Salisbury Road.] THE HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLES. 5<
three plain shields under a moulding, with the date
1741-
Though disputed by some, Sciennes Hill House
once the residence of Professor Adam Fergusson
author of the (? History of the Roman Republic,?
is said to have been the place where Sir Waltei
Scott was introduced to Robert Burns in 1786
when that interesting incident occurred which ir
related by Sir Walter himself in the following letter
which occurs in Lockhart?s Life of him :--?As foi
Rums, I may truly say, 1GYgiZimn vidi tantum. I
was a lad of fifteen in 1786-7, when he first cam?
to Edinburgh, but had sense and feeling enough to
he much interested in his poetry, and would have
given the world to know him; but I had very
little acquaintance with any literary people, and
less with the gentry of the West County, the two
sets he most frequented. I saw him one day at the
venerable Professor Fergusson?s, where there were
several gentlemen of literary reputation, among
whom I remember the celebrated Dugald Stewart.
? Ofcourse, we youngsters sat silent, and listened.
The only thing I remember which was remarkable
in Burns?s manner was the effect produced upon
him by a print of Bunbury?s, representing a soldier
lying dead on the snow, his dog sitting in misery
on one side ; on the other his widow, with a child
in her arms. These lines were written underneath
:-
? ? Cold on Canadian hills, or Minden?s plain,
Perhaps that parent wept her soldier slain-
Bent o?er her babe, her eyes dissolved in dew,
The big drops mingling with the drops he drew,
Gave the sad presage of his future years,
The child of misery baptised in tears.?
?? Burns seemed much affected by the print, or
Tather, the ideas which it suggested to his mind.
He actually shed tears. He asked whose the lines
were, and it chanced that nobody but myself remembered
that they occur in a half-forgotten poem
of Langhorne?s, called by the unpromising title of
? The Justice of the Peace.? I whispered my information
to a friend present, who mentioned it to
Burns, who rewarded me with a look and a word,
which, though of mere civility, I then received,
and still recollect, with very great pkasuye.?
Westward of Sciennes Hill is the new Trades
Maiden. Hospital, in the midst of a fine grassy
park, called Rillbank. The history of this
charitable foundation, till its transference here, we
have already given elsewhere fully. Within its
walls is preserved the ancient ?( Blue Blanket,? or
banner of the city, of which there will be found
an engraving on page 36 of Volume I.
In Salisbury Road, which opens eastward off
Minto Street, is the Edinburgh Hospital for Incurables,
founded in 1874; and through the chanty
of the late Mr. J. A. Longmore, in voting a grant
of &IO,OOO for that purpose, provided the institution
?? should supply accommodation for incurable
patients of all classes, and at the same time commemorate
Mr. Longmore?s munificent bequest for
the relief of such sufferers,? the directors were
enabled,in 1877, to secure Nos. g and 10 in this
thoroughfare. The building has a frontage of 160
feet by 180 feet deep. It consists of a central
block and two wings, the former three storeys high,
and the latter two. The wards for female patients
measure about 34 feet by 25 feet, affording accommodation
for about ten beds.
Fronting the entrance door to the corridors are
SEAL OA THE CONVENT OF ST. KATHARINE.
(After H. Laing.)
ieparate staircases, one leading to the female
iepartment, the other to the male. On each floor
.he bath, nurses? rooms, gic., are arranged similarly.
[n the central block are rooms for ?paying patients.??
The wards are heated with Manchester open fire-
)laces, while the corridors are fitted up with hot
Mater-pipes. The wards afford about 1,100 cubic
?eet of space for each patient.
Externally the edifice is treated in the Classic
;tyle. In rear of it a considerable area of ground
ias been acquired, and suitably laid out. The site
:ost A4,000, and the hospital LIO,OOO. Since it
Nas opened there have been on an average one hunlred
patients in it, forty of whom were natives of
Edinburgh, and some twenty or so from England
md Ireland. The funds contributed for its support
ire raised entirely in the city. It was formally
3pened in December, 1880.
A little way south from this edifice, in South
56 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Przstonfield.
Cunninghams, baronets of 1677, according to Burke.
Prior to coming into possession of the present
family, the estate belonged of old to the Hamiltons,
one of whom, Thomas, fell at Flodden in
?513.
In 1607 Thomas Hamilton of Prestonfield
became a Lord of Session, and on assuming his
seat, took an oath ?that neither directly nor indirectly
he had procured the place by gold or silver.?
The property seems to have been sometimes
=!led Priestfield. Thus Balfour records that ? Sr*
Alexander Hamilton, brother to Thomas, first Earle
Elacket Place, is Newington House, the residence
of Duncan McLaren, Esq., long one of the city
members, and who, beyond all other Scottish representatives,
has been a champion for Scottish
interests. He ?was born in 1800, and was Lord
Provost of Edinburgh from 1851 to 1854, and is
the father of John McLaren, who was made a
Lord of Session in 1881. It is the largest and
principal mansion in this part of the town.
Opposite the west end of the Mayfield Loan is
Duddingston, had to fly to Paris, where he became
chaplain to Cardinal de Retz ; and in after years it
passed into possession of the present family, when
? James Dick, a merchant of great eminence and
wealth, having purchased the lands of Priestfield,
or Prestonfield,? was created a baronet of Nova
Scotia, 2nd March, 1677.
Four years afterwards, on the morning of the
I Ith January, his house, ?( under the south front of
Arthur?s Seat,? was burnt down. Political circumstances,
according to Chambers, gave importance to
~ this, which would otherwise have been a trivial
land, a man of rare spirit and a very valiant
souldiour, departed this lyffe at Priestfield, neire
Edinburghe, 26th November, 1649.? He had
served with distinction under Gustavus Adolphus,
and was familiarly known among the soldiers as
? dear Sandy,? and as the constructor of certain
field-pieces for the Covenanters, who stigmatised
them as ? stoups.?
It was for an alleged intrigue with Anne Hepburn,
the lady of Sir James Hamilton of Preston-
PRESTONFIELD HOUSE.
