946 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
The Old and New Ship are good examples of
what these old taverns were, as they still exhibit
without change, their great staircases and walls of
enormous thickness, large but cosy rooms, panelled
with moulded wainscot, and quaint stone fire-places,
that, could they speak, might tell many a tale of
perils in the Baltic and on the shores of Holland,
France, and Denmark, and of the days when Leith
ships often sailed to Tangiers, and of many a deep
carouse, when nearly all foreign wines came almost
without duty to the port of Leith.
In 1700 the price of 400 oysters at Leith was
only 6s. 8d. Scots, as appears from the Abbey
House-bookof the Dukeof Queensberry, when High
Commissioner at Holyrood, quoted in the ? Scottish
Register,? Vol. I. ; and chocolate seems to have
been then known in Scotland, but, as it is only
mentioned once or twice, it must have been
extremely rare; while tea or coffee are not mentioned
at all, and what was used by the opulent
Scots of that period would appear from the morning
meal provided on different days, thus :-
?One syde of lamb, and two salmon grilses ;
One quarter of mutton, and two salmon grilses ;
One syde of lamb, four pidgeons ;
One quarter mutton, five chickens ;
One quarter mutton, two rabbits.?
The modem markets of Leith occupied the
sites of the old custom-house and excise office
near the new gaol in the Tolbooth Wynd, were
commodious and creditable in appearance, covered
a space 140 feet by 120, and had their areas
surrounded with neatly constructed stalls. They
were long, but vainly, demanded by the inhabitants
from the jealous Corporation 6f Edinburgh,
who had full power to promote or forbid
their erection.
In 1818 they were eventually reared by the impelling
influence of a voluntary subscription, and
by means of a compromise which subjected them
?to feu duties to Edinburgh of A219 yearly; but
?they do not now exist, having beeh partly built
I., The?Coal Hill adjoins the Shore on the south, and
? here it is that, in a squalid and degraded quarter,
?but immediately facing the river, we find one of
.the most remarkable features in Leith-a building
. to which allusion has not unfrequehtly been made
in our historical survey of Leith-the old Council
Chamber wherein the Earls of Lennox, Mar, and
Morton, plotted, in succession, their treasons
against the Crown.
Five storeys in height, and all built of polished
ashlar, with two handsome string mouldings, it presents
on its western front two gables, and a double
over by other erections.
window projected on three large corbels j on the
north it has dormer windows, only one of which
retains its half-circular gablet j and a massive outside
chimney-stack.
This is believed to have been the building which
Maitland describes as having been erected by Mary
of Lorraine as the meeting-place of her privy
council. It is a spacious and stately fabric, presenting
still numerous evidences of ancient magnificence
in its internal decorations ; and only a
few pears ago some very fine samples of old oak
carving were removed from it, and even a beautifully
decorated chair remained, till recently, an
heir-loom, bequeathed by its patrician occupants
to the humble tenants of the degraded mansion.
Campbell, in his ? History of Leith,? says that it
? still (in 1827) exhibits many traces of splendours
nothing short of regal.. Amongst these are some
old oaken chairs, on which are carved, though
clumsily, crowns, sceptres, and other royal insignia.
The whole building, in short, both from its superior
external appearance and the elegance of its interior
decorations, is altogether remarkable. Every
apartment is carefully, and, according to the taste
of the times, elaborately adorned with ornamental
workmanship of various kinds on the ceiling, walls,
cornices, and above the fire-places. In one chamber,
the ceiling, which is of a pentagonal form, and composed
of wood, is covered with the representation
of birds, beasts, fishes, &c These, however, are
now so much obscured by smoke and dirt as to be
traced with difficulty. . . . . Not the least remarkable
part of this structure is the unusually broad
and commodious flight of stairs by which its different
flafs are entered from the street, and which,
differing in this respect so much from most other
houses, sufficiently establishes the fact of its having
been once a mansion of no ordinary character.?
Of all the decoration which Campbell refers to
but slender traces now remain. A writer on Leith
and its antiquities has striven to make-this place
a residence of Mary, the Queen Regent ; but Wilson
expresses himself as baffled in all his attempts to
obtain any proof that it ever wag so.
?? Mary,? says Maitland, ?( having begun to build
in the town of Leith, was followed therein by divers
of the nobility, bishops, and other persons of distinction
of her party, several of whose houses are
still remaining, as may be seen in sundry places by
their spacious rooms, lofty ceilings, large staircases,
and private oratories, or chapels for the celebration
of mass.?
But the occupation of Leith by these dignitaries
was of a very temporary and strictly military nature.
In 1571, when head-quarters were established in
