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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

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kith.] THE CITADEL 2S7 General Monk no doubt used all the stones of the two edifices in the erection of his citadel, which is thus described by John Ray, in his Itinerary, when he visited Scotland in the year 1661 :- ? At Leith we saw one of those citadels built by and stores. There is also a good capacious chapel, the piazza, or void space within, as large as Trinity College (Cambridge) great court.? This important stronghold, which must have measured at least 400 feet one way, by 250 the NORTH LEITH CHURCH. the Protector, one of the best fortifications we ever beheld, passing fair and sumptuous. There are three forts (bastions?) advanced above the rest, and two platfomis ; the works round about are faced with freestone towards the ditch, and are almost as high as the highest buildings therein, and withal, thick and substantial. Below are very pleasant, convenient, and well-built houses, for the governor, officers, and soldiers, and for magazines other (and been in some manner adapted to the acute angle of the old fortifications there), costing, says Wilson, ?upwards of LIOO,OOO sterling, fell a sacrifice, soon after the Restoration, to the cupidity of the monarch and the narrow-minded jealousy of the Town Council of Edinburgh.? All that remains of the citadel now are some old buildings, called, perhaps traditionally, ?? Cromwell?s Barracks?-near which was found an old
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258 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith helmet, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum -and the entrance gate or archway on the north side of Couper Street. It is elliptical, goes the whole depth of the original rampart, and has had a portcullis, but is only nine feet high from the keystone to the ground, which must have risen here ; and in the Advertiser for 1789 (No. 2,668), it is recorded that, ? On Monday last, as a gentleman?s coach was driving through an arch of the citadel at Leith, the coachman, not perceiving the lowness of the arch, was unfortunately killed.? ?( Many still living,? says Wilson, writing in 1847, ?can remember when this arch (with the house now built above it) stood on the open beach, though now a wide space intervenes between it and the docks ; and the Mariners? Church, as well as a long range of substantial houses in Commercial Street, have been erected on the recovered land? After the Restoration a partial demolition of the citadel and sale of its materials began ; thus, it is stated in the Records of Heriot?s Hospital, that the ?Town Council, on 7th April, 1673, ?unanimously understood that the Kirk of the citadel1 (of Leith), and all that is therein, both timber, seats, steeple, stone and glass work, be made use of and used to the best avail for reparation of the hospital chapel, and ordains the treasurer of the hospital to see the samyn done with all conveniency.? Maitland describes the citadel as having been of pentagonal form, with five bastions, adding that it cost the city ?no less a sum than LII,OOO,? thus we must suppose that English money contributed largely to its erection. On its being granted to the Earl of Lauderdale by the king, the former sold it to the city for &5,000, and the houses within were sold or let to various persons, whose names occur in various records from time to time. A glass-house, for the manufacture of bottles, is announced in the ?? Kingdom?s Intelligence,? under date 1663, as having been ?? erected in the citadel of Leith by English residents,? for the manufacture of wine and beer glasses, and mutchkin and chopin bottles. . On this, a writer remarks that it will at once strike the reader there is a curious conjunction here of Scottish and English customs. Beer, under its name, was previously unknown in Scotland, and mutchkins and chopins never figured in any table of English measures. Among those who dwelt in the citadel, and had houses there, we may note the gallant Duke of Gordon, who defended the Castle of Edinburgh in ~688-9 against FVilliam of Orange, ?and died at his residence in the citadel of Leith in 1716.? A large and commodious dwelling-house there, ?lately belonging to and possest by the Lady Bruce, with an agreeable prospect,? having thirteert fire rooms, stables, and chaise-house, is announced for sale in the Courant for October, 1761, In the Advertiser for December, 1783, the house of Sir William Erskine there is announced as to let ; the drawingroom thirty-one feet by nineteen j (? a small field for a cow may be had if wanted; the walks round the house make almost a circuit round the citadel, and, being situated cZose to the sea, command a most pleasing view of the shipping in the Forth.? In the HeraZd and ChronicZe for 1800 ?the lower half of the large house ? last possessed by Lady Eleonora Dundas is advertised to let; but even by the time Kincaid wrote his ?( Hktory,? such aristocratic residents had given place to the keepers of summer and bathing quarters, for which last the beach and its vicinity gave every facility. Mr. Campbell?s house (lately possessed by Major Laurenson), having eight rooms, with stabling, is announced as bathing quarters in the Advertiser of 1802. North Leith Sands, adjacent to the citadel, existed till nearly the formation of the old docks. In 1774, John Milne, shipmaster from Banff, was found on them drowned ; and the Scots Magazine for the same year records that on ?Sunday, December 4, a considerable damage was done to the shipping in Leith harbour by the tide, which rose higher than it has ever been known for many years. The stone pier was damaged, some houses in the citadel suffered, and a great part of the bank from that place to Newhaven was swept away. The magistrates and Town Council af Edinburgh, on the zIst, were pleased to order twenty guineas to be given to the Master of the Trinity House of Leith, to be distributed among the sufferers.? Wilson, quoting Campbell?s ?History of Leith,? says : ?? Not only can citizens remember when the spray of the sea billows was dashed by the east wind against the last relic of the citadel, that now stands so remote from the rising tide, but it is only about sixty years since a ship was wrecked upon the adjoining beach, and went to pieces, while its bowsprit kept beating against the walls of the citadel at every surge of the rolling waves, that forced it higher on the strand.? This anecdote is perhaps corroborated by the following, which we find in the Edinburgh Herald for December, 1800 :-(?On Friday last, as the sloop ITmIeavour, of Thurso, Lye11 master, from the Highlands, laden with kelp and other goods, was taking the harbour of Leith, she struck the
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