![Leith.] THE OLD TOLBCTOTH. 229
During the persecution under the Duke of
Lauderdale, Mr. John Gregg, who had been
formerly minister at Skirling, in Peeblesshire, was
apprehended and imprisoned in the Tolbooth for
house of his
that he died, was sentenced to be scourged on her
bare back from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh to the
Nether Bow, and from the Tolbooth of Leith to
the door of Isabel Lesly, and from there to the
brother-in-law
at Leith Mills.
Bass, to be detained
there
among many
other sufferers
for conscience
the Bass for “ abusing and railing ’I at Mr. Thomas
Wilkie, minister of North Leith, but in the May
of the same year he was brought back to Leith,
and thrust into the Tolbooth, where he lay for
quired for service in Leith. In 1763, a thief, who
was discovered in a peculiar manner, became, till
tried, an inmate of this old prison,
A Scottish sailor, who had served on board the
In 1678, Fi
:Ill c- - Hector Allan, -
a Quaker seaman
in Leith, TOLBOOTH wy
TABLET OF THsee.
In April, 1713, a prisoner named Jean Ramsay,
who had dragged a weak and infirm man from his
bed in the house of Isabel Lesly in Leith, near
the South Church, and used him with such severity
the water, and he found it to be his own.
The subsequent inquiry did not prove pleasant
to the half-drowned thief, who was forthwith taken
into custody, and committed to the Tolbooth.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p048.gif "Volume 6 Page 229")
... Leith .] THE OLD TOLBCTOTH. 229
During the persecution under the Duke of
Lauderdale, Mr. John Gregg, who had ...
Vol. 6 p. 229 (Rel. 1)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
chapel of St. Jamey at Newhaven, belonged to
the preceptory at Leith ; and also ...
Vol. 6 p. 216 (Rel. 0.97)
![OLD LEITH STACF.. Leith Walk.]
VIEWS IN PORTOBELLO.
I, Ramsag h e ; n, The Established Church ; & High Street, looking eart; + Town Hall ; 5 Episcopalisn Church.
116](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p164.gif "Volume 5 Page 153")
... LEITH STACF.. Leith Walk.]
VIEWS IN PORTOBELLO.
I, Ramsag h e ; n, The Established Church ; & High ...
Vol. 5 p. 153 (Rel. 0.97)
... from their proud
hill into the more fruitful plains (of Leith ?) to be
filled with the fa.tness and fulness ...
Vol. 5 p. 188 (Rel. 0.89)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
tyde to be a forewarning of some evil to
come.”
In 1644 the Leith timber ...
Vol. 6 p. 232 (Rel. 0.88)
![Leith.] CORNWALLIS’S REGIMENT. ‘93
“Are you uneasy about that fishing-party ? ” ‘‘ No,”
she replied, “I had no thought of it.” After she
had been asleep about an hour, she again exclaimed,
in a dreadful fright : ‘‘ I see the boat-it is going
down ! ” Again the major awoke her, on which she
said the second dream must have been suggested
Chambers conceives that, unlike many anecdotes
of this kind, Lady Clerk‘s dream-story can be traced
to an actual occurrence, which he quotes from the
CaZcdoniaiz Mercury of I 734, and that the old lady
had mistaken the precise year.
In 1740-for the first time, probably, since the
THE OLD TOLBOOTH, 1820. (&?er Slorcr.)
by the first. But no rest n-as to be obtained by
her, for again the dream returned, and she exclaimed,
in extreme agony : “They are gone !-the boat is
sunk ! Then she added : “ Mr. Dacre must not
go, for I feel that, should he go, I should be miserable
till his return.” In short, on the strength of
her treble dream, she induced their nephew to send
a note of apology to his companions, who left Leith,
but were caught in a storm, in which all perished.
121
days of Cromwell--we find regular troops quartered
in Leith, when General Guest, commanding in Scotland,
required the magistrates to find billets in
North and South Leith for certain companies of
Brigadier Cornwallis’s regiment, latterly the I I th
Foot.
Previous to 1745, the only place where troops
could be accommodated in a body at Leith was in the
old Tolbooth About that time, Robert Douglas,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p012.gif "Volume 6 Page 193")
... Leith .] CORNWALLIS’S REGIMENT. ‘93
“Are you uneasy about that fishing-party ? ” ‘‘ No,”
she ...
Vol. 6 p. 193 (Rel. 0.85)
![c
152 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, [Leith Walk,
In I 748 the thoroughfare is described as “a very
handsome gravel walk, twenty feet broad, which is
kept in good repair at the public expense, and no
horses suffered to come upon it.” In 1763 two
stage coaches, with three horses, a driver, and
postilion each, ran between Edinburgh and Leith
every hour, consuming an hour on the way, from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ; and at that time there were no
other stage coaches in Scotland, except one which
set out at long intervals for London.
Before that nothing had been done, though in
1774 the Week0 Magazine announced that “a new
road for carriages is to be made betwixt Edinburgh
and Leith. It is to be continued from the end of
the New Bridge by the side of Clelland’s Gardens
and Leith Walk. [Clelland‘s Feu was where Leith
Terrace is now.] We hear that the expense of it
is to be defrayed by subscription.”
In I779 Arnot states that “so great is the concourse
of people passing between Edinburgh and
HIGH STREET, PORTOBELLO.
In 1769, when Provost Drummond built the
North Bridge, he gave out that it was to improve
the access to Leith, and on this pretence, to conciliate
opposition to his scheme, upon the plate in
the foundation-stone of the bridge it is solely described
as the opening of a new road to Leith;
and after it was opened the Walk became freely
used for carriages, but without any regard being
paid to its condition, or any system established
for keeping it in repair ; thus, consequently, it fell
into a state of disorder “from which it was not
rescued till after the commencement of the present
century, when a splendid causeway was formed at
a great expense by the city of Edinburgh, and a
toll erected for its payment.”
Leith, and so much are the stage coaches employed,
that they pass and re-pass between these towns
156 times daily. Each of these carriages holds
four persons.” The fare in some was 2hd.; in
others, gd.
In December, 1799, the Herald announces that
the magistrates had ordered forty oil lamps for
Leith Walk, ‘‘ which necessary k~iprovement,” adds
the editor, will, we understand, soon tzke place.”
Among some reminiscences, which appeared
about thirty years ago, we. have a description of
Anderson’s Leith stage, ‘ I which took an hour and
a half to go from the Tron Church to the shore. A
great lumbering affair on four wheels, the two fore
1 painted yellow, the two hind red, having formerly](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p163.gif "Volume 5 Page 152")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, [ Leith Walk,
In I 748 the thoroughfare is described as “a very
handsome gravel ...
Vol. 5 p. 152 (Rel. 0.82)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
and cleaning the channel of the river at Leith .
(Burgh Records.)
In 1510, on ...
Vol. 5 p. 168 (Rel. 0.8)
... I64 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
*
LElTH WALK, FROM GAYFIELD SQUARE, LOOKING SOUTH.
CHAPTER XVII.
LEITH ...
Vol. 5 p. 164 (Rel. 0.79)
... says Robertson, prominent
in the maritime records of Leith , doubtless descendants
of the respective ...
Vol. 6 p. 276 (Rel. 0.7)
... Leith .: PAUL
pinnaces were hourly expected ; but, thanks to the
west wind, Leith was saved.
“ We continued ...
Vol. 6 p. 197 (Rel. 0.7)
![Leith] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, were ordered to make up lists of all
the dwellers in these districts, while nightly lists of
all lodgers were to be furnished by the bailies to
the captain of the City Guard.
was a profane, cruel wretch, and used them barbarously,
stowing them up between decks, where
they could not get up their heads except to sit or
lean, and robbing them of many things their friends
sent for their relief. They never were in such
~ ~
OLD HOUSE IN WATER’S CLOSE, 1879. (Aftw U Sketch hy /. RomiZh Allnr.)
The November of the same year saw those poor
victims of a dire system of misrule, the Covenanters,
who had been for months penned up like wild
animals in the Greyfnars’ Churchyard, Edinburgh,
marched through Leith. To the number of 257,
who had refused the bond, they were on the 15th
shipped on board an English vessel for transportation
to Barbadoes, there to be sold as slaves !
The captain, says the Rev. Mr. Blackadder,
strait and peril, particularly through drought, as
they were allowed little or no drink, and pent up
together till many of them fainted and were almost
suffocated.” This was in Leith Roads, and in
sight of the green hills of Fife and Lothian, on
which they were looking their last.
Their ship was cast away among the Orkneys ;
the hatches were battened down ; zoo perished
with her, while the captain and seamen made their](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p198.gif "Volume 5 Page 187")
... Leith ] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, ...
Vol. 5 p. 187 (Rel. 0.7)
![Leith] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, were ordered to make up lists of all
the dwellers in these districts, while nightly lists of
all lodgers were to be furnished by the bailies to
the captain of the City Guard.
was a profane, cruel wretch, and used them barbarously,
stowing them up between decks, where
they could not get up their heads except to sit or
lean, and robbing them of many things their friends
sent for their relief. They never were in such
~ ~
OLD HOUSE IN WATER’S CLOSE, 1879. (Aftw U Sketch hy /. RomiZh Allnr.)
The November of the same year saw those poor
victims of a dire system of misrule, the Covenanters,
who had been for months penned up like wild
animals in the Greyfnars’ Churchyard, Edinburgh,
marched through Leith. To the number of 257,
who had refused the bond, they were on the 15th
shipped on board an English vessel for transportation
to Barbadoes, there to be sold as slaves !
The captain, says the Rev. Mr. Blackadder,
strait and peril, particularly through drought, as
they were allowed little or no drink, and pent up
together till many of them fainted and were almost
suffocated.” This was in Leith Roads, and in
sight of the green hills of Fife and Lothian, on
which they were looking their last.
Their ship was cast away among the Orkneys ;
the hatches were battened down ; zoo perished
with her, while the captain and seamen made their](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p200.gif "Volume 5 Page 189")
... Leith ] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, ...
Vol. 5 p. 189 (Rel. 0.7)
... is no proof that the shallow waters of the
Leith , as they debouched upon the sands of what
must have been ...
Vol. 5 p. 165 (Rel. 0.69)
... -
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH -CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF ...
Vol. 6 p. 396 (Rel. 0.68)
![Leith.] AN ANCIENT BEACH. 2 49
and here, too, stands South Leith Poor-house, with
the parochial offices facing Junction Road.
When the foundations of the hospital here were
dug in 1850, indications were discovered of how
of the ocean, at some time posterior to Noah,
ebbed and flowed over the ground on which
these buildings are at present erected.” As the
place was in the line of the fortifications, relics
ANCIENT PARLIAMENT HOUSE, PARLIAMENT SQUARE.
purpura, buccinum, ostrea, myths, and balanus,
were found (Robertson). These were seen in
extensive layers under marine sand, twelve and
fifteen feet below the surface, and twenty-five
above high water. “Being marine shells of existing
species, the great mass not edible, and so densely
compacted in layers from the hospital to the
Junction Road-nearly an acre of land-it may
rationally be concluded that the green waters
12 8
as a forty-eight pound ball of a cannon-royale,
some antique harness, a large fore!ock, and
the wheelcap or stock-point of a piece of artillery.
To the Humane Society we have referred, in its
cradle at the Burgess Wynd. It would appear that
soon after its formation a complete set of apparatus
for recovering the drowned was presented to it, and
, to the town of Leith, by the Humane Society of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p068.gif "Volume 6 Page 249")
... Leith .] AN ANCIENT BEACH. 2 49
and here, too, stands South Leith Poor-house, with
the parochial offices facing ...
Vol. 6 p. 249 (Rel. 0.68)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
prisoners, who were praying intently, when Sir
Adolphus Oughton stepped ...
Vol. 6 p. 196 (Rel. 0.67)
... Leith the additional accommodation required by
its shipping and commercial interests, including the
provision of ...
Vol. 6 p. 284 (Rel. 0.64)
... ’ OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
remainder of the structure cannot be earlier than
the close of the ...
Vol. 6 p. 252 (Rel. 0.64)
... insurrection,
and, marching with all his adherents to
Leith , offered battle between that town and Edinburgh
to ...
Vol. 5 p. 169 (Rel. 0.63)
... by the
hands of him, namely, who is called Hood of Leith ,
from me and my heirs for ever, as freely, ...
Vol. 5 p. 132 (Rel. 0.63)
![Leith.] WITCHCRAFT IN LEITH; I81
-
dated 15th March, 1603, among many enumerations,
all in favour of Edinburgh, power is again
given the magistrates to enlarge and extend the
port towards the sea, with bulwarks on both sides
of theaiver; and to build, strengthen, and fortify the
Andrew Sadler, through the agency, in the former
case, of a little bag of black plaiding, wherein she
put some grains of wheat, worsted threads of divers
colours, hair, and nails of “ mennis fingeris ;” and
I in the latter case by a shirt dipped in a certain
GRANT’S SQUARE, 1851.~ (A&r a Dmwiw by W. Chanring.)
same in a substantial and durable manner for the
safety of shipping.
As the sixteenth century was drawing to its close,
the criminal records give many instances of the
dark and gross superstition that had spread over
the land even after the days of Knox. Thus, in
1597, Janet Stewart, in the Canongate, and Christian
Livingstone, in Leith, were accused of witchcraft
and casting spells upon Thomas Guthry and
well ; for which alleged crimes they were sentenced
to die on the Castle Hill, “ thair bodies to be
Grant’s Square has entirely disappeared. “It was,“ writes Dr.
Robtrt Paterson, “the square in which existed the old Parliament
Houu, once occupied in Mary’s time. The m m in which the Par-
L i e n t met must have been a spacious one, as when I remember it it
was divided into numerous smaller rooms for poor tenants, but yet tkc
carved oak panelling and the richly-decorated mof told of former
magnificence. All has, however, now been cleared away, and replaced
by a granary.”](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p192.gif "Volume 5 Page 181")
... Leith .] WITCHCRAFT IN LEITH ; I81
-
dated 15th March, 1603, among many enumerations,
all in favour of Edinburgh, ...
Vol. 5 p. 181 (Rel. 0.63)
![A ,
k i t h Walk.] JOHNNIE WILKES”
himself in her bedroom, “with the intention of
carrying off a sum of money after she fell asleep.
But the noise of opening her desk awoke her; he,
for fear of detection, seized a knife which by accident
lay there, and mangled her throat so dreadfully
that she died next day. He then leaped from
a window of the second storey, but fractured one of
his legs so much in the fall that he was unable to
walk, and sustained himself for several days, eating
peas and turnips, until his hiding-place was discovered
He afterwards graced the gibbet in Leith
Walk, where his body hung for many a long year.”
In more than one instance on the King‘s birth-
BRWNSTME HOUSE.
day the effigy of Johnnie Wilkes,” that noted
demagogue, Lord Mayor of London and English
M.P., who made himself so obnoxious to the Scots,
figured at the Gallow Lee. The custom, still prevalent
in many parts of the country, and so dear to
the Scottish schoolboy, of destroying his effigy
with every indignity on the royal birthday, is first
mentioned, we believe, in ‘‘ Annals of the Reign of
George 111.f 1770.
But when only fields and green coppice lay between
the city and the seaport, the gibbet at the Gallow
Lee, with its ghastlyadditions,must have formed
a gloomy object amid the smiling urban landscape.
IN the beginning of the present century fields
and nursery grounds chiefly bordered Leith Walk,
CHAPTER XVI.
LEITH WALK (concZdd).
respectively Trotteis, Jollie’s, Ronaldson’s, and
King‘s Buildings-had been erected, with long open](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p168.gif "Volume 5 Page 157")
... was discovered
He afterwards graced the gibbet in Leith
Walk, where his body hung for many a long ...
Vol. 5 p. 157 (Rel. 0.62)
![The Water of Leith.] CEMETERY.
VIEWS IN THE DEAN CEMETERY. (Secjuof-note,p. 70.)](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p080.gif "Volume 5 Page 69")
... Water of Leith .] CEMETERY.
VIEWS IN THE DEAN CEMETERY. (Secjuof-note,p. ...
Vol. 5 p. 69 (Rel. 0.62)
![Leith.] OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209
CHAPTER XXII.
LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded).
Leith and Edinburgh Peopk in the First Years of the Nineteenth Century-Gorge 1V. Pmkied-His Landing at Leith-Temtory Of the
Town defined-Landing of Mons Meg-Leith during the Old War--The Smacks.
UNLESS it be among the seafaring class, no difference
is perceptible now between the inhabitants of
Edinburgh and Leith ; but it was not so once, when
the towns were more apart, and intercourse less frequent
; differences and distinctions were known
even in the early years of the present century.
A clever and observant writer in 1824 says that,
as refinements and dissimilarities existed then between
the Old and New Town, so did they exist
in the appearance, habits, and characteristics of the
Leith and Edinburgh people.
‘‘ Not such,” he continues, as accidentally
take up their residence there for a sea prospect and
a sea-breeze, but those whose air is Leith air from
their cradles, and who are fixtures in the placemerchants,
traders, and seafaring persons : the
latter class has a peculiarity similar in most maritime
towns; but it is the rich merchants and
traders, together with their wives and daughters,
who are now before us.” (“ The Hermit in Edin.?”
The man of fortune and pleasure in Edinburgh,
he remarks, views his Leith neighbours as a mere
Cit, though in point of fact he is much less so than
the former. “The inan of fashion residing in
Edinburgh for a time, for economy or convenience,
and the Scottish nobleman dividing his time betwixt
London, Edinburgh, and his estates, sets
down the Leith merchant as a homespun article.
Again, the would-be dandy of the New Town eyes
him with self-preference, and considers him as his
inferior in point of taste, dress, living, and knowledge
of the beau monde-one who, if young, copies
his dress, aspires at his introduction into the higher
circle, and borrows his fashions ; the former, however,
being always ready to borrow his name or
cash; the first looking respectable on a bill, and
the second not being over plenty with the men of
dress and of idle life in Edinburgh. Both sexes
follow the last London modes, and give an idea
that they are used to town life, high company,
luxuries, late hours, and the manner of living in
polished France.”
All this difference is a thing of the past, and
the observer would be a shrewd one indeed who
detected any difference between the denizen of the
capital and of its seaport.
But the Leith people of the date referred to
Vol. 11.)
.
were, like their predecessors, more of the old
school, and, with their second-class new fashions,
and customs were some time in passing into desuetude,
old habits dying hard there as elsewhere. The
paterfamilias of Leith then despised the extremes
of dress, though his son might affect them, and hn
was more plodding and business-like in bearing
than his Edinburgh neighbour; was alleged to
always keep his hands in his pockets, with an expression
of independence in his face ; while, continues
this writer, in those “of the Edinburgh
merchants may be read cunning and deep discernment.
Moreover, the number of Leith traders is
limited, and each is known by headmark, whilst
thpse employed in commerce and trade in the
northern capital may be mistaken, and mixed up
with the men of pleasure, the professors, lawyers,
students, and strangers j but an observing eye will
easily mark the difference and the strong characteristic
of each-barring always the man of pleasure,
who is changeful, and often insipid within
and without.”
In 1820 the Edinburgh and Leith Seamen’s
Friendly Society was instituted.
In the same year, when some workmen were
employed in levelling the ground at the south end
of the bridge, then recently placed across the river
at Leith Mills (for the purpose of opening up a
communication between the West Docks and the
foot of Leith Walk), five feet from the surface they
came upon many human skeletons, all of rather unusual
stature, which, from the size of the roots of
the trees above them, must have lain there a very
long time, and no doubt were the remains of some
of those soldiers who had perished in the great
siege during the Regency of Mary of Lorraine.
The proclamation of George IV. as king, after
having been performed at Edinburgh with great
ceremony, was repeated at -the pier and Shore
of Leith on February grd, 1820, by the Sheriff
Clerk and magistrates, accompanied by the heralds,
pursuivants and trumpeters, the style and titles 01
His Majesty being given at great length. At one
o’clock the ship of the Admiral and other vessels
in the Roads, the flags of which had been halF
hoisted, mastheaded them at one p.m, and fired
forty-one guns. They were then half-hoisted till
the funeral of George 111. was over.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p026.gif "Volume 6 Page 207")
... Leith .] OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209
CHAPTER XXII.
LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded).
Leith and Edinburgh ...
Vol. 6 p. 207 (Rel. 0.61)
... Scotland was the long stretch of bare
sand at Leith ,
LEITH LINKS.
informer for the double ...
Vol. 6 p. 268 (Rel. 0.61)
... mentioned, contains the offices of the
Leith Chamber of Commerce, instituted in 1840,
and ...
Vol. 6 p. 245 (Rel. 0.61)
... THE LEITH RACE WEEK. 269
afterwards James VII., during the time he was
Royal Commissioner at Holyrood. ...
Vol. 6 p. 269 (Rel. 0.61)
... years ago Mr. Macfie was a well-known
sugar refiner in Leith . His establishment stood
in Elbe Street, South ...
Vol. 6 p. 236 (Rel. 0.6)
... it.
The castle was afterwards demolished by order of
LEITH HARBOUR ABOUT 1700. (Fronr am Oil Paint ng in fhe ...
Vol. 5 p. 173 (Rel. 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
sion opposite to the church of St. Ninian, but is
now rebuilt into a modern ...
Vol. 6 p. 256 (Rel. 0.58)
![Leith.1 THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 259
EASTWARD of Leith lie those open downs called
the Links, once of much greater extent than we
find them, and doubtless at one time connected
ground to the westward of the pier, when it was
blowing fresh, with a heavy sea, and before any
assistance could be given she was driven upon
the beach, near the citadel, having beaten off her
rudder and otherwise considerably damaged herself
[sic]. They are employed in taking out the
cargo, and if the weather continues moderate, it
is expected she will be got off.”
The waves of the sea are now distant nearly two
thousand feet north from the spot where the wreck
took place.
Three of the bastions, and two of the gates of
the citadel, were standing when the old “Statistical
Account ” was published, in 1793.
Before quitting this quarter of North Leith we
may quote the following rather melancholy account
given of the latter in 1779, in a work entitled “The
Modem British Traveller,” folio, and now probably
out of print.
About a mile from the city is Leith, which may
be called the warehouse of Edinburgh. It is
divided into two parts by a small rivulet, over
which is a neat bridge of three arches. That part
called South Leith is both large and populous ; it
has an exceeding handsome church, a jail, a
custom-house [the old one in the Tolbooth Wynd],
but the streets are irregular, nor do any of the
buildings merit particular attention. It was
formerly fortified, but the works were destroyed
by the English in 1559 [?I, and not any remains
are now to be seen. That part called North
Leith is a very poor place, without any publick
building, except an old Gothic church ; there is a
small dock, but it is only capable of admitting
ships of a hundred and fifty tons. The harbour is
generally crowded with vessels from different parts;
and from here to Kinghorn, in Fifeshire, the
passage-boat crosses every tide, except on Sundays. . . . Great numbers of the citizens of Edin-
’burgh resort to Leith on parties of pleasure, and
to regale themselves with the sea air and oysters,
which are caught here in great abundance. . . .
with the wide, open, and sandy waste that extended
beyond the Figgate Burn to Magdalene
Bridge,
The town is under the jurisdiction of a bailiff CT],
but it may be called a part of, and is subject to the
jurisdiction of, Edinburgh, in virtue of a charter
granted by King Robert the Eruce.”
The Manners’ Church, a rather handsome building,
with two smail spires facing the east, is built
upon a portion of the site of the citadel, and
schools are attached to it. The church was designed
by John Henderson of Edinburgh, and
was erected in 1840.
In this quarter Sand Port Street, which led to the
then beach, with a few old houses neax the citadel,
and the old church of St. Ninian, comprised the.
whole of North Leith at the time of the Union.
There the oldest graving-dock was constructed in
1720, and it yet remains, behind a house not far
from the bridge, dated-according to Parker
Lawson-162 2.
The present custom-house of Leith was built in
1812, on the site where H.M. ship Fu~y was built
in I 780 ; and an old native of Leith, who saw her
launched, had the circumstance impressed upon
his memory, as he related to Robertson (whose
“Antiquities ” were published in 185 I), “by a carpenter
having been killed by the falling of the
shores.”
The edifice cost A12,617, is handsome, and in
the Grecian style, adorned in front with pillars and
pediment It stands at the North Leith end of the
lower drawbridge.
The officials here consist of a collector, twb
chief clerks, three first and seven second-class
clerks, with one extra ; eight writers, two surveyors,
eighteen examining officers, and a principal coast
officer for Fisherrow. The long room is handsome,
and very different from its predecessor in the Tolbooth
Wynd, which was simply divided by long
poles, through which entries were passed.
In May, 1882, the building at Dock Place (in
this quarter) known as the Sailors’ Home, was
converted into the Mercantile Marine Department
and Government Navigation School.
C H A P T E R XXIX.
LEITH -THE LINKS.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p078.gif "Volume 6 Page 259")
... Leith .1 THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 259
EASTWARD of Leith lie those open downs called
the Links, once of much greater extent ...
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... OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH, [ Leith .
1596-7. In 1578 an Act of Parliament was passed
to prevent “ the taking away ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
to extinguish the flames. On the same daya grand
assault was to be made.
By ...
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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](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p076.gif "Volume 6 Page 257")
... he visited Scotland in the year 1661 :-
“ At Leith we saw one of those citadels built by
and stores. ...
Vol. 6 p. 257 (Rel. 0.57)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
cost of .&3oo, and has two ornamental fronts;
respectively with Ionic ...
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... Miller-David Lamg-Joppa-Magdalene Bridge-Rrunstane House . . . . . . . . . . . . I43
CHAPTER XV.
LEITH ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
beneath it “ The Triumph of Bacchus,” beautifully
executed in ...
Vol. 5 p. 72 (Rel. 0.56)
... of the building were ornamented
ST. MARK’S (SOUTH LEITH ) CHURCH, 1882.
by buttresses finished with ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
One of the greatest events of its time in Leith
was the landing there of George ...
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... FIRST THOROUGHFARE. Leith 1
THE KIRKGATE.
CHAPTER XXIII.
LEITH - THE KIRKGATE.
The Kirkgate-Eastside-Tavern ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH .
~
PACE
Leith Roads. 1824 . . . . . . . 276
Tlu East and West Piers. Leith . . To ...
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![Leith.] THE KING'S WARK. 237
~
Arnot adds. It was to keep one of the cellars in
the King's Wark in repair, for holding wines and
other provisions for the king's use.
This Bernard Lindsay it was whom Taylor
mentions in his '' Penniless Pilgrimage " as having
Moreover, the King's Wark was placed most
advantageously at the mouth of the harbour, to
serve as -a defence against any enemy who might
approach it from the seaward. It thus partook
somewhat of the character of a citadel; and this
BERNARD STREET.
given him so warm a welcome at Leith in
1618.
That some funds were derivable from the King's
Wark to the Crown is proved by the frequent
payments with which it was burdened by several
of our monarchs. Thus, in the year 1477 James
111. granted out of it a perpetual annuity of twelve
marks Scots, for support of a chaplain to officiate
at the altar of c'the upper chapel in the collegiate
church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at
Restalrig."
seems to have been implied by the infeftment
granted by Queen Mary in 1564 to John Chisho!ia,
Master or Comptroller of the Royal Artillery,
who would appear to have repaired the buildings
which, no doubt, shared in the general conflagrations
that signalised the English invasions of 1544
and 1547. and the queen, on the completion
of his work, thus confirms her grant to the
comptroller :-
U Efter Her Heinis lauchful age, and revocation
made in parIiament, hir majestie sett in feu farme](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p056.gif "Volume 6 Page 237")
... Leith .] THE KING'S WARK. 237
~
Arnot adds. It was to keep one of the cellars in
the King's Wark in ...
Vol. 6 p. 237 (Rel. 0.54)
... the word is
spelt Linchs and Linkkes.
The whole of Leith Links must, at one time,
have been covered by the ...
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... upon the twentieth
day, the principal block-house of Leith , called St.
Anthony’s Kirk, was battered ...
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... upon the twentieth
day, the principal block-house of Leith , called St.
Anthony’s Kirk, was battered ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
.but the3ittle .warlike episode connected with Inchkeith
forms a part of ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
C H A P T E R X X X I I I .
LEITH -TIIE DOCKS.
New Docks proposed-Apathy of ...
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... till taken to a cartel
ship, commanded by Captain Robertson, in Leith
Roads.
defended Mr. Fitzsimmons, who ...
Vol. 4 p. 248 (Rel. 0.53)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Leith .
or ripple or burnished face of water, the very
aspect of which is luxury in a ...
