90 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Bonnington.
In April, 1747, the Countess of Hugh, third Earl
of Marchmont (Anne Western of London), died in
Redbraes House; and we may add that ?Lord
Polwarth of Redbraes ? was one of the titles of Sir
Patrick Hume when raised to the Scottish peerage
as Earl of Marchmont.
We afterwards find Sir Hew Crawford, Bart. of
Jordanhill, resident proprietor at Redbraes. Here,
in 1775, his eldest daughter Mary was married to
General, Campbell of Boquhan (previously known
as Fletcher of Saltoun), and here he would seem
to have been still when another of his daughters
found her way into the caricatures of Kay, a subject
whichmade a great noise in its time as a local scandal.
In the Abbey Hill .there then resided an ambitious
little grocer named Mr. Alexander Thomson,
locally known as ?Ruffles,? from the long
loose appendages of lace he wore at his sleeves.
With a view to his aggrandisement he hoped to
connect himself with some aristocratic family, and
cast his eyes on Miss Crawford, a lady rather fantastic
in her dress and manners, but the daughter
of a man of high and indomitable pride. She kept
? Ruffles ? at a proper distance, though he followed
her like her shadow, and so they appeared
in the same print of Kay.
The lady did not seem to be always so fastidious,
as she formed what was deemed then a
terrible mbaZZiunce by marrying John Fortune, a
surgeon, who went abroad. Fortune?s brother,
Matthew, kept the Tontine tavern in Princes
Street, and his father a famous old inn in the High
Street, the resort of all the higher ranks in Scotland
about the close of the last century, as has already
been seen in an earlier chapter of this work.
Her brother, Captain Crawford, threatened to
cudgel Kay, who in turn caricatured hinz. Sir Hew
Crawford?s family originally consisted of fifteen,
most of whom died young. The baronetcy, which
dated from 1701, is now supposed to be extinct.
In their day the grounds of Redbraes were
deemed so beautiful, that mullioned openings were
made in the boundary wall to permit passers-by to
peep in.
In 1800 the Edinburgh papers announced proposals
?? for converting the beautiful villa of Redbraes
into a Vauxhall, the entertainment to consist
of a concert of vocal and instrumental music, to be
conducted by Mr. Urbani-a band to play between
the acts of the concert, at the entrance, &c. The
gardens and grounds to be decorated with statues
and transparencies ; and a pavilion to be erected to
serve as a temporary retreat in case of rain, and
boxes and other conveniences to be erected for
serving cold collations.?
This scheme was never carried out. Latterly
Redbraes became a nursery garden.
Below Redbraes lies Bonnington, a small and
nearly absorbed village on the banks of the Water
of Leith, which is there crossed by a narrow bridge.
There are several mills and other works here, and
in the vicinity an extensive distillery. The once
arable estate of Hill-house Field, which adjoins it,
is all now laid out in streets, and forms a suburb
of North Leith. The river here attains some
depth.
We read that about April, 1652, dissent began
to take new and hitherto little known forms. There
were Antitrinitarians, Antinomians, Familists (a
small sect who held that families alone were a
proper congregation), Brownists, as well as Independents,
Seekers, and so forth ; and where there were
formerly no avowed Anabaptists, these abounded
so much, that ? thrice weekly,? says Nicoll, in his
Diary, ?namely, on Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday, there were some dippit at Bonnington Mill,
betwixt Leith and Edinburgh, both men and
women of good rank. Some days there would be
sundry hundred persons attending that action, and
fifteen persons baptised in one day by the Anabap
tists. Among the converts was Lady Craigie-
Wallace, a lady in the west country.?
In the middle of the last century there resided
at his villa of Bonnyhaugh, in this quarter, Robert,
called Bishop Keith, an eminent scholar and antiquary,
the foster-brother of Robert Viscount Arbuthnot,
and who came to Edinburgh in February,
1713, when he was invited by the small congregation
of Scottish Episcopalians to become their
pastor. His talents and learning had already
attracted considerable attention, and procured him
influence in that Church, of which he was a zealous
supporter ; yet he was extremely liberal, gentle, and
tolerant in his religious sentiments. In January,
1727, he was raised to the Episcopate, and entrusted
with the care of Caithness, Orkney, and the
Isles, and in I 733 was preferred to that of Fife. For
more than twenty years after that time he continued
to exercise the duties of his office, filling a high and
dignified place in Edinburgh, while busy with
those many historical works which have given him
no common place in Scottish literature.
It is now well known that, previous to the rising
of 1745, he was in close correspondence with
Prince Charles Edward, but chiefly on subjects
relating to his depressed and suffering communion,
and that the latter, ?as the supposed head of a
supposed Church, gave? the con$ d?kZire necessary
for the election of individuals to exercise the epis.
copal office.?
