214 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
by the enterprising firm, but was conducted by
them in conjunction with other departments of
their trade.
The harbour of Leith is now a noble one, as it
underwent vast improvements, at an enormous
cost, during a long series of years up to 1877, including
various docks, to be described in their
place, with the best appliances of a prime port,
and great ranges of storehouses, together with two
magnificent wooden piers of great length, the west
being 3,123 feet, the east 3,530 feet. Both are
delightful promenades, and a small boat plies between
their extremities, so that a visitor may pass
out seaward by one pier and return by the other.
The formidable Martello Tower, circular in form,
bomb-proof, formed of beautiful white stone, and
most massive in construction, occupies a rock
called, we believe, of old, the Mussel Cape, but
which forms a continuation of the reef known as the
Black Rocks,
It stafids 1,500 feet eastward, and something
less than 500 south of the eastern pier-head, and
3,500 feet distant from the base of the ancient
signal-tower on the shore.
It was built to defend what was then the entrance
of the harbour, during the last long war
with France, at the cost of A17,ooo ; but now,
owing to the great guns and military inventions of
later times, it is to the fortifications on Inchkeith
that the port of Leith must look for protection.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MEMORABILIA OF THE SHIPPING OF LEITH AND ITS MARITIME AFFAIRS.
(Old Shipping laws-Early Whale Fishing--Letters of Marque against Hamburg-Captures of English Ships, 16p-x-First recorded Tonnage
of Leith-Imports-Arrest of Captain Hugh Palliser-Shore Dues, 1763-Wors? Strike, 17g2-Tonnage in 188I-Passenger Traffic, etc.
-Letters of Marque-Exploits of ~me-Glance at Shipbuilding.
THE people of Scotland must, at a very early
period, have turned their attention to the art in
which they now excel-that of shipbuilding and
navigation, for in these and other branches of
industry the monks led the way. So far back as
1249, the Count of St. Paul, as Matthew of Paris
records, had a large ship built for him at Inverness:
and history mentions the fleets of William the
Lion and his successor, Alexander 11.; and it has
been conjectured that these were furnished by the
chiefs of the isles, so many of whom bore lymphads
in their coats-of-arms. During the long war
with the Edwards, Scottish ships rode at anchor
in their ports, cut out and carried off English
craft, till Edward III., as Tytler records from the
? Rotuli Scotiz,? taunted his admirals and captains
with cowardice in being unable to face the
Scots and Flemings, to whom they dared not give
battle.
In 1336 Scottish ships swept the Channel coast,
plundering Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Wight;
and Tyrrel records that the fleet which did so was
under the command of David Bruce, but this seems
doubtfuL
When Edward of England was efigaged in the
prosecution of that wicked war which met its just
reward on the field of Bannockbum, he had two
Scottish traitors who led his ships, named John
of hrn, and his son, Alan of Argyle, whose
names have deservedly gone to oblivion.
We first hear of shipping in any quantity in the
Firth of Forth in the year 1411, when, as Burchett
and Rapin record, a squadron of ten English ships of
war, under Sir Robert Umfraville, Vice-Admiral of
England, ravaged both shores of the estuary for
fourteen days, burned many vessels-among them
one named the Greaf GalZiof of Scotland--and returned
with so many prizes and such a mass of
plunder, that he brought down the prices of everything,
and was named ? Robin Mend-the-Market.?
The Wars of the Roses, fortunately for Scotland,
gave her breathing-time, and in that period she
gathered wealth, strength, and splendour ; she took
a part in European politics, and under the auspices
of James IV. became a naval power, so much so,
that we find by a volume culled from the ?Archives
of Venice,? by Mr. Rawdon Brown, there are many
proofs that the Venetians in those days were
watching the influence of Scotland in counteracting
that of England by land and sea
Between the years 1518 and 1520, the ?Burgh
Records ? have some notices regarding the skippers
and ships of Leith ; and in the former year we find
that ? the maner of fraughting of schips of auld ? is
in form following: and certainly it reads mysteriously.
? Alexander Lichtman hes lattin his schip cdlit
the Mairfene, commonly till fraught to the nychtbouns
of the Toune for thair guidis to be furit to
Flanders, for the fraught of xix s. gr. and xviij s. gr.