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![Leith.] TRADE OF THE PORT. 289
Even in times of undoubted depression the
docks at Leith have always retained an appearance
of bustle and business, through the many large sailing
ships laden with guano and West Indian sugar
lying at the quays; but guano having been partly
superseded by chemical manures, and West Indian
by Continental sugar, the comparatively few vessels
that now arrive are discharged with the greatest
expedition. In the close of 1881 one came to
port with the largest cargo of sugar ever delivered
at Leith, the whole of which was for the Bonnington
Refinery.
As a source of revenue to the Dock Commission,
steamers which can make ten voyages for one performed
by a sailing vessel are, of course, very much
preferred ; and, as showing the extent of the Continental
sugar trade, it may be mentioned that quite
recently 184,233 bags were imported in a single
month. Most of this sugar is taken direct from the
docks to the refiners at Greenock.
A very important element in the trade of Leith
is the importation of esparto grass, both by sailing
vessels and steamers. This grass is closely pressed
by steam power into huge square bales, and these
are discharged with such celerity by the use of
donkey-engines and other appliances, that it is a
common thing to unload 150 tons in a single day.
The facilities for discharging vessels at Leith
with extreme rapidity are so admirable that few
ports can match it-the meters, the weighers, and
the stevedore firms who manage the matter, having
every interest in getting the work performed with
the utmost expedition.
As a wine port Leith ranks second in the British
Isles, and it possesses a very extensive timber trade;
and though not immediately connected with ship
ping, the wool trade is an important branch of
industry there, the establishments of Messrs. Macgregor
and Pringle, and of Messrs. Adams, Sons, and
Co., being among the most extensive in Scotland.
The largest fleet of Continental trading steamers
sailing from Leith is that of Messrs. James Cume
and Co. In 18Sr this firm had twenty-two
steamers, with a capacity of 17,000 tons. Messrs.
Gibson and Co. have many fine steamers, which
are. constantly engaged, while the Baltic is open
and free of ice, in making trading voyages to Riga,
Cronstadt, and other Russian ports
A trade with Iceland has of late years been
rapidly developed, the importation consisting of
ponies, sheep, wild fowl, and dried fish ; while in
the home trade, the London and Edinburgh Ship
ping Company do a very active and lucrative business,
having usually two, and sometimes three large
steamers plying per week between Leith and Loo-
133
don ; and in 1880, important additions were mad&
to tht lines .of trading steamers by several large
vessels owned by the Arrow Line being put on
the berth, to ply between Leith and New York ;
while the North of Scotland Steam Shipping
Company transferred their business to the port
from Granton.
So steadily has the trade with New York developed
itself, that from three to four steamers per
month now arrive at Leith, bringing cargoes of
grain, butter, oilcakes, linseed meal, tinned meats,
grass seeds, etc. Over 200,ooo sacks of flour Came
to Leith in one year from New York, and in one
month alone 33,312 sacks were imported.
Some of the Leith steamers sail direct to NewYork
with mixed cargoes; others load with coal, and proceed
there, vid the Mediterranean, after exchanging
their cargo for fruit. Then Messrs. Blaik and
Co., of Constitution Street, have large steamers of
3,650 tons burden each, built specially for this
trade. The passage from New York, “north
about,” i.e., through the Pentland Firth, usually
occupied sixteen days, but now it is being reduced
to twelve
Prior to the opening of the Edinburgh Dock a
difficulty was found in berthing some of the great
ocean-going steamers, and many that used to bring
live stock from New York had to land them on the
Thames or Tyne, the regulations of the Privy
Council flot permitting these animals to be landed
at Leith.
‘( Permission was first asked by the Commission,”
says a local print in 1881, “to enable the animals
to be taken to the Leith slaughter-house, which is
on the south side of the new docks, and only a few
yards from one of the entrances. The Privy
Council having refused this request, the Dock
Commission, with a desire to foster the trade, then
made arrangements with the Leith Town Council,
by which they could build a slaughter-house within
the docks. Asite was proposed and plans prepared;
but being objected to again by the Privy
Council, the subject was allowed to lie over.”
We have mentioned the transference of the
North of Scotland steamers from Granton to
Leith, and this change has proved monetarily
advantageous, not only to the Cornmission, but to
the majority of the shippers and passengers, and a
special berth was assigned at the entrance of the
Prince of M‘ales’s Dock for the Aberdeen steamers,
so that they sail even after high water. Besides
the usual consignments of sheep, cattle, and ponies,
vast quantities of herrings, in barrel, are brought to
Leith, generally for re-shipment to the Continent of
Europe.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p108.gif "Volume 6 Page 289")
... Leith .] TRADE OF THE PORT. 289
Even in times of undoubted depression the
docks at Leith have always retained an ...
Vol. 6 p. 289 (Rel. 0.53)
![Leith] ST. NINIAN’S CHAPEL 251
the eighty-seventh year of his age, and was able
to transact business until a very short time before
his death. He was succeeded in the baronetcy
by his eldest son, Sir Thomas Gladstone, of Fasque
and Balfour, M.P. for Queenborough and other
places successively in England.
Gladstone Place, near the Links, has been
so named in honour of this family.
From the top of the Sheriff Brae and Mill Lane,
Great Junction Street, a broad and spacious
thoroughfare, extends eastward for the distance of
two thousand feet to the foot of Leith Walk.
Here, on the south side, are the United Presbyterian
church, the neat Methodist chapel, and a
large and handsome edifice erected in 1839 as a
school, and liberally endowed by Dr. Bell, founder
of the Madras system of education, at a cost of
f;IO,OOO.
C H A P T E R X X V I I I ,
NORTH LEITH.
The Chapel and Church of St. NiniaPParish Created-Its Records-Rev. George Wishart-Rev. John Knox-Rev. Dr. Johnston-The Burial-
Ground-New North Leith ChurchlFree Church-Old Grammar SchoolXobourg Street-St. Nicholas Church-The Citadel-Its
Remains-Houses within k--Beach and Sands of North Leith-New Custom How-Shipping Inwards and Outwards.
ON crossing the river we find ourselves in North
Leith, which is thus described by Kincaid in
‘787 :-
“ With regard to North Leith, very little alteration
has taken place here for a century past. It consists
of one street running north-east from the bridge,
six hundred feet long, and about forty in breadth
where broadest. On each side are many narrow
lanesand closes, those on the south side leading
down to the carpenters’ yards by the side of the
river, and those on the north to the gardens belonging
to the inhabitants. From the bridge a
road leads to the citadel, in length 520 feet ; then
IOO feet west, and we enter the remains of the old
fortification, on the top of which a dwelling-house
is now erected. The buiIdings in this place are in
general very mean in their appearance, and inhabited
by peopIe who let rooms during the summer
season to persons who bathe in the salt water.”
One of the leading features of North Leith, when
viewed from any point of view, is the quaint spire
of its.old church, on the west bank of the river,
near the end of the upper drawbridge, abandoned
now to secular purposes, separated from its ancient
burying-ground (which still remains, With its many
tombstones, half sunk amid the long rank grass
of ages), and lifting its withered and storm-worn
outline, as if in deprecation of the squalor by which
it is surrounded, and the neglect and contumely
heaped on its venerable history.
North Leith, which contains the first, or original
docks, and anciently comprehended the citadel
and the chief seat of traffic, was long a congeries
of low, quaint-looking old houses, huddled
into groups or irregular lines, and straddling their
way amid nuisances in back and front, very much
the style of a Spanish or Portuguese town of the
present day; but since 1818 it has undergone great
and renovating changes, and, besides being disenambered
of the citadel and masses of crumbling
houses, it has some streets that may vie with the
second or third thoroughfares of Edinburgh.
As stated in our general history of Leith, Robert
Ballantyne, Abbot of Holyrood, towards the close
of the fifteenth century, built a handsome bridge
of three stone arches over the Water of Leith, to
connect the southern with the northern quarter of
the rising seaport, and so011 after its completion he
erected and endowed near its northern end a chapel,
dedicated to the honour of God, the Virgin Mary,
and St. Ninian, the apostle of Galloway, Having
considerable possessions in Leith, €he abbot a p
pointed two. chaplains to officiate in this chapel,
who were ta receive all the profits accruing from a
house which he had built at the southern end of
this bridge, with A4 yearly out of other tenements
he possessed in South Leith.
In addition to the offerings made in the chapel,
the tolls or duties accruing from this new bridge
were to be employed in its repair and that of the
chapel, but all surplus the charitable abbot ordained
was to be given to the poor; and this charter of
foundation was confirmed by James IV., of gallant
memory, on the 1st of January, 1493. (Maitland.)
This chapel was built with the full consent of
the Chapter of Holyrood, and with the approbation
of William, Archbishop of St Andrews ; and-as a.
dependency of the church of the Holy Crossthe
land whereon it stood is termed the Rudest&
in a charter of Queen Mary, dated 1569.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p070.gif "Volume 6 Page 251")
... Leith ] ST. NINIAN’S CHAPEL 251
the eighty-seventh year of his age, and was able
to transact business until a ...
Vol. 6 p. 251 (Rel. 0.53)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
This marriage is also referred to by Nisbet in
his Heraldry,” Vol. I., so ...
Vol. 6 p. 248 (Rel. 0.53)
... OLD AND NEW EDINEURGH. [ Leith .
The ballast of the war ships ((was cannon-shot of
iron of which we found in ...
Vol. 5 p. 170 (Rel. 0.52)
![280 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
number of wounded men on his hands, bore awa]
to Barbadoes to re-fit.
In the spring of the following year, a Leitl
sloop, coming from Strichen, laden with wheat anc
cheese, was taken off St. Abb’s Head by two Frenct
privateers of twelve and sixteen guns-the latter was
Le MarichaZ Duc de NoaiZZes, painted quite black.
When the sloop struck a tremendous sea was run.
ning ; Laverock, the master, ransomed her for IOC
guineas, and reported at Leith that if these twc
great privateers were not taken soon, they wopld
ruin the east coast trade of Scotland.
Soon after another ship of Leith was taken by
them into Bergen, and ransonied for 500 guineas,
though a few days before the privateer had been
severely handled by the EZiza6efh, merchant ship,
Captain Grant, who had also to strike to her, afteI
a most severe combat.
In 1794, the Haith, of Leith, was captured by a
squadron of French ships on the zIst August,
together with the Dundee, whaler, of Dundee. The
latter was re-taken, and brought into Leith by H.M.
brig Fisher, which reported that, previous to re-capture,
the Dundee had picked up a boat, having on
board eight Frenchmen, part of a prize crew of
sixteen put on board the Raifir to take her to
Bergen ; but the mate and another Scottish seaman
had daringly re-taken her, and had sailed none
knew whither. Soon after a letter reached the
owners in Leith from Lyons, the mate, dated from
Lerwick, briefly stating that when fifteen miles
west of Bergen, “1 retook her from the French,
sending nine of the Frenchmen away in one of the
boats, ancl put the rest in confinement.” Eventually
these two brave fellows brought the ship to
Leith, from whence their prisoners were sent to
the Castle.
In those days the Glass House Company had
their own armed ships, and one of these, the
Phemk, Cornelius Neilson, master, had the reputation
of being one of the swiftest sailers in Leith,
and was always advertised to sail with or without
convoy, as she fought her own way.
In 1797, the BreadaZbane Letter of Marque, of
Leith, captured a large Spanish brig off the coast
of South America, and sent her into Leith Roads
for sale, under the convoy of the RoyaZ ChrZoffe,
Captain Elder.
During the latter end of the eighteenth century
Leith possessed two frigate-built ships of remarkable
beauty, the RoseUe, a Letter of Marque, and
the MoreZan/E, her sister ship, which usually fought
their own way; and the former was so like a man-ofwar
in her size and appearance, that she frequently
gave chase for a time to laige foreign privateers.
In the NeraZd for 1798 we read that on her appeacance
off Peterhead, in March, she created such consternation
that the captain of the RoJert, a Greenlandman,
on a gun being fired from her, ran his
ship ashore, according to one account, and, according
to another, made his escape, with the assistance
of his crew, from the supposed enemy. The
MoreZand and the Lady Fwbes,,” of Leith, another
armed ship, seem always to have sailed in company,
for protection, to and from the West Indies.
After many escapes and adventures, the beautiful
RoseZZe, which carried fourteen guns of large calibre,
was captured at last by a Spanish line-of-battle ship,
which, report said, barbarously sank her, with all
on board, by a broadside.
On the 6th December, 1798, theBefsy, of Leith,
Captain Mackie, having the Angus regiment of
volunteers on board, from Shetland, in company
with an armed cutter, was attacked off Rattray
Head by two heavily-armed French privateers. A
severe engagement ensued, in which the volunteers
made good use of their small arms; the
privateers were crippled and beaten off by the
Befsy, which ran next day into Banff, and the
roops were put on shore.
In the same month The Generous Triends, sailing
from Leith to Hull, when a few miles off the
mouth of the Humber, in a heavy gale of wind,
was overtaken by a large black privateer, having a
?oop and fiddle-head painted red and white. The
ieavy sea prevented her from being boarded, and
:he appearance of the Baltic fleet compelling the
:nemy to sheer off, she bore up with the latter, and
yeturned to Leith Roads; but such little excitenents
were of constant occurrence in those stirring
imes
The Nancy, of Leith, Captain Grindley, was
:aken, in July, I 799, off Dungeness, by the Ado&h,
ugger, of eighteen guns and fifty men, who used
iim and his crew with great severity prior to their
Jeing cast into the horrible prison at Valenciennes.
“The behaviour of the Frenchmen to us, when
aken, was most shameful,” he wrote to his owners
n Leith. 6‘ When they got upon our deck, they
Kept firing their pistols, cutting with swords for some
ime, and dragging those who were below out of
Heir beds; they cut and mangled in a cruel manner
me of our men, William Macleod, who was then
it the helm, and afterwards threw him overhoard.
rhis obliged the rest of the crew to leave the
leck and go below. In a short time we were
It is interesting to remark that the original painting, after which the
rawing of Plate 32 ( ‘ I Leith Pier and Harbour, 1798 ”) was made, ws
iainted for Caprain Gourley, who was part owner of the Lady Fades,
The Editor is obliged
o bir. R. F. Todd, owner of the painting in question, for this information.
Letter of Marque that carried 14 mnada.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p099.gif "Volume 6 Page 280")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
number of wounded men on his hands, bore awa]
to Barbadoes to re-fit.
In the ...
Vol. 6 p. 280 (Rel. 0.52)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
bestowed by the piety of private donors on the
hospital of St. Anthony, and ...
Vol. 6 p. 218 (Rel. 0.51)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
choice of the inhabitants whether they will make
their dwelling where they do ...
Vol. 5 p. 186 (Rel. 0.51)
... 10th June, 1560.
Fresh forces were now envkoning Leith . Sir
James Balfour states that there were among ...
Vol. 5 p. 178 (Rel. 0.51)
![kith.] THE OLD SMACKS AND FERRY-BOATS. e11
smacks in their southward voyage merely touching
at Berwick for their cargoes of salmon.
In ISOZ the merchants of Leith established a
line for themselves, ‘‘ The Edinburgh and Leith
Shipping Company,” which commenced with six
armed smacks, the crews of which were protected
from the impress.
On the 23rd of October, 1804, one of these
smacks, the Brifunnia, Captain Brown, and another
named the Sprz$fO, Captain Taylor, off Cromer,
fell in with a large French privateer, which bore
down on them both, firing heavily, particularly with
musketry; but the Leith smacks’ men stood to
their guns, engaged her briskly, and so damaged her
sails and rigging that she sheered off and dropped
astern. The smacks had many shots through their
canvas, but none of their men were killed.
On the 9th January, 1805, another, the SwaZZm,
Captain White, was attacked off Flamborough
Head by a heavy French privateer, carrying fourteen
guns, and very full of men. Passing through a
fleet of Newcastle colliers, she came within pistolshot
of the Swallow, and poured in a broadside,
accompanied by volleys of musketry.
Captain White replied with his carronades and
small arms. The round shot of the former told so
well that the privateer was fairly beaten off, while
neither the smack nor her crew sustained much
injury. “In these two actions,” says the Scots
Magazine, “ both seamen and passengers showed a
becoming spirit.” But such encounters were of
very common occurrence in those days.
In 1809 the new company had ten of these
smacks ; eventually, there were no fewer than four
companies trading between Leith and London ;
but in 182 I one was formed under the name of the
London and Edinburgh Steam Packet Company,
With three large steamers-the City of Eninbuqh,
theJnmes Watt, and the Solo.
So great was their success that in 1831 the London,
Leith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Shipping
Company superseded their fine smacks by the
introduction of powerful steamers, with beautiful
cabin accommodation, the WiZliam, Addaide, and
Victoria. In 1836 the London and Edinburgh
Steam Packet Company became merged in the
General Steam Navigation Company, sailing from
Granton to London. The old smacks were retained
by only two of the companies ; but having
been found expensive to build and to maintain,
from the number of men required to handle their
unwieldy canvas-particularly their great boom
main-sail-they were in 1844 superseded by clipper
schooners ; so these once celebrated craft, the old
Leith smacks, have entirely disappeared from the
harbour with which they were so long and exclusively
identified.
Before quitting the subject of passenger traffic,
we may glance at the ancient ferries of Leith.
By an Act of James I., in 1425, it was ordained
that all femes where horses were conveyed, should
“have for jlk boate a treene brig,” or wooden gangway,
under the pain of ‘‘ 40 shillings of ilk boate ;”
and again, by an Act of James III., 1467, the
ferries at Leith, Kinghorn, and Queensferry are
ordained to have “brigges of buuds,” under penalty
of the “ tinsel ” or forfeitursof their boats. In 1475
the charge for a passenger was twopence, and for
a horse sixpence; at Queensferry one penny for
a man, and twopence for a horse. (Scots Acts,
Glendoick.)
Nicoll records that in 1650 the ferrymen at Leith
and Burntisland (taking advantage probably of the
confusion of affairs) became so exorbitant in their
charges that complaints were made to the Deputy
Governor of Leith, who ordered that the fare for a
man and horse should be only one shilling sterling,
and for a single person one groat, “quhairas it
wqs tripled of beioir.”
In July, 1633, a boat at the ferry between
Burntisland and Leith foundered in a fair summer’s
day, according to Spalding, and with it perished
thirty-five domestic servants of Charles I., with his
silver plate and household stuff, “but it foretokened
great troubles to fall out betwixt the king
and his subjects, as after does appear.” Balfour
states that there was a great stoi-m, that the king
crossed “in grate jeopardy of his lyffe,” and that
only eight servants perished.
In the early part of the present century the ferry
traffic between Leith, Kinghorn, and Burntisland
was carried on by means of stout sloops of forty oc
fifty tons, without topmasts, and manned generally
by only four men, and always known as “the
Kinghorn Boats,” although Pettycur was adopted
as the more modern harbour.
Generally there were two crossings between
Leith and Fife every tide, though subsequently,
as traffic increased, the number of runs was increased
by having a boat anchored outside the
harbour when there was not sufficient water for it
to enter. Small pinnaces were used for the voyage
in dead calms. The old ferrymen were strong,
rough, and quaint fellows, and Leith still abounds
with anecdotes of their brusque ways and jovial
humour.
A recent writer mentions that if a passenger
had a dog whose acquaintance he was disposed
to ignore, in order to escape paying its fare, he
would be sure to be accosted by a blue-bonneted](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p030.gif "Volume 6 Page 211")
... for their cargoes of salmon.
In ISOZ the merchants of Leith established a
line for themselves, ‘‘ The ...
Vol. 6 p. 211 (Rel. 0.51)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
named themselves the “ Friends of the People,”
were alarming the ...
Vol. 6 p. 278 (Rel. 0.51)
... from being a merchant skipper of North
Leith , he became an opulent and enterprising
trader by ...
Vol. 6 p. 200 (Rel. 0.51)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Wynd.
broad and spacious thoroughfare, named St. Mary’s
Street, presenting on ...
Vol. 2 p. 300 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith] THE GLASS WORKS. 2 3 9
fashion that the hamlet near Craigmillar was namec
“Little France” from the French servants o
Mary.
U In a small garden attached to one of the house:
in Little London,” says a writer, whose anecdote
we give for what it is worth, “ there was a flowerplot
which was tended with peculiar care long
after its original possessors had gone the way 01
all flesh, and it was believed that the body of a
young and beautiful female who committed suicide
was interred here. The peculiar circumstances
attending her death, and the locality made choice
of for her interment, combined to throw romantic
interest over her fate and fortunes, and
her story was handed-down from one generation
to another.”
In Bernard Street, a spacious and well-edificed
thoroughfare, was built, in 1806, the office of the
Leith Bank, a neat but small edifice, consisting of
two floors ; a handsome dome rises from the north
front, and a projection ornamented with four Ionic
columns, and having thin pilasters of the same.
decorates the building. It is now the National
Bank of Scotland Branch.
Since then, many other banking offices have been
established in the same street, including that of
the Union Bank, built in 1871 after designs by
James Simpson, having a three-storeyed front in the
Italian style, with a handsome cornice and balustrade,
and a telling-room measuring 34 feet by 32 ;
the National Bank of Scotland ; the Clydesdale
and British Linen Company’s Banks; many insurance
offices; and in No. 37 is the house of the
Leith Merchants’ Club.
Bernard Street joins Baltic Street, at the southeast
corner of which is the spacious and stately
Corn Exchange, which is so ample in extent as to
be frequently used as a drill-hall by the entire
battalion of Leith Rifle Volunteers.
North of Baltic Street are the old Glass Works
The Bottle House Company, as it was named,
began to manufacture glass vessels in North Leith
in 1746, but their establishment was burnt down
during the first year of the partnership. Thus, in
1747 the new brick houses were built on the sands
of South Leith, near the present Salamander Street,
and as ~e demand for bottles increased, they
built an additional one in 1764, though, according
to Bremner, glass was manufactured in Leith so
early as 1682.
Seven cones, or furnaces, were built, but in later
years only two have been in operation. In the
year 1777 CO less -than 15,8834 cwts. were made
here in Leith, the Government duty on which
amounted to A2,779 odd ; but as there are now
many other bottle manufactories in Scotland, thetrade
is no longer confined to the old houses that.
adjoin Baltic and Salamander Streets.
A writer in the Bet, an old extinct &dinburgh,
periodical, writing in 1792, says that about thirty
years before there was only one glass company in.
Scotland, the hands working one-half the year in
Glasgow, and the other half at Leith, and adds :-
“NOW there are six glass-houses in Leith alone,.
besides many others in different parts of the
tountry. At the time I mention nothing else
than bottles of coarse green glass were made there,
and to that article the Glass House Company in
Leith confined their efforts, till about a dozen yearsagoI
when they began to make fine glass for phials.
and other articles of that nature. About four yearsago
they introduced the manufacture of crown
glass for windows, which they now make in great
perfection, and in considerable quantities. After
they began to manufacture white glass, they fzll
into the way of cutting it for ornament and engraving
upon it. In this last department they havereached
a higher degree of perfection than it hasperhaps
anywhere else ever attained. A young
man who was bred to that business, having discovered
a taste in designing, and an elegance of
execution that was very uncommon, the proprietors
of the works were at pains to give him every aid in
the art of drawing that this place can afford, and
he has exhibited some specimens of his powers in
that line that are believed to be unrivalled. It is.
but yesterday that this Glass House Company (who
are in a very flourishing state), encouraged by their
success in other respects, introduced the art of
preparing glass in imitation of gems, and of cutting
it in facets, and working it into elegant fomis for
chandeliers and other ornamental kinds of furniture.
In this department their first attempts have
been highly successful, and they have now executed
some pieces of work that they need not be ashamed
to compare with the best that can be procured
elsewhere.”
The works of the Glass House Company at
Leith were advertised as for sale in the Courani
of 1813, which stated that they were valued at
~40,000, with a valuable steam-engine of sixteen
horse power, valued at E2 1,000.
Quality Street, and the fine long thoroughfare
named Constitution Street, open into Bernard
Street. Robertson gives us a drawing of an old and
richly-moulded doorway of a tenement, in the
rorrner street, having on its lintel the initials P. P.,
E. G., and the date 1710. At the corner of Quality
Street stands St. John’s Free Church, which was
built in 1870-1, at a cost of about A7,500, and](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p058.gif "Volume 6 Page 239")
... Leith ] THE GLASS WORKS. 2 3 9
fashion that the hamlet near Craigmillar was namec
“Little France” from the ...
Vol. 6 p. 239 (Rel. 0.5)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
under distinguished patronage has in no way
altered.
In 1763, on the 28th ...
Vol. 6 p. 270 (Rel. 0.5)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
sterling, for a yeir‘s rent of a vault under the said
Trinitie House, ...
Vol. 6 p. 224 (Rel. 0.5)
... .OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
But this ancient alley is the earliest thoroughhre
in the seaport of which we ...
Vol. 6 p. 234 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith.] HOME-COMING OF MONS MEG. 209
by the foot o the Calton Hill towards the Palace
of Holyrood.
As a souvenir of this event, on the first anniversary
of it a massive plate was inserted on the
Shore, in the exact spot on which the king first
placed his foot, and there it remains to this day,
with a suitable inscription commemorative of the
event.
In 1829, Mons Meg, which, among other ord
nance deemed unserviceable, had been transmitted
by the ignorance of an officer to London, and retained
there in the Tower, was, by the patriotic
efforts of Sir Walter Scott, sent home to Scotland.
This famous old cannon, deemed a kind of Palladium
by the Scots, after an absence of seventy-five
years, was landed from the Happy Janet, and after
lying for a time in the Naval Yard, till arrangements
were made, the gun was conveyed to the Castle by
a team of ten horses decked with laurels, preceded
by two led horses, mounted by boys clad in tartans
with broadswords. The escort was formed by a
123
grooms and esquires; Sir Patrick Walker, as
Usher of the White Rod; a long alternation of
cavalry and infantry, city dignitaries, and Highlanders,
followed.
At the end of the vista, preceded by ten royal
footmen, two and two, sixteen yeomen of the
Scottish Guard, escorted by the Royal Archers,
came the king, followed by the head-quarter staff,
three clans of Highlanders, two squadrons of Lothian
yeomanry, three of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, Scots
Greys, and the Grenadiers of the 77th regiment;
and after some delay in going through the ceremony
of receiving the city keys-which no monarch
had touched since the days of Charles I.-the
magnificent train moved through the living masses
Lochend to the latter on the east, tA-e middle of
Leith Walk on the south, and Wardie Bum on the
west.
Adam White was the first Provost of Leith after
the passing of the Burgh Reform Bill in 1833;
and it is now governed by a chief magistrate, four
bailies, ten councillors, a treasurer, town clerk, and
two joint assessors.
Powers have since then been conferred upon the
Provost of Leith as admiral, and the bailies as
admirals-depute. There are in the town four
principal corporations - the Shipmasters, the
Traffickers, the Malt-men, and the Trades. The
Traffickers, or Merchant Company, have lost their
charter, and are merely a benefit society, without
the power of compelling entries ; and the Ship
masters, ordinarily called the Trinity House, vi11
be noticed in connection with that institution.
The Trades Corporation is multifarious, and
independently of it there is a body called “ The
Convenery,” consisting of members delegated from
troop of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and detachments
of the Koyal Artillery and Highlanders. In the
evening the Celtic Society, all kilted, IOO strong,
dined together in honour of the event, Sir Walter
Scott in the chair; and on this occasion the old
saying was not forgotten, that Scotland would
never be Scotland till Mons Meg cam hame.”
The gun was then on the same ancient carriage
on which it had been taken away.
It was not until 1827 that the precise limits of
Leith as a town were defined, and a territory given
to it which, if filled, would almost enable it to vie
with the metropolis in extent, More extensive
boundaries were afterwards assigned, and these
are the Firth of Forth on the north, a line from
SIGNAL TOWER, LEITH PIER, 1775. (ABw Ckrk ofEUin.)](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p028.gif "Volume 6 Page 209")
... Leith .] HOME-COMING OF MONS MEG. 209
by the foot o the Calton Hill towards the Palace
of Holyrood.
As a souvenir ...
Vol. 6 p. 209 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above places, as, at the Cross there are always
in waiting, running stationels, otherwise CUU‘Z~, that will conduct
them to any place wanted. for a small charge.”
In style and accommodation the “Elack Bull”
was one of those old-fashioned inns which were
the precursors of the modern hotel, and preserved
their style and features unchanged amid the encroachnients
of private speculation and the rage
for public improvement. Now the space on which
it stood is covered with shops and dwelling-houses.
