78 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith.
CHAPTER VIII.
VALLEY OF THE WATER OF LEITH (concluded).
Eminent Men connected with Stockbridge-David Roberts, RA-K. Macleay, RSA.-Jams Browne, LL.D.-James Hogg-Sir J, Y.
Simpsan, Bart.-Leitch Ritchie-General Mitchell-G. R. Luke-Comely Bank-Fettes College-Craigleith Quarry-Groat Half-Silver-
Mills-St. Stephen?s Church-The Brothers Lauder-James Drummond, R.S.A.-Deaf and Dumb Institution-Dean Bank Institution-
The Edinburgh Academy.
IN Duncan?s Land, in the old Kirk Loan-a pile
built of rubble, removed during the construction
of Bank Street, and having an old lintel brought
from that quarter, with the legend, I FEAR GOD ONLYE,
1605-was born, on the 24th October, 1796, David
Roberts, son of a shoemaker. In the jamb of the
kitchen fireplace there remains to this day an
indentation made by the old man when sharpening
his awl. In his boyhood David Roberts gave
indications of his taste for drawing, and made free
use of his mother?s whitewashed walls, his materials,
we are told, ? being the ends of burnt spunks
(matches) and pieces of red keel.?
He was apprenticed to Gavin Beugo, a housepainter
in West Register Street, whose residence was
a house within a garden, where the north-west corner
of Clarence Street stands. His fellow-apprentice
was David Ramsay Hay, afterwards House Painter
to the Queen, and well known for his treatises
on decorative art On the expiry of his apprenticeship,
Roberts took to scene-painting, his first
essay being for a circus in North College Street;
and after travelling about in Scotland and England,
working alternately as a house and scene painter,
he returned to his parents? house in Edinburgh in
1818, and was employed by Jeffrey to decorate
with his brush the library at Craigcrook.
About this time he was scene-painting for Mr.
W. H. Murray, of the Theatre Royal, and began his
life-long acquaintance with Clarkson Stanfield. He
now took to landscape painting, and his first works-
Scottish subjects - appeared in the Edinburgh
Exhibition in 1822, when, to his delight and
astonishment he found that they had been well hung,
and bought at the private view ; two were sold foi
to a pictureidealei
who never paid for it. After scene-painting at
Drury Lane theatre, he became an exhibitor in the
Royal Academy of London, and ere long won such
fame that he was admitted to the full honours 01
Academician in 1841, and his pictures were riuickly
bought at great prices. His most splendid work i:
that entitled ?The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea,
Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia,? published in four large
volumes in 1842.
Though resident in London, he was not for.
gotten in the city of his birth, where, in the? lattei
10s. each, and one for
year, he was entertained at a public banquet in the
Hopetoun Rooms, when Lord Cockbum presided ;
md in 1858 he was feted by the Royal Scottish
Academy, Sir John Watson Gordon in the chair;
Clarkson Stanfield and Professors J. Y. Simpson
md Aytoun were present.
David Roberts died suddenly, when engaged on
his last work, ? St. Paul?s from Ludgate Hill.?? He
had left home in perfect health on the 25th of
November, 1864, to walk, but was seized with
xpoplexy in Berners Street, and died that evening.
He was buried at Norwood. His attachment to
EdinbuJgh was strong and deep, and when he returned
there he was never weary of wandering
imong the scenes of his boyhood. Thus Stockbridge
and St. Bernard?s Well received niany a
visit.
James Ballantine, in his ?Life of Roberts,?
quotes a letter of the artist, dated September, 1858,
in which he writes of himself and Clarkson Stanfield,
who accompanied him :-?.? Yesterday we went to
see a fine young fellow, a member of the RSA.
His studio is at Canonmills, near to my dear oZd
Sfock6~id?e, and we strolled along the old road, aRd
crossed the bum I had so often paddled in ; after
which, in passing through the village, I pointed out
to Stanny an early effort of mine in sign-not
scene-painting, done when I was an apprentice
boy. We had a long look at the old house where
some of my happiest days were spent.?
His parents lived to see him in the zenith of his
fime. He buried them in the Calton ; and there
is something grand and pathetic in the simplicity
with which he records their rank in life on the
stone designed by his own hand to cover their
remains :-
? Sacred to the memory of John Roberts, shoemaker
in Stockbridge, who died 27th April, 1840,
aged 86 years ; as also his wife, Christian Richie,
who died 1st July, 1845, aged 86 years. . . . This
stone is erected to their memory by their only surviving
son, David Roberts, Member of the Royal
Academy of Arts, London.?
In No. 5 Mary Place dwelt David Scott, R.S.A.,
whose most important work, ? Vasco de Gama
Doubling the Cape of Good Hope,? is now in the
Trinity House, and who died in Dalry House in
