sentiment that has characterised
many improvements in Edinburgh and elsewhere in
Scotland in more important matters, was thrown
aside into the yard of the adjacent Riding School,
and was, no doubt, soon after broken up for
rubble.
One of the first edifices in the newly-formed
thoroughfare was the old Riding School, a block of
buildings and stables, measuring about one hundred
and fifty feet each way.
The first ?master of the Royal Riding Menage?
was Angelo Tremamondo, a native of Italy, .as his
name imports, though it has been supposed that it
was merely a mountebank assumption, as it means
the tremor of the world, a universal earthquake;
but be that as it may, his Christian name in Edmburgh
speedily dwindled clown to Aimhe. He was
in the pay of the Government, was among the earliest
residents in Nicolson Square, and had a salary of
Lzoo per annum.