In this street lived Margarot, one of the “ Friends
of the People,” who was arrested by Provost Elder,
Until recent years the old “Black Bull” was
long established here, and an arch on the west side
gave access to the stables. In a species of advertisement
appended to Kincaid’s “ View of Edinburgh,”
in 1794~ is the following :-
“English Travellers, on business, are to be found commonly,
at Paterson’s, Foot of the Pleasance ; McFarlane’s,
Head of the Cowgate ; Kamsay’s Lodging’s, Milne Square ;
. McKay’s, Grassmarket; Lee’s, Black Bull, Head of Leith
good order and police. A great crowd assembled
at his lodgings in Leith Street about ten o’clock,
and he was conducted, with a wreath, or arch, held
over him, with inscriptions of Reason, Liberty, &c.
About the middle of the North Bridge, however,
the cavalcade was met by the Lord Provost, sheriff,
constable, peace-officers, Src., and immediately dispersed,
the arch was demolished, and its supporters
taken into custody. A press-gang attended to
assist the peace-officers. Mr. Margarot then walked
to the court, escorted by the Lord Provost, &c.:
and no disturbance ensued.”
Subsequently we read, that on the 10th of Feb
and tried for his, life on charges of treason, with
Hunter, Muir, and others. He conducted his own
case, and the court sentenced him to fourteen
years’ transportation beyond the seas. “In consequence
of the proceedings on the 9th instant,”
says the Annual Register for 1794, “while Mr.
hfargarot went to the Justiciary Court, every precaution
was taken this day by the Lord Provost,
magistrates, and sheriff, to prevent any breach of
THE ALBEBT MEMORIAL, CHARLOTTE SQUARE.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p188.gif "Volume 3 Page 176")
... Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above ...
Vol. 3 p. 176 (Rel. 0.5)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
home. He not only took a deep interest in thes
matters, but he studied them ...
Vol. 6 p. 206 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above places, as, at the Cross there are always
in waiting, running stationels, otherwise CUU‘Z~, that will conduct
them to any place wanted. for a small charge.”
In style and accommodation the “Elack Bull”
was one of those old-fashioned inns which were
the precursors of the modern hotel, and preserved
their style and features unchanged amid the encroachnients
of private speculation and the rage
for public improvement. Now the space on which
it stood is covered with shops and dwelling-houses.
In this street lived Margarot, one of the “ Friends
of the People,” who was arrested by Provost Elder,
Until recent years the old “Black Bull” was
long established here, and an arch on the west side
gave access to the stables. In a species of advertisement
appended to Kincaid’s “ View of Edinburgh,”
in 1794~ is the following :-
“English Travellers, on business, are to be found commonly,
at Paterson’s, Foot of the Pleasance ; McFarlane’s,
Head of the Cowgate ; Kamsay’s Lodging’s, Milne Square ;
. McKay’s, Grassmarket; Lee’s, Black Bull, Head of Leith
good order and police. A great crowd assembled
at his lodgings in Leith Street about ten o’clock,
and he was conducted, with a wreath, or arch, held
over him, with inscriptions of Reason, Liberty, &c.
About the middle of the North Bridge, however,
the cavalcade was met by the Lord Provost, sheriff,
constable, peace-officers, Src., and immediately dispersed,
the arch was demolished, and its supporters
taken into custody. A press-gang attended to
assist the peace-officers. Mr. Margarot then walked
to the court, escorted by the Lord Provost, &c.:
and no disturbance ensued.”
Subsequently we read, that on the 10th of Feb
and tried for his, life on charges of treason, with
Hunter, Muir, and others. He conducted his own
case, and the court sentenced him to fourteen
years’ transportation beyond the seas. “In consequence
of the proceedings on the 9th instant,”
says the Annual Register for 1794, “while Mr.
hfargarot went to the Justiciary Court, every precaution
was taken this day by the Lord Provost,
magistrates, and sheriff, to prevent any breach of
THE ALBEBT MEMORIAL, CHARLOTTE SQUARE.
statue
STATUES](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p189.gif "Volume 3 Page 177")
... Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above ...
Vol. 3 p. 177 (Rel. 0.49)
... this
new seaport might prove prejudicial to theirs at
Leith , purchased the whole place from the king,
whose ...
Vol. 6 p. 297 (Rel. 0.49)
![Leith] CAPTAIN PALLISER’S CONTUMACY. 277
to-morrow ; the sailors belonging to the said ships
are to repair on board, under penalty of loss of
wages and imprisonment as deserters. Thir presents
to be published by tuck of drumme through
Leith, that none may pretend ignorance. (‘ WALTER SCOTTE, B.”
In 1752 the vessels of Leith amounted to sixtyeight,
with a tonnage of 6,935; and two years subsequently
we find an attempt upon the part of a
captain in the royal navy there to defy the Scottish
Court of Admiralty in the roads and harbour.
Captain (aflerwards Sir Hugh) Palliser, when
captain of H.M.S. Seahorse, in consequence of a
petition presented to the Judge of the High Court
of Admiralty, 20th March, 1754, by Thomas ROSS,
master, and Murdoch Campbell, owner of the
Scottish ship CumberZand, of Thurso, was served
with a notice to deliver up James Cormick, apprentice
to the former, whom he had taken on board
as a seaman.
Accordingly, by order of the judge, the macers
of court, messengers-at-arms, and other officials,
repaired on board the Seahorse, at the anchorage in
Leith, to bring off James Cormick; “and the said
Captain Hugh Palliser, and the other officers and
sailors on board the said shipof-war Seahorre,” ran
the warrant, “are hereby ordered to be assisting”
in putting it into execution, at their highest peril.
(‘ All others, shipmasters, sailors, and others his
Majesty’s .subjects,” were ordered to assist also, at
their utmost peril.
James Lindsay, Admiralty macer, served this
notice upon Captain Palliser, who foolishly and
haughtily replied that he was subject to the laws
of England only, and would not send Cormick
ashore. (‘ Upon which,” as the execution given
into court bears, ‘( I (James Lindsay) declared he
had contemned the law, was guilty of a deforcement,
and that he should be liable accordingly, having
my blazon on my breast, and broke my wand of
peace.’’
On this, a warrant was issued to apprehend the
commander of the Seahorse, and commit him to
the next sure prison (i.e. the Tolbooth of Leith), but
the captain having gone to Edinburgh, on the 26th
of March he was seized and placed in the Heart of
Midlothian, and brought before the High Court of
Admiralt), next day.
‘ There he denied that its jurisdiction extended
over a king’s ship, or over himself personally, or any
man in the Seahorse, especially an enlisted sailor ;
and maintained that the court, by attempting to do
so, assumed a right competent to the Lords of the
Admiralty alone ; ‘( and by your imprisoning me,”
he added, (( for not delivering up one of the king‘s
sailors, you have suspended my commission from
the Lord High Admiral, and disabled me from
executing the orders with which I am charged as
commander of one of the king’s ships.”
This only led to the re-commitment of the contumacious
captain, till he (‘found caution to obtemper
(sic) the Judge Admiral’s warrant, in case it should
be found by the Lords that he ought to do so.”
He was imprisoned for six weeks, until the apprentice
was put on shore. On this matter, Lord
Hardwicke, who was then Lord Chancellor, remarked
that the Scottiah Admiralty judge was a
bold one, “but that what he had done was
right.”
Captain Palliser, on his return to England,
threatened to make the frauds on the revenue a
matter for Parliamentary investigation, if not attended
to, And the ministry then enftrced the duties
upon claret, which, before this time, had been
drunk commonly even by Scottish artisans.
This officer afterwards behaved with great bravery
at Newfoundland, in 1764 ; and on attaining the
rank of Admiral of the White, was created a
baronet, and died governor of Greenwich Hospital
in 1796.
In 1763 the shore dues at Leith had increased to
A580. The Scots’ Magazine for December, 1769,
states that, “take one year with another, about
1,700 vessels are cleared out and in yearly at Leith.
Some days ago an acute merchant took a serious
view of the shipping in the harbour of Leith, and
reckoned upon a calculation that there would be
between 30,000 and 35,000 tonnage at one and the
same time mooring there.” This seems barely
probable.
In 17 7 I we meet with an indication of free trade,
when the Court of Session, upon the application
of the merchants of Edinburgh, ordered the port
of Leith, and all other Scottish ports, to be open
for the free importation of grain of all kinds.
Arnot states that in the year ending January
sth, 1778, there were, in Leith, 52 foreign ships,
6,800 tons, and 428 men ; 44 coasting and fishing
ships, 3,346 tons, and 281 men. Five years sub.
sequently, the shore dues were f;4,ooo; but in
that year there was only one vessel trading with
St. Petersburg. She made but one voyage yearly,
and never carried tallow if any other freight could
be obtained Now the sailing vessels make three
voyages to the same port annually.
In 1791 there was a proposal to form a jointstock
company, to cut a canal from Leith to the
middle ward of Lanarkshire.
The tonnage in 1792 had increased to 18,468.
In the same year, when those Radicals who](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p096.gif "Volume 6 Page 277")
... Leith ] CAPTAIN PALLISER’S CONTUMACY. 277
to-morrow ; the sailors belonging to the said ships
are to repair on ...
Vol. 6 p. 277 (Rel. 0.49)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
of May. As history records, Gordon and Arran
could not resist doing a little ...
Vol. 6 p. 204 (Rel. 0.49)
... OLD .4ND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
park and ample stabling; and there are always
two batteries, with guns and ...
Vol. 6 p. 198 (Rel. 0.49)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. r Leith .
but by bringing ordonnance from the Castell to the
shoare, to dins at them so ...
Vol. 5 p. 184 (Rel. 0.49)
![Leith.] SIR ANDREW WOOD. 199
CHAPTER XXI.
LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY (ronfinaed).
A Scottish Navy-Old Fighting Mariners of Leith-Sir Andrew Woodand the YdZm CaravrZ-J.~es 111. skin-James IV. and Su-
Andrew-Double Defeat of the English Ships-John, Kobert, and Andrew Barton-Their Letten of Marque against the Portugu-
Jarnes IV. and his Sailors-A Naval Review.
AND now, before giving the history of more
modern Leith, we must refer to some of her brave
old fighting merchant mariners, who made her
famous in other years.
“As the subject of the Scottish navy,” says
Pinkerton, “ forms a subject but little known, any
anecdotes concerning it become interesting ;1’ and,
fortunately for our purpose, most of these have
some reference to the zncient port of Leith.
Though the foymation of a Scottish navy was
among the last thoughts of the great king Robert
Bruce, when, worn with war and years, he lay dying
in the castle of Cardross, it was not until the reigns
of James 111. and IV. that Scotland possessed any
ships for purely warlike purposes. Nevertheless,
she was rich in hardy mariners and enterprising
merchants ; and an Act of Parliament during the
reign of the latter monarch refers to “ the great
and innumerable riches yat is tint in fault of shippis
and busses,” or boats to be employed in the
fisheries.
In 1497 an enactment was made that vessels of
twenty tons and upwards should be built in all the
seaports of the kingdom, while the magistrates were
directed to compel all stout vagrants who frequented
such places to learn the trade of mariners, and
labour for their own living.
Among the merchants and the private traders
James IV. found many men of ability, bravery,
and experience, such as Sir Andrew Wood of Largo,
the two Bartons (John and Robert), Sir Alexander
Mathieson, William Meremonth, all merchants of
Leith; and Sir David Falconer, of Borrowstounness.
Williarn Brownhill, who never saw an English
ship, either in peace or war, without attacking and
taking her if he was able, and various other naval adventurers
of less note were sought out by James 111.
and treated with peculiar favour and distinction.
But it was in the reign of his father that Sir Andrew
Wood, who has been called the “ Scottish Nelson ”
of his day, made his name in history, and to him
we shall first refer.
Under that unfortunate monarch Scotland’s commerce
was beginning to flourish, notwithstanding
the restraint so curiously laid upon maritime enterprise
by the Act that restricted sailing from St Jude’s
Day till Candlemas, under a penalty; and in 1476
R’e read of the ‘‘ great ship ” of James Kennedy,
which Buchanan states “ to have been the largest
that ever sailed the ocean,” but was wrecked upon.
the coast of England and destroyed by the people.
During the reign of James III., the fighting merchant
of Leith, Sir Andrew Wood, bore the terror
of his name through English, Dutch, and Flemish
waters, and in two pitched battles defeated the
superior power of England at sea. As he was the
first of his race whose name obtained eminence,
nothing is known of his family, and even much of
his personal history is buried in obscurity. Dr.
Abercrombie, in his “ Martial Achievements,” supposes
him to have been a cadet of the Bonnington
family in Angus, and he is generally stated to have
been born about the middle of the fifteenth century
at the old Kirktoun of Largo, situated on the
beautiful bay of the same name.
Wood appears to have been during the early
part of the reign of James 111. a wealthy merchant
in Leith, where at first he possessed and commanded
two armed vessels of some 300 tons each, the-
YeZZow CaraveZ and FZlmer, good and strong ships,
superior in equipment to any that had been seen in*
Scotland before, so excellent were his mariners,
their arms, cannon, and armour. According to
a foot-note in Scott of Scotstarvit’s work, “he had
been first a skipper at the north side of the bridge
of Leith, and being pursued, mortified his house
to Paul’s Work (in Leith Wynd) as the register
beats.”
It would appear that the vessel called the YelZow
CuraveZ was formerly commanded by his friend!
John Barton (of whom more elsewhere), as in the
accounts of the Lord High Treasurer the following
note occurs by the editor :-
‘( In March 1473-4 the accounts contain a notice
of a ship which a cancelled entry enables us to
identify with the King‘s Yellow Carad, afterwards
rendered famous under the command of Sir Andrews
Wood in naval engagements with the English.”
The editor a!so states that in the ‘‘ Account of the
Chamberlain of Fife” he had found another entry
concerning 3 delivery to John Barton, master of
the King’s CurnveZ, under date 1475. “ This last
entry,” says an annotator, ‘‘ being deleted, however
shows that there must have been some mistake as
to whom the corn was delivered, John Barton being
probably sailing one of his own ships. During](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p018.gif "Volume 6 Page 199")
... Leith .] SIR ANDREW WOOD. 199
CHAPTER XXI.
LEITH -HISTORICAL SURVEY (ronfinaed).
A Scottish Navy-Old Fighting ...
Vol. 6 p. 199 (Rel. 0.49)
![Restalrig.] DRURY’S TREACHERY. x3.z
on it now. Here it probably was that the powerful
Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Douglas, Lord
of Bothwell, Galloway, and Annandale, Duke of
Touraine aud Marshal of France, resided in 1440,
in which year he died at Restalrig, of a malignant
fever.
In 1444 Sir John Logan of Restalrig was sheriff
of Edinburgh ; and in 1508 James Logan, of the
same place, was Sheriff-deputy.
Twenty-one years before the latter date an
calsay lyand, and the town desolate.” In the
following year, Holinshed records that “ the Lord
Grey, Lieutenant of the Inglis’ armie,” during the
siege of Leith, “ludged in the town of Lestalrike,
in the Dean’s house, and part of the Demi-lances
and other horsemen lay in the same towne.”
A little way north-westward of Restalrig, midway
between the place named Hawkhill and the upper
Quarry Holes, near the Easter Road, there occurred
on the 16th of June, 1571, a disastrous skirmish, de-
~
RESTALRIG CHURCH IN THE PRESENT DAYEnglish
army had encamped at Restalrig, under the
Duke of Gloucester, who spared the city at the
request of the Duke of Albany and on receiving
many rich presents fiom the citizens, while James
III., in the hand of rebel peers, was a species of
captive in the castle of Edinburgh.
In 1559 the then secluded village was the scene
of one of the many skirmishes that took place between
the troops of the Queen Regent and those
of the Lords of the Congregation, in which the
latter were baffled, “driven through the myre at
Restalrig-worried at the Craigingate ” (i.e., the
Calton), and on the 6th of November,’ “ at even
in the nycht,” they departed ‘‘ furth of Edinburgh
to Lynlithgow, and left their artailzerie on the
signated the BZack Saturday, or Drury’s peace,”
as it was sometimes named, through the alleged
treachery of the English ambassador.
Provoked by a bravado on the part of the Earl
of Morton, who held Leith, and who came forth
with horse and foot to the Hawkhill, the Earl of
Huntly, at the head of a body of Queen Mary‘s
followers, with a train of guns, issued out of Edinburgh,
and halted at the Quarry Holes, where he
was visited by Sir William Drury, the ambassador
of Queen Elizabeth, who had been with Morton in
Leith during the preceding night. His proposed
object was an amicable adjustment of differences,
to the end that no loss of life should ensue between
those who were countrymen, and, in too](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p144.gif "Volume 5 Page 133")
... of the Inglis’ armie,” during the
siege of Leith , “ludged in the town of Lestalrike,
in the ...
Vol. 5 p. 133 (Rel. 0.49)
![Leith] THE SUGAR HOUSE COMPANY. 235
In addition to the imperatively required sanitary
reform which this sqheme will effect in a few years,
the new thoroughfare will be of great commercial
utility, and present an easy gradient from the shore
to Leith Walk.
The area scheduled contains about 3,500 inhabitants,
but when the works are completed
nearly double that number will be accommodated.
The sum to be borrowed from the Public Works
Loan Commissioners was fixed at ~GIOO,OOO,
payable in thirty years, about 1911 ; but in 1881
the Home Secretary intimated his intention of
recommending a loan of cf70,000, which, in the
meantime, was deemed suiticient.
The ancient street named Water Lane, with
all its adjacent alleys, is not included in this scheme
of removal and improvement. It runs tortuously,
at an angle, from the foot of the Kirkgate to
Bemard Street, and is about seven hundred yards
in length. This thoroughfare was anciently called
the Rotten ROW ; and in the map given by Robertson
in his ‘‘ Antiquities,’’ that name is borne by an
alley ne+r the foot of it, running parallel with
Chapel Lane.
In the inventory of ‘( Pious Donations ” made to
the Brethren Predicators in Edinburgh, under date
14th May, 1473, is one by “John Sudgine, of
30s. 4d. out of his tenement of Leith on the south
side of the water thereof, between Alan Nepar’s
land on the east, and Rotten Row on the west.”
Alan Napier’s land, “on the east side of the
common vennel called the Ratounrow,” is referred
to in King James 111.’~ charter to the Black Friars,
under the same date. (“Burgh Charters,” No.
43.) It was so named from being built of houses
of mitim, or rough timber.
On Mary of Guise and Lorraine choosing Leith
as an occasional residence, she is stated by Maitland
to have erected a dwelling-house in the Rotten
Row, near the corner of the present Quality Street,
and that the royal arms of Scotland, which were
in front thereof, were, when it was taken down,
rebuilt into the wall of a mansion opposite, ‘‘ and
the said Mary, for the convenience of holding
councils, erected a spacious and handsome edifice
for her privy council to meet in.”
This is supposed to refer to a stately house on
the Coal Hill (facing the river), and to be treated
of when we come to that quarter of Leith.
The beautifully sculptured stone which bears
the arms of Scotland impaled with those of Guise,
surmounted by an imperial crown and the boldlycut
legend,
MARIA. DE. LORRAINE.
REGINA. SCOTIA. 1560,
and surrounded by the richest scroll-work, still
exists in Leith. It was long preserved in the
north wall of the old Tolbooth; and on the
demolition of the latter, after undergoing various
adventures, has now “been rebuilt,” says Dr,
Robertson, ‘‘ into the original window of St. Mary,
which has been erected in Albany Street,NorthLeith.”
This is the last relic of that house in which
Mary, the queen-regent (prior to her death in the
castle), spent the last year of her sorrowful life,
embittered by the strife of hostile factions and the
din of civil war-“an ominous preparation for her
unfortunate daughter’s assumption of the sceptre
which was then wielded in her name.”
Another ancient house in the same street bore a
legend similar to one already given :-
“THEY ARE WELCOME HERE
QHA THE LORD DO FEIR, 1574.”
It was demolished in I 83 2.
In this street was the establishment of the old
Leith Sugar House Company. The circumstances
that Leith was acentral port for carrying on West
Indian trade, where vessels could then be fitted
out more easily than on the Clyde, and at a lower
rate than at London-besides the savings on freight
and charges-eneouraged the West Indian planter
‘to make it a place for his consignments. Thus a
house for baking sugars was set up in Edinburgh
in 1751, and the manufacture was still carried on
in 1779 by the company that instituted it.
That of Leith was begun in 1757 by a company,
consisting chiefly of Edinburgh bankers ; but by
1762 their capital was totally lost, and for some
time the Sugar House remained unoccupied, till
some speculative Englishmen took a lease of it,
and revived the manufacture.
As these men were altogether without capital,
and had to fall back upon ruinous schemes to
support their false credit, they were soon involved
in complete failure, but were succeeded by the
Messrs. Parkers, who kept up the manufacture for
about five years.
‘‘ The house,” says h o t , ‘‘ was then purchased
by a set of merchants in Leith, who, as they began
with sufficient capital, as they have employed in
the work the best refiners of sugar that could be
procured in London, and as they pay attention
to the business, promise to conduct it with every
prospect of success.”
But be that as it may, in B e Advertiser for
1783, “the whole houses and subjects belonging
to and employed by the Leith Sugar House Company,
together with the coppers, coolers, and
whole utensils used in the trade,” are announced](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p054.gif "Volume 6 Page 235")
... Leith ] THE SUGAR HOUSE COMPANY. 235
In addition to the imperatively required sanitary
reform which this sqheme ...
Vol. 6 p. 235 (Rel. 0.48)
... Leith .) THE BOURSE. 231
U Throughout these troublesome days, a little episcopal
congregation was kept together in ...
Vol. 6 p. 231 (Rel. 0.48)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
is in the Gothic style, with a tower 130 feet high,
surmounted by an open ...
Vol. 6 p. 240 (Rel. 0.48)
![Leith.] THE FIRST BRIDGE. 167
Kirk aark, and to be-deprived of- the freedom (of
the city) for ane zeare.” 1
.of the harbour, for the erection of quays and wharfs
and for the loading of goods, with the liberty to
have shops and granaries, and to make all necessary
roads thereto ; but this grasping feudal baron
afterwards sorely teased and perplexed the town
council with points of litigation, till eventually he
roused them to adopt a strong measure for satiating
.at once his avarice and their own ambition.
Bought over by them with alarge sum of nionfy
.drawn from the city treasury, Sir Robert Logan on
;the 27th of February, 1413, granted them an extraordinary
charter, which has been characterised as
an exclusive, ruinous, and enslaving bond,” restraining
the luckless inhabitants of Leith from
.carrying on trade cE any sort, from possessing warehouses
or shops, from keeping inns for strangers,
“ so that nothing should be built or constructed on
the said land (in Leith) in future, to the prejudice
and impediment of the said community.” The
witnesses to this grant are George Lauder the Pro-
Test, and the Bailies, William Touris of Cramond,
William of Edmondston, James Cant, Dean of
Guild, John Clark of Lanark, Andrew Learmouth,
and William of the Wood.
In 1428 King James I. granted a charter under
.his great seal, with consent of the community of
Edinburgh, ordaining “ that in augmentation of the
fabrik and reparation of the port and harbour of
Leith, there should be uplifted a certain tax or toll
upon all ships and boats entering therein,” This
is dated from the Palace of Dunfermline, 31st
December. (Burgh Records.)
In 1439 Patrick, abbot of Holyrood, granted to
Sir Robert Logan and his heirs the office of bailie
aver the abbey lands of St. Leonards, “lyande in
the town of Leicht, within the barony of Restalrig,
on the south halfe the water, from the end of the
gret volut of William Logane on the east part to
the common gate that passes to the ford over the
water of Leicht, beside the waste land near the
house of John of Turing,” etc. (Burgh Charters.)
Not content with the power already given them
over their vassals in Leith, the magistrates of Edinburgh,
after letting the petty customs and haven
siller” of Leith for the sum of one hkdred and
ten merks in 1485, passed a remarkable order in
council :-“ That no merchant of Edinburgh presume
to take into partnership any indweller of the
town of Leith, under pain of forty pounds to the
he proceeded to Leith tb hold his water courts,
such an escort being deemed necessary for the
In 1497 the civic despots of Edinburgh obtained,
on writ from the Privy Council, that “ all manner
of persons, quhilk are infectit, or has been infectit
and uncurrit of the contageouse plage, callit
the grand gore, devoid red and pass furth of
this towne, and compeir on the sandis of Leith,
at ten hours before noon, and thair shall have
boats reddie in the Haven, ordainit to thame be
the officears, reddie furnished with victualles, to
have them to the inche, there to remain quhi!l
God provide for thair health.” (Town Council
Records.)
As regards Leith, a much more important event
is recorded four years before this, when Robert
Ballantyne, abbot of Holyrood, “ with the consent
of his chapter and the approbation of William,
Archbishop of St. Andrews,” first spanned the
river by a solid stone bridge, thus connecting South
and North Leith, holding the right of levying a toll
therefor. It was a bridge of three arches; of
which Lord Eldin made a sketch in 1779, and part
of one of the piers of which still remains. Abbot
Ballantyne also built a chapel thereby, and in his
charter it is expressly stated, after enumerating the
tithes and tolls of the bridge, “that the stipend of
each of the two incumbents is to be limited to
fifteen merks, and after the repairs of the said
bridge and chapel, and lighting the same, the surplus
is to be given to the poor.”
This chapel was dedicated to St. Ninian the
apostle of Galloway, and the abbot’s charter was
confirmed by King James IV. on the 1st June,
1493. He also established a range of buildings
on the south side of the river, a portion of which,
says Robertson, writing in 1851, still exists in
the form of a gable and large oven, at the locality
generally designated ‘ the Old Bridge End.’ ”
The part in Leith whereon, it is said, the first
houses were built in the twelfth century, is bounded ,
on the south by the Tolbooth Wynd, on the west
by the shore or quay, on the north by the Broad
Wynd, and on the east by the Rotten Row, now
called Water Lane. One of the broadest alleys in
this ancient quarter is the Burgess Close,’ ten feet
in width, and was the first road granted to the
citizens of Edinburgh by Logan of Kestalng.
In the year 1501, all freemen of the city, to the
number of twenty or so, were directed by the
magistrates to accompany the water bailie when](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p178.gif "Volume 5 Page 167")
... Leith .] THE FIRST BRIDGE. 167
Kirk aark, and to be-deprived of- the freedom (of
the city) for ane zeare.” ...
Vol. 5 p. 167 (Rel. 0.48)
... friends contrived to acquaint
him that in the Roads of Leith there lay a small
vessel laden with Gascon wine, ...
Vol. 1 p. 33 (Rel. 0.48)
... EDINBURGH. -
CHAPTER VI.
THE VALLEY OF THE WATER OF LEITH .
PAGE
Lady Sinclair of Dunbeath-Bell's ...
Vol. 6 p. 394 (Rel. 0.48)
![Leith Walk.] . REPULSE OF CROMWELL. 1.5 I
direction of Leith Walk, as by charter under thc
Great Seal, dated at Edinburgh, 13thAugust, 1456
King James 11. granted, “preposito, baZZiuis et corn
munitati nosh‘ de Rdinlbuv-gh,” the valley or loa
ground between the well called Craigangilt, on thc
east side (i.e., the Calton Hill), “ and the commor
way and road towards the town of Leith, on tht
west side,” etc.
. But the origin of Leith Loan-or Leith Walk, a:
.we now call it-was purely accidental, and tht
result of the contingencies of war.
In 1650, to repel Cromwell’s attack upon thc
city, Sir Alexander Leslie had the whole Scottish
army skilfully entrenched in rear of a strong breastwork
of earth that lay from north to south between
Edinburgh and Leith. Its right flank was de.
fended by redoubts armed with guns on the green
slope of the Calton Hill ; its left by others on the
eastern portions of Leith and St. ilnthony’s Port,
which enfiladed the line and swept all the open
ground towards Restalrig. In addition to all this,
the walls of the city were everywhere armed with
cannon, and the banners of the trades were displayed
above its gates.
Along the line of this entrenchment Charles II.,
after landing at Leith from Stirling, proceeded on
horseback to the city. His appearance created the
greatest enthusiasm, all the more so that Cromwell’s
arms were seen glittering in the distance. Around
Charles was his Life Guard of Horse, led by the Earl
of Eglinton, magnificently armed and mounted, and
having on their embroidered standards the crown,
sword, and sceptre, with the mottoes Nobis hczc inviita
misemnt, and Pro Religione, Rege, et Patrid.
On Monday, the 24th of July, Cromwell furiously
attacked the entrenchment, as he had been exasperated
by the result of a sortie made by Major
General Montgomery, who at the head of 2,000
Scottish dragoons, had repulsed an advanced
column, and ‘( killed five Colonells and Lieutenant-
Colonells, mortally wounded Lieut.-Gen. Lambert
and five hundred soldiers.” (Balfour.) As the
English advanced, the rising sun shone full upon
the long lines of Scottish helmets glittering above
the rough earthwork, where many a pike was
gleaming and inany a standard waving. Clearing
the rocks and house of Restalrig, they advanced
over the plain westward from Lochend, when the
field batteries atthe Quarry Holes, the guns on Leith
and theCalton,openedon them simultaneously, while
a rolling and incessant fire of musketry ran along
the whole Scottish line from flank to flank, and was
poured in closely and securely from the summit of
the breastwork. They were speedily thrown into
confusion, and fled in considerable disorder, leaving
behind them some pieces of cannon and the ground
strewn with dead and wounded.
