268 OLD ANI) NEW EDINBURGH [Candlemaker Row.
and weekly thirty-two carriers put up in the same
quarter.
In that year the Candlemaker?s Row was the
scene of a tragedy that excited great attention at
the time-the slaughter of a noted ruffian named
John Boyd, an inhabitant of the street, by Dr. Symons
of the 51st or Edinburgh Regiment of Militia,
on the night of the 2nd August, for which, after
being out on bail under cf;~oo, he was brought
before the High
Court of Justiciary
onacharge of murder.
It would appear
that about midnight
Dr. Symons, after
being at a dinnerparty
in Buccleuch
Place, was on his
way through the Row
to the Castle, accompanied
by Lieutenant
Ronaldson of
the same regiment,
when opposite Paterson?s
Inn they were
attacked by two men,
one of whom, a
notorious disturber of
the peace, struck the
doctor a blow behind
the neck, and subsequently
attempted
to wrest his sword
away, knocking him
down and kicking
him at the same time.
Staggering to his
feet,and burning with
rage, the doctor drew
In the open space referred to, eastward of Candlemaker
Kow, Gordon of Rothiemay shows us (see
p. 261) the ancient buildings known as the Society,
forming an oblong quadrangle, lying east and west,
with open ground to the north and south, the
former sloping down to the Cowgate, and planted
with trees. These buildings, the last of which
-a curiously picturesque group, long forming the
south-east quarter of what was latterly Brown
TABLET ON THE CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE.
(Frum a Photogva$h Zy A2rxaudw A. Ingtis.)
his sword and pursued his assailant down the
Row to Merchant Street, when a fresh struggle
ensued, and Boyd was run through the body
and left bleeding in the gutter, where he was
found dead, while the doctor was totally ignorant
that he had injured him so severely. The generally
infamous character of the deceased being proved,
the Lord Justice Clerk, Charles Hope, summed up
to the effect, ? that the charge of murder was by no
means brought home to the prisoner j that what he
had done was altogether in self-defence, and the
matural impulse of the moment, from being attacked,
beaten, knocked down, and grievously insulted.?
The jury returned a verdict of (? Not Guilty,? and
the doctor was dismissed from the bar, and lived
long years after as a practitioner in the country.
Square - were only
removed when Charnbers
Street was made
in 1871, and were ,
built by a society of
brewers established
in 1598.
It was built upon
a piece of ground
that belonged of old
to the convent of
Sienna (at the
Sciennes), and was a
corporation for the
brewing of ale and
beer, commodities
which have ever been
foremost among the
staple productions of
Edinburgh, and the
name of ?Society?
accorded to that
quarter, remained as
a- tradition of the
ancient company long
after it had passed
away. An Englishman
who visited
Edinburgh in 1598,
wrote :-?? The Scots
drink pure wines, not with sugar as the English j
yet at feasts they put comfits in the wine, after the
French manner, but they had not our vintners?
fraud to mix their wines. I did never see nor
hear that they have any public inns; but the
better sort of citizens brew ale, their usual drink,
which will distemper a stranger?s body.?
The usual allowance of ale at table then, was a
chopin, equal to about an imperial pint, to each
person. Though Edinburgh ale is still famous,
private brewing is no longer practised.
A curious fragment of the old town wall was
built into the southern edifices of the Society, and
portions of them may remain, where an old established
inn once stood, long known as the HoZe in
fht WaU.
