A ,
k i t h Walk.] JOHNNIE WILKES?
himself in her bedroom, ?with the intention of
carrying off a sum of money after she fell asleep.
But the noise of opening her desk awoke her; he,
for fear of detection, seized a knife which by accident
lay there, and mangled her throat so dreadfully
that she died next day. He then leaped from
a window of the second storey, but fractured one of
his legs so much in the fall that he was unable to
walk, and sustained himself for several days, eating
peas and turnips, until his hiding-place was discovered
He afterwards graced the gibbet in Leith
Walk, where his body hung for many a long year.?
In more than one instance on the King?s birth-
BRWNSTME HOUSE.
day the effigy of Johnnie Wilkes,? that noted
demagogue, Lord Mayor of London and English
M.P., who made himself so obnoxious to the Scots,
figured at the Gallow Lee. The custom, still prevalent
in many parts of the country, and so dear to
the Scottish schoolboy, of destroying his effigy
with every indignity on the royal birthday, is first
mentioned, we believe, in ?? Annals of the Reign of
George 111.f 1770.
But when only fields and green coppice lay between
the city and the seaport, the gibbet at the Gallow
Lee, with its ghastlyadditions,must have formed
a gloomy object amid the smiling urban landscape.
IN the beginning of the present century fields
and nursery grounds chiefly bordered Leith Walk,
CHAPTER XVI.
LEITH WALK (concZdd).
respectively Trotteis, Jollie?s, Ronaldson?s, and
King?s Buildings-had been erected, with long open
158 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Walk.
On the east side of the walk, overlooking the
steep and deep Greenside ravine, the huge and
hideous edifice named the ?? Tabernacle,? was long
the scene of the ministrations of the Rev. James
Alexander Haldane, who there, for more than forty
years, devoted himself, gratuitously, and with exemplary
assiduity, to preaching the Gospel. He was
the son of Captain James Haldane of Airthrey, a
descendant of the family of Gleneagles, and his
mother was a sister of Admiral Viscount Duncan.
He commenced life as a midshipman on board
the Dukeof Morztrose, Indiaman, made four voyages
to the East, and in his twenty-fifth year became
captain of the MeZviZZe CasfZe, and was distinguished
for his bravery amid many perils incident to life at
sea. During the mutiny at Spithead, the spirit of
the revolt was spread to the Dutton, a vessel alongside
of Haldane?s, by the captain of fle former
sending a man-ofiwar?s boat to have some of his men
arrested for insubordination. The mutiny broke
out on a dark night-shots were fired, and a man
killed, Oh this, the future pastor of the Tabernacle
lowered a boat with an armed crew, and went off
to the Button, the crew of which threatened him
with death if he did not sheer off; but he boarded
her, sword in hand, and, driving the mutineers forward,
addressed them on the folly of their conduct,
the punishment that was certain to follow, and
eventually overcame them without more bloodshed.
Soon after this he resigned his command in the
East India Company?s Service, and meant to adopt
the life of a country gentleman ; but an intimacy
with Mr. Black, minister of Lady Yester?s, and
Mr. Buchanan, of the Canongate Church, led to a
graver turn of thought, and, resolving to devote his
life to the diffusion of the Gospel, he sold his beautiful
estate at Airthrey to Sir Robert Abercromby,
and failing in a missionary plan he had formed for
India, he began to preach at home, first at Gilmerton
in 1797, and afterwards on the Calton Hill,
where the novelty of a sea-captain addressing them
collected not less than 10,000 persons on more
than one occasion.
Eventually he became minister Of the then recently
erected Tabernacle on the east side of Leith
Walk, and so named from Mr. Whitefield?s places
of worship. Eminent preachers from England frequently
appeared here, and it was always crowded
to excess. The seats were all free, and he derived
no emolument from his office.
At the period he commenced his public career,
towards the end of the. last century, evangelical
d0ctrir.e was at a low ebb, but through the instrumentality
of Mr. Haldane and his brother, also a
preacher, a considerable revival took place.
The Tabernacle has long since been converted
into shops.
Immediately adjoining it on the south is a low
square, squat-looking tower, with a fapde in the
Tudor style forming a new front on an old house,
pierced with the entrance to Lady Glenorchy?s Free
Church, which stands immediately behind it.
Where now we find the New London Road,
running eastward from Leopold Place to Brunton
Place, Ainslie?s plan of 1804 shows us in dotted
line a ? Proposed new road to Haddington,? passing
on the north a tolerably large pond, on the Earl of
Moray?s property near the Easter Road-a pond
only filled up when Regent Place and other similar
streets were recently built at Maryfield-and on
the south the Upper Quarry Holes-hollows still
traceable at the east end of the Royal Terrace
Gardens. A street of some kind of buildings occupied
the site of the present Elm Row, as shown
by a plan in I 787 ; and in the CaZedonian Merncry
for 1812 a premium of three hundred guineas is
offered for the best design for laying out in streets
and squares, the lands in this quarter, on the east
side of the walk, consisting of 300 acres.
Here now we find Windsor Street, a handsome
thoroughfare, built of white freestone, in a simple
but severe style of Greek architecture, with massive
fluted columns at every doorway. No. 23, in the year
1827 became the residence of the well-known Mrs.
Henry Siddons. Previously she had resided at No.
63, York Place, and No. 2, Picardy Place. Three
years after she came to Windsor Street, her twentyone
years? patent of the old Theatre Royal, which
she had camed on with her brother, W. H. Murray,
as stage manager, came to a close, and on the 29th
of March, 1830, this popular and brilliant actress
took her farewell of the Edinburgh stage, in the
character of Lady Towneley in The Provoked NUSb
a d , meaning to spend the remainder of her life
in retirement, leaving the theatre entirely to Mr.
Murray.
She was a beautiful woman, and a charming actress
of a sweet, tender, and pathetic school.
When she took up her residence in Windsor
Street the ground was nearly all meadow land, from
there to Warriston Crescent, says Miss F. A-Kemble,
in her recent ? Reminiscences,? which is rather a
mistake ; but she adds, ?? Mrs. Siddons held a peculiar
position in Edinburgh, her widowhood, condition,
and personal attractions combining to win the
sympathy and admiration of its best society, while
her high character and blameless conduct secured
the respect and esteem of her theatrical subjects
md the general public, with whom she was an
object of almost affectionate personal regard, and