Cromwell’s vigorous attack on the southern part
of the city was equally well repulsed, and he then
drew off from it till after his victory at Dunbar.
At this time General Leslie’s head-quarters were
in the village of Broughton, from whence many of
his despatches were dated ; and when the war was
shifted to other quarters, his famous breastwork
became the established footway between the capital
and its seaport.
Midway between these long stood an edifice, of
which no vestige remains-the Rood Chapel, repairs
upon which were paid for by the city in
1554-5. It stood in the vicinity of the Gallow
Lee, a place memorable for a desperate conflict
between the Kingsmen and Queensmen in 1571,
when the motto of “God shaw the Richt,” was
conferred on Captain Crawford, of Jordan Hill, by
the Regent Morton, and whose tombstone is yet
to be seen in the churchyard of Kilbirnie. On
nearly the same ground in 1G04 James Hardie, of
Bounmylnerig, with others, in the month of April,
between nine and ten in the evening, assailed
Jacques de la Berge, a Fleming, forced him to quit
his saddle, and thereafter rypeit him” of gold
and silver, for which Hardie was hanged at the
Cross and his goods forfeited.
Though in 1610 Henrie Anderson, a native of
Stralsund, in Pomerania, obtained a royal patent
for coaches to run between Edinburgh and Leith
at the rate of zd. per passenger, we have no record
of how his speculation succeeded ; nor was it until
1660 that William Woodcock obtained a license
“to fitt and set up ane haickney coatch for the
service of his Majesty’s lieges, betwix Leith and
Edinburgh,” at the rate of 12s. (Scots) per passenger,
if the latter decided to travel alone, but if
three went with him, the charge was to be no more
than 12s. ; and all who came upward to Edinburgh
were to alight at the foot of Leith Wynd, “for the
staynes yr of.”
From that time we hear no more of Leith stages
till 1678, as mentioned in our first volume; but in
1702 a person named Robert Miller obtained permission
to keep four vehicles to ply between the
two towns for nine years. Individual enterprise
having failed to make stages here remunerative,
the magistrates in 1722 granted to a company the
cxclusive right to run coaches on Leith Walk for a
period of twenty-one years, each to hold six passengers,
the fare to be gd. in summer and 4d. in
winter; but this speculation did not seem to pay,
md in 1727 the company raised the fares to 4d.
md 6d. respectively.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p162.gif "Volume 5 Page 151")
... Leith Walk.] . REPULSE OF CROMWELL. 1.5 I
direction of Leith Walk, as by charter under thc
Great Seal, dated at ...
Vol. 5 p. 151 (Rel. 0.48)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
each trade, all deacons and treasurers, and constituting,
or deemed to be; a ...
Vol. 6 p. 210 (Rel. 0.47)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
The Old and New Ship are good examples of
what these old taverns were, as they ...
Vol. 6 p. 246 (Rel. 0.47)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
of Brockhouse, contracted with the corporation to
provide accommodation for ...
Vol. 6 p. 194 (Rel. 0.47)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
helmet, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum
-and the entrance gate or ...
Vol. 6 p. 258 (Rel. 0.46)
![Leith.] THE TOLBOOTH WYND. 1 0
marrow alley adjoining the latter, a house bearing
the date 1688 has the two legends, “Feir the
Lord,” and “The feir of the Lord is the beginning
of a1 wisdome.”
This part of the town-about the foot of St.
Andrew’s Street-is said to have borne anciently
the name of St. Leonard’s. There the Street
diverges into two alleys : one narrow and gloomy,
which bears the imposing title of Parliament Court ;
and the other called Sheephead Wynd, in which
there remains a very ancient edifice, the ground
floor of which is formed of arches constructed like
those of the old house described in the Kirkgate,
and bearing the date 1579, with the initials D. W.,
M. W. Though small and greatly dilapidated, it
is ornamented with string-courses and mouldings ;
and it was not without some traces of old importance
and grandeur amid its decay and degradation,
until it was entirely altered in 1859.
This house is said to have received the local
name of the Gun Stone, from the circumstance of
a stone cannon ball of considerable size having
been fired into it during some invasion by an
English ship of war. Local tradition avers that
for many years this bullet formed an ornament on
the summit of the square projecting staircase of
the house.
Near Cable’s Wynd, which adjoins this alley, and
between it and King Street, at a spot called
Meeting-house Green, are the relics of a building
formerly used as a place of worship, and although
it does not date farther back than the Revolution
.of 1688, it is oddly enough called “John Knox’s
Church.”
The records of South Leith parish bear that in
1692, ‘‘ the magistrates of Edinburgh, and members
of the Presbytery there, with a confused company
of the people, entered the church by breaking open
the locks of the doors and putting on new ones,
and so caused guard the church doors with halberts,
rang the bells, and possessed Mr. Wishart of
the church, against which all irregular proceedings
public protests were taken.”
Previous to this he would seem to have officiated
in a kind of chapel-of-ease established near Cable’s
Wynd, by permission of James VII. in 1687.
Soon after the forcible induction recorded, he
came to the church with a guard of halberdiers,
accompanied by the magistrates of Leith, and took
possession of the Session House, compelling the
“ prelatick Session ” to hold their meeting in the
adjacent Kantore. More unseemly matters followed,
for in December of the year 1692, when a
meeting was held in South Leith Church to hear
any objections that might be niade against the legal
induction of the Rev. Mr. Wishart, an adherent of
Mr. Kay, ‘‘ one of the prelatick incumbents,” protested
loudly against the whole proceedings.
Upon this, “Mr. Livingstone, a brewer at the
Craigend (or Calton), rose up, and, in presence of
the Presbytery, did most violently fall upon the
commissioner, and buffeted him and nipped his
cheeks, and had many base expressions to him.”
Others now fell on the luckless commissioner,
who was ultimately thrust into the Tolbooth of
Leith by a magistrate, for daring to do that which
the Presbytery had suggested. Mr. Kay’s session
were next driven out of the Kantore, on the door
of which another lock was placed.
It has been supposed that the ousted episcopal
incumbent formed his adherents into a small congregation,
as he remained long iu Leith, and died
at his house in the Yardheads there so lately as
November, 1719, in the seventieth year of his age.
His successor, tile Rev. Robert Forbes, was minister
of an episcopal chapel in Leith, according to an
anonymous writer, ‘‘ very shortly after Mr: Kay’s
death, and records a baptism as having been performed
‘ in my room in ye Yardheads.’ ”
The history of the Meeting-house near Cable’s
Wynd is rather obscure, but it seems to have been
generally used as a place of worship. The last
occasion was during a visit of John Wesley, the
great founder of Methodism. He was announced
to preach in it; but so grcat a concourse of people
assembled, that the edifice was incapable of accommodating
them, so he addressed the multitude
on the Meeting-house Green. LI house near it,
says The Srofsinan in 1879, is pointed out as “the
Manse.”
The Tolbooth TVynd is about five hundred an&
fifty feet in length, from where the old signal-tower
stood, at the foot of the Kirkgate, to the site of a
now removed building called Old Babylon, which
stood upon the Shore.
The second old thoroughfare of Leith was undoubtedly
the picturesque Tolbooth Wynd, as the
principal approach to the harbour, after it superseded
the more ancient Burgess Close.
It was down this street that, in the age when
Leith was noted for its dark superstitions and eccentric
inhabitants, the denizens therein, regularly
on stormy nights or those preceding a storm,
heard with horror, at midnight, the thundering
noise of “the twelve o‘clock coach,” a great oatafalque-
looking vehicle, driven by a tall, gaunt figure
without a head, drawn by black horses, also headless,
and supposed to be occupied by a mysterious
female.
Near the eastern end of the wynd there stood
,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p046.gif "Volume 6 Page 227")
... Leith .] THE TOLBOOTH WYND. 1 0
marrow alley adjoining the latter, a house bearing
the date 1688 has the two ...
Vol. 6 p. 227 (Rel. 0.46)
... Leith .! HARBOUR AND PIER 271
Hence all attempts, therefore, to obtain a good
or workable harbour at Leith have ...
Vol. 6 p. 271 (Rel. 0.46)
![Xigh Street.] EXCISE OFFICE. 217
not only to inspire his enthusiasm, but improve his
seamanship ; and there was something prophetic
in the poem, as the frigate Azlroru, in which he
served, perished at sea in 1769.
Eastward of Knox’s manse is an old timberfronted
land, bearing the royal arms of Scotland
on its first floor, and entered by a stone turnpike,
the door of which has the legend Beus Benedictat,
and long pointed out as the excise office of early
times. “ The situation,” says Wilson, “ was peculiarly
convenient for guarding the principal gate of
das’s splendid mansion in St. Andrew’s Square,
now occupied by the Royal Bank. This may be
considered its culminating point It descended
thereafter to Bellevue House, in Drummond Place,
built by General Scott, the father-in-law of Mr.
Canning, which house was demolished in 1846 in
completing the tunnel of the Edinburgh and Leith
Railway; and now we believe the exciseman no
longer possesses a local habitation ’ within the
Scottish capital.”
The interesting locality of the Nether Bow takes
the city, and the direct avenue (Leith Wynd) to
the neighbouring seaport. . . . . . Since
George 11.’~ reign the excise office had as many
rapid vicissitudes as might mark the ?areer of a
profligate spendthrift. In its earlier days, when a
floor of the old land in the Nether Bow sufficed
for its accommodation, it was regarded as foremost
among the detested fruits of the Union. From
thence it removed to more commodious chambers
in the Cowgate, since demolished to make way for
the southern piers of George IV. bridge. Its next
resting place was the large tenement on the south
side of Chessel’s Court in the Canongate, the scene
of the notorious Deacon Brodie’s last robbery.
From thence it was removed to Sir Lawrence Dun-
28
its name from the city gate, known as the Nether
Bow Port, in contradistinction to the Upper Bow
Port, which stood near the west end of the Eigh
Street. This barrier united the city wall from St.
Mary’s Wynd on the south to the steep street known
as Leith Wynd on the north, at a time when, perhaps,
only open fields lay eastward of the gate,
stretching from the township to the abbey of Holyrood.
The last gate was built in the time of Tames
VI. ; what was the character of its predecessor
we have no means of ascertaining; but to repair it,
in 1538, as the city cash had run low, the magistrates
were compelled to mortgage its northern
vault for IOO rnerks Scots; and this was the gate
which the English, under Lord Hertford, blew open](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p037.gif "Volume 2 Page 217")
... in 1846 in
completing the tunnel of the Edinburgh and Leith
Railway; and now we believe the exciseman ...
Vol. 2 p. 217 (Rel. 0.46)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
.%dim, or ‘‘ Miscellaneous Papers relating tc
Scottish Affairs ’’ ...
Vol. 6 p. 262 (Rel. 0.45)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBVRGH. [ Leith .
London, at the request of Lord Balgonie, afterwards
Earl of Leven.
People of ...
Vol. 6 p. 250 (Rel. 0.45)
![Leith.] EXECUTION OF PIRATES. “67
C H A P T E R XXX.
LEITH-THE SANDS.
The Sands of Leith-Piates Executed there-The Kaif ofLyane--Captain Potts of the Dreaa31uu~M-A Duel in 1€67-Horse-lacing-“The
Bell”-Leith Races in 1661-“Going Down with the Purse’-Races in 1763 and 1771, etc.
THE Sands of Leith, like other districts we have
described, have a notabilia peculiarly their own,
as the grim scene of executions for piracy, and of
the horse-races, which were long celebrated there
amid a jollity unknown now at the other locality to
which they have been transferred-the Links of
Musselburgh.
All pirates, and those who committed crimes or
misdemeanours upon the high seas, were, down to
1822, hanged within the flood-mark; but there does
not seem to have been any permanent erection, or
even a fixed locality, for this purpose, and thus any
part of the then great expanse of open sand must
have been deemed suitable for the last offices of
the law, and even the Pier and Shore were sometimes
used.
On the 6th of May, 1551, John Davidson was
convicted by an assize of piratically attacking a ship
of Bordeaux, and sentenced to be hanged in irons
on the Sands; and this, Pitcairn observes, is the
earliest notice in Scotland of the body of a criminal
being exposed in chains, to be consumed piecemeal
by the elements.
In 1555, Hilbert Stalfurde and the crew of the
Kait of Lynne, an English ship, were tried for piracy
and oppression, ‘( in reiving and spoiling furth of a
hulk of the toun of Stateyne (Stettin), then lying in
the harbour of Leith,” a cable of ninety fathoms,
three or four pistolettes,and other property,for which
theywere all hanged as pirates within the flood-mark.
Pitcairn gives this case in full, and it may not be
uninteresting to note what constituted piracy in the
sixteenth century.
In the ‘( Talbot Papers,” published by the Maitland
Club, there is a letter, dated 4th July, 1555,
from Lord Conyers to the Earl of Shrewsbury,
After stating that some ships had been captured,
very much to the annoyance of the Queen-Regent
Mary of Lorraine, she sent a Scottish ship of war to
search for the said ship of Lynne; and, as the
former passed herself on the seas as a merchantman,
the crew of the Kait “schott a piece of ordnance,
and the Scottis shippe schott off but a slinge, as
though she had been a merchant, and vailed her
bonnet,” or dipped her ensign
The crew of the Kait then hailed, and asked
what she was laden with, and the reply was, “ With
victualles; and then they desired them to borde, and
let them have a ton of bacon for their money.”
The Scots answered that they should do so, on
which there swarmed on board the Kaif a hundred
or eighty men, “well appoyntit in armoure and
stoutlie set,” on the English ship, which they
brought, with all her crew, into the haven of Leith ;
“and by that I can learn,” adds Lord Conyers,
“there is at least iij. or iiij. of the cheefest of the
Englismenne like to suffer death. Other news I have
none to certifie yr Lordschippe, and so I committ
the same unto the tuicion and governmente of
Almichtie God.”-Berwick, 4th July, 1555.
The seamen of those days were not very particular
when on the high seas, for in 1505 we find
the King’s Admiral, Sir Andrew Wood, obtaining a
remission under the Great Seal for (<ye ri>f an
anchor and cabyell” taken from John of Bonkle
on the sea, as he required these probably for the
king’s service ; and some fifty years later an admiral
of England piratically seized the ship coming from
France with the horses of Queen Mary on board.
In 1610 nine pirates were sentenced by the
mouth of James Lockhart of Lee, chancellor, to be
hanged upon “the sandis of Leyth, within the
floddis-mark;” and in the same year Pitcairn records
the trial of thirty more pirates for the affair
at Long Island, in Ireland, already related.
In 16 I 2 two more were hanged in the same place
for piracy.
Executions here of seamen were of constant occurrence
in the olden times, but after that of Wilson
Potts, captain of the Dreadnoughf privateer of Newcastle,
on the 13th of February, 1782, none took
place till the execution of Heaman and Gautiez, at
the foct of Constitution Street, in 1822.
Potts was convicted before the Admiralty Court
of having plundered the White Swaiz, of Copenhagen,
of four bags of dollars. He was recommended
to mercy by a majority of the jury, because
it was in proof that he had committed the crime
while in a state of intoxication, and had, on coming
to his senses, taken the first opportunity of restoring
the money to its owners; but the recommendation
was made in vain.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p086.gif "Volume 6 Page 267")
... Leith .] EXECUTION OF PIRATES. “67
C H A P T E R XXX.
LEITH -THE SANDS.
The Sands of Leith -Piates Executed ...
Vol. 6 p. 267 (Rel. 0.45)
![238 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
-to hir lovite suitore, Johne Chisholme, his airis and
. assignais, all and hailk hir lands callit the King’s
Werk in Leith, within the boundis specifit in the
infeftment maid to him thairupon, quhilkis than
-war alluterlie decayit, and sensyne are reparit and
re-edifit, he the said Johne Chisholnie, to the policy
.and great decoration of this realme, in that office,
place, and sight of all strangeris and utheris re-
- sortand to the Schore of Leith.”
In 1575 it had been converted into a hospital
- for the plague-stricken ; but when granted to Bernard
Lindsay in 1613, he was empowered to keep
four taverns in the buildings, together with the
tennis-court, for the then favourite pastime of
‘catchpel. It continued to be used for that purpose
till the year 1649, when it was taken pos-
2 session of by the magistrates of Edinburgh, and
. converted into a weigh-house.
“ In what part of the building Bemard Lindsay
commenced tavern-keeping we are unable to say,”
observes Campbell, in his “ History of Leith,” “ but
.are more than half disposed to believe it was that
old house which projects into Bernard Street, and
is situated nearly opposife the British Linen Com-
,pany’s Bank.” ‘‘ The house alluded to,” adds
Robertson on this, “has a carved stone in front,
representing a rainbow rising from the clouds, with
a date 165-, the last figure being obliterated, and
-can hatre no reference to Bernard Lindsay.”
The tennis-court of the latter would seem to have
been frequently patronised by the great Marquis of
Montrose in his youth, as in his ‘‘ Household Accounts,”
under date 1627, are the following entries
.(Mait. Club Edit.) :-
‘‘ Item to the poor, my Lord taking coch . . qs.
Item, carrying the graith to Leth . . . . 8s.
Item, to some poor there . . . . . . 3s
Item, to my Lord Nepar’s cochman . .
Item, for balls in the Tinnes Court of Leth..
. . 6s. Sd.
16s.”
The first memorial of Bernard Lindsay is in
the Parish Records ” of South Leith, and is dated
17th July, 1589 :-“ The quhilk days comperit
up Bemard Lindsay and Barbara Logan, and gave
their names to be proclamit and mareit, within
this date and Michaelmas.-JoHN LOGANE, Cautioper.”
Another record, 2nnd September, I 633, bears
that the Session “ allowis burial to Barbara Logane,
-.elict of Bernard Lindsaye, besyde her husbande in
the kirk-yeard, in contentation yairof, 100 merks to
be given to the poor.”
From Bernard Lindsay, the name of the present
Bernard Street is derived. Bernard’s Nook has
long been known. ‘‘ In the ‘ Council Records’ of
Edinburgh, 1647,” says Robertson, “is the following
entry :-‘ To the purchase of the Kingis Werk,
in Leith, 4,500 lib. Scot.’ A previous entry, 1627,
refers to dealing with the sons of Bernard Lindsay,
‘for their house in Leith to be a custom-house. . . .’
We have no record that any buildings existed beyond
the bounds of the walls or the present
Bernard Street at this time, the earliest dates on
the seaward part of the Shore being 1674-1681.”
The old Weigh-house, or Tron of Leith, stood
within Bernard’s Nook, on the west side of the
street ; but local, though unsupported, tradition
asserts that the original signal-tower and lighthouse
of Leith stood in the Broad Wynd.
Wilson thus refers to the relic of the Wark
already mentioned :-‘‘ A large stone panel, which
bore the date 1650-the year immediately succeeding
the appropriation of the King‘s Wark to
civic purposes-appeared in the north gable of the
old weigh-house, which till recently occupied its
site, with the curious device of a rainbow carved
in bold relief springing at either end from a bank
of clouds.”
“ So,” says Arnot, ‘‘ this fabric, which was reared
for the sports and recreations of a Court, was
speedily to be the scene of the ignoble labours of
carmen and porters, engaged in the drudgery of
weighing hemp and of iron.”
Eastward of the King’s Wark, between Bernard‘s
Street and chapel, lies the locality once so curiously
designated Little London, and which, according to
Kincaid, measured ninety feet from east to west,
by seventy-five broad over the walls. “ How it
acquired the name of Little London is now
unknown,” says Camphell, in his “ History ” ;
“but it was so-called in the year 1674, We do
not see, however,” he absurdly remarks, “that it
could have obtained this appellation from any
other circumstauce than its having had some
real or supposed resemblance to the [English]
metropolis.”
As the views preserved of Little London show it
to have consisted of only four houses or so, and
these of two storeys high, connected by a dead
wall with one doorway, facing Bemard Street in
1800, Campbell’s theory is untenable. It is much
more probable that it derived its name from being
the quarters or cantonments of those 1,500 English
soldiers who, under Sir Williani Drury, Marshal of
Berwick, came from England in April, 1573, to
assist the Regent Morton’s Scottish Companies in
the reduction of Edinburgh Castle. These men
departed from Leith on the 16th of the following
June, and it has been supposed that a few of them
may have been induced to remain, and the locality
thus won the name of Little London, in the same](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p057.gif "Volume 6 Page 238")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
-to hir lovite suitore, Johne Chisholme, his airis and
. assignais, all and ...
Vol. 6 p. 238 (Rel. 0.45)
![Leith.] SHIPBUILDING. 281
put on board the privateer and landed at Calais,
from whence we were ten days marching to Valenciennes
; were lodged in the most horrid jails by
the way, and were allowed nothing but bread and
water.”
In the May of the following year, the brig
CaZedonia, of Leith, and the Mary, of Kirkwall,
were both captured, not far from Aberdeen, by a
French privateer ; but when within three miles of
the coast of France, they escaped to Yarmouth, on
the appearance of the Ludy Anne, an armed lugger,
commanded by Lieutenant Wright, R.N.
On the 6th March, 1800, the Pox, Letter of
Marque, of Leith, fought a sharp battle, which
her captain, James Ogilvy, thus details in the
report to his owners there :-
“Last night, at 11 p.m., Dungeness, NNW,
three leagues, I observed a lugger lying on my
lee-bow ; the moment he saw me he made sail and
ran ahead to windward, and hove-to until I came
up. I observed his motions, hoisted a light on my
maintop, and hailed the Juno, of KirkcaIdy, Mr.
James Condy, who came from Leith Roads along
with me, and kept company all the way, to keep
close by me, as he was under my convoy; which
he immediately did-also two colliers. All my
hands lay on deck, and were prepared to receive
him (the enemy), being well loaded with round and
grape shot from my small battery. He, with his
great, or lug maimail, bore down on my quarter
within pistol-shot. I immediately gave him our
broadside, which, from the confusion and mourning
cries, gave me every reason to suppose he must
have had a number killed and wounded, and he
lay-to, with all his sails shaking in the wind, as long
as I could see him. I am truly happy that the
Fox’s small force has been the means of saving herself,
as well as thelunu and the two colliers, from a
desperate set of thieves that so much infest this
channeL We have fortunately arrived here (Ports
mouth) safe today, with thejunu, in time to join
the convoy for Gibraltar. Have got instructions
fiom the Champion frigate, and sail to-morrow
morning ” (Heralic and Chroa, 1800).
Captain Ogilvy was presented by the underwriters
with a handsome present for his valour and
good conduct in saving and defending four ships.
In the autumn of 1801, the whole of the ship
carpenters, rope-makers, joiners, and block.makers,
to the number of 250 men, employed in the little
Government naval yard at Leith, ‘‘ voluntarily
offered to be trained to the use of the great guns
and of pikes, in defence of the town and port 01
Leith,” refusing all pay. The enthusiasm spread at
the same time to the fishermen of the Firth of
132
Forth, who, to the number of 1,243, made through
Captain Clements an offer of their services in any
way his Majesty might require, to defend the
country from foreign invasion.
To return briefly to the arts of peace, we may
state that both at Leith and Newhaven an extensive
trade in shipbuilding has been camed on
at various periods; but for some generations past
no ships have been launched at the latter place,
yet within the recollection of many still alive shipbuilding
was one of the most important branches of
industry carried on at Leith.
In 1840, two steamers, larger than any then
afloat, were contracted for, and successfully launched
from the building-yard of the Messrs. Menzies ;
and much about the same time other ships of such
a size were built, that many persons began fondly
to suppose that the Port of Leith would keep the
lead in this great branch of industry; but, contrary
to expectation, the trade gradually declined, while
the fame and well-known character of the celebrated
Clyde-built ships and Aberdeen clippers
drew it to the west and north of Scotland. Some
amount of fresh impetus was given to it, however,
by the establishment of several yards for the construction
of iron ships, from which have been
launched a number of first-class vessels, and also
magnificent steam yachts for the Duke of Norfolk,
the Earl of Eglinton, and others.
But though the construction of new ships is not
carried on to the extent it was formerly, a considerable
number of shipcarpenters are employed in the
port repairing vessels, some afloat and others in dry
docks. In the winter and spring artisans of this
class are most in demand, re-classing and overhauling
vessels laid up during these seasons, after
arriving from long voyages.
It has more than once been observed that by
fiu the worst circumstance which in modern times
has damaged the port, and at one time seriously
menaced its trade with ruin, was its predicament
with regard to steam vessels. Some of the latter,
built to ply from it, have been so constructed as,
with a sacrifice of their speed and sailing powers,
not to suffer much injury when seeking harbourage ;
but others, such as are most serviceable and
valuable to a great port, can barely enter it.
This consideration will lead us naturally to the
description of the several docks that have been
built from time to time with a view to meet the
growing requirements both as to traffic and increased
size of vessels. One of these docks, the
Prince of Wales’s Graving Dock, is capable of
receiving the largest ship in the merchant service,
except the Great Eastern.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p100.gif "Volume 6 Page 281")
... Leith .] SHIPBUILDING. 281
put on board the privateer and landed at Calais,
from whence we were ten days marching ...
Vol. 6 p. 281 (Rel. 0.45)
... that,prior to 1801,
all vessels leaving the Firth from Leith and above
it, must have taken the other channel, ...
Vol. 6 p. 292 (Rel. 0.45)
... Leith ! THE REV. JOHN LOGAN.
The first Protestant minister of Leith , at the
settlement of the Reformation in 1560, ...
Vol. 6 p. 219 (Rel. 0.44)
![Leith.] FIGHT IN THE HARBOUR. ‘33
of war, which had been at anchor for six weeks
in the Roads, and apparently with all her guns
shotted,
About noon on the 10th December, 1613, an
Englishman, who was in a “mad humour,” says
Calderwood, when the captain and most of the
officers were on shore, laid trains of powder throughout
the vessel, notwithstanding that his own son
was on board, and blew her up. Balfour states
that she was a 48-gun ship, commanded by a
Captain Wood, that sixty men were lost in her,
and sixty-three who escaped were sent to London.
Calderwood reduces the number who perished to
twenty-four, and adds that the fire made all her
ordnance go off, so that none dared go near her to
render assistance.
In 1618 Leith was visited by Taylor, the Water
Poet, and was there welcomed by Master Bernard
Lindsay, one of the grooms of his Majesty’s bedchamber;
and his notice of the commerce of the
port presents a curious contrast to the Leith of the
present day :-cc I was credibly informed that within
the compass of one year there was shipped away
from that only port of Leith fourscore thousand
boles of wheat, oats, and barley, into Spain, France,
and other foreign parts, and every bole contains a
measure of four English bushels; so that from
Leith only hath been transported 320,000 bushels
of corn, besides some hath been shipped away
from St. Andrews, Dundee, Aberdeen, &c., and
other portable towns, which makes me wonder that
a kingdom so populous as it is, should nevertheless
sell so much bread corn beyond the seas, and yet
have more than sufficient for themselves.”
In parochial and other records of those days
many instances are noted of the capture of Scottish
mariners by the pirates of Algiers, and of collections
being made in the several parishes for their
redemption from slavery. In the Register of the
Privy Council, under date January, r636, we find
that a ship called the Jdn, of Leith, commanded
by John Brown, when sailing from London to
La Rochelle, on the coast of France, fell in with
three Turkish men-of-war, which, after giving him
chase from sunrise to sunset, captured the vessel,
took possession of the cargo and crew, and then
scuttled her.
Poor Brown and his mariners were all taken to
Salee, and there sold in the public market as
slaves. Each bore iron chains to the weight of
eighty pounds, and all were daily employed in
grinding at a mill, while receiving nothing to eat
but a little dusty bread. In the night they were
confined in holes twenty feet deep aniong rats and
mice, and because they were too poor-being only
mariners-to redeem themselves, they trusted to the
benevolence of his Majesty‘s subjects. By order
of the Council, a contribution was levied in the
Lothians and elsewhere, but with what result we
are not told.
In 1622 the usual excitements of the times were
varied by a sea-fight in the heart of Leith harbour.
On the 6th of June, in that year, the constable of
Edinburgh Castle received orders from the Lords
of Council to have his cannon and cannoniers in
instant readiness, as certain foreign ships were engaged
in close battle within gunshot of Leith
A frigate belonging to Philip IV. of Spain, cbmmanded
by Don Pedro de Vanvornz, had been
lying for some time at anchor within the harbour
there, taking on board provisions and stores, her
soldiers and crew coming on shore freely whenever
they chose; but it happened that one night two
vessels of war, belonging to their bitter enemies,
the Dutch, commanded by Mynheer de Hautain,
the Admiral of Zealand, came into the same anchorage,
and-as the Earl of Melrose reported to
James VI.-cast anchor close by Don Pedro.
