Leith Walk.] . REPULSE OF CROMWELL. 1.5 I
direction of Leith Walk, as by charter under thc
Great Seal, dated at Edinburgh, 13thAugust, 1456
King James 11. granted, ?preposito, baZZiuis et corn
munitati nosh? de Rdinlbuv-gh,? the valley or loa
ground between the well called Craigangilt, on thc
east side (i.e., the Calton Hill), ? and the commor
way and road towards the town of Leith, on tht
west side,? etc.
. But the origin of Leith Loan-or Leith Walk, a:
.we now call it-was purely accidental, and tht
result of the contingencies of war.
In 1650, to repel Cromwell?s attack upon thc
city, Sir Alexander Leslie had the whole Scottish
army skilfully entrenched in rear of a strong breastwork
of earth that lay from north to south between
Edinburgh and Leith. Its right flank was de.
fended by redoubts armed with guns on the green
slope of the Calton Hill ; its left by others on the
eastern portions of Leith and St. ilnthony?s Port,
which enfiladed the line and swept all the open
ground towards Restalrig. In addition to all this,
the walls of the city were everywhere armed with
cannon, and the banners of the trades were displayed
above its gates.
Along the line of this entrenchment Charles II.,
after landing at Leith from Stirling, proceeded on
horseback to the city. His appearance created the
greatest enthusiasm, all the more so that Cromwell?s
arms were seen glittering in the distance. Around
Charles was his Life Guard of Horse, led by the Earl
of Eglinton, magnificently armed and mounted, and
having on their embroidered standards the crown,
sword, and sceptre, with the mottoes Nobis hczc inviita
misemnt, and Pro Religione, Rege, et Patrid.
On Monday, the 24th of July, Cromwell furiously
attacked the entrenchment, as he had been exasperated
by the result of a sortie made by Major
General Montgomery, who at the head of 2,000
Scottish dragoons, had repulsed an advanced
column, and ?( killed five Colonells and Lieutenant-
Colonells, mortally wounded Lieut.-Gen. Lambert
and five hundred soldiers.? (Balfour.) As the
English advanced, the rising sun shone full upon
the long lines of Scottish helmets glittering above
the rough earthwork, where many a pike was
gleaming and inany a standard waving. Clearing
the rocks and house of Restalrig, they advanced
over the plain westward from Lochend, when the
field batteries atthe Quarry Holes, the guns on Leith
and theCalton,openedon them simultaneously, while
a rolling and incessant fire of musketry ran along
the whole Scottish line from flank to flank, and was
poured in closely and securely from the summit of
the breastwork. They were speedily thrown into
confusion, and fled in considerable disorder, leaving
behind them some pieces of cannon and the ground
strewn with dead and wounded.
Cromwell?s vigorous attack on the southern part
of the city was equally well repulsed, and he then
drew off from it till after his victory at Dunbar.
At this time General Leslie?s head-quarters were
in the village of Broughton, from whence many of
his despatches were dated ; and when the war was
shifted to other quarters, his famous breastwork
became the established footway between the capital
and its seaport.
Midway between these long stood an edifice, of
which no vestige remains-the Rood Chapel, repairs
upon which were paid for by the city in
1554-5. It stood in the vicinity of the Gallow
Lee, a place memorable for a desperate conflict
between the Kingsmen and Queensmen in 1571,
when the motto of ?God shaw the Richt,? was
conferred on Captain Crawford, of Jordan Hill, by
the Regent Morton, and whose tombstone is yet
to be seen in the churchyard of Kilbirnie. On
nearly the same ground in 1G04 James Hardie, of
Bounmylnerig, with others, in the month of April,
between nine and ten in the evening, assailed
Jacques de la Berge, a Fleming, forced him to quit
his saddle, and thereafter rypeit him? of gold
and silver, for which Hardie was hanged at the
Cross and his goods forfeited.
Though in 1610 Henrie Anderson, a native of
Stralsund, in Pomerania, obtained a royal patent
for coaches to run between Edinburgh and Leith
at the rate of zd. per passenger, we have no record
of how his speculation succeeded ; nor was it until
1660 that William Woodcock obtained a license
?to fitt and set up ane haickney coatch for the
service of his Majesty?s lieges, betwix Leith and
Edinburgh,? at the rate of 12s. (Scots) per passenger,
if the latter decided to travel alone, but if
three went with him, the charge was to be no more
than 12s. ; and all who came upward to Edinburgh
were to alight at the foot of Leith Wynd, ?for the
staynes yr of.?
From that time we hear no more of Leith stages
till 1678, as mentioned in our first volume; but in
1702 a person named Robert Miller obtained permission
to keep four vehicles to ply between the
two towns for nine years. Individual enterprise
having failed to make stages here remunerative,
the magistrates in 1722 granted to a company the
cxclusive right to run coaches on Leith Walk for a
period of twenty-one years, each to hold six passengers,
the fare to be gd. in summer and 4d. in
winter; but this speculation did not seem to pay,
md in 1727 the company raised the fares to 4d.
md 6d. respectively.
c
152 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, [Leith Walk,
In I 748 the thoroughfare is described as ?a very
handsome gravel walk, twenty feet broad, which is
kept in good repair at the public expense, and no
horses suffered to come upon it.? In 1763 two
stage coaches, with three horses, a driver, and
postilion each, ran between Edinburgh and Leith
every hour, consuming an hour on the way, from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ; and at that time there were no
other stage coaches in Scotland, except one which
set out at long intervals for London.
Before that nothing had been done, though in
1774 the Week0 Magazine announced that ?a new
road for carriages is to be made betwixt Edinburgh
and Leith. It is to be continued from the end of
the New Bridge by the side of Clelland?s Gardens
and Leith Walk. [Clelland?s Feu was where Leith
Terrace is now.] We hear that the expense of it
is to be defrayed by subscription.?
In I779 Arnot states that ?so great is the concourse
of people passing between Edinburgh and
HIGH STREET, PORTOBELLO.
In 1769, when Provost Drummond built the
North Bridge, he gave out that it was to improve
the access to Leith, and on this pretence, to conciliate
opposition to his scheme, upon the plate in
the foundation-stone of the bridge it is solely described
as the opening of a new road to Leith;
and after it was opened the Walk became freely
used for carriages, but without any regard being
paid to its condition, or any system established
for keeping it in repair ; thus, consequently, it fell
into a state of disorder ?from which it was not
rescued till after the commencement of the present
century, when a splendid causeway was formed at
a great expense by the city of Edinburgh, and a
toll erected for its payment.?
Leith, and so much are the stage coaches employed,
that they pass and re-pass between these towns
156 times daily. Each of these carriages holds
four persons.? The fare in some was 2hd.; in
others, gd.
In December, 1799, the Herald announces that
the magistrates had ordered forty oil lamps for
Leith Walk, ?? which necessary k~iprovement,? adds
the editor, will, we understand, soon tzke place.?
Among some reminiscences, which appeared
about thirty years ago, we. have a description of
Anderson?s Leith stage, ? I which took an hour and
a half to go from the Tron Church to the shore. A
great lumbering affair on four wheels, the two fore
1 painted yellow, the two hind red, having formerly
