Restalrig. ] THE MARIONVILLE TRAGEDY. 141
lution, and brought him to the ground by a mortal
wound. As usual on such occasions, Consternation
and distress reigned supreme j the passionate
Macrae was sincerely afflicted, and it was with
difficulty that Sir William Maxwell could prevail
A very unfavourable view was taken of Macrae?s
conduct. It was alleged that for some time before
the duel he was wont to practise at a barber?s block
in the garden at Marionville, and that he had
pistols of a peculiar and very deadly character;
CRAIGANTINNIE HOUSE.
upon him to quit the field. Sir George lingered
for two days, when he expired.
Macrae?s days of pleasure at Marionville were
ended for ever. He fled to France, and for a
time took up his residence at the H8tel de la
Dauphine, in Pans. The event created a great
sensation in Edinburgh society. Macrae left behind
him a son and daughter. As Sir George Ramsay
was childless, the baronetcy went to his brother
William
both of which were vulgar rumours, as he was
without such weapons, and those used in the duel
were a clumsy old brass-mounted pair that belonged
to Captain Amory, who bore testimony that Macrae,
as they journeyed together to the land of exile,
never ceased to bewail the fate of his friend, and
that he took so obstinate a view of the valet?s
case.
Macrae and Amory reached France ; a summons
was issued for the trial of the former, but as he
142 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig.
did not appear, sentence of outlawry was passed
upon him. Meanwhile the servant?s action went
on, but was not determined till February, 1792,
and though the evidence proved in the clearest
manner that he had been the aggressor, the sheriff
and Court of Session alike awarded damages and
expenses.
Macrae lived in France till the progress of the
French Revolution compelled him to retire to
Altona. In July, 1792, the widow of his antagonist
became the wife of Lieutenant Duncan Campbell
of the Guards. When time had softened matters
a little at Edinburgh, he began to hope that he
might return home j but it was decided by counsel
that he could not. Ir was held that his case was
without the extenuating circumstances that were
necessary, and that it seemed he had forced on
the duel in a spirit of revenge; so, in the end,
he had to make up his mind to the bitterness of
a life-long exile.
?A gentleman of my acquaintance,? says Robert
Chambers, ?who had known him in early life in
Scotland, was surprised to meet him one day in a
Parisian coffee-house, after the peace of 1814-the
wreck or ghost of the handsome sprightly man he
had once been. The comfort of his home, his
country, and friends, the use of his talents to all
these, had been lost, and himself obliged to lead
the life of a condemned Cain, all through the one
fault of a fiery temper.?
This unfortunate gentleman died abroad on the
16th of January, 1820.
In the immediate vicinity of Restalrig are Piershill
barracks and the hamlet of Jock?s Lodge, now
absorbed into the ,eastern suburb of Edinburgh.
The locality is on the plain immediately under
the eastern base of Arthur?s Seat, yet scarcely a
mile from the sandyshore of the Firth of Forth,
and independently of the attractions of growing
streets and villas in the vicinity, is rich in scenery
of a pleasing nature.
Jock?s Lodge, long a wayside hamlet, on the
lonely path that led to the Figgate Muir, is said to
have derived its name from an eccentric mendicant
known as Jock, who built unto himself a hut
:there ; and historically the name appears first in
1650, during the repulse of Cromwell?s attack upon
Edinburgh. ? The enemy,? says Nicol, ?? placed
their whole horse in and about Restalrig, the foot
at that place callit Jokis Lodge, and the cannon
at the foot of SJisbury Hill, within the park
dyke, and played with their can?lon against the
Scottish leaguer lying in St. Leonard?s Craigs.?
In 1692, it would appear from the Privy Council
Register, that the post-boy riding with the mdil-bag
on its last stage from England, was robbed ?near
the place called Jock?s Lodge,? at ten o?clock at
night on the 13th August by a mounted man armed
with a sword and one on foot armed with pistols,
who carried off the bag and the boy?s horse ; LIOO
reward was offered, with a free pardon to informers
; but many such robberies were the result
of political complications.
In 1763 the same crime occurred again. The
Edinburgh &Iuseunz for that year records that
on the night of th6 11th November the post-boy
who left the General Post Office was attacked at
Jock?s Lodge by a man who knocked him off his
horse, mounted it, and rode off with the mail-bags.
On recovering, the boy went to the house of Lord
Elliock, at Jock?s Lodge, and went in pursuit with
some .of the senator?s servants, who found the
robber in a ditch that bordered a field, cutting up
the bags and opening the letters. He was secured
and taken to the house of Lord Elliock, who communicated
with the authorities, and the man was
brought by the city guard to the Tolbooth, when
he was discovered to be Walter Grahani, a workm-?
n at Salisbury Craigs, who had been sentenced
to death for housebreaking in 1758, but been pardoned
on condition of transportation for life.
There died in the hamlet here, in November,
1797, Mrs. Margaret Edgar, daughter of John
Edgar of Wedderlie, relict of Louis Cauvin, teacher
of French in Edinburgh, mother of the founder of
the adjacent hospital which bears his name.
Rear-Admiral Edgar died in 1817-last of the
Edgars of Wedderlie in Berwickshire, a family
dating back to I I 70.
Here is one of the oldest toll-bars in the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh.
About the middle of the last century Colonel
Piers, who commanded a corps of horse in Edinburgh,
occupied a villa built on the higher ground
overlooking Restalrig, and a little way north of
the road at Jock?s Lodge. In the Cowant for
February, 1761, it is described as being a house
suited for a large- family, with double coach-house
and stabling for eight horses ; and for particulars
as to the rent, application was to be made to hlr.
Ronald Crawford, the proprietor, who names it
Piershill House.
This villa occupied the exact site of the present
officers? quarters, a central block of the spacious
barracks for two regiments of cavalry, built there
in 1793 from stones excavated at Craigmillar, in
the same quarry that furnished materials for the
erection of George Square and the Regent Bridge.
Tnese barracks form three sides of a quadrangle,
presenting a high wall, perforated by two gateways,
,
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