The Water of Leith.] MAJOR-GENERAL MITCHELL. 79
1849. Horatio Macculloch, R.S.A., a most distinguished
landscape painter, lived for many years
in No. 7, Danube Street, where the best of his
works were executed. With Sir Daniel Macnee,
P.R.S.A., he first obtained employment from Lizars,
the engraver, as colourists of Selby?s ?? Ornithology.?
In 1829 he first exhibited; and from thence onwards,
to his death in 1867, he contributed to the
yearly exhibitions, and won himself much fame in
Scotland.
In No. 16, Carlton Street, adjoining, lived for
many years his chief friend, Kenneth Macleay,
R.S.A., who was born at Oban in 1802, and after
being educated at the Trustees? School, was one of
the thirteen founders of the Royal Scottish Academy,
and at his death was the last survivor of
them. He was chiefly famous for his beautiful
miniatures on ivory, and latterly was well known
for his occasional sketches and delineations of
Highland life, many of which were painted at the
express desire of Her Majesty. He died at No. 3,
Malta Terrace, in 1878, in his seventy-sixth year.
He was an enthusiastic Celt, and fond of wearing
the Highland dress on Academy receptions, and
on every possible occasion.
Among others connected with art who made
Stockbridge their residence was George Kemp, the
luckless architect of Sir Walter Scott?s monument,
who had a humble flat in No. 28, Bedford Street ;
James Stewart, the well-known engraver of Sir
Wlliam Allan?s finest works, who lived in No. 4
of that gloomy little street called Hermitage Place ;
and Comely Bank, close by, was not without its
famous people too, for there, for some years after
his marriage, dwelt Thomas Carlyle, and, in No. I I,
James Browne, LL.D., author of the ?History 01
the Highland Clans,? and editor of the CaZea?onian
Mermv and of The Edinburgh Week& JournaZ,
and Macvey Napier?s collaborateur in the ?? Encyclopzdia
Britannica.? Some differences having
arisen between him and Mr. Charles Maclaren,
the editor of the Scotsman, regarding a fine-art
criticism, the altercation ran so high that a hostile
meeting took place at seven o?clock in the morning
of the 12th of November, 1829, somewhere neaI
Ravelston, but, fortunately, without any calamitous
sequel. He took a great lead in Liberal politics,
and in No. 11 entertained Daniel O?Connell more
than once. He died at Woodbine Cottage, Trinity,
an the 8th of April, 1841, aged fifty years. John
Ewbank, R.S.A., the marine and landscape painter,
livedat No. 5, Comely Bank; while No. 13 was thc
residence of Mrs. Johnstone, who while there
wrote many of her best novels-among them, ? Clan
Albyn : a National Tale ?-and contributed man]
able articles to johnstone?s Magazine, a now forgotten
monthly.
From a passage in a memoir of himself prefixed
to ? The Mountain Bard,? we find that the Ettrick
Shepherd, about 1813, was living in Deanhaugh
Street while at work on the ?Queen?s Wake,?
which he produced in that year; and that, in his
lodgings there, he was wont to read passages of
his poems to Mr. Gray, of the High School, whose
criticisms would seem to have led to a quarrel
between them.
Sir James Young Simpson, Bart., in his boyhood
and as a student lived with his brother, David
Simpson, a respectable master baker, in the shop,
No. I, Raeburn Place, at the corner of Dean Street.
When he first began to practise as a physician, it
was in a first flat of No. 2, Deanhaugh Street ; and
as his fame began to spread, and he was elected
Professor of Midwifery in the University in 1840,
in succession to Dr. Hamilton, he was living in
No. I, Dean Terrace.
In St. Bernard?s Crescent, for many years while
in the employment of the Messrs. Chambers, lived
Leitch Ritchie, author of ?? Schinderhannes, the
Robber of the Rhine,?? a famous romance in its
day ; also of ?? Travelling Sketches on the Rhine,
in Belgium, and Holland,? and many other works.
He was born in 1801, and died on the 16th of
January, 1865.
His neighbour and friend here was Andrew
Crichton, LL.D., author of a ?? History of Scandinavia
I? and other works, and twenty-one years
editor of the Edinburgh Advertiser.
In the same quarter there spent many years of
his life Major-General John Mitchell, a gallant old
Peninsular officer, who was an able writer on military
matters and biography. In 1803 he began life
as an ensign in the 57th Foot, and served in
all the campaigns in Spain and Portugal, France
and Flanders. Under the nomdepZuume of ?Sabretache,?
he wrote some very smart things, his
earliest productions appearing in Fraser?s Magazine
and the United Serzlice JournaZ. He was the
author of a ? Life of Wallenstein? (London,
1837), which, like his ?Fall of Napoleon,? was
well received by the public ; and Sir Robert Peel
acknowledged the importance of the information
he derived from the latter work, after the appearance
of which, Augustus, King of Hanover, presented
the author with a diamond brooch. He
was the author of many other works, including
?Biographies of Eminent Soldiers.? He was a
handsome man, with great buoyancy of spirit and
conversational powers ; thus ? Old Sabretache,? as
he was often called, was welcome everywhere. A
The Water of Leith.