The moment daylight broke the startled Spaniards
ran up their ensign, cleared away for action, and a
desperate fight ensued, nearly muzzle to muzzle.
For two hours without intermission, the tiers of
brass cannon from the decks of the three ships
poured forth a destructive fire, and the Spaniards,
repulsed by sword and partisan, made more than
one attempt to carry their lofty bulwarks by
boarding. The smoke of their culverins, matchlocks,
and pistolettes enveloped their rigging and
all the harbour of Leith, through the streets and
along the pier of which bullets of all sorts and
sizes went skipping and whizzing, to the terror and
confusion of the inhabitants.
As this state of things was intolerable, the burgesses
of the city and seaport rushed to arms and
armour, at the disposal of the Lords of Council,
who despatched a herald with the water bailie to
command both parties to forbear hostilities in Scottish
waters ; but neither the herald‘s tabard nor the
bailie’s authority prevailed, and the fight continued
with unabated fury till midday. The Spanish
captain finding himself sorely pressed by his two
antagonists, obtained permission to warp his ship
farther within the harbour ; but still the unrelenting
Dutchmen poured their broadsides upon his
shattered hull.
The Privy Council now ordered the Admiral
Depute to muster the mariners of Leith, and assail
the Admiral of Zealand in aid of the Dunkerpuer;
but the depute reported that they were altogether
vnable, and he saw no way to enforce obedience](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p194.gif "Volume 5 Page 183")
... Leith .] FIGHT IN THE HARBOUR. ‘33
of war, which had been at anchor for six weeks
in the Roads, and apparently ...
Vol. 5 p. 183 (Rel. 0.44)
... re-capture of Inchkeith during the French
occupation of Leith has already been related; but
the garrison there ...
Vol. 6 p. 291 (Rel. 0.44)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
for many generations an ancient and lofty signaltower,
the summit of which was ...
Vol. 6 p. 228 (Rel. 0.44)
![Le:th.] LANDING OF QUEEN MARY. 179
Thus the whole line of fortifications facing the
city were levelled, but those on the east remained
long entire; and considerable traces of them were
only removed about the beginning of the eighteenth
century.
On the 20th of August, 1560, Queen Mary
landed at the town to take possession of the throne
of her ancestors. The time was about eight in the
morning, and Leith must have presented a different
aspect than in the preceding year, when the cannon
of the besiegers thundered against its walls. No
vestige now remains of the pier which received her,
though it must have been constructed subsequent
to the destruction of the older one by the savage
Earl of Hertford-the pier at which Magdalene of
France, the queen of twenty summer days, had
landed so joyously in the May of 1537.
The keys of St. Anthony’s Port were delivered to
Mary, who was accompanied by her three uncles-
Claude of Lorraine, Duc d’Aumale, who was killed
at the siege of Rochelle thirteen years after; Francis,
Grand Prior of Malta, general of the galleys of
France, who died of fatigue after the battle of
Dreux; and Rend, Marquisd’Elbeuff, who succeeded
Francis as general of the galleys. She was attended
also by her ‘‘ four Maries,” whose names, as given by
Bishop Leslie, were Fleming, Beaton, Livingstone,
and Seaton, who had been all along with her in
France. Buchanan in 1565 mentions five Maries,
and the treasurer’s account at the same date mentions
si;., including two whose names were Simparten
and Wardlaw.
The cheers of the people mingled with the boom
of cannon, and, says Buchansn, “the dangers she
had undergone, the excellence of her mien, the
delicacy of her beauty, the vigour of her blooming
years, and the elegance of her wit, all joined in her
recommendation.”
As the genial Ettrick Shepherd wrote :-
‘‘ After a youth by woes o’ercast,
After a thousand sorrows past,
The lovely Mary once again
Set foot upon her native plain ;
Kneeled on the pier with modest grace,
And turned to heaven her beauteous face . . . I .
There rode the lords of France and Spain,
Of England, Flanders, and Lorraine ;
While semed thousands round them stood,
From shore of Leith to Holyrood.”
But Knox’s thunder was growling in the distance,
as he records that ‘‘ the very face of heaven did
manifestlie speak what comfort was brought to this
country with hir-to wit, sorrow, dolour, darkness,
and all impiety; for in the memory of man never
was seyn a more dolorous face of the heaven than
was at her arryvall . . . . . the myst was so thick
that skairse mycht onie man espy another ; .and the
sun was not seyn to shyne two days befoir nor two
days after !IJ
Four years after this the poor young queen,
among other shifts to raise money in her difficulties,
mortgaged the superiority of Leith to the city
of Edinburgh, redeemable for 1,000 merks ; and in
1566 she requested the Town Council by a letter
to delay the assumption of that superiority ; but
she could only obtain a short indulgence to prevent
the consequence of her hasty act falling on the
devoted seaport.
In 1567, taking advantage of the general confusion
of the queen’s affairs, on the 4th of July the
Provost, bailies, deacons, and the whole craftsmen
of the city, armed and equipped in warlike array,
with pikes, swords, and arquebuses, marched to
Leith, and went through some evolutions, meant to
represent or constitute the capture and conquest of
the town, and formally trampled its independence
in the dust. From the Links the magistrates
finally marched to the Tolbooth, in the wynd
which still bears its name, and on the stair thereof
held a court, creating bailies, sergeants, clerks, and
deemsters, in virtue of the infeftment made to
them by the queen ; and the superiority thus established
was maintained, too often with despotic
rigour, till Leith attained its independence after the
passing of the Reform Bill in 1832.
During the contention between Morton and the
queen’s party, when the former was compelled with
his followers to take shelter in Leith, where thq
Regent Mar had established his headquarters on
the 12th of January, 1571, a convention, usually
but erroneously called a General Assembly of the
Kirk, was convened there, and sat till the 1st of
February, and in it David Lindsay, minister of
Leith, took a prominent part. The opening sermon
on this occasion was lately reprinted by Principal
Lee. It is now extremely scarce, and is entitled
“ Ane sermon preichit befoir the Regent and
nobilitie, in the Kirk of Leith, 1571, by David
Fergussone, minister of the Evangell at Dunfermlyne.
The sermon approvit by John Knox, with
my dead hand but glaid heart, praising God that of
His mercy He lenis such light to His Kirk in this
desolation.”
M‘Crie says that the last public service of Knox
was the examination and approval of this sermon.
During the minority of James VI. Leith figured
in many transactions which belong strictly to the
general history of the realm ; thus from November,
1571, till the August of the following year, it was
the seat of the Court of Justiciary, and again in
thus :-](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p190.gif "Volume 5 Page 179")
... ancestors. The time was about eight in the
morning, and Leith must have presented a different
aspect than in the ...
Vol. 5 p. 179 (Rel. 0.43)
... Leith ; LETTERS OF MARQUE. 219
to Hull, Newcastle, Thurso, Orkney, and Shetland,
to Inverness, Fort George, and ...
Vol. 6 p. 279 (Rel. 0.43)
... D.D., who was for fifty-nine
years minister of North Leith , is erected by a few
private friends in ...
Vol. 6 p. 255 (Rel. 0.43)
... OLD AND PEW EDINBUKGH. [ Leith .
on the coast of East Lothian, from whence the way
to England was open and ...
Vol. 5 p. 192 (Rel. 0.43)
![Leith.] THE HIGHLAND MUTINEERS ON THE SHORE. 195 - .
the battery guns facing the city-which was filled
with consternation-while a rather helpless force of
cavalry took possession of the Castle HilL The
crisis was, indeed, a perilous one, as the vaults of
the fortress were full of French and Spanish prisoners
of war, while a French squadron was cruising off the
mouth of the Forth, and had already captured some
vessels. Next day the company capitulated, all
save one, who, with his claymore, assailed an officer
of the Ioth, who struck him down and had him
made a prisoner.
The cavalry occupied the fortress until the arrival
of Lord Lennox’s regiment, the 26th or Cameronians,
when‘a court-martial was held. One Highlander
was sentenced to be shot, and another to
receive a thousand lashes ; but both were forgiven
on condition of serving beyond the seas in a battalion
of the line.
Another mutiny occurred in the April of the
following year.
Seventy Highlanders enlisted for the 42nd and
71st (then known as the Master of Lovat’s
Regiment) when marched to Leith, refused to
embark, a mischievous report having been spread
that they were to be draughted into a Lowland
corps, and thus deprived of the kilt; and so much
did they resent this, that they resolved to resist to
death. On the evening they reached Leith the
following despatch was delivered at Edinburgh
Castle by a mounted dragoon :-
(‘ To Governor Wemyss, or the Commanding
Officer of the South Fencible Regiment. 7
“ Headquarters, Apri!, I 7 79.
“ SrR,-The draughts of the 71st Regiment
having refused to embark, you will order 200 men
of the South Fencibles to march immediately to
Leith to seize these mutineers and march them
prisoners to the castle of Edinburgh, to be detained
there until further orders.-I am, &c.,
“ JA. AmLPnus OUGHTON.”
In obedience to this order from the General
Commanding, three captains, six subalterns, and
zoo of the Fencibles under Major Sir James
Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, marched to Leith
on this most unpleasant duty, and found the
seventy Highlanders on the Shore, drawn up in
line with their backs to the houses, their bayoiiets
fixed, and muskets loaded. Sir James drew up his
detachment in such a manner as to render escape
impossible, and then stated the positive orders he
would be compelled to obey.
His words were translated into Gaelic by Sergeant
Ross, who acted as interpreter, and who,
after some expostulation, turned to Sir James,
saying that all was over-his countrymen would
neither surrender nor lay down their arms. On
this Johnston‘e gave the order to prepare for firing
-but added, “Recover ams.”
A Bighlander at that moment attempted to
escape, but was seized by a sergeant, who was
instantly bayoneted, while another, coming to the
rescue with his pike, was shot. The blood of the
Fencibles was roused now, and they poured in
more than one volley upon the Highlanders, of
whom twelve were shot dead, and many mortally
wounded. The fire was returned promptly enough,
but with feeble effect, as the Highlanders had only
a few charges given to them by a Leith porter;
thus only two Fencibles were killed and one
wounded ; but Captain James Mansfield (formerly
of the 7th or Queen’s Dragoons), while attempting
to save the latter, was bayoneted by a furious
Celt, whose charge he vainly sought to parry with
his sword. A corporal shot the mutineer through
the head: the Fencibles-while a vast crowd of
Leith people looked on: appalled by a scene so unusual-
now closed up with charged bayonets, disarmed
the whole, and leaving the Shore strewn
with dead and dying, returned to the Castle with
twenty-five prisoners, and the body of Captain
Mansfield, who left a widow with six children, and
was interred in the Greyfriars churchyard.
The scene of this tragedy was in front of the
old Ship Tavern and the tenement known as the
Britannia Inn.
After a court-martial was held, on the 29th ot
May, the garrison, consisting of the South and West
Fencibles and the cavalry, paraded on the Castle
Hill, in three sides of a hollow square, facing inwards.
With a band playing the dead march, and
the drums muffled and craped, three of these Highland
recruits, who had been sentenced to death,
each stepping slowly behind his open coffin, were
brought by an escort down the winding pathway,
under the great wall of the Half-moon Battery,
and placed in the open face of the square by the
Provost-marshal. They were then desired to kneel,
while their sentence was read to them-Privates
Williamson and MacIvor of the Black Watch, and
Budge of the 7 1st-to be shof fo death f
The summer morning was bright and beautiful ;
but a dark cloud rested on every face while the
poor prisoners remained on their knees, each man
in his coffin, and a Highland officer interpreted the
sentence in Gaelic. They were pale and composed,
save Budge, who was suffering severely from wounds
received at Leith, and looked emaciated and
ghastly. Their eyes were now bound up, and the
firing party were in the act of taking aim at the
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p014.gif "Volume 6 Page 195")
... Leith .] THE HIGHLAND MUTINEERS ON THE SHORE. 195 - .
the battery guns facing the city-which was filled
with ...
Vol. 6 p. 195 (Rel. 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
Dgeme, and YaZiant; while in the POTt line were
the Lord War&rt, the ...
Vol. 6 p. 288 (Rel. 0.43)
![Leith.] GROWTH OF THE PORT. 27.5
the sirpleth of woll and skin, because sho is fraughtit
in and furth, and the better chaip inwart becaus
sho fraucht swa deir furthwart; and this frauchtbg
is maid in the form of the statutes of the Toune
and Act ,of Parliament, the port oppin and the
nychtbouris firs seruit”
In 1519 the Provost and Council ordained the
water bailie of Leith to await the entry of all ships
at the port, and to see that no wine, timber, 01
other portions of the cargo be sold till duly entered
and paid for, the king‘s grace and the city
first served ; and if any goods were sold or tapped,
they should be arrested.
The numerous rules and laws which were enacted
in those days with reference to shipping,
navigation, and foreign commerce, evince that the
attention of the Scottish legislature was particularly
directed to maritime affairs. There was an
enactment which ordained that ships and fishingboats
of not less than twenty tons should be built
and equipped with appropriate nets and tackling
by all burghs and seaport towns.
By an Act passed in the second Parliament of
James III., in 1466, no ship from Leith or any
other port could be freighted without a charterparty,
whereof the points were: “ What the master
of the ship shall furnish to the merchant, that in
case of debate betwixt them, they underly the law
of the burgh whereto the ship ,is fraughted. That
the goods be not spilt by ill-stalling ; that no goods
be shown or stricken up ; that the master have no
goods in his over-loft, or if he do, these goods pay
no fraught. That every ship exceeding five lasts
of goods pay to the chaplain of the nation a sack
fraught, and if within five lasts, the half of it, under
pain of five pounds; and that no drink-silver be
taken by the master and his doers, under the same
pain. And homeward, a tun fraught to the kirkwork
of the town they are fraughted to.’’
In 1488 it was ordained that all ships, Scottish
or foreign, should arrive only at free burghs, and
the prohibition of navigation between All Saints
Day and Candlemas was renewed; and in -1535
it was ordered that ships should be ‘freighted to
Flanders only twice yearly, to the Easter market,
and that held on the 3rd of May. The exportation
of all tallow was strictly forbidden, as the
realm only furnished a sufficient quantity for home
consumption.
By an Act of James VI., no ship could sail without
the king’s consent, under pain of being arrested
by the conservator.
In March, 1567, there was a frightful tempest of
wind, which, says Birrel, “blew a very grate shippe
out of the Rode of Leith.” He records that in
.-
1596, between July and August, sixty-six ships
arrived in the harbour laden with victual
In 1616 the same monarch grauted a patent of
the whale fishery for thirty-five years to Sir George
Hay and Mr. Thomas Murray, who fitted out two
ships for that purpose. Nicol mentions that, in
1652 “there canie into the very Brig of Leith”
a whale, which rendered much profit to the English
garrison there.
In September, 1641, a Bill was brought before
the Parliament at Edinburgh by John, Earl of
Rothes, Sir George Hamilton of Blackburn,
Andrew Eusley, and George h o t , merchants, to
enforce restitution from the Hamburgers to the
value of 300,000 merks, taken from them in shipping
and goods, and to grant Letters of Marque against
the said Hamburgers; and in the ensuing November
Letters of Reprisal by sea and land were
granted under the Great Seal.
In 1651 an English ship, bound for Leith was
captured by the captain of the Bass, and her
crew made prisoners, some being placed on the
isle and others sent to Tantallon, She had on
board 10,000 pairs of shoes, 6,000 pairs of boots,
5,000 saddles and sets of horse furniture, ten tons
of London beeire and als muche bisquett as should
have served Cromwell for a month,” says Sir James
Balfour. Her cargo was handed over to Sir John
Smith, Commissary-General of the Scottish army.
In the May of the same year Captain Murray,
commander of a Scottish frigate, took another English
ship, laden with provisions, which he handed
over to the army, but retained the vessel as the prize
of himself and crew.
In 1656 Leith possessed only three vessels of
250 tons, and eleven of 20 tons each.
In 1661 the Scottish Parliament passed an Act
for the encouragement of shipping and navigation,
ordaining that all goods be transported in Scottish ‘
ships “from the original places, whence they are
in use first to be transported.” That all Scottish
ships should be navigated by a Scottish master,
and that at least three-parts of his crew should be
Scotsmen. The Act contains an order for verifying
a ship to be Scottish, and getting a certificate
thereof; and that no customer “allow the benefit
of a Scot’s skipper to any ship until the same be
so verified, under pain of deprivation.” This Act
was not to extend to imports from Asia, Africa,
America, Muscovy, or Italy.
The Iirst return of tonnage for Leith, preserved
in the “Archives of the Royal Burghs,” is dated
1692, when the port could only boast of twentynine
ships, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,702
tons, the estimated value of which was ;G7,1oo](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p094.gif "Volume 6 Page 275")
... Leith .] GROWTH OF THE PORT. 27.5
the sirpleth of woll and skin, because sho is fraughtit
in and furth, and the ...
Vol. 6 p. 275 (Rel. 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
brunt in assis, and all thair moveable guidis to be
escheat.”
On the 6th of ...
Vol. 5 p. 182 (Rel. 0.43)
![Leith] SH EKIFF BRAE. 247
Leith by the rebels of Mary Queen of Scots, the
Earl of Lennox opened his council in the chambers
of the old tenement referred to, on the Coal Hill,
and it is, says Robertson, decorated with a rosethe
emblem of his connectian with Henry VIII. of
England-and the thistle for Scotland. Then
followed that war to which Morton’s ferocity imparted
a character so savage that ere long quarter
was neither given nor taken. And amidst it, in
connection with some private feud, some of the
followers of Sir William Kirkaldy, although they
had been ordered merely to use their batons, slew
Henry Setoun on the Shore of Leith, while his feet
were tripped up by an anchor. In escaping to
Edinburgh, one of them was taken and lodged in
the Tolbooth there ; but Kirkaldy came down from
the Castle with a party of his garrison, beat in the
doors, and rescued him, after which he seized ‘‘ the
victualls brought into Leith from the merchants,
and (did} provide all necessarie furniture to endure
a long siege, till supplie was sent from forrane
nations.” (Calderwood.)
On the death of Lennox, John, Earl of Mar, was
made Regent, and fixed his head-quarters in the
same old tenement at the Coal Hill, Morton being
again chief lieutenant.
From the presence of these peers here, it is
probable that the adjacent gloomy, and now filthy,
court, so grotesquely called Parliament Square, obtained
its name, which seems to have been formerly
the Peat Neuk. The old Council House has been
doomed to perish by the new improvement scheme.
In December, 1797, it was ordered by the Lord
Provost, Magistrates, and Council of Edinburgh,
through the deputy shore-master at Leith, that every
vessel coming into the port with coals for public
sale, was to have a berth immediately on her arrival
off the Coal Hill, and that all other vessels were to
unmoor for that purpose, while no shore duties
were to be charged for coal vessels. (HeyaZd and
ChyonicZe, No. 1,215.)
The adjacent Peat Neuk, for years during the
last century and the beginning of the present,
afforded a shelter to those reckless and abandoned
characters who abound in every seaport ; while in
that portion of the town between the Coal Hill and
the foot of the Tolbooth Wynd were a number of
ancient and ruinous houses, the abode of wandering
outcasts, from whom no rent was ever derived
or expected. It was further alleged, in the early
part of the nineteenth century, to be the favourite
haunt of disembodied spirits, whose crimes or
sufferings in life compelled them to wander ; so,
every way, the Coal Hill seems to have been an
unpleasant, as it is still an unsavoury, locality.
From thence, another quarter known as the
Sheriff, or Shirra Brae, extends in a south-westerly
direction, still abounding in ancient houses. Here,
facing the Coal Hill, there stood, till 1840, a very
fine old edifice, described as having been the residence
of a Logan of Restalrig. The dormer
windows, which rose high above the eaves, were
elaborately sculptured with many dates and quaint
devices. Some of these have been preserved in
the north wall of the manse of St. Thomas’s Church.
One of them displays a shield charged with a heart,
surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, with the initials 1.L
and the date 1636 ; another has the initials I.L.,
M.C., with the date 24 Dec., 1636; a third has
the initials M.C., with a shield; while a fourth
gablet has the initials D.D., M.C., and the comparatively
recent date I 734
The supposed grandsoq of the luckless Logan
of the Gowrie conspiracy married Isabel Fowler,
daughter of Ludovic Fowler of Burncastle (says
Robertson), the famous “ Tibbie Fowler ” of
Scottish song, and here she is said to have resided ;
but her husband has been otherwise said to have
been a collateral of the ancient house of Restalrig,
as it is recorded, under date 12th June, 1572-
Majestro Joanne Logan de Shireff Braye,” who
poitpones the case of Christian Gudsonne, wife of
Andrew Burne in Leith, “dilatit of the mutilation
of Willkm Burne, burgess of Edinburgh, of his
foremost finger be byting thereof.”
In the chartulary, says Robertson, we have also
John Logane of the Coatfield (Kirkgate), and George
Logane of Bonnington Mills is repeatedly alluded
to; ‘‘ and we believe,” he adds, that these branches
“existed as early as the charter of King David.”
The old house at Bmnington still shows a curious
doorway, surmounted by a carefully sculptured
tablet bearing a shield, with a chevron and three
fleurs-de-lis; crest, a ship with sails furled. The
motto and date are obliterated.
. Another writer supposes that if the old house on
the Sheriff Brae was really the residence of George
Logan, it may have been acquired by marriage,
“ seeing that the forfeiture of the family possessions
occurred so shortly before ; and this in itself affords
some colour to the tradition that he was the successhl
wooer of Tibbie Fowler.”
In support of this, the historian of Leith says :-
‘f We think it not improbable that it was Tibbie’s
tocher that enabled Logan, who was ruined by the
attainder of 1609, to build the elegant mansion on
the Sheriff Brae. The marriage contract between
Logan and Isabella Fowler (supposed to be the
Tibbie of the song) is now in possession of a
gentleman in Leith.”](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p066.gif "Volume 6 Page 247")
... Leith ] SH EKIFF BRAE. 247
Leith by the rebels of Mary Queen of Scots, the
Earl of Lennox opened his council in ...
Vol. 6 p. 247 (Rel. 0.43)
![The Water of Leith.] WALTER ROSS, W.S. 73
now at Abbotsford, where Sir Walter Scott took
them in 1824. This tower was divided into two
apartments, an upper and a lower ; the entrance to
the former was by an outside stair, and was used
as a summer-house. On the roof was a wellpainted
subject from the heathen mythology, and
the whole details of the apartment were very handsome.
On the 11th of March, 1789, Mr. ROSS, who
was Registrar of Distillery Licences in Scotland,
of St. Bernard’s. The bower is on the spot where
two lovers were killed by the falling of a sand-bank
upon them.”
For several years after his death the upper part
of the tower was occupied by the person who
acted as night-watchman in this quarter, while the
lower was used as a stable, In 1818, with reference
to future building operations, the remains of
Mr. Ross were taken up, and re-interred in the
West Church burying-ground. The extension of
THE WATER OF LEITH, 1825. (A/%-? Edank.)
and was a man distinguished for talent, humour,
and suavity of manner, dropped down in a fit,
and suddenly expired. He would seem to have
had some prevision of such a fate, as by his
particular request his body was kept eight days,
and was interred near his tower with the coffin-lid
open.
‘‘ Yesterday, at one o’clock,’’ says the Edinburgh
Advertiser for March zoth, 1789, “ the remains of
the late Mr. Walter Ross were, agreeable to his
own desire, interred in a bower laid out by himself
for that purpose, and encircled with myrtle, near
the beautiful and romantic tower which he had
been at so much trouble and expense in getting
erected, on the most elevated part of his grounds
106
Anne Street, in 1825, caused the removal of his.
tower to be necessary. It was accordingly demolished,
and most of the sculptures were carted
away as rubbish.
In the ‘‘ Traditions of Edinburgh,” we are told
that after he had finished his pleasure-grounds,
Mr. Ross was much enraged by nightly trespassers,
and advertised spring-guns and man-traps without
avail. At last he conceived the idea of procuring
a human leg from the Royal Infirmary, and
dressing it up with a stocking, shoe, and .buckle,
sent it through the town, borne aloft by the crier,
proclaiming that “ it had been found last night in
Mr. Walter Ross’s policy at Stockbridge, and
offering to restore it to the disconsolate owner.’’](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p084.gif "Volume 5 Page 73")
... Water of Leith .] WALTER ROSS, W.S. 73
now at Abbotsford, where Sir Walter Scott took
them in 1824. This tower ...
Vol. 5 p. 73 (Rel. 0.42)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. ’ [ Leith .
preachers, who though profound unbelievers in any
kind of consecration, ...
Vol. 5 p. 174 (Rel. 0.42)
![Leith Walk.] MCCULLOCH OF ARDWELL.
~ _ _ _
ofArdwell, a commissioner of the Scottish Customs,
and a man famous in his time for hospitality, pleasantry,
and wit, and known as a spouter of halfinjury
to the new and’splendid one at Inverleith
Row.
Shrub Hill, the villa on a little eminence north.
ward of the Botanical Gardens, in 1800 was the
property of the dowager Lady Maxwell, and appears
as such in the map of 1804. She was Lady Maxwell
of Monreith, whose husband died in 1771, and
whose second daughter Jane became Duchess of
Gordon in 1767,
The Leith Directory for 1811 gives Lady Nairn
a residence in Pilrig Street, but she must have
held this title through Scottish courtesy, as the
attainted peerage was not restored by Act of Parliament
till 17th June, 1824. She must have been
Brabazon Wheeler, widow of Lieut.-Colonel John
Nairn, who but for the attainder would have succeeded
as fourth Lord Nairn.
Pilrig Free Church, at the north corner of this
street and Leith Walk, was built in 1861-2, and
is in the early Decorated Gothic style, with a double
transept, and has a handsome steeple 150 feet in
height.
The fine old but unused avenue of stately trees,
that opened westward from the Walk to the old
Manor House of Pilrig, has now given place to a
street of workmen’s houses, named after the pro.
prietor, Balfour Street, and lower down, near the
bottom of the Walk, is Springfield Street, named ,
he may he is no mean hand at an epigram.’
Ardwell came forward to apologise for his fun.
“My dear sir,” said Foote, “no apology is nechaise
with four horses from the Kh$s Arms Inn,
at the same time that two strangers did so in another
vehicle, and with difficulty amid the drifted
snow they all reached the summit of Erickstane
Brae, a lofty hill at the head of Clydesdale, along
the side of which, above a most perilous declivity,
the public road passes.
,Further progress being impossible, a consultation
was held, and they all resolved to return to Moffat ;
but, as wheeling the carriage round proved a dangerous
operation, “ Wee Davie ” was wrapped up
and laid on the snow till that was accomplished,
and after reaching the inn Ardwell discovered that
his two companions were Samuel Foote the cele.
brated player and another favourite son of Thalia.
On reaching the inn, Foote entered it in no good
humour-as he walked with difficulty, having lost a
leg-and ordered breakfast, while his luggage was
taken off the chaise; and after this was done, he
€ound a written paper affixed to the panel. In
some anger he demanded, “What rascal has been
placarding this ribaldry on my carriage I” Then
pausing, however, he read the following lines :-
“ While Boreas his flaky storm did guide,
Deep covering every hill o’er Tweed and Clyde,
The North-wind god spied travellers seeking way,
Sternly he cried : ‘ Retun your steps, I say ;
Let not OIK hot, ’tis my behest, urofane
time.”
It would appear that in the winter of 1774-5
Mr. McCulloch visited his country mansion of
Ardwell (near Gatehouse in Kirkcudbright), which
is still possessed by his descendants, in order to be
present at an election, together with a friend named
Mouat. After a week or two they set out on their
return to Edinburgh, Mr. McCulloch bringing with
him his infant son, familiarly known as “Wee
Davie,” and the trio, after quitting Dumfries, were
compelled by a snowstorm to tarry at Moffat for
the nighr Early next morning they departed in a
occasion when afterwards at the Theatre Royal, he
set apart a night or two for a social meeting with
I McCulloch of Ardwell, at Springfield, on Leith
Walk. “In the parlour, on the right hand side in
entering the house, the largest of the row,” says
Chambers in 1869, “ Foote, the celebrated wit of
the day, has frequently been associated with many
Edinburgh and Leith worthies, when and where he
was wont to keep the table in a roar.”
McCulloch of Ardwell died in 1794 in his fiftythird
year. “ Wee Davie” died thirty years afterwards
at Cheltenham.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p174.gif "Volume 5 Page 163")
... Leith Walk.] MCCULLOCH OF ARDWELL.
