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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V

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warrist0u1 WARRISTON CEMETERY. I01 with an extraordinary memory, He went into very high notiom of lengthened devotions, in which he continued many hours a day ; he would often pray in his family two hours at a time, and had an inexhaustible copiousness that way. What thought soever struck his fancy during these effusions, he looked on it as an answer of prayer, and was wholly determined by it. He looked on the Covenant as the sitting of Christ on his throne, and .was so out of measure zealous in it. He had no The middle of the last century saw Warriston possessed by a family named Grainger, and afterwards by another named Mure ; and in 1814 there died in Warriston House the Hon. W. F. Mackenzie, the only son of Francis Lord Seaforth, and representative in Parliament for the county of Ross; and in the same house there died, on the 28th ot July, 1838, Helen D?Arcy Cranstoun (a daughter of the Hon. George Cranstoun and the second wife of Professor Dugald Stewart), a lady WARRISTON CEMETERY. - regard to raising himself or his family, though he had - thirteen children, but Presbytery was to him more than all the world. He had a readiness and vehemence of speaking that made him very considerable in public assemblies; and he had a fruitful invention, : so that he was at all times furnished with expedients.? . Such is the Bishop?s picture of this eminent lawyer and Covenanter, but very crooked politician. Lord Warriston?s son, James Johnston, was appointed envoy to the Court of Brandenburg, but - as he was afterwards fortunate enough to be created by King William one of his principal secretaries . of state, he was nominated by a warrant from His Majesty ?? to sit as Lord Secretary in the Parliament who holds a very high place among the writers -of Scottish song, and was sister of Countess Purgstall, the subject of Captain Basil Hall?s ? Schloss Heinfeld? Eildon Street and Wamston Crescent, both running eastward off Inverleith Row, have been recently built on the estate of Warriston, and due eastward of the mansion-house lies the spacious and beautiful cemetery which appropriately takes its name from the locality. Wamston Cemetery, with a gentle slope to the sun and commanding a magnificent view of the city, is laid out with very considerable taste. It was opened in 1843, and has one approach by ~ which met in I 693.? I a bridge over the Leith from Canonmills, a sewnd
Volume 5 Page 101
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102 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Coltbridge;. from Inverleith Row, and a third from the narrow lane leading to East Warriston House. In the grounds are spacious catacombs, above which is a balustraded terrace with a tastefvl little mortuary chapel; and there are many elegant monuments. The chief, though the simplest of these, is the stone which mqks the spot where, on.the slope of the terrace, lie, with those of some of his family, the remains of Sir James Young Simpson, Bart., recalling the sweet lines which were among the last things he wrote :- ?? Oft in this world?s ceaseless strife, When flesh and spirit fail me, I stop and think of another life, Where ills can never assail me. Where my weaned arm shall cease its fight, My heart shall cease its sorrow ; And this dark night change for the light ? Of an everlasting morrow.? Near this grave a little Greek temple (designed by his grandson John Dick Peddie, M.P.) marks the last resting-place of the venerable Rev. James . Peddie, who was so long minister of the Bristo Street Church. Near the eastern gate, under a cross, lie the remains of Alexander Smith, author of the *? Life Drama,? and other poems, which attracted much attention at the time of their publication. ?It claims special notice,? says a writer in the Scofsmaa, ?as one of the most artistic and appropriate works of the kind to be seen in our cemeteries. It is in the form of an Iona or West High-. land cross of Binney stone, twelve feet in height, set in a massive square base four feet high. In the centre. of the shaft is a bronze medallion of the poet, by William Brodie, R.S.A., an excellent work of art, and a striking likeness, above which is the inscription ? Alexander Smith, poet and essayist,? and below are the places and dates of his birth and death. The upper part of the shaft and the. cross itself are elaborately carved in a style of? ornament which, though novel in design, is strictly characteristic. For the design of this very striking and beautiful monument the friends of the poet are indebted to Mr. James Drummond, R.S.k-a labour of love, in which artistic skill and antiquarian knowledge have combined to the production of a work, which, of its own kind is quite unique, and commands the admiration of the least instructed? In another part of the ground is an elegant reproduction of the ?Maclean Cross? of Iona, erected by a member of the family. The grave of? Horatio Macculloch, R.S.A., the well-known landscape painter, is also here, and also that of the Rev. James Millar, a good, worthy, and pious man, well known to the whole British army, and remarkable as being the last Presbyterian chaplain of the Castle of Edinburgh, who died in 1875, in about the. thirtieth year of his ministry, and was interred herewith military honours. ~ CHAPTER X. THE WESTERN NEW TOWN. Coltbridge-Rosebum House-Traditions of it--Murrayiield-Lord Henderland-Beechwood-General Leslie-The Dundase-RaveIstm- The Foulises and Keiths-Craigmk-Its first ProprietorSA Fearful Tragedy-Archibald Constable-Lard Jeffrey-Davidson?s Mains- Lauriston Castle. COLTBRIDGE, once a little secluded hamlet qn the Water of Leith, having two bridges, an old one and a new one, is now a portion of the western New Town, but is only famoys as the scene of the amazing panic exhibited in 1745, by Sir John Cope?s cavalry, under Brigadier Fowke-the 13th and 14th Dragoons-who fled in great disorder, on seeing a few Highland gentlemen-said to be only seven in number-approach them, mounted, and firing their pistols, while the little force of Prince Charles Edward was marching along the old Glasgow road. Passing the huge edifices called the Roseburn Maltings, belonging to the Messrs. Jeffrey, distillers, consisting of two floors 600 feet in length by 120 in width, for storing ale, a narrow winding path I leads to the ancient house of Roseburn and theold Dalry flour mills which now adjoin it. Small, quaint, and very massively built, with crowstepped gables and great chimneys, it exhibitsmarks of very great antiquity, and yet all the history it possesses is purely traditional. It has two. door lintels, one of which is the most elaborate ever seen in Edinburgh, but it has been broken, and in several places is quite illegible. In the centre is a shield with the royal arms of Scotland and the: motto IN DEFENS. There are two other shields, now defaced; and two tablets, one inscribed thus :- QVEN. VOU. VIL. ENTER AT. CRIST IS. DVRE 1562.
Volume 5 Page 102
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