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
