Abbeyhill.] BARON NORTON. I27
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DISTRICT OF RESTALRIG.
Abhey Hill-Baron Norton-Alex. Campbell and ? Albyn?s Anthology ?--Comely Gardens-Easter Road-St. Margaret?s Well-Church and
Legend of St. Triduana-Made Collegiate by James 111.-The Mausoleum-Old Bardns of Restalrig-pe Logans, &c.-Conflict of
Black Saturday-Residents of Note-First Balloon in Britain-Rector Adams-The Nisbets of Craigantinnie and Dean-The Millers-
The Craieantinnie Tomb and Marbles-The Marionville Traeedv-The Hamlet of Jock?o Lodge-Mail-bag Robberies in seventeenth and - _
eighteenth centuries-Piershill House and Barracks.
AT the Abbey Hill, an old house-in that antiquated
but once fashionable suburb, which grew
up in the vicinity of the palace of Holyrood-with
groups of venerable trees around it, which are now,
like itself, all swept away to make room for the present
Abbeyhill station and railway to Leith, there
lived long the Hon. Fletcher Norton, appointed one
of the Barons of the Scottish Exchequer in 1776,
with a salary of &2,865 per annum, deemed a handsome
income in those days.
He was the second son of Fletcher Norton of
Grantley in Yorkshire, who was Attorney-General
of England in 1762, and was elevated to the British
peerage in 1782, as Lord Grantley.
He came to Scotland at a time when prejudices
then against England and Englishmen were strong
and deep, for the rancour excited by the affair of
1745, about thirty years before, was revived by the
periodical publication of the Nhth Briton, but
Baron Norton soon won the regard of all who knew
him. His conduct as a judge increased the respect
which his behaviour in private life obtained, His
perspicacity easily discovered the true merits of any
cause before him, while his dignified and conciliatory
manner, joined to the universal confidence
which prevailed in his rigid impartiality, reconciled
to him even those who suffered by such verdicts as
were given against them in consequence of his
charges to the juries.
He married in 1793 a Scottish lady, a Miss Balmain,
and in the Edinburgh society of his time stood
high in the estimation of all, ?as a husband, father,
friend, and master,? according to a print of 1820.
? His fund of information-of anecdotes admirably
told-his social disposition, and the gentlemanly
pleasantness of his manner, made his society to be
universally coveted. Resentment had no place in
his bosom. He seemed almost insensible to injury
so immediately did he pardon it. Amongst his
various pensioners were several who had shown
marked ingratitude ; but distress, with him, covered
every offence against himself.?
He was a warm patron of the amiable and enthusiastic,
but somewhat luckless Alexander Campbell,
author of ? The Grampians Desolate,? which
?fell dead ? from the press, and editor of ? Albyn?s
Anthology,? who writes thus in the preface to the
first volume of that book in 1816, and which, we
may mention, was a ? collection of melodies and
local poetry peculiar to Scotland and the isles ? :-
? So far back as the year 1780, while as yet the
editor of ?Albyn?s Anthology? was an organist to
one of the Episcopal chapels in Edinburgh, he projected
the present work. Finding but small encouragement
at that period, and his attention being
directed to pursuits of quite a different nature, the
plan was dropped, till by an accidental turn of conversation
at a gentleman?s table, the Hon. Fletcher
Norton gave a spur to the speculation now in its
career. He with that warmth of benevolence
peculiarly his own, offered his influence with the
Royal Highland Society of Scotland, of which he is
a member of long standing, and in conformity with
the zeal he has uniformly manifested for everything
connected with the distinction and prosperity of our
ancient realm, on the editor giving him a rough
outline of the present undertaking, the Hon. Baron
put it into the hands of Henry Mackenzie, Esq., of
the Exchequer, and Lord Bannatyne, whose influence
in the society is deservedly great. And
immediately on Mr. Mackenzie laying it before a
select committee for music, John H. Forbes, Esq.
(afterwards Lord Medwyn), as convener of the
committee, convened it, and the result was a recommendation
to the society at large, who embraced
the project cordially, voted a sum to enable the
editor to pursue his plan ; and forthwith he set out
on a tour through the Highlands and western
islands. Having performed a journey (in pursuit
of materials for the present work) of between eleven
and twelve hundred miles, in which he collected
191 specimens of melodies and Gaelic vocal poetry,
he returned to Edinburgh, and laid the fruits of
his gleanings before the society, who were pleased
to honour with their approbation his success in
attempting to collect and preserve the perishing remains
of what is so closely interwoven with the
history and literature of Scot!and.?
From thenceforth the ?? Anthology? was a success,
and a second volume appeared in 1818. Under
the influence of Baron Norton, Campbell got many
able contributors, among whom appear the names
of Scott, Hogg, Mrs. Grant of Laggan, RIaturin, and
Jamieson.
