deed. Some have derived it from Coire, a hollow,
stoir, wet steps, and eitherjonn, white, orfein, ?the
Fingalians.? (?Old Stat. Account?) The name
might thus signify, ? the hollow with the white
steps ;a or, the ? Glen of Fingalian steps.? And
by some it has been asserted that the original name
was Curia StorpAinorum, from a cohort of Roman
soldiers called the Storphini having been stationed
here. But George Chalmers, with much more
probability than any, deduces the name from the
? Cross of Torphin. ?
?Torphin?s Cross, from whence its name is
derived,? says Wilson in his 6? Remhiscences,?
?doubtless stood there in some old century to
mark the last resting-place of a rough son of Thor.?
plain, is 474 feet in height above the level of the
sea Its sloping sides are covered with rich arable
land, and wooded to the summit with thick and
beautiful coppice.. After a gentle ascent of about
half a mile, an elevated spot is reached, called
? Rest and be Thankful,? from whence a series of
magnificent views can be had of the city and the
surrounding scenery, extending from the undulating
slopes of the Pentlands on the south, to the Forth
with all its isles, Fife with all its hills, woods, and
sea-coast towns, and eastward away to the cone
of North Berwick and the cliffs of the Bass. But
always most beautiful here are the fine effects of
evening and sunset-
?? When the curtain of twilight o?ershadows the shore,
And deepens the tints on the blue Lammermoor,
The hues on Corstorphine have paled in their fire,
But sunset still lingers in gold on its spire,
When the Rosebery forests are hooded in grey,
And night, like his heir, treads impatient on day.?
Amid the great concern and grief caused by the
murder of ?the bonnie Earl of Moray,? by the
Huntly faction, in 1591, we read that the King,
111
James VI., at the crisis, would not restrain his pra
pensity for field sports, and was hunting on the
north side of Corstorphine Hill on a day in
February, when Lord Spynie, hearing that Captain
John Gordon (brother of the Laird of Gicht) who
had been severely wounded in the brawl at Donnibristle,
had been brought to Leith, together with
Moray?s dead body, having a warrant to place him
in Edinburgh Castle, was anticipated by the Lord
Ochiltree..
The latter, at the head of forty men-at-arms,
went in search of James VI., whom he found at
? Corstorphine Craigs, where his majesty was
taking a drink.? Ochiltree dismounted at the
base of the hill, approached the king respectfully
form, and the captain was beheadit and his man
hanged. The captain condemned the fact, protesting
that he was brought ignorantly upon it?
(Calderwood, &c)
In 1632 and 1650 respectively the Parliament
House and Heriot?s Hospital were built from a
quarry at Corstorphine.
Past the latter, on the 27th of August, 1650, the
Scottish army, under Leslie, marched to baffle
Cromwell a second time in his attempt to tu15 the
Scottish position and enter Edinburgh. An encounter
took place near Gogar, on ground still called
the Flashes, from the explosion of firearms in the
twilight probably, ?I and after a distant cannonade,
the English, finding that they could not dislodge
the Scots, drew off? towards Braid.
Corstorphine must at one time have had a kind
of market cross, as in 1764 it is announced in the
Edinburgh Advertiser of 14th February, that there
are for sale, three tenements ?near the Cross of
Corstorphine ; one, a house of three storeys, with
fourteen fire-rooms, and stables ; ? the other twD
are stated to have ?fixed bedsteads on the floor,?
?
114 OLD APU?D NEW EDINBURGH. [Corstorphine.
meaning, no doubt, the panelled box-beds so
common of old in Scotland.
There was a mineral well at Corstorphine, which
was in such repute during the middle of the last
century, that in 1749 a coach was established to
run between the village and the city, making eight
or nihe trips each week-day and four on Sunday.
? After this time the pretty village of Corstorphine,?
says a writer, ? situated at the base of the
hill, on one of the Glasgow roads, in the middle of
the meadow land extending from Coltbridge to
Redheughs, was a place of great gaiety during summer,
and balls and other amusements were then
common.??
