254 OLD. AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cowgate.
high altar in the Kirk-of-Field, of which they
were patrons, and concerning which Master Archibald
Barrie, the chaplain thereof, ? declairit thair
wes ane land called Cliddisdail andis lyand iy the
Kirk-of-Field Wynd, on the eist side of the trans
(says Wilson in his ?Reminiscences?), wher,
happily one of its leaves attracted the quick eye of
the late David Ling, and there he found preserved
au gccount, for the year 1753, between ?? Mr. Oliver
Goldsmith ? and Mr. Filby, a tailor of Ediqburgh ;
Hamilton-Duke James, who married the beautiful
Miss Gunning-had engaged the services of
the young Irishman apparently as a tutor, and
with an eye, it is supposed, to his reputed scholarship
as an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin ; and
it has been supposed that a curious tailor?s bill
which came recently to light in Edinburgh, had
some reference to his expected visits to the Duke?s
apartments in Holyrood, of which the Hamilton
family are hereditary keepers.
An old ledger was being tom up for waste paper
the Courant, requested the copies to be sent to
him, in the hope that 6? all generous persons will
cheerfully submit his proposals in a matter sa
pious, pleasanf, profitable, and national.? (?? Dom.
semblies over which the Hon. Miss Nicky Murray
presided as Lady Directress.
In a house close to the old College gate, on the
east side of the wynd, lived for years the illustrious
Joseph Black, M.D., the founder of pneumatic
chemistry, who was completing his medical studies
in the Edinburgh University in 1751, collaterally
with Goldsmith j and Forster tells us in his life of
the latter, that ? he was fond of chemistry, and was
remembered favourably by the celebrated Black.?
The doctor graduated here as M.D. in 1754 his
charged by its weight of the precious metal in
Ounces and drachms. The first bill was paid ? by
a s h in full,? before the end of the year ; the second
is carried over ? to folio 424,? which, unfortu
