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
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