~ _ _ _
ofArdwell, a commissioner of the Scottish Customs,
and a man famous ...
Vol. 5 p. 163 (Rel. 0.42)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
It was built accordingly, and is for the reception
and maintenance of men and ...
Vol. 6 p. 266 (Rel. 0.42)
![Leith.] ST. JAMES’S CHAPEL. 243
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH-CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF BRAE.
Constitution Street-Pirates Executed-St. James’s Episcopal Church-Town H a l l S t . John’s Church-Exchange Buildings-Head-quarten of
the Leith Rifle Volunteen4ld Signal-Tower-The Shore-Old and New Ship Taverns--The Markets-The Coal Hill-Ancient Council
House-The Peat Ne&-Shim Bme-Tibbie Fowler of the Glen-St. Thomas’s Church and Asylum-The Gladstone Family-Creat
Junction Road.
CONSTITUTION STREET, which lies parallel to, and
eastward of the Kirkgate, nearly in a line with the
eastern face of the ancient fortifications, is about
2,500 feet in lehgth, and soon after its formation
was the scene of the last execution within what is
termed (‘ flood-mark.” The doomed prisoners were
two foreign seamen, whose crime and sentence
excited much interest at the time.
Peter Heaman and Francois Gautiez were accused
of piracy and murder in seizing the briglane
of Gibraltar, on her voyage from that place to
the Brazils, freighted with a valuable cargo, including
38,180 Spanish dollars, and in barbarously
killing Johnson the master, and Paterson a seaman,
and confining Smith and Sinclair, two other
seamen, in the forecastle, where they tried to suffocate
them with smoke, but eventually compelled
them to assist in navigating the vessel, which they
. afterwards sank off the coast of Ross-shire. They
landed the specie in eight barrels on the Isle of
Lewis, where they were apprehended.
This was in thesummer of 1822, and they were,
after a trial before the Court of Justiciary, sentenced
by the Judge-Admiral to be executed on the 9th of
’ the subsequent January, “on the sands of Leith,
within the flood-mark, and their bodies to be afterwards
given to Dr. Munro for dissection.”
On the day named they were conveyed from the
Calton gaol, under a strong escort of the dragoon
.guards, accompanied by the magistrates of the city,
who had white rods projecting from the windows of
the carriages in which they sat, to a gibbet erected
‘ at the foot of Constitution Street-oi raiher, the
. northern continuation thereof-and there hanged.
Heaman was a native of Carlscrona, in Sweden ;
Gautiez wa8 a Frenchman. The bodies were put
4 in coffins, and conveyed by a corporal’s escort of
’ dragoons to the rooms of the professor of anatomy.
During the execution the great bell of South Leith
church was ttilled with minute strokes, and the
papers of the day state that “ the crowd of spectators
was immense, particularly cn the sands, being little
short of from forty to fifty thousand; but, owing to
the excellent manner in which everything was
In 1823 the same thoroughfare witnessed another
legal punishment, when Thomas Hay, who had
- arranged, not the slightest accident happened.”
been tried and convicted of an attempt at assassination,
was flogged through the town by the common
executioner, and banished for fourteen years.
Between Constitution Street and the Links stands
St. James’s Episcopalian church, an ornate edifice
in the Gothic style, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott,
having a fine steeple, containing a chime of bells,
It was built in 1862-3, succeeding a previous chapel
of 1805 (erectedatthe cost ofx1,6ro)on an adjacent
site (of which a view is given on p. 240), and to which
attention was frequently drawn from the literary
celebrity of its minister, Dr. Michael Russell, the
author of a continuation o€ Prideaux’s Connection
of Sacred and Profane History,” and other works.
According to h o t , the congregation had an origin
that was not uncommon in the eighteenth century,
when the persecution
was set on foot against those of the Episcopal
communion in Scotland who did not take the
oaths required by law, the meeting-house in Leith
was shut up by the sheriff of the county. Persons
of this persuasion being thus deprived of the form
of worship their principles approved, brought from
the neighbouring country Mr. John Paul, an English
clergyman, who opened this chapel on the 23rd
June, 1749. It is called St. James’s chapel. Till
of late the congregation only rented it, but within
these few years they purchased it for Azoo. The
clergyman has about L60 a year salary, and the
organist ten guineas. These are paid out of the
seat rents, collections, and voluntary contributions
among the hearers. It is, perhaps, needless to add
that there are one or more meeting-houses for
sectaries in this place (Leith), for in Scotland there
are few towns, whether of importance! or insighificant,
whether populous or otherwise, where there
are not congregations of sectaries.”
The congregation of St. James’s chapel received,
in about the year 1810, the accession of a nonjuring
congregation of an earlier date, says a writer
in 1851, referring, doubtless, to that formed in the
time of the Rev. Mr. Paul.
The Leith Post Office is at the corner of Mitchell
and Constitution Streets; it was built in 1876, is
very small, and in a rather meagre Italian style.
The Town Hall, which is at the corner of Constitution
and Charlotte Streets, was built in 1827, at a
After the battle of Culloden,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p062.gif "Volume 6 Page 243")
... Leith .] ST. JAMES’S CHAPEL. 243
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH -CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF ...
Vol. 6 p. 243 (Rel. 0.42)
... they pulled their
windows down.
Summoned from
Leith , the 14th Dragoons
came spurring
up the street, ...
Vol. 2 p. 324 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
belonged to different vehicles. It is standing opposite
the Tron Kirk. ...
Vol. 5 p. 154 (Rel. 0.41)
... NISBET$ OF DEAN. 65 The Water of Leith .1
Embosomed among venerable trees, the old
house of a baronial family, ...
Vol. 5 p. 65 (Rel. 0.41)
... which was always spoken of as
simply a new way to Leith .
The first stone was deposited on’ the 1st ...
Vol. 2 p. 336 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
The first volume of the ‘‘ Parochial Records ”
begins in January, 1605, ...
Vol. 6 p. 254 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Wynd.
In 1650 it was used as a hospital for the wounded
soldiers of General ...
Vol. 2 p. 302 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. r Leith
He adds that the most striking feature is the
curiously decorated doorway, an ...
Vol. 6 p. 221 (Rel. 0.41)
... building was designed by Mr. Wemyss,
architect, Leith , in the Pointed Gothic style, for
350 ...
Vol. 5 p. 88 (Rel. 0.4)
![Leith.] REPULSE OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTS. I77
Cornelle, Shelly, Littleton, Southworthe, and nine
other officers, with 2,240 men.
To keep the. field (i.~., the Reserve), Captain
Somerset, and eight other captains, with 2,400
men.
“Item ; it is ordered that the Vyce Admyralle
of the Queen’s Majesty’s schippes shall, when a
token is given, send Vc. (500) men out of the
Navye into the haven of Leythe, to give an assaulte
on the side of the towne, at the same instant when
the assaulte shal be gevene on the breche.”
Captain Vaughan was ordered to assault the
town near Mount Pelham, and the Scots on the
westward and seaward.
The assault was not made until the 7th of May,
when it was delivered at seven in the morning on
dead they could find, and suspended the corpses
along the sloping faces of the ramparts, where they
remained for several days. The failure of the
attempted storm did not very materially affect the
blockade. On the contrary, the besiegers still continued
to harass the town by incessant cannonading
from the mounds already formed and others they
erected One of the former, Mount Falcon, must
have been particularly destructive, as its guns swept
the most crowded part of Leith called the Shore,
along which none could pass but at the greatest
hazard of death. Moreover, the English were
barbarously and uselessly cruel. Before burning
Leith mills they murdered in cold blood every
individual found therein.
The close siege had now lasted about two months,
PROSPECT OF LEITH, 1693. (Reduced Facainrilc aftw Grernvillr Coil us.)
four quarters, but, for some reason not given, the
fleet failed to act, and by some change in the plans
Sir James Crofts was ordered, with what was deemed
a sufficient force, to assail the town on the north
side, at the place latterly called the Sand Port,
where at low water an entrance was deemed easy.
For some reason best known to himself Sir James
thought proper to remain aloof during the whole
uproar of the assault, the ladders provided for
which proved too short by half a pike’s length;
thus he was loudly accused of treachery-a charge
which was deemed sufficiently proved when it was
discovered that a few days before he had been seen
in conversation with the Queen Regent, who addressed
him from the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
The whole affair turned out a complete failure,
English and Scots were alike repulse2 r%Ah slaughter,
“and singular as it may appear,” says a writer,
“ the success of the garrison was not a little aided
by the exertionsof certain ladies, whom the French,
with their usual gallantry to the fair sex, entertained
in their quarters.” To these fair ones Knox
applies some pretty rough epithets.
The French now made a sally, stripped all the
110
without any prospect of a termination, though
Elizabeth continued to send more men and more
ships ; but the garrison were reduced to such dire
extremities that for food they were compelled to
shoot and eat all the horses of the. officers and
gens Zurmes. Yet they endured their privations
with true French sung froid, vowing never to surrender
while a horse was left, <‘their officers exhibiting
that politeness in the science of gastronomy
which is recorded of the Margchal Strozzi, whose
maifre de cuisine maintained his master‘s table with
twelve covers every day, although he had nothing
better to set upon it now and then except the
quarter of a carrion horse, dressed with the grass
and weeds that grew upon the ramparts.”
The discovery, a few years ago, of an ancient
well filled to its brim with cart-loads of horses’
heads, near the head of the Links, was a singular
but expressive monument of the resolution with
which the town was defended
The unfortunate Queen Regent did not live to
see the end of these affairs. She was sinking
fast. She had contemplated retiring to France,
and had a commission executed at Blois by Francis](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p188.gif "Volume 5 Page 177")
... Leith .] REPULSE OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTS. I77
Cornelle, Shelly, Littleton, Southworthe, and nine
other officers, ...
Vol. 5 p. 177 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD -4ND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
on the verge of destitution ; and DIsraeli writes of
him thus in his “ ...
Vol. 5 p. 160 (Rel. 0.4)
![Leith.] THE FORTIFICATIONS. 17r
then at peace. A small force under Monsieur de
la Chapelle Biron had already preceded this main
body, which consisted of between six and seven
thousand well-trained soldiers, all led by officers of
high rank and approved valour.
Andre de Montelambert, Sieur &Esse, commanded
the whole ; 2,000 of these men were of the
regular infantry of France, and were commanded
by Coligny, the Seigneur d’Andelot, who for his
bravery at the siege of Calais, afterwards was presented
with the house of the last English governor,
Lord Dunford. His father, Gaspard de Coligny,
was a marshal of France in 1516. Gaspare di
Strozzi, Prior of Capua, a Florentine cavalier (exiled
by Alessandro I., Grand Duke of Tuscany), was
colonel of the Italians ; the Rhinegrave led 3,000
Germans ; Octavian, an old cavalier of Milan, led
1,000 arquebussiers on horseback ; Dunois was
captain of the Compagrries d’Oru’omance ; Brissac
D’Etanges was colonel of the horse. Another
noble armament, which was to follow under the
Marquis d‘Elbeuff, was cast away on the coast of
Holland, and only 900 of its soldiers reached
Scotland, under the Count de Martigues.
In the following year D’Esse was superseded in
the command by Paul de la Barthe, Seigneur de
Termes, a knight of St, Michael, who brought with
him IOO cuirassiers, zoo horse, and 1,000 infantry.
He was appointed marshal of France in 1555.
Prior to the arrival of these auxiliaries, Leith
seems to have been completely an open town ; but
Andre de Montelambert, as a basis for future operations,
at once saw the importance of fortifying it,
dependent as he was almost entirely upon support
from the Continent, and having a necessity for a
place to retreat into in case of reverse; so he at
once proceeded to enclose the seaport with strong
and regular works, carried out on the scientific principles
of the time.
As not a vestige of these works now remain, it is
useless to speculate on the probable height or composition
of the ramparts, which were most probably
massive earthworks, in many places faced
with stone, and must have been furnished with a
ferre-plene all round, to enable the gamson to pass
. and re-pass ; and no doubt the work would be efficiently
done, as the French have ever evinced the
highest talent for military engineering.
The works erected then were of a very irregular
kind, partaking generally of a somewhat triangular
form, the smallest base of which presented to
Leith Links on the eastward a frontage of about
2,000 feet from point to point of the flankers or
bastions.
In the centre of this was one great projecting
bastion, 600 feet in length, in the h e of the present
Constitution Street
Ramsay’s Fort, usually called the first bastion,
adjoined the river in the line of BernarC‘s Street
with a curtain nearly 500 feet long, the second
bastion terminating the frontage described as to the
Links. The present line of Leith Walk would seem
to have entered the town by St. Anthony’s Port,
between the third and fourth bastion.
A gate in the walls is indicated by Maitland as
being at the foot of the Bonnington Road, near the
fifth bastion, from whence the works extended to
the riveq which was crossed by a wooden bridge
near the sixth bastion. Port St. Nicholas-so called
from the then adjacent church-entered at the
seventh bastion, which was flanked far out at a very
acute angle, evidently to enclose the church and
burying-ground ; and from thence the fortifications,
with a sea front of 1,200 feet, extended to the eighth
bastion, which adjoined the Sand Port, near where
the Custom House standsnow. The two bastions
at the harbour mouth would no doubt be built
wholly of stone, and heavily armed with guns to
defend the entrance.
Kincaid states that in his time some vestiges of
a ditch and bastion existed westward of the citadel.
Where the Exchange Buildings now stand there
long remained a narrow mound of earth a hundred
yards long and of considerable height, which in the
last century was much frequented by the belles of
Leith as a lofty and airy promenade, to which there
was an ascent by steps. It was called the “ Ladies’
Walk,” and was, no doubt, the remains of the
work adjoining the second bastion of AndI;e de
Montelambert.
The wall near the third bastion, when it became
reduced to a mere mound of earth, formed for a
time a portion of South Leith burying-ground.
“ An unfortunate and unthinking wight of a seacaptain,”
sayscampbell, in his “History,)) “tempted,
we presume, by the devil, once took it in his head
to ballast his ship with this sacred earth. The consequence,
tradition has it, of this sacrilegious act
was, that neither the wicked captain nor his ship,
after putting to sea, was ever heard of again.”
Montelambert D’Esse could barely have had his
fortifications completed when, as already noted, he
was superseded in the command by a senior officer,
Paul de la Barthe, the Seigneur de Termes, one of
whose first measures was to drive the English out
of Inchkeith, where a detachment of them had been
occupying the old castle. The general operations
of the French army at Haddington and elsewhere,
after being joined by 5,000 Scottish troops under
the Governor, lie apart from the history of Leith;](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p182.gif "Volume 5 Page 171")
... Leith .] THE FORTIFICATIONS. 17r
then at peace. A small force under Monsieur de
la Chapelle Biron had already ...
Vol. 5 p. 171 (Rel. 0.4)
... that fell between the wreck and
the shore.
In I 692 Leith possessed twenty-nine ships, having
a tonnage of ...
Vol. 5 p. 190 (Rel. 0.4)
... in
1544, and from there they began their march on
Leith , was exactly where Granton pier is now. In
an ...
Vol. 6 p. 308 (Rel. 0.4)
![Canongate.] MONTROSE.
OF all the wonderful and startling spectacles witnessed
amid the lapse of ages from the windows
of the Canongate, none was perhaps more startling
and pitiful than the humiliating procession which
conducted the great Marquis of Montrose to his
terrible doom.
On the 18th of May, 1650, he was brought across
the Forth to Leith, after his defeat and capture by
:he Covenanters at the battle of Invercarron, where
he had displayed the royal standard; and it is
THE GOLFERS’ LAND.
impossible now to convey an adequate idea of the
sensation excited in the city, when the people became
aware that the Graham, the victor in so
many battles, and the slayer of so many thousands
of the best troops of the Covenant, was almost at
their gates.
Placed on a cart-horse, he was brought in by the
eastern barrier of the city, as it was resolved, by
the influence of his rival and enemy, Argyle, to
protract the spectacle of his humiliation as long as
CHAPTER 11.
THE CANONGATE (continpud).](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p025.gif "Volume 3 Page 13")
... 18th of May, 1650, he was brought across
the Forth to Leith , after his defeat and capture by
:he Covenanters ...
Vol. 3 p. 13 (Rel. 0.4)
![The Water of Leith.] THE’HOLE I’ THE WA’. 77
appointed Limner for Scutland. He always resided
in the old house at St. Bernard‘s. The
last pictures on which he was engaged were two
portraits of Sir Walter Scott, one for himself and
the other for Lord Montague. He died, after a
short illness, from a general decay of the system,
on the 8th of July, 1823, at St. Bernard‘s, little
more than a stone’s throw from where he was born.
His loss, said Sir Thomas Lawrence, had left a
blank in the Royal Academy, as well as Scotland,
which could not be filled up, By his wife, who
:survived him ten years, he had two sons : Peter,
who died in his nineteenth year ; and Henry, who,
with his wife and family, lived under the same roof
with his father, and to whose children the latter
,of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Imperial
Academy of Florence, of the Royal Academy of
London, and other Societies. The number of
-portraits he painted is immense, and he was still
hale and vigorous, spending his time between his
studio, his gardens, and the pleasures of domestic
3ociety, when George IV. came to Edinburgh in the
year 1822, and knighted him at Hopetoun House.
The sword used by the king was that of Sir
Alexander Hope. In the following May he was
century it was occupied by Count Leslie. Mrs
Ann Inglis, Sir Henry Raeburn’s stepdaughter,
conthued to occupy the house, together with her
sons. In this house was born, it is said, Admiral
Deans Dundas, commander of the British fleet in
the Black Sea during the Crimean war. Latterly
it was the residence of working people, every room
being occupied by a separate family.
In Dean Street there long stood a little cottage
known as the Hole r” the Wu’, a great resort of
school-boys for apples, pears, and gooseberries,
retailed there by old ‘‘ Lucky Hazlewood,” who
lived to be ninety years of age. It was overshadowed
by birch-trees of great size and
beauty.
left the bulk of his fortune, consisting of groundrents
on his property at St. Bernard’s, which, in his
later years, had occupied much of his leisure time
by planning it out in streets and villas.
Old Deanhaugh House, which was pulled down
in 1880, to make room for the extension of Leslie
Place, was the most venerable mansion in the
locality, standing back a little way from the Water
of Leith j a short avenue branching off from that of i St. Bernard’s led to it. About the middle of this](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p088.gif "Volume 5 Page 77")
... Water of Leith .] THE’HOLE I’ THE WA’. 77
appointed Limner for Scutland. He always resided
in the old ...
Vol. 5 p. 77 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
by the enterprising firm, but was conducted by
them in conjunction with other ...
Vol. 6 p. 274 (Rel. 0.4)
... Inchkeith.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
INCHKJZITH.
The Defences of Leith -Inchkeith Forts-St. Serf-The Pest-stricken in ...
Vol. 6 p. 290 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
boatman, with “DO you belang to that dug,
Sir?”
On a certain stormyday, ...
Vol. 6 p. 212 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
teers and the Royal Midlothian Artillery, with two
field-pieces ; the Royal ...
Vol. 6 p. 264 (Rel. 0.39)
![Calton HiF.1 THE FAIRY BOY. I01
and it is rendered by Gordon of R othiemay in his
view, in 1647, by its Latin equivalent, Nzkelli Rzlpes.
“In a titledeed of the eighteenth century,” says
Wilson, “the tenement of land in Calton, called
the Sclate Land, is described as bounded on the
east by McNeill’s Craigs, possibly a travesty of
Gordon’s Nigelli Rupes.”
Concerning an execution there in September,
Ij.54, we have the following items in the City
Accounts :-
midnight on the bare and desolate scalp of the
Calton Hill.
The Lords Balmerino were superiors of the hill,
until the Common Council purchased the superiority
from the last lord of that loyal and noble
family, who presented the old Calton buryingground
to his vassals as a place of sepulchre, and
it is said, offered them the whole hill for A40.
At the extreme eastern end of the hill were the
Quarry Holes, some places where stone had been
WEST PRINCES STREET GARDENS, 1875.
“ Item, the . . day of . . . 1554, for taking of
ane gret gibet furth of the Nether Tolbooth, and
beiring it to the hecht of the Dow Craig to haif
hangit hommill [beardless] Jok on, and bringing it
again to Sanct Paullis Wark, xijd.”
“Item, for cords to bynd and hang him with,
viijd.“
Again, in the Diurnal of Occurrents, under date
1571, we read of a battery erected on “the Dow
Craig above Trinitie College, to ding and siege the
north-east quarter of the burgh ” during the contest
against the Queen’s-men.
Among many old superstitions peculiar to Leith
was one of the Fairy Boy, who acted as drummer
to certain elves that held a weekly rendezvous at
excavated. This lonely spot was famous as a
rendezvous for those who fought duels and private
rencontres, and there it was, that during the wars
of the Reformation, in 1557, a solemn interview
took place between the Earls of Arran and Huntly
and certain leaders of the Congregation, including
the Earls of Argyll and Glencairn, and the Lord
James Stewart, with reference to the proceedings
of the Queen Regent.
At the western side of the hill stood the Carmelite
monastery of Greenside, the name of which
is still preserved in a street there, and which must
have been derived from the verdant and turfy slope
1 that overhung the path to Leith. Though these
~ White Friars were introduced into Scotland in the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p113.gif "Volume 3 Page 101")
... Queen’s-men.
Among many old superstitions peculiar to Leith
was one of the Fairy Boy, who acted as drummer
to ...
Vol. 3 p. 101 (Rel. 0.39)
... d
master of a fishing-boat, on his way from Musselburgh
to Leith , was attacked by footpads at the
Figgate ...
Vol. 5 p. 144 (Rel. 0.39)
... Curdon of Rothiemas Map.)
57, Halkerston’s Wynd ; 58, Leith Wynd ; 6. St. Ringan’s Suburbs, or the Beggar Row ...
Vol. 2 p. 312 (Rel. 0.39)
... commenced a bleach-field somewhere
near the Water of Leith , and soon exhibited to the
village were wont to ...
Vol. 5 p. 64 (Rel. 0.39)
... and still one of the roads leading to it from
Leith is named the Lochsterrock Road
The existence of a ...
Vol. 5 p. 130 (Rel. 0.39)
![The Water of Leith.] EDINBURGH ACADEMY, 85
son Row. This useful and charitable institution
was established in 1810, but the present house
was founded on the 22nd of May, 1823, the stone
being laid by one of the senior pupils, in presence of
his voiceless companions, “ whose looks,” says the
Edinburgh Advertiser, cc bespoke the feelings of
their minds, and which would have been a sufficient
recompense to the contributors for the building,
had they been witnesses of the scene.”
Children whose parents or guardians reside
’
county, the Dean of Guild, and certain councillors.
The committee of management of this institution is
entirely composed of ladies.
When digging the foundations of this edifice, in
April, 1823, several rude earthen urns, containing
human bones, were found at various depths under
the surface. There were likewise discovered some
vaults or cavities, formed of unhewn stone, which
also contained human bones, but there were no
inscriptions, carving, or accessory object, to indi-
CANONMILLS LOCH AND HOUSE, 1830. C mm OII Oil ~.i~tiq&/. Kir;i)
in Edinburgh or Leith are admissible as day
scholars, and are taught the same branches of
instruction as the other children, but on the
payment of such fees as the directors may determine.
The annual public examination of these deaf
and dumb pupils takes place in summer, when
visitors are invited to question them, by means of
the manual alphabet, upon their knowledge of
Scripture history and religion, English composition,
geography, history, and arithmetic. There have
also been Government examinations in drawing.
A little way westward of this edifice stands the
Dean Bank Institution, for the religious, moral,
and industrial trainingof young girls, under the
directorship of the Lord Provost, the sheriff of the
cate the age to which these relics of pre-historic
Edinburgh belonged.
That great educational institution, the Edinburgh
Academy, in Henderson Row, some two hundred
and sixty yards north of St. Stephen’s Church, was
founded on the 30th June, 1823, in a park feued by
the directors from the governors of Heriot’s Hospital.
In the stone were deposited a copper plate,
with a long Latin inscription, and the names of the
directors, with three bottles, containing a list of the
contributors, maps of the city, and other objects.
It was designed by Mr. William Burn, and is
a somewhat low and plain-looking edifice, in
the Grecian style, with a pillared portico, and is
constructed with reference more to internal accom](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p096.gif "Volume 5 Page 85")
... Water of Leith .] EDINBURGH ACADEMY, 85
son Row. This useful and charitable institution
was established in ...
Vol. 5 p. 85 (Rel. 0.38)
![Leith.] RENNIE’S REPORT ON THE HARBOUR EXTENSION. “I2
In 1753 an Act was passed, in the reign of
George II., for enlarging and deepening the harbour
of Leith, but less was achieved than had been done
in the reign of King James II., three hundred years
before. As there were no adequate means provided
by the statute for defiaying the expense, says
h o t , “nothing was done in consequence.”
Yet soon after we find that a curious scheme
mras formed for enlarging it on a greater scale, by
making a canal from it eastward ‘through Bernard’s
Nook to the old Glass House, and from thence
into a basin. To carry this project into execution
a Bill was framed by which an additional duty, from
a penny to sixpence per ton, was to be laid upon
the tonnage of all shipping in the harbour ; but in
consequence of the poverty and lethargy entailed
by the Union, and some opposition also, the scheme
was rapidly dropped.
These suggestions, however, led ultimately to the
formation by the Town Council of Edinburgh of a
short pier in 1777 on the west side of the harbour,
afterwards known as the Custom House Quay;
and the harbourwas at the same time widened and
deepened.
In 1785 a miserable apology for a naval yard
(as it was pompously named) was established in
Leith as a depBt for supplying such material as
might be wanted by His Majesty‘s ships coming
into the Forth.
Five bridges now connect North and South
Leith, the latest of which is the Victoria swing
bridge.
One of the drawbridges at the foot of the Tolbooth
Wynd (superseding that of Abbot Ballantyne)
was erected in 1788-9, by authority of an Act of
Parliament. The second drawbridge, opposite the
foot of Bernard Street, was erected in 1800; and
a thud bridge, finished about 1820, connected the
new streets at Hill House Field and the Docks
with Leith Walk.
Notwithstanding the erection of the Custom
House Quay, the accommodation for shipping remained
insufficient and unendurable, the common
quays being the chief landing-places, where the
vessels lay four and five abreast, discharging their
cargoes across each other’s decks, amid confusion,
dirt, and much ill-temper on the part of seamen and
porters. Besides, the channel of the river, at the
recess of the tides, offered only an expanse of uncovered
and offensive mud and ooze, till, as the
kade of the port increased towards the close of the
kentury, demands were loud and long for an ameli.
Oration and enlargement of the then accommodation.
In 1789, the light that had first been placed a1
the pier-end was replaced by a new and improved
131
one, with reflectors, as the Edinburgh Advertiser
specially mentions, adding that “its effect at sea
is surprising, and the expense of maintaining it
does not exceed that of the former one.”
In 1799, John Rennie, the celebrated engineer,
was employed to examine the entire harbour, and
to form designs for docks and extended piers, on a
scale somewhat proportioned to the necessities of
the advancing age.
The gravamen of his report was that no permanent
and uniform depth of water along the
mouth of the harbour of Leith could ever be obtained,
and that no achievement of science could
destroy or prevent the formation of the shifting
bar, unless by carrying a pier, or weir, on the east
side of the channel, and quite across the sands
into low water, and that, by this means, three, or
possibly four, feet of additional depth of water
might be obtained; but though the soundness of
his principle has been fully vindicated by the result
of subsequent operations which were carried out by
its guidance, little or nothing was done at his suggestion,
nor for many years afterwards, with regard to
the piers or entrance.
The crowded state of the harbour was the cause
of many a fatal accident, and of constant confusion.
Thus we read that, between nine and ten in the
morning of the 13th of August, 1810, as a foreign
vessel, after passing the beacon, was about to enter
the harbour, with two pilots on board, a shot was
suddenly fired into her from a boat. This, the
pilots imagined, was from a Greenland whaler, and
they did not bring to. A few minutes after a second
musket-shot was fired, which mortally wounded
the mate in the right breast, and he expired in
fifteen minutes. The boat belonged to H.M. gunbrig
GaZZanf, of fourteen guns, commanded by
Lieutenant William Crow, which was at that time
what is technically called “rowing guard.” The
fatal shot had been fired by a rash young midshipman,
named Henry Lloyd, whose hail had
been unheard or unnoticed; and for this he was
lodged in the prison of Edinburgh. As too often
is the case in such calamities, the prints of the
time announce that ‘‘ the sufferer has left a widow
and three young children, for whose relief a subscription
has been opened.”
