Heriot?s Hospital.1 WALTER BALCANQU.-II,L. 367
Waucllop Thesauer,? is ordained ? to take down
the stonewark of the south-west tower, and to make
(it) the same as the north-west and north-east
towers ar, and this to be done with all diligence.?
In Rothiemay?s view of the Hospital, published
in 1647, he shows it enclosed by the crenelated
ramparts of the city from the present tower in the
Vennel, and including the other three on the west
and south.
A high wall, with a handsome gateway, bounds
it above the Grassmarket, and on the west a long
wall separates it from the Greyfriars churchyard,
and the entire side of the present Forrest Road.
Gordon?s view is still more remarkable for showing a
lofty spire above the doorway, and the two southern
towers surmounted by cupolas, which they certainly
A somewhat similar view (which has been reproduced
here,* on p. 368) will be found in Slezer?s
?? Theatrum Scotiz,? under the title of Boghengieght.
How this name (which is the name of one
of the Duke of Gordon?s seats) came to be applied
by the engraver to Heriot?s Hospital is not known.
The hospital was filled with the wounded of the
English army, brought thither from the battle-field
of Dunbar by CromwelL And it was used for sick
and wounded soldiers by General Monk, till about
1658, when the governors prevailed upon him to
remove them, accommodation being provided for
them elsewhere,
During this period the governors granted an
annual pension of A55 to a near relation of Heriot,
but not until they had received two urgent notes
from Cromwell. This pension was afterwards resigned.
Many improvements and additions were
made, and the total expenses amounted then to
upwards of ~30,000, when in 1659 it was opened
for the reception of boys on the 11th April, when
30 were admitted. In August they numbered forty,
In 1660 the number was 52; in 1693 it was
130; and in 1793 140.
Fifteen years before the opening of the hospital,
the life of Dr. Walter Balcanquall, the trustee
whom Maitland curiously calls its architect, had
come to a grievous end. The son of the Rev.
Walter Balcanquall, a minister of Edinburgh for
forty-three years, he had graduated at Oxford as
Bachelor of Divinity, and was admitted a Fellow
on the 8th September, 1611; in 1618 he represented-
whiIe royal chaplain-the Scottish Church
at the Synod of Dort, and his letters concerning
that convocation, addressed to Sir Dudley Carleton,
? had till about 1692.
The Editor is indebted to Mr. D. F. Lowe, M.A.. House-Governor
of Heriot?s Hospital, fer assistance very kindly rendered in the matter
cfiUu&ations.
are preserved in Hale?s ?Golden Remains.? 1:
was after he had been successively Dean of
Rochester 2nd of Durham that he was one of
Heriot?s three trustees. In 1638 he accompanied
the Marquis of Hamilton, Royal Commissioner, as
chaplain ; and some doubts of his dealings on this
ahd subsequent occasions rendered him obnoxious to
the Presbyterians of Scotland and the Puritans of
England; and in July, 1641, he and five others
having been denounced as incendiaries by the Scottish
Parliament, after being persecuted, pillaged, and
sequestrated by the Puritans, he shared the falling
fortunes of Cliarles I. He was thrown into Chirk
Castle, Denbighshire, where he died on Christmas
Day, 1645, just after the battle of Naseby, and a
splendid nionunient to his memory was subsequently
erected in the parish churcli of Chirk: by Sir Thomas
Myddleton.
In the hospital records for 1675 is the following,
under date May 3rd :-?There is a necessity that
the steeple of the hospital be finished, and a top
put thereon. Ro. Miln, Master Mason, to think on
a drawing thereof against the next council meeting.,?
But nothing appears to have been done by the
king?s master mason, for on the Ioth?July, Deacon
Sandilands was ordered to put a roof and top on the
said steeple in accordance with a design furnished
by Sir IVilliam Bruce, the architect of Holyrood
Palace.
In 1680, about the time that the obnoxious test
was made the subject of so much mockery,
Fountainhall mentions that ?( the children of
Heriot?s Hospitall, finding that the dog which
keiped the yards of that hospital1 had a public
charge and office, ordained him to take the test,
and offered him the paper ; but he, loving a bone
rather than it, absolutely refused it. Then they
rubbed it over with butter (which they called an
Explication of the Test in imitation of Argile), and
he licked off the butter and did spit out the paper,
for which they held a jurie on him, and in derision
of the sentence against Argile, they found the dog
guilty of treason, and actually hanged him.?
In 1692 the Council Records refer to the abolition
of the cupolas, the appearance of which in old
views of the hospital have caused some discussion
among antiquaries.
?The council having visited the fabric of the
hospital, and found that the south-east quarter
thereof is not yet finished and completed, and that
the south-west quarter is finished and completed by
a pavilion turret of lead, an& that the north-east
and north-west corners of the said fibnc are
covered with a pavilion roof of lead; therefore,
and for making the whole fabric of the said
