BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 429
THE CITY GUARD-HOUSE.
CORPORAL JOHN DHU.
THIS dingy, mean-looking edifice, built for the accommodation of the City-
Guard, probably towards the close of the seventeenth, or beginning of the last
century, was situated in the High Street, opposite the shop now occupied by
Mr. Ritchie, stationer, about two hundred yards east of the Cross.’ It was a
slated building, one storey in height, and consisted of four apartments. On the
west and south-west corner was the Captain’s Room; and adjoining, on the
north, was a place for prisoners,‘ called the Burghers’ Room.” In the centre
was the common hall; and, on the east, the apartment devoted to the city
chimney-sweepers, who were called “ tron men ”-two figures of whom will be
observed in the engraving. The extreme length of the structure, from east to
west, was seventy feet, and the breadth forty over the walls. The floor, with the
exception of the Captain’s Room, was composed of flags, under which was a
vaulted cell, called the “ Black Hole,” where coals for the use of the Guard-House
were kept, and into which refractory prisoners were put.
The wooden mare at the west end of the building was placed there for the
purpose of punishing such soldiers as might be found guilty of misdemeanours.
The delinquent, with a gun tied to each foot, was mounted for a certain period
proportioned to the extent of his offence, and exposed to the gaze and derision
of the populace, who sometimes were not idle spectators of the exhibition. The
figure bestriding the “ wooden mare ” is merely intended to represent the nature
of the punishment.
Over the half-door of the Guard-House will be distinguished the well-known
JOHND HU. John, who was a corporal of the Guard, is here in the position
which he daily occupied, ready to receive, with a “ Highland curse,’’ whoeirer
was unfortunate enough to be committed to his surveillance. The rank of the
offender made no difference-rich and poor met with the same reception. A
chronicle of the beaux and helles who found a night’s shelter within its walls
would no doubt be gratifying to the lovers of antiquated scandal.
The old Market-Cross, removed in 1756, when the Royal Exchange was finished, was an
octagonal building of sixteen feet diameter, and about fifteen feet high. At each angle was an Ionic
pillar, from the top of which a species of Gothic bastion projected ; and between the columns were
modern arches. Besides the town’s arms, the edifice wm omamented with various devices; and
from the platform rose a column, consisting of one stone, upwards of twenty feet high, and of
eighteen inches diameter, spangled with thistles, and adorned with a Corinthian capital, upon the top
of which was a unicorn. It was
rebuilt in 1617 ; and the column, or obelisk, which had previonaly existed beyond the memory of
man, was carefully presemed and re-erected within the railing of the High Church.
At what period the Cross was originally erected ia not known.
