The Water of Leith.] WALTER ROSS, W.S. 73
now at Abbotsford, where Sir Walter Scott took
them in 1824. This tower was divided into two
apartments, an upper and a lower ; the entrance to
the former was by an outside stair, and was used
as a summer-house. On the roof was a wellpainted
subject from the heathen mythology, and
the whole details of the apartment were very handsome.
On the 11th of March, 1789, Mr. ROSS, who
was Registrar of Distillery Licences in Scotland,
of St. Bernard?s. The bower is on the spot where
two lovers were killed by the falling of a sand-bank
upon them.?
For several years after his death the upper part
of the tower was occupied by the person who
acted as night-watchman in this quarter, while the
lower was used as a stable, In 1818, with reference
to future building operations, the remains of
Mr. Ross were taken up, and re-interred in the
West Church burying-ground. The extension of
THE WATER OF LEITH, 1825. (A/%-? Edank.)
and was a man distinguished for talent, humour,
and suavity of manner, dropped down in a fit,
and suddenly expired. He would seem to have
had some prevision of such a fate, as by his
particular request his body was kept eight days,
and was interred near his tower with the coffin-lid
open.
?? Yesterday, at one o?clock,?? says the Edinburgh
Advertiser for March zoth, 1789, ? the remains of
the late Mr. Walter Ross were, agreeable to his
own desire, interred in a bower laid out by himself
for that purpose, and encircled with myrtle, near
the beautiful and romantic tower which he had
been at so much trouble and expense in getting
erected, on the most elevated part of his grounds
106
Anne Street, in 1825, caused the removal of his.
tower to be necessary. It was accordingly demolished,
and most of the sculptures were carted
away as rubbish.
In the ?? Traditions of Edinburgh,? we are told
that after he had finished his pleasure-grounds,
Mr. Ross was much enraged by nightly trespassers,
and advertised spring-guns and man-traps without
avail. At last he conceived the idea of procuring
a human leg from the Royal Infirmary, and
dressing it up with a stocking, shoe, and .buckle,
sent it through the town, borne aloft by the crier,
proclaiming that ? it had been found last night in
Mr. Walter Ross?s policy at Stockbridge, and
offering to restore it to the disconsolate owner.??
