244 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
cost of .&3oo, and has two ornamental fronts;
respectively with Ionic pillars and a Doric porch.
St. John?s Established Church adjoins it. It was
originally a chapel of ease, but became a Free Church
from the Disruption in 1843 till 1867, when, by
adjudication, it reverted to the Establishment.
Designed by David Rhind, it has an imposing
front in the Early Pointed style, surmounted by a
lofty octagonal tower, terminating in numerous
pinnacles, and not in a tall slender spire, accord-
On the west side of Constitution Street, the way,
for nearly 300 feet, is bounded by the wall enclos
ing the burying-ground of St. Mary?s Church, to
which access is here given by a large iron gate,
after passing the Congregational chapel at the
intersection of Laurie Street.
In No. 132 have long been established the headquarters
and orderly-room of the Leith Volunteer
Corps, numbered as the 1st Midlothian Rifles.
Originally clad in grey (like the city volunteers),
THE TOWN HALL AND ST. JOHN?S ESTABLISHED cnuRcH.
ing to the original intention of the talented
architect.
The Exchange Buildings at the foot of Constitution
Street, opposite Bernard Street, were
erected, at a cost of A16,000, in a Grecian style
of architecture, and are ornamented in front
by an Ionic portico of four columns. They
are three storeys in height, and include public
reading and assembly rooms ; but of late years
assemblies have seldom been held in Leith, though
they were usual enough in the last century. In the
Week& Magazine for I 7 76 we read of a handsome
subscription being sent by ?the subscribers to a
dancing assembly in Leith,? through Sir William
Forbes, for the relief of our troops at Boston.
this regiment now wears scarlet, faced unrneanhgly
with black, and their badge is the arms of Leiththe
Virgin and Holy Child seated in the middle of
a galley, with the motto, 4? Persevere.? The corps
was raised when the volunteer movement began:
under Colonel Henry Amaud, a veteran officer of
the East India Company?s Service, who, in turn,
was succeeded by D. R. Macgregor, Esq., the late
popular M.P. for the Leith Burghs.
On the same side of the street stands the Catholic
Church of ?Our Lady, Star of the Sea,? built in
1853. It is a high-roofed cruciform edifice, in a
coarse style of Early Gothic.
Constitution Street is continued north to the
intersection of Tower Street and the road beyond
