Merchiston. ? THE WARLOCK NAPIER.? 37
men, and others felL Of the queen?s men, only one
lost his life by a shot from the battlements of
Merchiston.
When peace came the philosopher returned to
his ancestral tower, and resumed his studies with
great ardour, and its battlements became the
observatory of the astrologer. Napier was supposed
by the vulgar of his time to possess
mysterious supernatural powers, and the marvels
attributed to him, with the aid of a devilish familiar,
in the shape of a jet-black cock, are preserved
grain, he ihreatened to poind them, ?? Do so, if
you can catch them,? said his neighbour; and next
morning the fields were alive with reeling and
fluttering pigeons, which were easily captured, from
the effect of an intoxicating feed of saturated peas.
The place called the D:o Park, in front of Merchiston,
took its name from this event.
The warlock of the tower, as he was deemed,
seems to have entertained a perfect faith in the
possession of a power to discover hidden treasure.
Thus, there is still preserved among the Merchis-
GILLESPIE?S HOSPITAL, FROM THE EAST. (From an Engrauing Sy R. &oft in the ?Scots Mugazilrc,? 1805.)
among the traditions of the neighbourhood to the
present day. He impressed all his people that this
terrible chanticleer could detect their most secret
doings.
Having missed some valuables, he ordered his
servants one by one into a dark room of the tower,
where his favourite was confined, declaring that the
cock would crow when stroked by the hand of the
guilty, as each was required to do. The cock
remained silent during this ceremony ; but the
hands of oiie of the servants was found to be
entirely free from the soot with which the feathers
of the mysterious bird had been smeared.
The story of how he bewitched certain pigeons
is still remembered in the vicinity of Merchiston.
Having been annoyed by some that ate up his
ton papers a curious contract, dated July, 1594,
between him and Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig
-a Gowrie conspirator-which sets forth : ? Forasmuch
as there were old reports and appearances
that a sum of money was hid within Logan?s house
of Fast Castle, John Napier should do his utmost
diligence to work and seek out the same.? For
his reward he was to have the third of what was
found-by the use of a divining rod, we presume.
? This singular contract,? says Wilson, ?? acquires a
peculiar interest when we remember the reported
discovery of hidden treasure, with which the
preliminary steps of the Gowrie conspiracy were
effected.?
In 1608 we find the inventor of logarithms
appearing in a new light. In that year it was
38 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ hlorningside.
reported to the Privy Council that he and the
Napiers of Edinbellie, having quarrelled about the
tiend sheaves of Merchiston, ? intended to convoa
t e their kin, and sic as will do for them in arms:
but to prevent a breach of the peace, William
Napier of the Wrychtishousis, as a neutral person,
was ordered by the Council to collect the sheaves
in question.
In 1614 he produced his book of logarithms,
dedicated to Pripce Charles-a discovery which
made his name famous all over Europe-and on
the 3rd of April, 1617, he died in the ancient tower
of Merchiston. His eldest son, Sir Archibald,
was made a baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles I.,
and in 1627 he was raised to the peerage as
Lord Napier. His lady it was who contrived to
have abstracted the heart of Montrose from the
mutilated body of the great cavalier, as it lay
buried in the place appointed for the interment
of criminals, in an adjacent spot of the Burghmuir
(the Tyburn of Edinburgh). Enclosed in a casket
of steel, it was retained by the family, and underwent
adventures so strange and remarkable that a
volume would be required to describe them.
Merchiston has been for years occupied as a
large private school, but it still remains in possession
of Lords Napier and Ettrick as the cradle of
their old and honourable house.
In 1880, during the formation of a new street on
the ground north of Merchiston, a coffin fornied of
rough stone slabs was discovered, within a few feet
of the surface. It contained the remains of a fullgrown
human being.
Eastward of the castle, and within the park where
for ages the old dovecot stood, is now built Christ?s
Church, belohging to the Scottish Episcopalians. It
was built in 1876-7, at a cost of about cf10,500, and
opened in 1878. It is a beautifully detailed cruciforni
edifice, designed by Mr. Hippolyte J. Blanc,in
the early French-Gothic style, with a very elegant
spire, 140 feet high. From the west gable to the
chancel the nave measures eighty-two feet long and
forty broad ; each transept measures twenty feet by
thirty wide. The height of the church from the
floor to the eaves is twenty feet; to the ridge of
the roof fifty-three feet. The construction of the
latter is of open timber work, with moulded arched
ribs resting on ?? hammer beams,? which, in their
turn, are supported upon red freestone shafts, with
white freestone capitals and bases, boldly and beautifully
moulded.
The chancel presents the novel feature of a
circumambient aisle, and was built at the sole
expense of Miss Falconer of Falcon Hall, at a cost
of upwards of L3,ooo.
Opposite, within the lands of Greenhill, stands
the Morningside Athenmm, which was originally
erected, in 1863, as a United Presbyterian
church, the congregation of which afterwards
removed to a new church in the Chamberlain
Road.
North of the old villa of Grange Bank, and on
the west side of the Burghmuir-head road, stands
the Free Church, which was rebuilt in 1874, and
is in the Early Pointed style, with a fine steeple,
140 feet high. The Established Church of the
quoad sacra parish, disjoined from St. Cuthbert?s
since 1835, stands at the south-west corner of the
Grange Loan (then called in the ?maps, Church
Lane), and was built about 1836, from designs by
the late John Henderson, and is a neat little
edifice, with a plain pointed spire.
The old site of the famous Bore Stone was
midway between this spot and the street now called
Church Hill. In a house-No. r-here, the great
and good Dr. Chalmers breathed his last.
CHAPTER IV.
DISTRICT OF THE BURGHMUIR (cuncZudPd).
Morningside and Tipperlin-Provost Coulter?s Funeral-Asylum for the Insane-Sultana of the Crimea-Old Thorn Tree-The Braids of that
Ilk-The Fairleys of Braid-Thr Plew Lands-Craiglockhart Hall and House-The Kincaids and other Proprietors--John Hill Burton The
Old Tower-Meggathd and Redhall-White House Loan-The bwhite House-St. Margaret?s Convent-Bruntsfield House-The War.
renders4reenhill and the Fairholmes-Memorials of the Chapel of St. Roqw-St. Giles?s Grange-The Dicks and Lauders-Grange
Cemetery-Memorial Churches.
SOUTHWARD of the quarter we. have been describing,
stretches, nearly to the foot of the hills of
Braid and Blackford, Morningside, once a secluded
village, consisting of little more than a row of
thatched cottages, a line of trees, and a blacksmith?s
forge, from which it gradually grevt- to become
an agreeable environ and summer resort of
I the citizens, with the fame of being the ?Montpellier
?? of the east of Scotland, alluring invalids to
its precincts for the benefit of its mild salubrious . air& around what was the old village, now man
