Leith.] HOME-COMING OF MONS MEG. 209
by the foot o the Calton Hill towards the Palace
of Holyrood.
As a souvenir of this event, on the first anniversary
of it a massive plate was inserted on the
Shore, in the exact spot on which the king first
placed his foot, and there it remains to this day,
with a suitable inscription commemorative of the
event.
In 1829, Mons Meg, which, among other ord
nance deemed unserviceable, had been transmitted
by the ignorance of an officer to London, and retained
there in the Tower, was, by the patriotic
efforts of Sir Walter Scott, sent home to Scotland.
This famous old cannon, deemed a kind of Palladium
by the Scots, after an absence of seventy-five
years, was landed from the Happy Janet, and after
lying for a time in the Naval Yard, till arrangements
were made, the gun was conveyed to the Castle by
a team of ten horses decked with laurels, preceded
by two led horses, mounted by boys clad in tartans
with broadswords. The escort was formed by a
123
grooms and esquires; Sir Patrick Walker, as
Usher of the White Rod; a long alternation of
cavalry and infantry, city dignitaries, and Highlanders,
followed.
At the end of the vista, preceded by ten royal
footmen, two and two, sixteen yeomen of the
Scottish Guard, escorted by the Royal Archers,
came the king, followed by the head-quarter staff,
three clans of Highlanders, two squadrons of Lothian
yeomanry, three of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, Scots
Greys, and the Grenadiers of the 77th regiment;
and after some delay in going through the ceremony
of receiving the city keys-which no monarch
had touched since the days of Charles I.-the
magnificent train moved through the living masses
Lochend to the latter on the east, tA-e middle of
Leith Walk on the south, and Wardie Bum on the
west.
Adam White was the first Provost of Leith after
the passing of the Burgh Reform Bill in 1833;
and it is now governed by a chief magistrate, four
bailies, ten councillors, a treasurer, town clerk, and
two joint assessors.
Powers have since then been conferred upon the
Provost of Leith as admiral, and the bailies as
admirals-depute. There are in the town four
principal corporations - the Shipmasters, the
Traffickers, the Malt-men, and the Trades. The
Traffickers, or Merchant Company, have lost their
charter, and are merely a benefit society, without
the power of compelling entries ; and the Ship
masters, ordinarily called the Trinity House, vi11
be noticed in connection with that institution.
The Trades Corporation is multifarious, and
independently of it there is a body called ? The
Convenery,? consisting of members delegated from
troop of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and detachments
of the Koyal Artillery and Highlanders. In the
evening the Celtic Society, all kilted, IOO strong,
dined together in honour of the event, Sir Walter
Scott in the chair; and on this occasion the old
saying was not forgotten, that Scotland would
never be Scotland till Mons Meg cam hame.?
The gun was then on the same ancient carriage
on which it had been taken away.
It was not until 1827 that the precise limits of
Leith as a town were defined, and a territory given
to it which, if filled, would almost enable it to vie
with the metropolis in extent, More extensive
boundaries were afterwards assigned, and these
are the Firth of Forth on the north, a line from
SIGNAL TOWER, LEITH PIER, 1775. (ABw Ckrk ofEUin.)
210 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
each trade, all deacons and treasurers, and constituting,
or deemed to be; a separate corporation. But
the body, though dating at least from 1594, was
voted by several of the trades corporations in 1832
as useless, and since then its existence has been
very questionable.
Though Leith is not in a strict sense a manufacturing
town or the seat of a staple produce, it possesses
many productive establishments, as ship
building and sail-cloth manufactories. Nong the
shore of South Leith are several vast conical chimneys,
manufactories of glass, but chiefly in the
department of common ale and wine bottles ; this
trade is supposed to have been introduced by
English settlers during the time of Cromwell. In
the centre of the town there was commenced in
1830 a corn-mill propelled by steam, and of gigantic
dimensions, as its huge bulk towered against the
sky and above the surface of the little undulating
sea of roofs around it.