In 1818 Messrs. J. and H. Morton invented
their patent slip, and the first one was laid down
by themse1ves.h the upper part of the old harbour
-an invention of more than European reputation.
The firm began to build iron ships, but after completing
a few steamers, a sailing-ship, and some large
dredges, the trade came to a temporary stand ; yet
the business of ship-building was not abandoned
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p092.gif "Volume 6 Page 273")
... Leith .] RENNIE’S REPORT ON THE HARBOUR EXTENSION. “I2
In 1753 an Act was passed, in the reign of
George II., ...
Vol. 6 p. 273 (Rel. 0.38)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
up against the dark green of the stately trees
around and behind ...
Vol. 5 p. 68 (Rel. 0.38)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
Roman, and which spans the bum where it flows
through a wooded and sylvan ...
Vol. 5 p. 150 (Rel. 0.38)
![Leith.] SCENES UN THE LINKS. 263
a teacher of fencing and cock-fighting in Edinburgh,
published an “ Essay on the Innocent and Royal
Recreation and Art of Cocking,” from which it
may be learned that he it was who introduced it
intQ the metropolis of Scotland, and entered into
it con amot-e.
“I am not ashamed to declare to the world,”
he wrote, “that I have a specialveneration and
esteem for those gentlemen, without and about this
city; who have entered in society for propagating
and establishing the royal recreation of cocking, in
order to which they have already erected a cockpit
in the Links of Leith; and I earnestly wish
that their generous and laudable example may be
imitated in that degree that, in cock-war, village
may be engaged against village, city against city,
kingdom against kingdom-nay, father against son
-until all the wars in Europe, where so much
Christian blood is spilt, may be turned into the
innocent pastime of cocking.”
This barbarous amusement was long a fancy of
the Scottish people, and the slain buds and fugies
(or cravens) became a perquisite of the village
schoolmaster.
On the 23rd of December, 1729, the Hon. Alexander,
Elphinstone (before mentioned), who was
leading a life of idleness and pleasure in Leith,
while his brother was in exile, met a Lieutenant
Swift, of Lord Cadogan’s regiment (latterly the 4th
or King‘s Own), at the house of Mr. Michael
Watson, in Leitk
Some hot words had arisen between them, and
Elphinstone rose haughtily to depart ; but before he
went he touched Swift on the shoulder with the
point of his sword, and intimated that he expected
to receive satisfaction next morning on the Links.
Accordingly the two met at eleven in the forenoon,
and in this comparatively public place (as it
appears now) fought a duel with their swords.
Swift received a mortal wound in the breast, and
expired.
For this, Alexander Elphinstone was indicted
before the High Court of Justiciary, but the case
never came on for trial, and he died without
molestation at his father’s house in Coatfield Lane,
three years after. Referring to his peaceful sport
with Captain Porteous, the author of the “ Domestic
Annals ” says “ that no one could have imagined,
as that cheerful game was going on, that both the
players were not many years after to have blood
upon their hands, one of them to take on the murderer‘
s mark upon this very field.”
Several military executions have taken placethere,
and among them we may note two.
The first recorded is that of a drummer, who was
shot there on the 23rd of February, 1686, by sentence
of a court-martial, for having, it was alleged,
said that he ‘‘ had it in his heart to run his sword
through any Papist,” on the occasion when the Foot
Guards and other troops, under General Dalzell and
the Earl of Linlithgow, were under arms to quell the
famous “Anti-Popish Riot,” made by the students
of the university.
One of the last instances was in 1754.
On the 4th of November in that year, John
Ramsbottom and James Burgess, deserters from
General the Hon. James Stuart’s regiment (latterly
the 37th Foot), were escorted from Edinburgh
Cast19 to Leith Links to be shot. The former
suffered, but the latter was pardoned.
His reprieve from death was only intimated to
him when he had been ordered to kneel, and the
firing’ party were drawn up with their arms m
readiness. The shock so affected him that he
fainted, and lay on the grass for some time
motionless ; but the temble lesson would seem to
have been given to him in vain, as in the Scots
Magazine for the same year and month it is announced
that “James Burgess, the deserter so
lately pardoned when on his knees to be shot, was
so far from being reformed by such a near view of
death, that immediately after he was guilty of theft,
for which he received a thousand lashes on the
parade in the Castle of Edinburgh, on November
zznd, and was drummed out of the regiment with
a rope round his neck.”
During the great plague of 1645 the ailing were
hutted in hundreds on the Links, and under its
turf their bones lie in numbers, as they were interred
where they died, with their blankets as
shrouds. Balfour, in his “ Annales,” records that
in the same year the people of Leith petitioned
Parliament, in consequence of this fearful pest, to
have 500 bolls of meal for their poor out of the
public magazines, which were accordingly given,
and a subscription was opened for them in certain
shires.
A hundred years afterwards saw the same ground
studded with the tents of a cavalry camp, when,
prior to the total rout of the king’s troops at
Prestonpans, Hamilton’s Dragoons (now the 14th
Hussars) occupied the Links, from whence theymarched,
by the way of Seafield and the Figgate
Muir, to join Sir John Cope.
During the old war with France the Links were
frequently adopted as a kind of Campus Marrius
for the many volunteer corps :hen enrolled in the
vicinity.
On the 4th of June, 1797, they had an unusual
display in honour of the king’s birthday and the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p082.gif "Volume 6 Page 263")
... Leith .] SCENES UN THE LINKS. 263
a teacher of fencing and cock-fighting in Edinburgh,
published an “ Essay on ...
Vol. 6 p. 263 (Rel. 0.38)
... Lothians, were
compelled to keep within the ramparts of Leith ,
times impatient of restraint. Thus fierce ...
Vol. 1 p. 44 (Rel. 0.38)
![Leith.] DEATH OF JAMES 111. 201
1488-he embarked in one of Sir Andrew’s ships
then anchored in the Roads of Leith, and landed
from it in Fifeshire. As the Admiral had been lying
there for some time, intending to sail to Flanders,
the Barons, now in arms against the Crown, spread
a report that James had fled, surprised the castle
of Dunbar, furnished themselves with arms and
ammunition out of the royal arsenal, “ and,” says
Abercrombie, “ overran the three Lothians and
the Merse, rifling and plundering all honest men.”
In April, 1488, the king re-crossed the Forth in
the admiral’s ship, and, marching past Stirling,
pitched his standard near Blackness, where his
army mustered thirty thousand, and some say
forty thousand, strong, but was disbanded after an
indecisive skirmish. Fresh intrigues ensued that
belong to general history; two other armies, in
all amounting to nearly seventy thousand men,
took the field James 111. had no alternative but
to take flight in the ships of Wood, then cruising
in the Forth, or to resort to the sword on the 11th
June, 1488.
His army took up a position near the Bum of
Sauchie, while ‘‘ Sir Andrew Wood, attending to
the fortune of war, sailed up the silver winding of
the beautiful river with the FZmw and YelZow
CaraveZ, and continued during the whole of that
cloudless day to cruise between dusky Alloa and
the rich Carse of Stirling, then clothed im all the
glory of summer.” On the right bank of the river
he kept several boats ready to receive the king if
defeat-as it eventually did-fell upon him, and
he often landed, with his brothers John and Robert
and a body of men, to yield any assistance in his
power.
While attempting to reach the ships James was
barbarously slain, and was lying dead in a mill
that still stands by the wayside, when rumour went
that he had reached the YeZZow Caravd Thus
Wood received a message in the name of the Duke
of Rothesay (afterwards James IV.), as to the truth
of this story; but Sir Andrew declared that the
king was not with him, and refilsed to go on shore,
when invited, without hostages for his own safety.
The Lords Fleming and Seaton came on board
in this capacity, and landing at Leith the admiral
was conducted to the presence of the Prince, who
was then a captive and tool in the hands of the
rebels, and only in his sixteenth year. Wood was
arrayed in handsome armour, and so dignified was
he in aspect, and so much did he resemble the
king his master, that the Prince, who had seen little
of the latter, shed tears, and said, timidly-
‘‘ Sir, are you my father? ”
. Then this true old Scottish mariner, heedless of
123
the titled crowd which regarded him with bitter
hostility, and touched to the heart by the question,
also burst into tears, and said-
“ I am not your father, but his faithful servant,
and the enemy of all who have occasioned his
downfall ! ”
“ Where is the king, and who are those you took
on board after the battle?” demanded several of
the rebel lords.
‘‘ As for the king, I know nothing of him. Finding
our efforts to fight for or to save him vain, my
brother and I returned to our ships.” He added,
says Buchanan, “that if the king were alive he
would obey none but him; ,and that if slain, he
would revenge him ! ”
He then went off to the ships, but just in time
to save the hostages, whom his impatient brothers
were about to hang at the yard-arm. The lords
now wanted the mariners of Leith to arm their
ships, and attack Wood; but, to a man, they
declined.
In the early part of 1489 Henry of England, to
make profit out of the still disturbed state of Scotland,
sent five of his largest ships to waste and burn
the sea-coast villages of Fife and the Lothians ; and
the young James IV., in wrath at these proceedings,
requested Sir Andrew Wood to appear before the
Privy Council and take measures to curb the outrages
of the English.
He at once undertook to attack them ; but James,
as they outnumbered him by three, advised him to
equip more vessels.
‘‘ No: he replied,” ‘‘ I shall only take my own
two-the FZower and the Jl‘ellow Carard.”
Accordingly, .with the first fair wind on a day in
February, he dropped down the Firth, and found
the plunder-laden English vessels hovering off
Dunbar, and which Tytler surmises to have been
pirates, as they came in time of truce. Wood at
once engaged them, and after an obstinate conflict,
of which no details are preserved, he brought them
all prizes into Leith. He presented their captains
to the young king, who now further rewarded him on
the 11th March, 1490, with the lands of Balbegnoth,
the superiority of Inchkeith, the lands of
Dron and Newbyrn ; and by a charter under the
Great Seal, 18th May, 1491, he granted to Sir
Andrew Wood “ license to build a castfe at Largo
with gates of iron as a reward for the great services
done and losses sustained by the said Andrew, and
for those services which there was no doubt he
would yet render.” This castle, fragments of which
yet remain, he appears to have built, with some
adjacent houses, by the hands of English pirates
whom he had captured at sea; and the coat](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p020.gif "Volume 6 Page 201")
... Leith .] DEATH OF JAMES 111. 201
1488-he embarked in one of Sir Andrew’s ships
then anchored in the Roads of ...
Vol. 6 p. 201 (Rel. 0.38)
![202 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
.armorial he adopted was argent, a tree or, with two
ships under sail.
It was still time of truce when Henry, mortified
by the defeat of his five ships, exhorted his most
.able seamen “ to purge away this stain cast on the
English name,” and offered the then noble pension
of &I,OOO per annum to any man who could
accomplish Wood’s death or capture ; and the task
was taken in hand by Sir Stephen Bull (originally
a merchant of London), who, with three of Henry’s
largest ships manned by picked crews, and having
on board companies of crossbowmen, pikemen, and
many volunteers of valour and good birth, sailed
from the Thames in July, 1490, and entering the
Firth of Forth, came to anchor under the lee of
the Isle of May, there to await the return of Wood
from Sluys, and for whose approach he kept boats
scouting to seaward.
On the morning of the 18th of August the two
ships of Wood hove in sight, and were greeted with
exultant cheers by the crews of Bull, who set
some inlets of wine abroach, and gave the orders
to unmoor and clear away for battle.
Wood recognised the foe, and donninghis armour,
gave orders to clear away too ; and his brief ha-
Iangue, modernised, is thus given by Lindesay of
Pitscottie and others :-
“ My lads, these are the foes who would convey
us in bonds to the foot of an English king, but by
your courage and the help of God they shall fail !
Repair every man to his station-charge home,
gunners-cross-bowmen to the tops-two-handed
swords to the fore-rooms-lime-pots and fire-balls in
the tops ! Be stout, men, and true for the honour
of Scotland and your own sakes. Hurrah!”
Shouts followed, and stoups of wine went round.
His second in command was Sir David Falconer,
who was afterwards slain at Tantallon. The result
of the battle that ensued is well known. It was
continued for two days and a night, during which
the ships were all grappled together, and drifted
into the Firth of Tay, where the English were all
taken, and carried as prizes into the harbour of
Dundee. Wood presented Sir Stephen Bull and
his surviving officers to Jarnes IV., who dismissed
them unransomed, with their ships, “ because they
fought not for gain, but glory,” and Henry dissemkled
his rage by returning thanks.
For this victory Wood obtained the sea town as
well as the nether town of Largo, and soon afteI
his skilful eye recommended the Bay of Gourock ta
James as a capable harbour. In 1503 he led a
fleet against the insurgent chiefs of the Isles. Hi$
many brilliant services lie apart from the immediate
history of Leith. Suffice it to say that he was pre.
I
sent at the battle of Linlithgow in 1526, and
wrapped the dead body of Lennox in his own
scarlet mantle. Age was coming on him after this,
and he retired to his castle of Largo, where he
seems to have lived somewhat like old Commodore
Trunnion, for there is still shown the track of a
canal formed by his order, on which he was rowed
to mass daily in Largo church in a barge by his
old crew, who were all located around him, He is
supposed to have died abodt 1540, and was buried
in Largo church. One of his sons was a senator
of the College of Justice in 1562 ; and Sir Andrew
Wood, third of the House of Largo, was Comptroller
of Scotland in 1585.
Like himself, the Bartons, the shipmates and
friends of Sir -4ndrew, all attained high honour
and fame, though their origin was more distinguished
than his, and they were long remembered
among the fighting captains of Leith.
John Barton, a merchant of Leith in the time of
James III., had three sons : Sir Andrew, the hero
of the famous nautical ballad, who was slain in the
Downs in 151 I, but whose descendants still exist ;
Sir Robert of Overbarnton in 1508, Comptroller
of the Household to James V. in 1520; John, an
eminent naval commander under James 111. and
James IV., who died in t 5 13,and was buried at Kirkcudbright.
The Comptroller’s son Robert married
the heiress of Sir John Mowbray of Barnbougle, who
died in 151 y ; and his descendants became extinct
in the person of Sir Robert of Overbarnton, Barnbougle,
and Inverkeithing. Our authorities for these
and a few other memoranda concerning this old
Leith family are a “Memoir of the Familyof Barton,
&c.,” by J. Stedman, Esq., of Bath (which is scarce,
only twelve copies having been printed), Tytler,
Pinkerton, and others.
For three generations the Bartons of Leith seem
to have had a kind of family war with the Portuguese,
and their quarrel began in the year 1476,
when John Barton, senior, on putting to sea froin
Sluys, in Flanders, in a king’s ship, the ]iZiai’nnn,
laden with a valuable cargo, was unexpectedly
attacked by two armed Portuguese caravels, commanded
respectively by Juan Velasquez and Juan
Pret. The JiZiana was taken ; many of her crew
were slain or captured, the rest were thrust into a
boat and cut adrift. Among the latter was old John
Barton, who proceeded to Lisbon to seek indemnity,
but in vain; and he is said by one account to
have been assassinated by Pret or Velasquez to put
an end to the affair. By another he is stated to have
been alive in 1507, and in command of a ship
called the Liun, which was seized at Campvere, in
Zealand-unless it can be that the John referred to](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p021.gif "Volume 6 Page 202")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
.armorial he adopted was argent, a tree or, with two
ships under sail.
It was ...
Vol. 6 p. 202 (Rel. 0.37)
... in the
Exchequer Records as a creek within the port of
Leith . It possesses generally only a few boats,
but in ...
Vol. 6 p. 315 (Rel. 0.37)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
up to the full average of poets, yet his vanity was
of a very inoffensive ...
Vol. 6 p. 242 (Rel. 0.37)
![Leith] MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, had been absent unusually
long, and the rumours regarding her fate were
very much akin to the confessions of the crew of
the Worcester.
A report of these circumstances having reached
the Privy Council, the arrest was ordered of Captain
Green and thirteen of his crew on charges of
piracy and murder. The evidence produced against
them would scarcely be held sufficient by a jury of
the present day to warrant a conviction; but the
Scots, in their justly inflamed and insulted spirit,
viewed the matter otherwise, and a sentence of
death was passed. This judgment rendered many
uneasy, as it might be an insuperable bar to the
union, and even lead to open strife, as the relations
in which the two countries stood to each other were
always precarious ; and even Macaulay admits “that
the two kingdoms could not possibly have continued
another year on the terms on which they had been
during the preceding century.” The Privy Council
were thus reluctant to put the sentence into execution,
and respited the fourteen Englishmen ; but
there arose from the people a cry for vengeance
which it was impossible to resist. On the day appointed
for the execution, the 11th of April, the
populace gathered h vast numbers at the. Cross
and in the Parliament Square ; they menaced the
Lords‘of the Council, from which the Lord Chancellor
chanced to pass in his coach. Some one
cried aloud that “ the prisoners had been reprieved.”
On this the fury of the people became boundless ;
they stopped at the Tron church the coach of the
Chancellor-the pitiful Far1 of Seafield-and
dragged him out of it, and had he not been rescued
and conveyed into Mylne Square by some friends,
would have slain him ; so, continues Arnot, it became
absolutely necessary to appease the enraged
multitude by the blood of the criminals. This was
but the fruit of the affairs of Darien and Glencoe.
Now the people for miles around were pouring
into the city, and it was known that beyond doubt
the luckless Englishmen would be tom from the
Tolbooth and put to a sudden death.
Thus the Council was compelled to yield, and
did so only in time, as thousands who had gathered
at Leith to see the execution were now adding to
those who filled the streets of the city, and at
eleven in the forenoon word came forth that three
would be hanged-namely, Captain Green, the first
mate Madder, and Simpson, the gunner.
According to Analecfu Scofica they were brought
forth into the seething masses, amid shouts and
execrations, under an escort of the Town Guard,
and marched on foot through the Canongate to the
Water Port of Leith, where a battalion of the Foot
Guards and a body of the Horse Guards were
drawn up. “ There was the greatest confluence of
people there that I ever saw in my life,” says
Wodrow; “for they cared not how far they were
off so be it they saw.”
The three were hanged upon a gibbet erected
within high-water mark, and the rest of the crew,
after being detained in prison till autumn, were set
at liberty; and it is said that there were afterwards
good reasons to believe that Captain Drummond,
whom they were accused of slaying on the high seas,
was alive in India after the fate of Green and his
two brother officers had been sealed. (Burton’s
‘’ Crim. Trials.”)
On the site of the present Custom House was
built the Fury (a line-of-battle ship, according tb
Lawson‘s “Gazetteer”) and the first of that rate
built in Scotland after the Union.
In I 7 I 2 the first census of Edinburgh and Leith
was taken, and both towns contained only about
48,000 souls.
The insurrection of 1715, under the Earl of
Mar, made Leith the arena of some exciting scenes.
The Earl declined to leave the vicinity of Perth
with his army, and could not co-operate with the
petty insurrection under Forster in the north of
England, as a fleet under Sir John Jennings, Admiral
of the White, including the RqaC Anm, Pew4
Phnix, Dover Custk, and other frigates, held the
Firth of Forth, and the King‘s troops under Argyle
were gathering in the southern Lowlands. But, as
it was essential that a detachment from Mar‘s army
should join General Forster, it was arranged that
2,500 Highlanders, under old Brigadier Mackintosh
of Borlum-one of the most gallant and resolute
spirits of the age-should attempt to elude the fleet
and reach the Lothians.
The brigadier took possession of all the boats
belonging to the numerous fisher villages on the
Fife coast, and as the gathering of such a fleet as
these, with the bustle of mooring and provisioning
them, was sure to reveal the object in view, a
clever trick was adopted to put all scouts on a false
scent.
All the boats not required by the brigadier he
sent to the neighbourhood of Burntisland, as if he
only waited to cross the Firth there, on which the
fleet left its anchorage and rather wantonly began
to cannonade the fort and craft in the harbour.
While the ships were thus fully occupied, Mackintosh,
dividing his troops in two columns, crossed the
water from Elie, Pittenweem, and Crail, twenty miles
eastward, on the nights of the 12th and 13thOctober,
without the loss of a single boat, and lwded](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p202.gif "Volume 5 Page 191")
... Leith ] MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, ...
Vol. 5 p. 191 (Rel. 0.36)
![Bell’s Mills.] LADY SINCLAIR. 63
portray. She was born Margaret Learmouth, at
~ 6 , St John Street, in the Canongate, in January)
1794, while that street and much of the neighbour.
hood around it were still the centre of the literaq
and fashionable society of the then secluded
capital of Scotland.
Thus she was old enough to have seen and
known many who were “ QUt with the Prince ” b
1745, and reminiscences of these people and 01
their days were ever a favourite theme with hei
when she had a sympathetic listener. “Old
maiden ladies,” she was wont to say, with a sort 01
sad pitifulness in her tone, “were the last lea1
Jacobites in Edinburgh ; spinsterhood in its loneli.
ness remained then ever true to Prince Charlit
and the vanished dreams of youth.” Lady Sinclaii
used to relate how in the old Episcopal Chapel in
the Cowgate, now St. Patrick‘s Church, the last
solitary representative of these Jacobite ladies nevei
failed to close her prayer-book and stand erect, in
d e n t protest, when the prayer for King George 111.
‘( and the reigning family ” was read in the Church
Service. Early in her girlhood her family removed
from St. John Street to Picardy Place, and the
following adventure, which she used to relate,
curiously evinces the difference between the social
customs of the early years of this century and those
of the present day.
“ Once, when she was returning from a ball, the
bearers of her sedan-chair had their bonnets carried
off by the wind, while the street oil-lamps were
blown out, and the ‘ Donalds ’ departed in pursuit
of their head-gear. It was customary in those
times for gentlemen to escort the sedan-chairs
that held their fair partners of the evening, and
the two gentlemen who were with her-the Duke
af Argyle and Sir John Clerk of Penicuickseized
hold of the spokes and carried her home.
‘Gentlemen were gentlemen in those days,’ she was
wont to add, ‘and Edinburgh was the proper
residence of the Scottish aristocracy-not an inn
.or a half-way house between London and the
Highland muirs.’ ”
In 1821 she was married to Mr. Sinclair, afterwards
Sir John Sinclair, Bart., of Dunbeath, and
for fifty years afterwards her home was at the
House of Barock, in Caithness, where her influence
among the poor was ever felt and gratefully
acknowledged. She was a staunch and
amusingly active Liberal, and, with faculties clear
and unimpaired in the last week of her long life,
noted and commented on Mr. Gladstone’s famous
“ hlidlothian speeches,” and rejoiced over his
success. She was always scrupulously dressed,
and in the drawing-room down to the day of
her death. She saw all her children die before
her, in early or middle life; her eldest, Colonel
Sinclair, dying in India in his forty-fifth year. After
Sir John’s death she settled in Edinburgh.
“I am the last leaf on the outmost bough,”
she was wont to say, “and want to fall where I
was born.” And so she passed away.
When she was interred within the Chapel Royal
at Holyrood, it was supposed that she would be one
of the last to whom that privilege would be accorded.
It was not so ; for the remains of James,
Earl of Caithness, who died in America, were laid
there in April, 1881.
The Dean, or Den, seems to have been the old
general name for the rocky hollow now spanned
by the stately bridge of Telford.
Bell’s Mills, a hamlet deep down in a grassy
glen, with an old bridge, aver which for ages lay
the only road to the Queensferry, and now overshadowed
by fashionable terraces and crescents, is
described by Kincaid in 1787 as a village, “one and
three-quarter niiles north-west of Edinburgh, on the
north bank of the Water of Leith, and .a quarter
of a mile west of West Leith village.” * It received
its name from an old proprietor of the
flour-mills, which are still grinding there, and have
been long in existence. ‘‘ On Thursday night
last,” says the Zdinburgh Advertseer of 3rd January:
1764, “ the high wall at Bells Brae, near the
Water of Leith Bridge, fell down, by which accident
the footpath and part of the turnpike road are
carried away, which makes it hazardous for carriages.
This notice may be of use to those who have
occasion to pass that road.”
At the head of the road here, near the Dean
Bridge, is a Free Church, built soon after the
Disruption-a little edifice in the Saxon style, with
a square tower ; and a quaint little ancient crowstepped
building, once a toll-house, has built into
it some of the old sculpture from the Dean House.
At the foot of the road, adjoining Bell’s Mills
Bridge, are old Sunbury distillery and house, in a
lelta formed by the Leith, which sweeps under a
steep and well-wooded bank which is the boundary
3f the Dean Cemetery.
The Water of Leith village, which bears marks of
peat antiquity, is fast disappearing amid the enxoachments
of modern streets, and yet all that renains
of it, deep down in the rocky hollow, where
:he stream, flowing under its quaint old bridge,
3etween ancient mills, pours in a foaming sheet
wer a high, broad weir, is wonderfully striking
ind picturesque. Dates, inscriptions, crowstepped
:ables, and other features of the seventeenth
:entury, abound here in profusion.
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p074.gif "Volume 5 Page 63")
... of Edinburgh, on the
north bank of the Water of Leith , and .a quarter
of a mile west of West Leith ...
Vol. 5 p. 63 (Rel. 0.36)
... British Linen Company Bank, a
residenter in the town of Leith , where that bank was
the first to establish a ...
Vol. 2 p. 280 (Rel. 0.36)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
embankment, 3,480 feet in length, The engineers
fixed upon this site because ...
Vol. 6 p. 286 (Rel. 0.36)
![Leith Walk.] ANDREW MACDONALD. J 59
in whose favour, so long as she exercised her profession,
she continued to hold the first place in
spite of their temporary enthusiasm for the great
London stars, who visited them at stated seasons.
‘ Our Mrs. Siddons’ I frequently heard her called
in Edinburgh, not at all with the idea of comparing
her with the celebrated mother-in-law j but rather
as expressing the kindly personal goodwill with
which she was regarded by her own townsfolk who
were proud and fond of her.”
She was not a great actress, according to this
writer, for she lacked versatility, or power of assumption
in any part that was opposed to her nature
or out of her power, and she was destitute
of physical strength and weight for Shaksperian
heroines generally; yet Rosalind, Viola, Imogen,
and Label, had no sweeter exponents ; and in all
pieces that turned on the tender, soft, and faithful
Mary Stuart,“she gave an unrivalled impersonation.”
On leaving Edinburgh, after 1830, she carried
with her the good wishes of the entire people, “ for
they had recognised in her not merely the accomplished
actress, but the good mother, the refined
lady, and the irreproachable member of society.”
Northward of Windsor Street, in what was once
a narrow, pleasant, and secluded path between
thick hedgerows, called the Lovers’ Loan, was
built, in 1876, at a short distance from the railway
station, the Leith Walk public school, at a cost of
L9,ooo; it is in the Decorated Collegiate style,
calculated to accommodate about 840 scholars, and
is a good specimen of the Edinburgh Board schools.
In the Lovers’ Loan Greenside House was long
the property and the summer residence of James
Marshal, W.S., whose town residence was in Milne
Square, so limited were the ideas of locomotion
and exaggerated those of distance in the last century.
He was born in 1731, says Kay’s Editor,
and though an acute man of business, was one of
the most profound swearers of his day, so much so
that few could compete with him.” He died in the
then sequestered house of Greenside in 1807.
In the year 1802 the ground here was occupied
by Barker’s “ famous panorama,” from Leicester
Square, London, wherein were exhibited views of
Dover, the Downs, and the coast of France, with
the embarkation of troops, horse and foot, from ten
till dusk, at one shilling a head, opposite the
Botanical Garden.
Lower down, where we now find Albert, Falshaw,
and Buchanan Streets, the ground for more
than twenty years was a garden nursery, long the
feu of Messrs. Eagle and Henderson, some of whose
advertisements as seedsfnen go back to nearly the
middle of the last century.
At the foot of the Walk there was born, in 1755,
Andrew Macdonald, an ingenious but unfortunate
dramatic and miscellaneous writer, whose father,
George Donald, was a market-gardener there. He
received the rudiments of his education in the
Leith High School, and early indicated such literary
talents, that his friends had sanguine hopes
of his future eminence, and with a view to his
becoming a minister of the Scottish Episcopal
communion he studied at the University of Edinburgh,
where he remained till the year 1775, when
he was put into deacon’s orders by Bishop Forbes
of Leith. On this account, at the suggestion of the
latter, he prefixed the syllable Mac to his name.
As there was no living for him vacant, he left his
father’s cottage in Leith Walk to become a tutor
in the family of Oliphant of Gask, after which he
became pastor of an Episcopal congregation in
Glasgow, and in 1772 published “Velina, a Poetical
Fragment,” which is said to have contained
much genuine poetry, and was in the Spenserian
stanza.
