The Water of Leith.] DANIEL STEWART. 67
with sword and sash, wig and cocked hat, queue
and ruffles. After looking at him steadily, but sadly,
the figure melted away; and, as usual with such
spectral appearances, it is alleged young Nisbet was
shot at the same moment, in an encounter with the
colonists.
In 1784 the Dean House was the residence of
Thomas Miller, Lord Barskimming, and Lord
Justice Clerk. In 1845 it was pulled down, when
the ground whereon it had stood so long was
acquired by a cemetery company, and now-save
the sculptured stones we have described--no relic
remains of the old Nisbets of Dean but their burial
place at the West Church-a gloomy chamber of
the dead, choked up with rank nettles and hemlock.
By 1881 the old village of Dean was entirely
cleared away. Near its centre stood the blacksmith?s
forge of Robert Orrock, who was indicted for
manufacturing pikes for the Friends of the People
in 1792. He and his friend, Arthur McEwan,
publican in Dean Side, Water of Leith village,
were legally examined at the time, and it is supposed
that many of the pikes were thrown into the
World?s End Pool, below the waterfall at the
Damhead. South of the smithy was the village
school, long taught by ? auld Dominie Fergusson.?
North of it stood the old farmhouse and steading
of the Dean Farm, all swept away like the quaint
old village, which?was wont to be a bustling place
when the commander-in-chief of the forces in
Scotland tenanted the Dean, and mounted orderlies
came galloping up the steep brae, and often reined
up their horses at the ?Speed the Plough? alehouse,
before the stately gate.
Somewhere in the immediate vicinity of this
old village a meeting-house was erected in 1687
for the Rev. David Williamson, of St. Cuthbert?s,
who was denounced as a rebel, and intercommuned
in 1674 for holding conventicles, but was sheltered
secretly in the Dean House by Sir Patrick Nisbet.
In 1689 he was restored to his charge at the West
Church, and was one of the commissioners sent to
congratulate King William on his accession to the
throne.
Now all the site of the village and farms, and
the land between them and the Dean Bridge, is
covered by noble streets, such as Buckingham
Terrace and Belgrave Crescent, the position of
which is truly grand. In 1876 a movement was
se: on foot by the proprietors of this crescent, led
by Sir James Falshaw, Bart, then Lord Provost,
which resulted in the purchase of the ground between
it and the Dean village, at a cost of about
A5,ooo. In that year it was nearlyall covered by
kitchen gardens, ruinous buildings, and brokendown
fences. These and the irregularities of the
place have been removed, while the natural undulations,
which add such beauty to the modem
gardens, have been preserved, and the plantations
and walks are laid out with artistic effect,
The new parish church-which was built in
1836, in the Gothic style, for accommodation of
the inhabitants of the Water of Leith village1 and
those of the village of Dean-stands on the western
side of the old Dean Path.
Farther westward is Stewart?s Hospital, built in
1849-53, after designs by David Rhind, at a cost
of about ~30,000, in a mixture of the latest
domestic Gothic, with something of the old castellated
Scottish style. It comprises a quadrangle,
about 230 feet in length by IOO feet in minimum
breadth, and has two main towers, each 120 feet
high, with several turrets.
Mr. Daniel Stewart, of the Scottish Exchequer,
who died in 1814, left the residue of his property,
amounting (after the erection and endowment of a
free school in his native parish of Logieraitj to
about ;G13,000, with some property in the old
town, to accumulate for the purpose of founding a
hospital for the maintenance of boys, the children
of honest and industrious parents, whose circumstances
do not enable them suitably to support and
educate their children at other schools. Poor boys
of the name of Stewart and Macfarlane, resident
within Edinburgh and the suburbs, were always
to have a preference. The age for admission was
to be from seven to ten, and that for leaving at
fourteen .
The Merchant Company, as governors, taking
advantage of the powers given them by the provisional
order obtained in 1870, opened the hospital
as a,day school in the September of that
year. The education provided is of a very superior
order, qualifying the pupils for commercial
or professional life, and for the universities. The
course of study includes English, Latin, Greek,
French, German, and all the usual branches, including
drill, fencing, and gymnastics.
The Orphan Hospital at the Dean was erected
in 1833, after elegant designs by Thomas Hamilton,
at a cost of A16,000, in succession to the
older foundation, which we have already described
as standing eastward of the North Bridge, on the
site of the railway terminus. It comprises a large
central block, with two projecting wings, a portico
of Tuscan columns, and two light, elegant quadrangular
towers with arches, and has within its
clock-turret on the summit of its front the ancient
clock of the Nether Bow Port.
Its white facade stands boldly and pleasingly
68 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith.
up against the dark green of the stately trees
around and behind it. In this institution above
ninety boys and girls are maintained, and its
benefits are not confined to any district of Scotland.
When admitted, they must be of the age of
seven, and not above ten years. They are taught
:reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. The
hospital has been maintained almost solely from
&e charity of the public.
pleasure-grounds of the old Dean House, and was
formed in 1845. It is principally disposed on
the steep and finely-wooded bank of the Water of
Leith, and underwent great extension and some new
embellishment in 1872. It contains the ashes
of many distinguished Scotsmen, including Lords
Cockburn, Jeffrey, Murray, and Rutherford, Professor
Wilson, and near him his son-in-law, William
Here are the graves of 1 Edmonstoun Aytoun.
WATSON?S, ORPHANS?, AND STEWART?S HOSPITALS, FROM DRUMSHEUGH GROUNDS, 1859.
(After a Drawing 6y Georgc Simron.)
Near it, and north-westward of Bell?s Mills,
-stands John Watson?s Hospital, built in I 825-8,
irom a very plain design by Williani Burn. It is
a spacious edifice, with a Donc portico, and maintains
and educates about 120 children. This
charity takes its rise from the funds of John Watson,
W.S., who, in the year 1759, conveyed his
whole property to trustees, Lord Milton and Mr.
Mackenzie of Delvin, W.S., who managed their
trust so well that, though in 1781 it only amounted
to A4,721 5s. 6d., by 1823 it exceeded &go,ooo.
It is built on ground which belonged of old to the
estate of Dean.
The Dean Cemetery, the most beautiful of the
.cemeteries of Edinburgh, occupies the site and
Edward Forbes the naturalist, Goodsir the anatomist,
Allan, Scott, and Sam Bough, the painters,
Playfair the architect and the sculptor, and William
Brodie, RSA.
In a corner near the east gate is buried George
Combe, the eminent phrenologist, author of the
?? Constitution of Man,? who died in Surrey in 1858 ;
and under a stately memorial of red Yeterhead
granite, thirty-six feet in height, lies Alexander
Russel, editor of The Scotsntnn.
In the centre of the ground stands a tall obelisk,
erected to the memory of the soldiers of the
Cameron Highlanders ; and not far from it, a tomb,
inscribed with all his battles, marks the grave of
Major Thomas Canch, whose valour at the assault
