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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
No. CCLXV.
MR. EDWARD INNES,
AND HIS SECOND,
MR. JAMES COOPER,
FOLLOWING AFTER MR. BELL.
IN this, the sequel of the preceding Etching, MR. INNES is represented in the
rear of his victorious opponent ; and, from the expression of his countenance,
it may be augured that every hope of success has expired.
The progenitors of Mr. Innes were farmers in the neighbourhood of Glencorse,
but his father was a baker, and had his shop at one time at the head of
the Fleshmarket Close. Latterly, the shop having been let without his knowledge;
to a higher bidder, he removed to his son’s property, situated betwixt
Marlin’s and Niddry’s Wynds.’ In his younger years, the old man was usually
styled the “ handsome baker,” from his exquisite symmetry ; and he was
not less fortunate in his choice of a pretty woman for his wife. Isabella, or
Bell Gordon, had been married to a sea-captain who was drowned only a few
weeks after. The young widow, then only in her eighteenth year, happening
to be on a visit at the house of her brother-in-law, Mr. Syme, ship-builder, Leith,
the “ handsome baker ” was introduced to her acquaintance, and the result was
a speedy union.’ Besides a daughter by her first husband, Mrs. lnnes had eight
children, of whom the subject of our notice was the second eldest.
Mr. Edward Innes, after serving his apprenticeship with his father, commenced
as a baker on his own account, in the High Street. In addition to
his good fortune in business, he acquired considerable property by his wife, a
Miss Wright of Edinburgh, by whom he had several children. Mr. Innes
kept a horse and gig-an equipage rather unusual for a tradesman in his day ;
and what was considered remarkable at that time, he drove to London on one
occasion, accompanied by his wife, in eight days, a distance averaging fifty
miles a day, The circumstance was much talked of, and taking into account
the state of the roads at that period, the performance was really one of no
ordinary magnitude.
It was a timber land, and taken down to make way for the South Bridge.
In compliment to his pretty wife, the bakers of Edinburgh used to bake a description of sweetcake
(shaped, in millinery phrase, like a s t m c h e ~ )c,a lled “ Bell Cordon,” which at one time was
much in repute, not only in the capital, but in the provinces.