202 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Moray Pkn.
criticsas, ?beautifully monotonous, andmagnificently
dull;? and by others as the beau-ideal of a fashionable
west-end quarter ; but whatever may be their
intrinsic elegance, they have the serious and incurable
fault of turning their frontages inwards, and
shutting out completely, save from their irregular
rows of back windows, the magnificent prospect
over the valley of the Water of Leith and away to
the Forth
Moray Place, which reaches to within seventy
yards of the north-west quarter of Queen Street, is
a pentagon on a diameter of 325 yards, with an
ornate and central enclosed pleasure ground. It
displays a series of symmetrical, confronting fapdes,
adorned at regular intervals with massive, quartersunk
Doric columns, crowned by a bold entablature.
No 28, on the west side, divided afterwards,
was reserved as the residence of Francis tenth
Earl of Moray, who married Lucy, second daughter
of General John Scott, of Balcomie and Bellevue.
For years the Right Hon. Charles Hope, of
Granton, Lord President of the Court of Session,
and his son, John Hope, Solicitor-General for
Scotland in 182 2, ?and afterwards Lord Justice
Clerk in 1841, lived in Moray Place, No. 12.
The former, long a distinguished senator and
citizen, was born in 1763. His fathty, an eminent
Loiidon merchant, and cadet of the house of
Hopetoun, had been M.P. for West Lothian.
Charles Hope was educated at the High School,
where he attained distinction as dux of the highest
class, and from the University he passed to the
bar in 1784, and two years afterwards was Judge-
Advocate of Scotland. In 1791 he was Steward
of the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and in the first
year of the century was Lord Advocate, and as
such drew out and aided the magistrates in
obtaining a Poor?s Bill for the city, on which occasion
he was presented with a piece of plate valued
at a hundred guineas.
When the warlike Spirit of the country became
roused at that time by the menacing aspect of
France, none was more active among the
volunteer force than Charles Hope. He enrolled
as a private in the First Edinburgh Regident, and
was eventually appointed Lieut.-Colonel, and from
1801, with the exception of one year when the
the corps was disbanded at the Peace of Amiens,
he continued to command till its final dissolution
in 1814 Kay gives us an equestrian portrait
of him in 1812, clad in the now-apparently
grotesque uniform of the corps, a swallow-tailed
red coat, faced with blue and turned up with
white ; brass wings, and a beaver-covered helmethat
with a side hackle, jack boots, and white
breeches, with a leopard-skin saddle-cloth and
crooked sabre. The corps presented him with a
superb sword in 1807. He personally set an
example of unwearied exertion ; his speeches on
several occasions, and his correspondence with the
commander-in-chief, breathed a Scottish patriotism
not less pure than hearty in the common cause.
?We did not take up arms to please any Minister
or set of Ministers,? he declared on one occasion,
?but to defend our native land from foreign and
domestic enemies.?
After being M.P. for Dumfries, on the elevation
of Mr. Dundas to the peerage in 1802, he was
unanimously chosen a member for the city of
Edinburgh, and during the few years he continued
in Parliament, acted as few Lords Advocate have ever
done, and notwithstanding the pressure of imperial
matters and the threatening aspect of the times,
brought forward several measures of importance
to Scotland; but his parliamentary career was
rendered somewhat memorable by an accusation
of abuse of power as Lord Advocate, brought
against him by Mr. Whitbread, resulting in a vast
amount of correspondence and deiating in 1803-
The circumstances are curious, as stated by the
latter :-
?Mr. Momson, a farmer in Banffshire, had a
servant of the name of Garrow, wllo entered a
volunteer corps, and attended drills contrary to his
master?s pleasure; and on the 13th of October
last, upon the occasion of an inspection of the
company by the Marquis of Huntly, he absented
himself entirely from his master?s work, in conse
quence of which he discharged him The servant
transmitted a memorial to the Lord Advocate,
stating his case, and begging to know what
compensation he could by law claim from his late
master for the injury he had suffered His
lordship gave it as his opinion that the memorialist
had no claim for wages after the time he was
dismissed, thereby acknowledging that he had
done nothing contrary to law; but he had not
given a bare legal opinion, he had prefaced it by
representing Mr. Morrison?s act as unprincipled
and oppressive, and that without proof or inquiry.
Not satisfied with this, he next day addressed a
letter to the Sheriff-substitute of Banffshire, attributing
Mr. Morrison?s conduct to disafection and
disZoyaZby.?
