NioiLson Street.] JOHN MACLAREN. 337
spend a portion of each day in education, often
passing an hour or more daily in learning to read
by means of raised letters, under the direction of
the chaplain.
One of the most remarkable inmates here was
John Maclaren, who deserves to be recorded for
his wonderful memory. He was a native of Edinburgh,
and lost his sight by small-pox in infancy.
He was admitted into the first asylum ir. Shakespeare
Square in 1793, and was the last survivor
In West Richmond Street, which opens off the
east side of Nicolson Street, is the McCrie Free
Church, so named from being long the scene of
the labours of Dr. Thomas McCric, the zealous
biographer of Knox and Melville. Near it, a large
archway leads into a small and dingy-looking court,
named Simon Square, crowded by a humble, but
dense population ; yet it has associations intimately
connected with literature and the fine arts, for
there a poor young student from Rnnandale, named
SURGEONS? HALL.
of the original members. With little exception,
he had committed the whole of the Scriptures to
memory, and was most earnest in his pious efforts
to instruct the blind boys of the institution in portions
of the sacred volume. He could repeat an
entire passage of the Bible, naming chapter and
verse, wherever it might be opened for him. As
age came upon him the later events of his life eluded
his memory, while all that it had secured of the
earlier remained distinct to the last. Throughout
his long career he was distinguished by his zeal
in promoting the spiritual welfare and temporal
comfort of the little community of which he was
a member, and also for 3 life of increasing industry,
which closed on the 14th of November, 1840.
91
Thomas Carlyle, lodged when he first came to
Edinburgh, and in a narrow alley called Paul
Street David Wilkie took up his abode on his
arrival in Edinburgh in 1799.
He was then in his fourteenth year; and so little
was thought of his turn for art, that it required all
the powerful influence of the kind old Earl of
Leven to obtain him admission as a student at the
Academy of the Board of Trustees. The room he
occupied in Paul Street was a little back one, about
ten feet square, at the top of a common stair on
the south side of the alley, and near the Pleasance.
From this he removed to a better lodging in East
Richmond Street, and from thence to an attic in
Palmer?s Lane, West Nicolson Street, where hq
