336 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Stret.
brated chemist, Dr. Joseph Black, who, as we have
elsewhere stated, was found dead in his chair in
November, 1799, and whose high reputation contributed
so largely in his time to the growing fame
of our University.
The institution was first suggested by the celebrated
Dr. Thomas Blacklock, who lost his sight
before he was six months old, and by Mr. David
Miller, also a sufferer from blindness ; but it was
chiefly through the exertions of Dr. David Johnsales
of the above kinds of work have in some years
amounted to ;C;IO,OOO, and in 1880 to &18,724 8s.,
notwithstanding the general depression of trade ;
but this was owing to the Government contract for
brushes.' Hence the directors have been enabled
to make extensive alterations and improvements to
a large amount.
The asylum has received a new and elegant
fapde, surmounted by stone-faced dormer windows,
a handsome cornice, and balustrade, with a large
THE MAHOGANY LAND, POTTERROW, 1821. (Ajtecr a Paintinc ay W. McEwan, in the #osscsaim of Dr. ].A. Sidey.)
stone, the philanthropic minister of North Leith,
aided by a subscription of only A20 from the great
Wilberforce, that the asylum was founded in 1793,
ip one of the dingy old houses of Shakespeare
Square, into which nine blind persons were received;
but the public patronage having greatly increased,
in 1806 the present building, No. 58, was purchased,
acd in 1822 another house, No. 38, was
bought for the use of the female blind.
The latter are employed in sewing the covers
for mattresses and feather beds, knitting stockings,
Src. The males are employed in making mattresses,
mats, ,brushes, baskets of every kind, in weaving
sacking, matting, and " rag-carpets.'' No less than
eighteen looms are employed in this work. The
central doorway, in a niche above which is a bust
of Dr. David Johnstone, the founder, from the
studio of the late Handyside Ritchie.
The inmates seem to spend a very merry life,
for though the use of their eyes has been denied
them, they have no restriction placed upon their
tongues ; thus, whenever two or three of them are
together, they are constantly talking, or singing
their national songs.
A chapel is attached to the works, and therein,
besides regular morning worship, the blind hold
large meetings in connection with the various
benefit societies they have established among
themselves. The younger lads who come from the
Blind School at Craigmillar, and are employed here,
