362 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [lauriston.
As a precaution against the germs of disease, the
walls are cemented and faced with parian, while
the floors are of well-varnished Baltic pine. Galton
grates are extensively used, with a view of obtaining
the fullest benefit of all the fires.
A well-lighted cIass-room enters from the south
side of a ground-floor corridor, where 300 students
may have the advantage of clinical demonstrations;
while a similar room, with accommodation for zoo,
holds a corresponding situation on the female side.
A short passage from the entrance hall leads
southward to the great operating theatre, which is
capable of holding about 500 students, and has retiring
rooms in it, one specially for the administration
of chloroform. A wing of Watson?s Hospital has
been allocated as the nurses? kitchen and dininghall,
the housekeeper?s rooms, and those of the lady
superintendent and her assistant. In the west wing
are the dining-room, library, and private apartments
of the resident medical staff.
In the north-west corner of the grounds, and
apart from the general edifice, is a group of buildings,
with a frontage to Lauriston of 150 feet,
which though detailed in a less florid style, yet harmonise
with the general design. This is the
department for Pathology, the principal feature of
which is an ample-sized theatre for lectures, seated
for 220 students, and having microscopic and
chemistry rooms, SEC., attached. Near it is the
mortuary, the walls of which are lined with white
glazed bricks. It is in direct communication with
the Surgical and Medical Hospitals, from both of
which the bodies of the dead can be conveyed
thereto, unseen by the other patients, through an
undergound passage.
To the washing-house, in another building, the
soiled linen is conveyed through a tunnel, and
subjected to a washer worked by steam, a mechanical
wringer, and a drying chamber of hot air.
Beside it is the boiler-house, for working the heating
apparatus generally and the hydraulic machinery
of the hoists, which latter is effected by a
steam-engine of 32 horse-power.
A residence for the superintendent, commodious,
and harmonising with the general buildings, has
been erected near the Meadow Walk, in rear of the
Surgical Hospital.
In regard to its capabilities for accommodation, we
may state that of the eighteen wards in the surgical
departments there are fifteen which will accommodate
sixteen patients, including private beds. In
the medical house are twelve wards, each capable
of receiving twenty-three patients. Including the
ophthalmic, accident, and D. T. wards, together
with the reserved beds, there is a total of 600, or
140 over the daily average of patients treated in
the last year of the old infirmary. The amount of
space provided for each patient varies from 2,350
feet to 2,380, as compared to the 1,800 cubic feet
allowed in St. Thomas?s Hospital, London, and
1,226 cubic feet in Fort Warren, Massachusetts.
(Scotsman, I 8 7 9, &c.)
The Infirmary was inspected by the Queen on
the occasion of her visit to Edinburgh in connection
with the Volunteer Review of 1881.
The Edinburgh Royal Maternity and Simpson
Memorial Hospital-so called as a tribute to the
noble name and memory of the late Sir James Y.
Simpson-was erected in 1878, for the accomniodation
of this most important charity, at the corner
of Lauriston Place and Lauriston Park.
Meadow-side House, the hospital specially devoted
to sick children, is in Lauriston Lane, and in
the most sunny portion of the grounds. It is a
humane and useful charity; its directors chiefly
consist of medical men, a matron, and a committee
of ladies, with a complete medical staff of
resident, ordinary, and consulting physicians.
Immediately adjoined to where this edifice
stands, there was erected in 1816 the Merchant
Maiden?s Hospital, the successor of that establishment
which was endowed by Mrs. Mary Erskine,
incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1702, and
which we have described in a preceding chapter,
as being in the vicinity of Argyle Square. That
old building had long been found inadequate to its
objects, and its vicinity having become crowded
with houses, the governors, zealous for the comfort
of the young ladies under their care, purchased
three acres to the west of Lauriston Lane, which
is a southern continuation of the ancient Vennel
in a spot, which we are told, in 1816, ?united all
the advantages of retirement and pure air, without
an inconvenient distance from tom.?? (SrOrs
Mig., 1816).
Erected from designs by Mr. Burn, this edifice is
still a very elegant one, 180 feet long by 60 deep,
with a bow of 36 feet radius in its north front. Its
style is purely Grecian The central portico of four
fine Ionic columns faces the West Meadow, and is
detailed from a small temple on the Ilyssus, near
Athens. The windows on the lower storey are
double arched, and the superstructure has an aspect
of strength and solidity. The foundation-stone was
laid on the 2nd of August, 1816, in presence of the
governors and the preses, William Ramsay, a well
known banker, and the total expense was about
On the principal floor, as it was then laid out, was
an elegant chapel and governors? room, 30 feet in
.?9,000.