128 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig,
Baron Norton was remarkable for his constant
attention to all religious duties. Throughout his long
life not a Sunday passed in which he was prevented
from attending the service of the Scottish Episcopal
Church, and so inviolable was his regard to truth,
that no argument could ever prevail upon him to
deviate from the performance of a promise, though
obtained contrary to his interest and by artful representations
imperfectly founded.
He died at Abbeyhill in 1820, after officiating as
a Baron of Exchequer for forty-four years. His remains
were taken to England and deposited in the
family vault at Wonersh, near Guildford, in Surrey.
On the death of his elder brother William, without
heirs in 1822, his son Fletcher Norton succeeded as
third Lord Grantley.
It is from him that the three adjacent streets at
the delta of the Regent and London Roads take
their names.
In this quarter lie Comely Green and Comely
Gardens. During the middle of the last century,
the latter would seem to have been a species of
lively Tivoli Gardens for the lower classes in Edinburgh,
though Andrew Gibb, the proprietor thereof,
addresses his advertisement to ? gentlemen and
ladies,? in the Chrant of September 1761.
Therein he announces that he intends U to give
up Comely Gardens in a few weeks, and hopes
they will favour his undertaking and encourage him
to the last. As the ball nights happened to be
rainy these three weeks past he is to keep the
gardens open every day for this season, that gentlemen
and ladies may have the benefit of a walk
there upon paying zd to the doorkeeper for keeping
the walk in order, and may have tea, coffee,
or fruit any night of the ball nights ; and hereby
takes this opportunity of returning his hearty thanks
to the noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies, who have
done him the honour to favour him with their company,
and begs the continuance of their favour, as
the undertaking has been accompanied with great
expense. Saturday night is intended to be the last
public one of this season.?
A subsequent advertisement announces for sale,
?the enclosed grounds of Comely Gardens, together
with the large house then commonly called
the Green House, and tlie office, houses, &c., on
the east side of the road leading to Jock?s Lodge.?
Adjoining the new abbey church, at the end of
a newly-built cuZ-de-sac, is one of those great schools
built by the Edinburgh School Board, near Norton
Place.
In architectural
design it corresponds with the numerous Board
Schools erected elsewhere in the city. Including
For the site Az,ooo was paid.
fittings, the edifice cost ,&7,700, Extending across
the width of the building, on both flats, are two
great halls, with four class-rooms attached. The
infants are accommodated down-stairs, the juveniles
above.
On the ground flat is a large sewing-room All
the class-rooms are lofty and well ventilated. At
the back are playgrounds, partly covered, for the
use of the pupils, whose average number is 540.
The long thoroughfare which runs northward from
this quarter, named the Easter Road, was long the
chief access to the city from Leith j the only other,
until the formation of the Walk, being the Western
or Bonnington Road.
On the east side of it are the vast premises built
in 1878 by the Messrs. W. and A. K. Johnston for
business purposes, as engravers, printers, and pub
lishers, and a little to the north of these are the
recently-built barracks for the permanent use of
the City Militia, or ?Duke of Edinburgh?s Own
Edinburgh Artillery,? consisting of six batteries,
having twenty officers, including the Prince.
Passing an old mansion, named the Drum, in the
grounds of which were dug up two very fine claymores,
now possessed by the proprietor, Mr. Smith-
Sligo of Inzievar, we find a place on the west side
of the way that is mentioned more than once in
Scottish history, the Quarry Holes.
In 1605, Sir Janies Elphinstone, first Lord
Balmerino, became proprietor of the lands of
Quarry Holes after the ruin of Logan of Restalng.
The Upper Quarry Holes were situated on the
declivity of the Calton Hill, at the head of the
Easter Road, and allusion is made to them in some
trials for witchcraft in the reign of James VI.
At the foot of this road a new Free Church for
South Leith was erected in 1881, and during the
excavations four humad skeletons were discoveredthose
of the victims of war or a plague.
Eashvard of this, cut off on the south by the line
of the North British Railway, and partially by the
water of Lochend on the west, lies the still secluded
village of Restalrig, which, though in the immediate
vicinity of the city, seems, somehow, to have
fallen so completely out of sight, that a vast portion
of the inhabitants appear scarcely to be aware
of its existence ; yet it teems with antiquarian and
historical memories, and possesses an example of
ecclesiastical architecture the complete restoration
of which has been the desire of many generations
of men of taste, and in favour of which the late
David Laing wrote strongly-the ancient church
of St. Triduana.
But long before the latter was erected Restalrig
was chiefly known from its famous old well.