The letter referred to described Momson?s
conduct as ? atrocious,? and such as could only
have arisen from a spirit of treason, adding, ?it is
my order to you as Sheriff-substitute of the county,
that on the first Frenchman landing in Scotland.
you do immediately apprehend and secure
Moray Place.] LORD JEFFREY. 203
Morrison as a suspected person, and you will not
liberate him without a communication with me ;
and you may inform him of these, my orders.
And further, I shall do all I can to prevent him
from receiving any compensation from any part of
his property which may either be destroyed by the
euemy or the King?s troops to prevent it falling
into their hands.?
In the debate that ensued, Fox and Pitt took
animated parts, and Charles Hope ably defended
himself, saying that had Mr. Whitbread made such
an accusation against him in Edinburgh, ?there
would be IOO,OOO tongues ready to repel the
charge, and probably several arms raised against
him who made it.? He described the defenceless
state of the country, and the anomalous
duties thrown upon the Lord Advocate since
the Union, after which the Privy Council, Lord
Chancellor, and Secretary of hate, were illegally
abolished, adding that Momson was influenced by
the Chairman of the ? Society of Friends of Universal
Liberty,? in Portsoy, one of whose favourite
measures was to obstruct and discourage the formation
of volunteer corps to repel the expected
invasion.
Pitt spoke eloquently in his defence, contending
that ?great allowances were to be made for an
active and ardent mind placed in the situation of
Advocate-General.? He voted for the order of the
day, and against the original motion. When the
House divided, 82 were for the latter, and 159
against it ; majority, 77.
On the death of Sir David Rae of Eskgrove, in
1804, he was appointed Lord Justice Clerk, and
ou taking his seat addressed the Bench in a concise
and eloquent speech, which was long one of the
traditions of the Court. During seven years that
he administered justice in the Criminal Court,
his office was conducted with ability, dignity, and
solemnity.
On the death of the Lord President Blair, in
1811, Charles Hope was promoted in his place,
and when taking his seat, made 9 warm and pathetic
panegyric on his gifted predecessor, and
the ability with which he filled his station for a
period of thirty years is still remembered in the College
of Justice. He presided, in 1820, at the special
commission for the trial of the high treason cases
in Glasgow and the West; and sixteen years afterwards,
on the death of James Duke of Montrose,
K.G., by virtue of an act of parliament, he was ap
pointed Lord Justice-General of Scotland, and as
such, having to preside in the Justiciary Court, he
went back there after an absence of twenty-five
years. At the proclamation of Queen Vi<toria he
wore the robes of Lord Justice-General. He died
and was succeeded in office, in 1841, by the Right
Hon. David Boyle of Shewalton; and his son
John, who in that year had been appointed Lord
Justice Clerk, after being Dean of Faculty, also
died at Edinburgh in 1858.
No. 24 Moray Place was fie last and long the town
residence of Lord Jefiey, to whom we have had
often to refer in his early life elsewhere. Here it
was, that those evening reunions (Tuesdays and
Fridays) which brightened the evening of his life,
took place. ?Nothing whatever now exists in
Edinburgh that can convey to a younger generation
any impression of the charms of that circle. If
there happened to be any stranger in Edinburgh
worth seeing you were sure to meet him there.?
The personal appearance of the first recognised
editor of the Edinburgh Review was not remarkable
His complexion was very swarthy; his features were
good and intellectual in cast and expression ; his
forehead high and lips firmly set. He was very
diminutive in stature-a circumstance that called
forth innumerable jokes from his friend Sydney
Smith, who once said, ?? Look at my little friend
JefTrey ; he hasn?t body enough to cover his mind
decently with ; his intellect is indecently exposed.?
On another occasion, Jefiey having arrived unexpectly
at Foston when Smith was from home,
amused himself by joining the children, who were
riding a donkey. After a time, greatly to the delight
of the youngsters, he mounted the animal,
and Smith returning at the time, sang the following
impromptu :-
?Witty as Horatius Flaccus,
Great a Jacobin as Gracchus,
Short, but not as fat as Bacchq
Riding on a little Jackass 1 ?
His fondness for children was remarkable. He
was never so happy as when in their society, and
was a most devoted husband and father.
He was Dean of Faculty, and prior to his elevation
to the Bench, when he came to 24 Moray
Place, had some time previously resided in 92
George Street. Deemed generally only as a crusty
and uncompromising critic, he possessed great goodness
of heart and domestic amiability. In his
latter years, when past the psalmist-appointed term
of life, he grew more than ever tendex-hearted and
amiable, praised nursery songs, patronised mediocrities,
and wrote letters that were childish in their
gentleness of expression. ?? It seemed to be the
natural strain of his character let loose from some
stem responsibility, which made him sharp and
critical through all his former life.?
In their day his critical writings had a brilliant