The Sja, as it was called, was sulphureous, and
similar in taste to St. Bernard?s Well at Stockbridge,
and was enclosed at the expense of one
of the ladies of the Dick family of Prestonfield,
who had greatly benefited by the water. It stood
in the south-west portion of the old village, called
Janefield, within an enclosure, and opposite a few
thatched cottages. Some drainage operations in
the neighbourhood caused a complete disappearance
of the mineral water, and the last vestiges
of the well were removed in 1831. ? Near the
village,? says the ? New Statistical Account,? ?? in
a. close belonging to Sir William Dick, there long
stood a sycamore of great size and beauty, the
largest in Scotland.?
The Dick family, baronets of Braid (and of
Prestonfield) had considerable property in Corstorphine
and the neighbourhood, with part of Cramond
Muir. ? Sir James, afterwards Sir Alexander Dick,
for his part of the barony of Corstorphine,? appears
rated in the Valuation Roll of 1726 at A1,763 14s.
The witty and accomplished Lady Anne Dick of
Corstorphine (the grand-daughter of the first Earl
of Cromarty), who died in 1741, has already been
referred to in our first volume.
Regarding her family, the following interesting
aotice appears in the Scots Magazine for 1768.
?Edinburgh, March 14th. John Dick, Esq., His
Britannic Majesty?s Consul at Leghorn, was served
heir to Sir Tlrilliam Dick of Braid, Baronet. It
appeued that all the male descendants of Sir
TVilliam Dick had failed except his youngest son
Captain Lewis, who settled in Northumberland, and
who was the grandfather of John Dick, Esq., his
only male descendant now in life, Upon which a
respectable jury unanimously found his propinquity
proved, and declared him to be now Sir John
Dick, Baronet. It is remarkable that Sir William
Dick of Braid lost his great and opulent estates in
the service of the public cause and the liberties
of his country, in consideration of which, when it
was supposed there was no heir male of the family,
a new patent was granted to the second son of
the heir male, which is now in the person of Sir
Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, Baronet. The
Lord Provost and magistrates of this city, in consideration
of Sir John Dick?s services to his king
and country, and that he is the representative of
that illustrious citizen, who was himself Lord
Provost in 1638 and 1639, did Sir John the
honour of presenting him with ?the freedom of the
city of Edinburgh. After the service an elegant
dinner was given at Fortune?s, to a numerous company,
consisting of gentlemen of the jury, and
many persons of distinction, who all testified their
sincere joy at the revival of an ancient and
respectable family in the person of Sir John Dick,
Baronet.?
Corstorphipe has lost the reputation it long en.
joyed for a once-celebrated delicacy, known as its
Cream, which was brought to the city on the backs
of .horses. The mystery of its preparation is thus
preserved in the old ?Statistical Account? :--?They
put the milk, when fresh drawn, into a barrel or
wooden vessel, which is submitted to a certain
degree of heat, generally by immersion in warm
water, this accelerates the stage of fermentation.
Th9,serous is separated from the other parts of the
milk, the oleaginous and coagulable ; the serum is
drawn off by a hole in the lower part of the vessel ;
what remains is put into the plunge-chum, and,
after being agitated for some time, is sent to market
as Corstorphine Cream.?
High up on the southern slope of the hill stands
that humane appendage to the Royal Infirmary?
the convalescent house for patients who are cured,
but, as yet, too weak to work.
This excellent institution is a handsome twostoreyed
building in a kind of Tuscan style of
architecture, with a central block and four square
wings or towers each three storeys in height, with
pavilion roofs. The upper windows are all arched.
It has a complete staff, including a special surgeon,
chaplain, and matron.
The somewhat credulous author of the ? Night
Side of Nature,? records among other marvels, the
appearance of a mounted wraith upon Corstorphine
Hill.
Not very long ago, Mr. C-, a staid citizen
of Edinburgh, was riding gently up the hill, ? when
he observed an intimate friend of his own on
horseback also, immediately behind him, so he
slackened his pace to give him an opportunity of
joining company. Finding he did not come up so
quickly as he should, he looked round again, and
was astonished at no longer seeing him, since there