Luriston.1 GEORGE HERIOT. 363
diameter and 22 feet high; one school-room, 52
feet long by 26 wide ; and two others of 42 feet by
24; with, on the upper floors, the nursery, bed-rooms,
music, store and governesses? rooms. The building
was opened in 1819, and two years after contained
80 girls, its annual revenue being then about
E3,ooo sterling.
In 187 I another hospital for the girls was erected
elsewhere, and the edifice described was appropriated
for the use of George Watson?s College
Schools, with an entrance from Archibald Place.
The design of these schools is to provide boys
with a liberal education, qualifying them for CMrnercial
or professional life, and for the universities.
Their course of study includes the classics,
English, French, and German, and all the other
usual branches of a most liberal education, together
with chemistry, drill, gymnastics, and fencing. The
number of foundationers has Seen reduced to 60,
at least one fourth of whom are elected by competitive
examination from boys attending this and the
other schools of the Merchant Company, and boys
attending these schools have the following benefits,
viz. I : A presentation to one of the foundations of
this, or Stewart?s Hospital, tenable for six years j
2. A bursary, on leaving the schools of 6 . 5 yearly
for four years.
The foundationers are boarded in a house belonging
to the governors, with the exception of
those who are boardedwith families in the city.
When admitted, they must be of the age of nine,
and not above fourteen years. On leaving each is
allowed f;7 for clothes; he may rsceive for five
years LIO annually; and on attaining the age of
twenty-five a further sum of A50, to enable him
to commence business in Edinburgh.
The Chalmers Hospital, at the south side of the
west end of huriston Place, is a large edifice, in a
plain Italian style, and treats annually about 180
in-door, and over 2,500 out-door patients. It was
erected in 1861. George Chalmers, a plumber
in Edinburgh, who died on the 10th of March,
1836, bequeathed the greater part of his fortune,
estimated at ~30,000, for the erection and the
endowment of this ;?Hospital for the Sick and
Hurt.?
The management of the charity is in the hands
of the ,Dean and Faculty of Advocates, who, after
allowing the fund to accumulate for some years, in
conformity to the will of the founder, erected the
building, which was fully opened for patients in
1864; and adjoining it is the new thoroughfare
called Chalmers Street.
The Lauriston Place United Presbyterian church,
a large and handsome Gothic structure at the
corner of Portland Place, was built in 1859 ; and
near it, in Lauriston Gardens, is theCatholic convent
of St. Catharine of Sienna-the same saint to
whom the old convent at the Sciennes was devoted-
built in 1859, by the widow of Colonel
Hutchison. It is in the regular collegiate style,
and the body of the foundress is interred in the
grounds attached to it, where stands an ancient
thorn-tree coeval with the original convent
CHAPTER XLIII.
GEORGE HERIOT?S HOSPITAL AND THE GREYFRIARS CHURCH.
Notice of George Heriot-Dies Chiidless-His Will-The Hospital founded-I& Progrw-The Master Masons-Opened-Number of Scholars
-Dr. Balcanquall-Alterations-The Edifice-The Architecture of it-Heriot?s Day and Infant Schools in the City-Lunardik Balloon
Ascent-Royai Edinburgh Volunteers-The Heriot Brewery-Old Greyfriars Church-The Covenant-The CromwcllLms-The Conrunting
Prhonern-The Martyrs? Tomb-New Greyfriars-Dr. Wallace-Dr. Robertson-Dr. ErskinAld Tombs in the Chorch-Gmt by
Queen Mary-Morton Interred-State of the Ground in 177g-The Graves of Buchanan and others--Bona from St Gda?s Church.
AMONG the many noble charitable institutions of
which Edinburgh may justly feel proud one of the
most conspicuous is Heriot?s Hospital, on the
north side of Lahriston-an institution which, in
object and munificence. is not unlike the famous
Christ?s Hospital in the English metropolis.
Of the early history of George Heriot, who, as a
jeweller and goldsmith was the favourite and
humble friend of James VI. and who was immortalised
in one way by Scott in the ?Fohnes of
Nigel,?.? but scanty records remain,
He is said to have been a branch of the Heriots
of Trabroun, in East Lothian, and was born at
Edinburgh in June, 1563, during the reign of
Mary, and in due time he was brought up to the
profession of a goldsmith by his father, one of the
craft, and a man of some consideration in the city,
for which he sat as Commissioner more thanonce
in Parliament. A jeweller named George Heriot,
who was frequently employed by Jarnes V., as the
Treasury accounts show, was most likely the elder
Heriot, to whose business he added that of a
.