Leith possesses warehouses of great extent, which
are the seats of extensive tratic with large districts
of Scotland, for the transmission thither of wines
and foreigti and British spirits ; and there are also
other manufacturing establishments besides those
named, for the making of cordage, for brewing,
distilling, and rectifying spirits, refining sugar, preserving
tinned meats, soap and candle manufactones,
with several extensive cooperages, ironfoundries,
flour mills, tanneries, and saw-mills.
But those who see Leith now, even with all its
extended docks and piers, can have no conception
of the scene presented by the port during the protracted
war with France and Spain, when .an
admiral?s flagship lay in the Roads, with a guardship
and squadron. Daily scores of men-of-war
boats, manned by seamen or marines, were amving
and departing ; prisoners of war in all manner of
uniforms, and often in rags, were being landed or
embarked ; press-gangs had their tenders moored
by the Shore. Infantry barracks, now granaries,
were on the North Quay ; stores, cannon, and provisions
encumbered it on every hand ; while almost
daily salutes were being fired froin ship and battery
in honour of victories by land or sea; recruiting
parties beat up, with swords drawn and ribbons
streaming ; seamen crowded every tavern, their
pockets flush with Spanish dollars, and bank-notes
tied round their hats ; men-of-war, privateers, trans
ports, filled the Firth, and merchantmen mustered
in hundreds to await the convoy ere they put
to sea ; there, too, were the gallant old Leith and
London smacks, armed with carronadcs, that
fought their own way, with the old Scottish flag at
their mast-heads, and many a time and oft, with
signal valour, beat off French, Spanish, and. Dutch
privateers.
Such was Leith at the close of the last century
and in the early years of the present one, until the
battle of Waterloo.
In the first years of the last century there were
occasional packet-ships between Leith and London.
In 1720 the Bon Accord, Captain Buchanan, is
advertised to sail to London with passengers on
30th June, and to ? k e q the day, goods or no
goods; ? and a similar notice appears in I 7 2 a concerning
the ? Unity packet-boat of Leith.? The
master to be spoken to in the high Coffee House.
(Sf. Jams?s fivening Post.) In 1743 one of these
packets, after a twenty days? voyage, arrived only at
Holy Island, through stress of weather.
Previous to the introduction of the smacks, which
were large and beautiful cutters, carrying an enormous
spread of fore and aft canvas, the passenger
and other trade between Leith and London was
carried on by means of clumsy bluff-bowed brigs,
ranging from 160 to 200 tons burden, and having
such very imperfect cabin accommodation that
many persons preferred to make the trip by the
ships which camed salmon between Berwick and
the Thames. In those days the traders were advertised
for twelve or fourteen days before they intended
to sail, and interim arrangements were
always made with the captain at ? Forrest?s Coffee
House,? or on ? The Scots? Walk,? in London, as
the case might be, ?wheo civil usage? was promised,
and the number of guns carried by the vessel
generally stated. The following is an advertisement
from the Edihburgh ChronicZe, June nnd,
I759 :-- ?? For LONDON, the ship Reward, Old England
built, William Marshal, master, now lying at the
Birth at Bames Nook, Leith Harbour, taking in
goods, and will sail with the first convoy.
?The said master to be spoken with at the
? Caledonia? or ? Forrest?s Coffee House,? Edinburgh,
or at his house in the Broad Wynd,
Leith.
? N.B.-The ship is an exceeding fast sailer, has
good accommodztion for passengers, and good usage
may be depended OH.?
In 1777 the smack Edinburgh was advertised in
the Mercury to sail at a fixed date, that she has
? neat accommodation for passengers,? also that
good usage may be relied on. The Success, lying
at the New Quay, is also advertised to sail by the
canal for Glasgow, weather permitting.
The passenger traffic increased to such an extent
that in 1791 the Leith and Berwick Shipping Company
established their head-quarters in Leith, the
