Cowgatel THE COLLEGE WYND. 253
that its occupants were worthy neighbours of the
aristocratic tenants of the Cowgate. The stucco
ornaments were all of the era of Charles I., and
most prominent among them was the crowned
heart of the house of Douglas.
From this it has been supposed to have been the
one of the doors of the stair possessed the oldfashioned
appendage of a tirling-pin. Many of the
buildings which remained till the total demolition
of the wynd bore the initials of their builders on
an ornamental shield, sculptured on the lowest
crowstep, with the date-1736.?
I 1
HIGH SCHOOL WYND. (Aflrr E w b d . )
town residence of one of the first Earls of Queensberry-
probably William, whose title was created
by Charles I. on his visit to Scotland in 1633.
?The projecting staircase of the adjoining tenement
to the south had a curious ogee-arched window,
evidently of early character, and fitted with
the antique oaken transom and folding shutters
below. A defaced inscription and date were decipherable
over the lintel of the outer doorway, and
When Scott was a little boy some of the houses
opposite his father?s windows would be barely forty
years old.
It is not improbable that the land or tenement
referred to so elaborately by Wilson was connected
in some way with that referred to in the Burgh
Records, under date August 30th, 1549, when the
Town Council consented to the feuing of a land
(in the wynd) pertaining to the chaplaincy of the
