238 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Grassmarket.
Watt and Downie, they were brought to trial respectively
in August and September, and the facts
were fully proved against them. A letter from
Downie, treasurer of the Committee of Ways and
Means, to Walter Millar, Perth, acknowledging the
receipt of LIS, on which he gave a coloured
account of the recent riots in the theatre on the
performance of ?? Charles I.? was produced and
identified; and Robert Orrock stated that Downie
accompanied Watt to his place at the Water of Leith,
where the order was given for the pikes.
William Brown said that he had made fifteen of
these weapons, by order of Watt, to whom he
delivered them, receiving 22s. 6d. for the fifteen.
Other evidence at great length was led, a verdict of
guilty was returned, and sentence of death was
passed upon the prisoners-to have their bowels
torn out, and to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.
The punishment of Downie was commuted to
transportation ; and on the royal clemency being
announced to him he burst into tears, and kneeling
on the floor of the vault above the portcullis
he exclaimed, in ecstasy, ?Oh, glory be to God,
and thanks to the king! Thanks to him for his
goodness ! I will pray for him as long as I live !
He had a wife and children,. and for years had
enjoyed the reputation of being a sober and respectable
mechanic.
Previous to his execution Watt made a full confession
of the aims and objects contemplated by
the committees and their ramifications throughout
Britain. He was in his thirty-sixth year, and was
the natural son of a gentleman of fortune in Angus.
He was executed on the 15th October, 1794 The
magistrates, Principal Baird, the. city guard,. and
town officers, with their halberds, conducted him
from the Castle to the place of death at the end of
the Tolbooth about two o?clock, The sheriff and
his substitute were there, in black, with white
gloves and rods. The hurdle was painted black, but
drawn by a snow-white horse. It was surrounded
by constables and zoo of the Argyle Fencible
Highlanders, stepping to the ?? Dead March.?
Watt was a picture of the most abject dejection.
He was wrapped up in an old greatcoat, and wore
a red night-cap, which, on the platform, he exchanged
for a white one and a round hat ; but his
whole appearance was wretched and pitiful in the
extreme, and all unlike that of a man willing to
die for conscience, or for country?s sake. After
his body had hung for thirty minutes, it was cut
down lifeless and placed on a table ; the executioner
then Came forward with a large axe, and
with two strokes severed from the body the head,
which fell into a basket, and was then held up by
the hair, in the ancient form, by the executioner, who
exclaimed, ?? This is the head of a traitor !
The crowd on this occasion was slow in collecting,
but became numerous at last, and showed little
agitation when the drop fell; ?but the appearance
of the axe,? says the Annual Regzkter, ?a
sight for which they were totally unprepared, produced
a shock instantaneous as electricity; and
when it was uplifted such a general shriek or shout
of horror burst forth as made the executioner delay
his blow, while numbers .rushed off in all directions
to avoid the sight.? The remains were
next put into a coffin and conveyed away. The
handcuffs used to secure Watt while a prisoner in
the Castle were, in 1841, presented by Miss Walker
of Drumsheugh to the Antiquarian Museum, where
they are still preserved.
C H A P T E R XXXI.
THE COWGATE.
?The Cuwgate-Origin and Gend History of the Thoroughfare-First Houses built the-TheVernour?s Tenement-Alexander Ale-Division
of the City in ~gx-?Dichting the Calsayy in qrS-The Cowgate Port-Beggars in 1616Gilbert B1akha.I-Names ofthe most Ancient
Closes-The North Side of the Street-MacLcllan?s Land-Mrs Syme-John Nimmo-Dr. Qraham-The How of Si Thomas Hope
and Lady Mar-The Old Back Stairs-Tragic Story of Captain Caylq-Old Meal Market-Riots in 1763-The Episcopal Chapel, now
St. Pauick?s Roman Catholic Church-Trial of the Rev. Mr. Fitzsimmons
THE Cowgate is, and has always been, one of the
most remarkable streets in the ancient city. A
continuation of the south back of the Canongate
it runs along the deepest part of a very deep gorge,
into which Blair, Niddry, and St. Mary?s Streets,
with many other alleys, descend rapidly from the
north and others from the south, and though high
in its lines of antique houses, it passes underneath
the overspanning central arch of the South Bridge
and the more spacious one of George IV. Bridge,
and, though very narrow, is not quite straight.
For generations it has been the most densely
peopled and poorest district in the metropolis, the
most picturesque and squalid, and, when viewed
