186 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
service of these civic warriors was limited to the guardianship of the city, and
the preservation of public order. They were in reality a body of armed police,
whose duty it was to attend the Magistrates in their official capacity-to be
present on all public occasions-and, while the capital continued to maintain
the character of a walled city, so many of their number were nightly placed as
sentinels at the gates.‘ Only a limited portion, however, of the three companies
was kept regularly on duty. The remainder were allowed to work at their
trades, subject, however, to be called out at a moment’s notice.
The Guard was mostly composed of discharged soldiers ; men who, although
they might have seen a good deal of service, were still able to shoulder a musket,
or wield a Lochaber axe, and possessed sufficient spirit to render them formidable
in a street brawl. The officers were at times old military men, who
had influence enough with the Town Council to procure their appointment ; and
not a few of them had spent their youth in the service of the Dutch, as soldiers
in the Scots brigade.
From the nature of their duties, the City Guard was repeatedly brought into
contact with the people during periods of excitement. The most notable affair
of this kind was the well-known “ Porteous mob ;” and it is probable that much
of the odium which subsequently attached to the corps arose from associating
this unpopular individual with it. Prior to his appointment, almost no notice
whatever occurs of the City Guard in the local history or traditions of the times.
During the greater part of last century, however, a sort of hereditary feud seems
to have existed betwixt the lower order of citizens and the “ Town Eats,” as
they were called ; and no opportunity of annoying them was allowed to escape.
Fergusson, the poet, repeatedly alludes to these rencontres with the “black
squad,” whose ‘‘ tender mercies ’’ he had probably too often experienced in the
course of his Bacchanalian irregularities :-
“ An’ thou, great god 0’ quavitae f
Wha sway’st the empire 0’ this city ;
Whan fu’, we’re sometimes capernoity ;
Be thou prepar’d
To hedge us frae that black banditti-
The City Guard.”
“In fact,” says the Author of Waverley, ‘‘ the soldiers of the City Guard,
being, as we have said, in general discharged veterans, who had strength enough
remaining for their municipal duty, and being, moreover, in general, Highlanders,
1 The city of Edinburgh, by the extended walls, built immediately after the battle of Flodden,
in 1513, had five principal ports or outlets-namely, the West Port, so named from its being the
western boundary of the city, situated at the foot of the Grassmarket ; Bristo Port, head of the
Candlemaker Row ; Pottemow Port, which originally bore the name of KiTk-of-FieZd Port, head of
Horse Wynd ; Cowgate Port, foot of St. Mary’s Wynd ; and the Nether Bow Port, at the head of
the Canongate. This Port, running across the High Street, formed the principal entrance to the
city, and was a handsome building, two stories high, with a spire and battlements. The gate was
in the centre, and a wicket for foot passengera in the southern tower. This ancient structure was
taken down, by order of the Town-Cauucil, on the 31st August 1764 ; the narrow passage which it
afforded having been found exceedingly incommodious.
