OLD AND NEW EDINBUKGH. [Heriot?s Hospital. 366
with the idea of founding an institution in his native
city, somewhat like Christ?s Hospital, and in
the arrangements for this he was assisted by his
cousin Adam Lautie, a notary in Edinburgh. Having
thus set his house in order, he died peacefully
in London on the 12th of February, 1Gz3, a year
before his royal master James VI., and was buried
at St. Martins-in-the-Fields,
The whole of his large property, the legacies
excepted, was by him bequeathed to the civic
authorities and clergy of Edinburgh, for the eiection
and maintenance of a hospital ?for the education,
nursing, and upbringing of youth, being
puir orphans and fatherless children of decayet burgesses
and freemen of the said burgh, destitute, and
left without means.?
Of what wealth Heriot died possessed is uncertain,
says Arnot ; but probably it was not under
~50,000. The town council and clergy employed
Sir John Hay of Barns, afterwards Lord Clerk
Register, to settle accounts with Heriot?s English
debtors. Among these we find the famous Robin
Carr, Earl of Somerset, the dispute being about a
jewelled sword, valued at between g400 and As00
by the Earl, but at A890 by the executors.
Heriot had furnished jewels to Charles I. when
the latter went to Spain in 1623, and whenhe ascended
the throne, his debt for these, due to Heriot,
was paid to the trustees in part of the purchasemoney
of the Barony of Broughton, the crown
lands in the vicinity of the city.
The account settled between Sir John Hay and
the Governm of the Hospital, 12th of May, 1647,
and afterwards approved by a decree of the Court
of Session, after deducting legacies, bad debts, and
compositions for debts resting by the Crown,
amounted to A23,625 10s. 34d. sterling (Amot),
and on the 1st July, 1628, the governors began to
rear the magnificent hospital on the then open
ridge of the High Riggs; but the progress of the
work was interrupted by the troubles of subsequent
years.
Who designed Heriot?s Hospital has been more
than once a vexed question, and though the edifice
is of a date so recent, this is one of the many architectural
mysteries of Europe. Among other fallacies, a
popular one is that the architect was Inigo Jones,
but for this assertion there is not the faintest
shadow of proof, as his name does not appear in any
single document or record connected with Heriot?s
Hospital, though the names of several ?? Master
Masoq? are commemorated in connection with
the progess of the work, and the house contains a
portrait of William Aytoun, master mason, engraved
in Constable?s memoir of Heriot, published in 1822,
8
a cadet of the house of Inchdairnie in Fifes!
iire.
When the edifice was first founded the master cf
works was William Wallace, who had under him
an overseer. 0; foreman named Andrew Donaldson,
who, says Billings, seems to have been in reality
the master mason, while William Wallace was the
architect.
On his death the Governors recorded their high
sense of ?his extraordinay panes and grait a i r he
had in that wark baith by his advyce, and in the
building of the same.? , l h e contract made in the
year 1632, with William Aytoun, his successor, has
been preserved ; and it appears to bc just the sort
of agreement that would be made with an architect
in the present day, whose duty it was to follow
up, wholly or in part, the plans of his predecessar.
?lhs, Aytoun became bound (? to devyse, plott, and
sett down what he sal1 think meittest for the decornient
of the said wark ?and pattern thereof
alreddie begun, when any defect is found; and
to make with his awin handis the haill mowlds,
alsweil of tymber, as of stane, belanging generally
to the said wark, and generally the said William
Aytoun binds and obliges him to do all and quhatsumevir
umquihle William Wallace, last Maister
Maissone at the said wark, aither did or intended
to be done at the same.?
The arrangements for the erection of the building
were onginally conducted by a Dr. Balcanquall, a
native of the city, one of the executors under
Heriot?s last will, and who drew up the statutes.
He had been a chaplain to James VI., and Master
of the Savoy in the Strand. The edifice progressed
till 1639, when there was a stoppage from want uf
funds ; the tenants of the lands in which the property
of the institution was vested being unable to
pay their rents amid the tumult of the civil war. In
the records, however, of the payments made about
this period, we find the following extraordinary
items :-
aut Murch.-?I?o ye 6wemen yt drew ye cairt xxviijs
wit ye chainyeis to zame vii lib. ijs.
iiij lib iiijs. ond yair handis
in ye cairt xijs.
For 6 shakellis to ye wemeinis hands,
Mair for 14 lokis for yair waists
For ane qwhip for ye gentlwemen
What species of ?gentlwemen? they were who
were thus shackled, chained, whipped, and harnessed
to a cart, it is difficult to conceive.
In 1642 the work was recommenced in March,
and there is an instruction that the two front
towers be plat-formed, with ane bartisane about
ilk ane .of them.? -4nd in July, 1649, ? George