His next essay was ‘‘ The Independent,” which
won him neither profit nor reputation ; but having
written “Vimonda, a Tragedy,” with a prologue
by Henry Mackenzie, he came to Edinburgh, where
it was put upon the boards, and where he vainly
hoped to make’ a living by his pen. It was received
with great applause, but won him no advantage,
as his literary friends now deserted him.
Before leaving Glasgow he had taken a step which
they deemed alike imprudent and degrading.
“This was his marrying the maid-servant of the
house in which he lodged. His reception, therefore,
on his return to Edinburgh from these friends
and those of his acquaintances who participated in
their feelings, had in it much to annoy and distress
him, although no charge could be brought against
the humble partner of his fortunes but the meanness
of her condition.” Thus his literary prospects,
so far as regarded Edinburgh, ended in total disappointment
; so, accompanied by his wife, he betook
him to the greater centre of London.
There the fame of “Vimonda” had preceded
him, and Colman brought it out with splendour to
crowded houses in the years 1787 and 1788; and
now poor Macdonald’s mind became radiant with
hope of affluence and fame, and he had a pretty
little residence at Brompton, then a sequestered
place.
He next engaged with much ardour upon an
opera, but made his subsistence chiefly by writing
satirical papers and poems for the newspapers,
under the signature of “Mathew Bramble.” At
last this resource failed him, and he found himself
*](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p170.gif "Volume 5 Page 159")
... Leith Walk.] ANDREW MACDONALD. J 59
in whose favour, so long as she exercised her profession,
she continued to ...
Vol. 5 p. 159 (Rel. 0.36)
... was master
skipper. The ship lay still in the Roads of Leith ,
the King every day taking pleasure to pass her, ...
Vol. 6 p. 298 (Rel. 0.35)
![Restalrig.] THE CHURCHYARD. 131
That the church was not utterly destroyed is
proved by the fact that the choir walls of this
monument of idolatry ” were roofed over in 1837,
as has been stated.
An ancient crypt, or mausoleum, of large diniensions
and octangular in form, stands on the south
side of the church. Internally it is constructed with
a good groined roof, and some venerable yews cast
their shadow over the soil that has accumulated
above it, and in which they have taken root. It is
believed to have been erected by Sir Robert Logan,
knight, of Restalrig, who died in 1439, according
to the obituary of the Preceptory of St. Anthony at
Leith, and it has been used as a last resting-place
for several of his successors. Some antiquaries,
however, have supposed that it was undoubtedly
attached to the college, perhaps as a chapter-house,
or as a chapel of St. Triduana, but constructed on
the model of St. Margaret’s Well. Among others
buried here is “LADY JANEr KER, LADY RESTALRIG,
QUHA DEPARTED THIS LIFE 17th MAY, 1526.”
Wilson, in his ‘‘ Reminiscences,” mentions that
‘‘ Restalrig kirkyard was the favourite cemetery of
the Nonjuring Scottish Episcopalians of the last
century, when the use of the burial service was
proscribed in the city burial-grounds ; ” and a strong
division of dead cavalry have been interred there
from the adjacent barracks. From Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe he quotes a story of a quarrel carried
beyond the grave, which may be read upon a flat
stone near that old crypt.
Of the latter wrote Sharpe, “I believe it belongs
to Lord Bute, and that application was made to him
to allow Miss Hay-whom I well knew-daughter
of Hay of Restalrig, Prince Charles’s forfeited
secretary, to be buried in the vault. This was
refused, and she lies outside the door. May the
earth lie light on her, old lady kind and vener.
able !”
In 1609 the legal rights of the church and parish
of Restalrig, with all their revenues and pertinents,
were formally conferred upon the church of South
Leith.
In 1492, John Fraser, dean of Restalrig, wa?
appointed Lord Clerk Register; and in 154C
another dean, John Sinclair, was made Lord 01
Session, and was afterwards Bishop of Brechin and
Lord President of the Court of Session. He it war
who performed the marriage ceremony for Queen
* Mary and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. In 1592
the deanery was dissolved by Act of Parliament,
and divided between “ the parsonage of Leswadc
and parsonage of Dalkeith, maid by Mr. Georgt
Ramsay, dean of Restalrig.”
After the Logans-of whom elsewhere-tht
Lords Balmerino held the lands of Restalrig till
their forfeiture in I 746, and during the whole period
of their possession, appropriated the vaults of the
forsaken and dilapidated church as the burial-place
of themselves and their immediate relations. From
them it passed to the Earls of Bute, with whose
family it still remains.
In the burying-ground here, amid a host of
ancient tombs, are some of modem date, marking
where lie the father of Lord Brougham ; Louis
Cauvin, who founded the hospital which bears his
name at Duddingston ; the eccentric doctor known
as Lang Sandy Wood,” and his kindred, including
the late Lord Wood ; and Lieutenant-Colonel
William Rickson, of the I 9th Foot, a brave and distinguished
soldier, the comrade and attached friend
of Wolfe, the hero of Quebec. His death is thus
recorded in the Scots Magazine for 1770 :-cr At
his house in Broughton, Lieutenant-Colonel William
Rickson, Quartermaster-General and Superintendent
of Roads in North Britain.” His widow died
so lately as 1811, as her tomb at Restalrig bears,
‘‘ in the fortieth year of her widowhood”
Here, too, was interred, in 1720, the Rev. Alexander
Rose, the last titular bishop of Edinburgh.
In tracing out the ancient barons of Restalrig,
among the earliest known is Thomas of Restalrig,
nxa 1210, whose name appears in the Regktruum
de DunferrnZine as Sheriff of Edinburgh.
In the Macfarlane MSS. in the Advocates’
Library, there is a charter of his to the Priory of
Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth, circa 1217, very
interesting from the localities therein referred to,
and the tenor of which runs thus in English :-
“To all seeing or hearing these writings,
Thomas of Lestalrig wishes health. Know ye,
that for the good of my soul, and the souls of all
my predecessors and successors, and the soul of
my wife, I have given and conceded, and by this
my charter have confirmed, to God and the canons
of the church of St. Columba on the Isle, and the
canons of the same serving God, and that may yet
serve Him forever, that whole land which Baldwin
Comyn was wont to hold from me in the town of
Leith, namely, that land which is next and adjoining
on the south to that land which belonged to
Ernauld of Leith, and to twenty-four acres and a
half of arable land in my estate of Lestalrig in that
field which is called Horstanes, on the west part of
the same field, and on the north part of the high
road between Edinburgh and Leith (it., the Easter
Road) in pure and perpetual gift to be held by
them, with all its pertinents and easements, and
with common pasture belocging to such land, and
with free ingress and egress, with carriage, team,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p142.gif "Volume 5 Page 131")
... the obituary of the Preceptory of St. Anthony at
Leith , and it has been used as a last resting-place
for ...
Vol. 5 p. 131 (Rel. 0.35)
![Leith.] THE EDINBURGH DOCK. 287
This embankment was finished in February, 1877,
and thereafter the excavation of the dock was proceeded
with by a force of about five hundred men,
who worked daily at it. Two " steam nawies," each
of which filled a railway waggon in three minutes,
were used. .
Thus, in a'day of ten hours one of these excavated,
on an average, 400 .cubic yards, representing
550 tons of material, equal to the work of forty
able-bodied men ; and several other approved a p
pliances were employed by the contractors to
economise manual labour. In the progress of excavation
no remarkable difficulties, in an engineering
point of view, were encountered, the ground
being what is technically termed " dry."
Water, of course, gathered in the works, but was
led to a tank on the north side, and pumped into
a sewer-pipe running under the north embankment.
The walls are constructed of stone from Craigmillar
quarry, and the lime came froin the kilns at Lyme
Regis, and was crushed by machinery erected on
the Leith side of the dock. From the bottom of
the latter the walls are thirty-five feet in height, and
at high tide the depth of water is twenty-seven
feet. The entire amount of masonry about the
west dock is IOO,OOO cubic yards, and the quayage
accommodation amounts to 6,775 feet.
The total -length of the parallel walls on the
north and south sides is 1,500 feet, and the extreme
breadth of the dock 750. From the eastern end,
a jetty, 250 feet in width by 1,000 in length, runs
up the centre of the dock, which is thus formed
into two basins. This, of course, greatly increases
the quay accommodation. The western end
forms an open basin, 500 feet in length by the
entire breadth of the dock. In the centre of this
noble jetty a graving dock has been constructed,
350 feet long, forty-eight feet wide at the bottom,
and seventy at the top. Its gates are at the western
end of the jetty, and have twenty feet of water on
the sill, and are opened and closed by means of
four crab hand-winches.
The pumping machinery is placed in an edifice,
built of fire-clay brick, near the gates. The entrance
tothe Edinburgh Dock is through the Albert Dock,
the channel being 270 feet long by 65 broad;
and across it, for the accommodation of traffic, is an
iron swing bridge, worked by hydraulic machinery.
The space round the dock for the accommodation of
shipping traffic extends to about thirty acres ; and in
addition to this, the Caledonian and North British
Railways have each acquired twenty-seven acres
of the reclaimed ground from the Dock Commissioners,
which at their own expense they filled up
to the level of the quays.
On the south side of this truly noble dock has
been built a line of goods sheds, each 80 feet wide
by 196 feet long. On the north side a powerful
hydraulic coal-hoist has been erected specially for
the coal traffic
The designs included a promenade and drive
along the sea-wall, thus giving a magnificent outlook
on the Forth. The whole works, including
the railway undertakings, cost about ~400,000.
Mr. Clark, C.E, the engineer of Scott's Trustees,
and Mr. J. R Allan, C.E., representing Messrs.
Rendell and Robertson, the engineers of the Commission,
carried them out.
By the 15th of June, 1881, preparations were
made for letting in the water of the ocean, and
for that purpose gangs of workmen had been busy
night and day for some time previous. A wooden
platform 'was erected underneath a large pipe,
which had been built into the sea-wall for the purpose
of breaking the fall of the water in admitting
it into the dock. That pipe, 3 feet 6 inches in
diameter, was part of the old Edinburgh and
Leith main outfall sewer, which had been diverted
round the end of the dock. It extended from the
north side Qf the reclamation wall to the inside of
the quay, under the water-line, and a piling-ram of
more than a ton weight had to be used in breaking
it off flush with the face of the masonry.
At four p.m. on the day mentioned, the valve in
the pipe was partly lifted to admit the outer tide
into the vast basin, the water being turned on by
Mr. Torry, W.S., Clerk to the Leith Dock Commissioners.
The water then rushed furiously and
steadily in, but, owing to the extent of the dock,
several days elapsed before it was filled.
The wall between the Albert Dock and the new
one had to be removed before vessels could be
admitted, and to accomplish this a number of holes
were bored in it and cRarged with dynamite to blow
it up, and seven divers were brought from London
to assist in clearing away the wreckage.
As the reserve squadron of the ironclad fleet
was expected in the Firth of Forth in July, 1881,
under the command of H. R H. the Duke of Edinburgh,
the latter was invited by the local authorities
to open and to name the dock, alike after
the city and himself-an event which passed of€
with the greatest lclaf.
The opening took place on the 26th of July.
The reserve squadron was moored in the Roads
in two lines, and could be seen from the shore
looming large through a somewhat vapouxy atmosphere.
The Hercules, with the duke's flag flying
at her mizen, was the last of the line nearest to the
Leith Shore. Ahead of her were the Wan-wp;](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p106.gif "Volume 6 Page 287")
... Leith .] THE EDINBURGH DOCK. 287
This embankment was finished in February, 1877,
and thereafter the excavation of ...
Vol. 6 p. 287 (Rel. 0.35)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
Tolbooth had become decayed and ruinous, and
soon after the demolition af the ...
Vol. 6 p. 230 (Rel. 0.34)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Water of Leith
name doesnot appear in the Baronage) was Sheriff and
Provost of ...
Vol. 5 p. 62 (Rel. 0.34)
![SKIRMISH AT HAWKHILL. ’75 Leith.]
defend the town “to the last of their blood and
breath.”
At their head was Pictro Strozzi, Lord of Epernay,
a Florentine, who had been made a marshal
of France five years before, and whose two brothers
served in these Scottish wars-Gaspare, who was
killed at Inchkeith, and Leon, who was prior of
Capua and general of the galleys of France at the
capture of St. Andrews.
Under Mardchal Strozzi were Monsieur Octavius,
brother of the Marquis d’Elbceuff, a peer of the
house of Lorraine, who led into Scotland some of
,the old Bandes Franpises, or Free Companies ; the
IConite de Martigues (aftenvards Duc d‘Estampes), a
young noble of the house of Luxembourg ; Captain
the Sieur Jacques de la Brosse, one of the hundred
knights of St. Michael ; General d’Oisel, a d many
ather French officers of high family and the highest
spirit.
In those days the use of fire-arnis had led to a
great many alterations in military equipment ; breastplates
were made thicker, in order to be bullet
proof, and the tassettes attached to these were
.of one plate each; and many of the morions
worn by the French and Italians were beautifully
embossed; and carbines, petronels, and dragons
(hence dragoons) are frequently mentioned as
among the fire-arms in use at this time ; while the
pike was still considered the (( queen of weapons ”
for horse and foot.
Mardchal Strozzi ordered the tower of St. Anthony’s
Preceptory? near the Kirkgate, to be armed ;
cannon were accordingly swayed up to its summit.
Holinshed says the English raised a mound, which
they naged Mount Pelham, on the south-east
side of the town, and armed it with a battery of
guns. Another to the south of this was named
Mount Somerset, and both of them remain till
the present day; and when the young grass is
sprouting in spring, the zig-zags that led therefrom
to the walls can often be distinctly traced in the
Links.
Before Lord Grey got his men comfortably encamped
at Restalrig, ‘( in halls, huts, and pavilions,”
Strozzi had despatched go0 arquebusiers against
him to check his advance.
Marching across the Links, this force took possession
of the wooded eminence named Hawkhill,
and a sharp conflict at once ensued with the
English. For several hours the French fought
gallantly, but were compelled, after severe loss,
to fall back upon Leith, while the English took
possession of Hawkhill, planted guns upon it, and
advancing with caution and care under a cannonade,
occupied all the rising ground mending to Hermitage
Hill, which completely commands town and
Links on the east.
After this repulse, and before the siege formally
commenced, the French resorted to a little treachery
by sending a special messenger to Lord
Grey requesting a brief truce, which he readily
granted. On this, great numbers of them, previously
instructed, issued from Leith, and thronged
about the English camp at Restalrig, the Hawkhill,
and elsewhere, as if merely actuated by curiosity.
Ere long they became offensive in manner, and
began to pick quarrels with English sentinels, who
were not slow in retorting, and Lord Grey eventually
ordered them instantly to retire. On this,
they demanded whence came his right to order
them off the ground of their mistress the Queen
Regent of Scotlznd. They were told that if the
truce had not been granted at their own request
they would have been compelled to keep at a
distance.
On this the French fired their carbines and
petronels into the faces of those nearest them;
volleys of oaths and outcries followed, and several
Frenchmen who had been in concealment came to
aid the pretended loungers in the m 2 , and soldiers
were seen rushing to arms in all directions, without
comprehending what the uproar was about ; at last
the French were again driven in, but with the loss
of one hundred and forty men killed and seventeen
taken prisoners. The loss of the English is not
stated ; but it was probably greater than that of the
French, as they were taken by surprise.
The next event was a sally made by the Comte
de Martigues on the English trenches, when, according
to Keith, he spiked three pieces of cannon,
put 600 men to the sword, and took Sir Maurice
Berkeley prisoner.
Frequent and sanguinary sallies were thus made
by the French to scour the trenches and retard
their progress, till the English, instead of waiting
patiently within them to repel such assaults, now
resolved to become the aggressors, and whenever the
French were seen to issue from the town, an equal
force met them with sword and pike on the Links ;
and the bitterness and fury of these encounters
were increased by the knowledge of those engaged
that they were overlooked on either side by their
respective comrades and commanders
Elizzbeth having despatched reinforcements to
the allied camp-for such it was-before Leith,
Lord Grey determined to press the siege with
greater vigour, the more so as the town was already
beginning to suffer from famine. On the 4th of
May he set fire to the water-mills, and destroyed
them, notwithstanding all the efforts of the French](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p186.gif "Volume 5 Page 175")
... AT HAWKHILL. ’75 Leith .]
defend the town “to the last of their blood and
breath.”
At their head ...
Vol. 5 p. 175 (Rel. 0.34)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
After this, no one attempted to break into his
grounds.
No. 29, ...
Vol. 5 p. 74 (Rel. 0.34)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
of Badajoz is extolled by Napier, and who died
fort major of ...
Vol. 5 p. 70 (Rel. 0.34)
... Cliff and Dean Bridge . Tofacepage
The Water of Leith Village . : . . .
The Water of Leith . 1825 . . . . ...
Vol. 6 p. 401 (Rel. 0.34)
... when the Society has its annual procession
through Leith , Edinburgh, Granton, and Trinity.
This body is ...
Vol. 6 p. 302 (Rel. 0.33)
![Leith.] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole kingdom.
Not content with the by no means inconsiderable
amount of zeal they displayed, they also had the
assistance of a dignitary styled the Bailie of St.
Anthony, whose special duty it was to ferret out
~~
the last of whom was abolished by the Reform
Bill.
In those clays we are told that to cut a cabbage,
to boil a kett!e, or to wander in the streets during
the hoursof sermon,rendered a person liable to arrest
by a military patro1,and incarceration in the Kantore.
TOLBOOTH WYND.
transgressors against ecclesiastical authority, and
have them brought before him for trial.”
That the Session considered him their own
special official is made evident from the circumstance
that when the sheriff of the county, in the
year 1688, ventured to dispute his authority aiid
question his decisions, the Session passed a vote
commanding their ‘treasurer to disburse what money
was necessary to defend the rights of this official,
126
In the centre of the edifice was an archway, and
above it was a chamber, which, by order of the
Session in 1632, was repaired for the use of ‘‘ the
doctor (teacher) of the Grammar School.” In 1692
the same chamber was used as a Session House,
during a dispute about the incumbency of the
parish. In later times the lower chambers were
used as a receptacle for the gravedigger‘s tools and
the dkbris of the churchyard, in which latter, in the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p044.gif "Volume 6 Page 225")
... Leith .] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole ...
Vol. 6 p. 225 (Rel. 0.33)
![Leith.] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole kingdom.
Not content with the by no means inconsiderable
amount of zeal they displayed, they also had the
assistance of a dignitary styled the Bailie of St.
Anthony, whose special duty it was to ferret out
~~
the last of whom was abolished by the Reform
Bill.
In those clays we are told that to cut a cabbage,
to boil a kett!e, or to wander in the streets during
the hoursof sermon,rendered a person liable to arrest
by a military patro1,and incarceration in the Kantore.
TOLBOOTH WYND.
transgressors against ecclesiastical authority, and
have them brought before him for trial.”
That the Session considered him their own
special official is made evident from the circumstance
that when the sheriff of the county, in the
year 1688, ventured to dispute his authority aiid
question his decisions, the Session passed a vote
commanding their ‘treasurer to disburse what money
was necessary to defend the rights of this official,
126
In the centre of the edifice was an archway, and
above it was a chamber, which, by order of the
Session in 1632, was repaired for the use of ‘‘ the
doctor (teacher) of the Grammar School.” In 1692
the same chamber was used as a Session House,
during a dispute about the incumbency of the
parish. In later times the lower chambers were
used as a receptacle for the gravedigger‘s tools and
the dkbris of the churchyard, in which latter, in the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p045.gif "Volume 6 Page 226")
... Leith .] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole ...
Vol. 6 p. 226 (Rel. 0.33)
![I34 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalng.
many instances, relatives and friends. With all
the affected zeal of a peacemaker, this gentleman
(whose house stood in Drury Lane, off the Strand
in London), proposed terms which Huntly deemed
satisfactory ; but the next point to be considered
was, which party should first march off the field.
On this, both parties were absurdly obstinate.
Huntly maintained that Morton, by an aggressive
display, had drawn the Queen’s troops out of the
city ; while Morton, on the other hand, charged the
Highland Earl with various acts of hostility and
insult. Dnuy eventually got both parties to promise
to quit the ground at a given signal, “and
that signal,” he arranged, “shall be the throwing
up of my hat.”
This was agreed to, and before Drury was halfway
between the Hawkhill and the ancient quarries,
up went his plumed hat, and away wheeled
Huntly’s forces, marching for the city by the road
that led to the Canongate, without the least suspicion
of the treachery of Drury, or Morton, whose
soldiers had never left their ground, and who cow,
rushing across the open fields with shouts charged
with the utmost fury the queen’s men, ‘‘ who were
retiring with all the imprudent irregularity and confusion
which an imaginary security and exultation
at having escaped a sanguinary conflict were calculated
to produce.”
Thus treacherously attacked, they were put to
flight, and were pursued with cruel and rancorous
slaughter to the very gates of the city. The
whole road was covered with dead and wounded
men, while Lord Home, several gentlemen of high
position, and seventy-two private soldiers, a pair
of colours, several horses, and two pieces of cannon,
were, amid great triumph, marched into Leith in the
afternoon.
This was not the only act of treachery of which
Sir William Drury was guilty. He swore that he
was entirely innocent, and threw the whole blame
on Morton; but though an ambassador, so exas.
perated were the people of Edinburgh against him,
that he had afterwards to quit the city under a
guard to protect him from the infuriated mob.
The Laird of Restalrig was among those who
surrendered with Kirkaldy of Grange, in 1573, when
the Castle of Edinburgh capitulated to Morton;
but he would seem to have been pardoned, as
no record exists of any seventy practised upon him.
In #some criminal proceedings, in I 5 76, the sheet
of water here is designated as Restalrig Loch,
when a woman named Bessie Dunlop was tried
for witchcraft and having certain interviews with
‘‘ ane Tam Reid,” who was killed at the battle of
Pinkie. Having once ridden with her husband to
Leith to bring home meal, “ganging afield to
tether her horse at Restalrig Loch, there came ane
company of riders by, that made sic a din as if
heaven and earth had gane together; and, incontinent
they rade into the loch, with mony
hideous rumble. Tarn tauld [her] it was the
Gude Wights, that were riding in middle-eard.”
For these and similar confessions, Bessie was
consigned to the flames as a witch.
During the prevalence of the pestilence, in 1585,
James Melville says that on his way to join the
General Assembly at Linlithgow he had to pass
through Edinburgh ; that after dining at Restalrig at
eleven o’clock, he rode through thecity from the Water
Gate to the West Port, “ in all whilk way, we saw
not three persons, sae that I mis-kenned Edinburgh,
and almost forgot that I had ever seen sic a town.”
In 1594 Restalrig was the scene of one of those
stormy raids that the “mad Earl of Bothwell”
caused so frequently, to the torment of James VI.
The earl, at the head of an armed force, was in
Leith, and broke out in open rebellion, when,
on the 3rd of April, the king, after sermon, summoned
the people of Edinburgh in arms, and moved
towards Leith, from whence Bothwell instantly
issued at the head of 500 mounted men-atms,
and took up a position at the Hawkhill near
Restalrig. Fearing, however, the strength of the
citizens, he made a detour, and galloped through
Duddingstone. Lord Home with his lances followed
him to “the Woomet,” says Birrel, probably
meaning Woolmet, near Dalkeith, when Bothwell
faced about, and compelled him to retire in turn,
but not without bloodshed.
In February, 1593, at Holyrood, Robert Logan,
of Restalrig, was denounced for not appearing to
answer for his treasonable conspiracy and trafiicking
“ with Francis, sum tyme Earl of Bothwell ; ” and
in the June of the following year he was again
denounced as a traitor for failing to appear and
answer for the conduct of two of his vassals, Jockie
Houlden and Peter Craick, who had despoiled
Robert Gray, burgess in Edinburgh of Lg50.
It was in this year that the remarkable indenture
was formed between him and Napier of Merchiston
to search for gold in Fast Castle (the “Wolf’s Crag”
of the Master of Ravenswood), a fortress which lie
had acquired by his marriage with an heiress of
the Home family, to whom it originally belonged.
Logan joined the Earl of Gowrie in the infamous
and mysterious conspiracy at Perth, in the year
1600. It was proposed to force the king into ir
boat at the bottom of the garden of Gowrie
House, which the river Tay bordered, and from‘
thence conduct him by sea to Logan’s inacces](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p145.gif "Volume 5 Page 134")
... of cannon,
were, amid great triumph, marched into Leith in the
afternoon.
This was not the only act of ...
Vol. 5 p. 134 (Rel. 0.32)
... body lay at full
length.”
On both sides of the Water of Leith lies Stockbridge,
some 280 yards east of the ...
Vol. 5 p. 71 (Rel. 0.32)
... May, the army landed two miles bewest the
town of Leith , at a place called Grantaine Cragge,
every man ...
Vol. 6 p. 310 (Rel. 0.32)
![Leith] BUILDING OF THE WESTERN DOCKS. 283
I Government advanced A25,ooo to the city of
Edinburgh on security of the future dock revenues,
imd on the 14th of May, 1801, the foundation-stone
of the wet docks was laid by Robert Dundas, of
Melville, Deputy Grand Master, in absence of
Charles, Earl of Dalkeith, Grand Master of Scotland.
An immense concourse of masonic brethren
and spectators attended this ceremony, and the
procession left the Assembly Rooms, and proceeded
along the quay to the southeast corner of the first
dock, where the first stone was laid.
When the procession reached that spot, the substitute
Grand Master, after the usual formula, placed
in the cavity of the stone a large phial, containing
medals “of the first characters of the present age,”
coated with crystal, and two plates, whereon were
engraved inscriptiohs so long that they occupy each
half a column of the ChronicZe.
A salute of twenty-one guns was fired by the
squadron in the roads, under Captain Clements,
R.N., and the militia formed the escort for the
Grand Lodge ; and the Dumfries-shire militia and
other corps stationed in Edinburgh and its vicinity
contributed largely by their manual labour, being
employed by companies, and even battalions, in the
excavation and general formation of these docks,
the first of which, called now the old dock, was
opened to the shipping in 1806 ; and in the preceding
year a further sum of A;25,000 had been
advanced by Government on the dock property.
The Western, or Queen’s Dock, begun in 1810,
was finished in 1817, the suite being at a cost of
about Az85,ooo.
These two are each 250 yards long, and IOO wide,
with three graving docks on their north side, and
all protected from the sea by a retaining wall of
enormous strength, composed of vast blocks of
stone. The third, or largest dock of all, designed
to reach nearly,to Newhaven, was then projected;
but this and all kindred matters which accorded
hith the magnificence of Mr. Rennie’s design, and
the intentions of his employers, the magistrates of
Edinburgh, were thrown into abeyance during his
We by a total failure of funds.
On the occasion of the jubilee of the 25th of
October, 1809-the anniversary of the accession of
George 111. to the throne-the foundation-stone of
what was named “ King George’s Bastion ’’ was
laid by the Earl of Moira, in the north-west angle
of the western dock, amid a magnificent assemblage,
and followed by a procession, including all the
tnagnates of Edinburgh, escorted by the troops and
volunteers, under a grand salute of heavy guns,
fired by the crew of H.M.S. Egeria, on the west
side of the basin, followed by a general salute of
fifty rounds from all the shipping in the roads, and,
as the Sots Magazine has it, “the acclamations
of twenty thousand people ;” and a grand banquet
was given in the Assembly Rooms, George Street.
The gates of the old dock were renewed, and
the sill deepened in 1844.
The Western, or Queen’s Dock, when the George
Bastion had been built, was for some years mostly
used by the naval service for repairing and fitting
out
In 1S25 the city of Edinburgh borrowed from
Government A240,ooo more on security of the
dock dues (after there had been a proposal to sell
the whole property to a joint-stock company, a
proposal successfully opposed by the inhabitants of
Leith) j and after Mr. W. Chapman, of Newcastle,
hadmade surveys and plans for further improve
ments, as the result of his report and of subsequent
voluminous correspondence with Govemment
on the subject of a naval yard and store
yard, it was decided to extend the eastern pier
about 1,500 feet, so as to have an entire length
there of 2,550 feet, or more than half a mile.
The ceremony of driving the first pile took place
on the 15th of August, 1826, the fourth anniversary
of the landing of George IV. at Leith, and was
made the occasion, as usual, of an imposing
demonstration. All the vessels in port were gdy
decorated, and the various public bodies, accompanied
by three regimental bands and escorted by
Hussars, proceeded from the Assembly Rooms to
the end of the old pier, where the Dock Commissioners
and Lord Provost occupied a platform.
The Provost having cut a rope, and allowed a
heavy weight to fall upon the upright pile, wine,
oil, and corn, were placed upon it, and the company
then embarked in a tug and crossed to the other
pier, where the same ceremony was repeated, and
a banquet followedl
A western pier and breakwater were next erected,
to the extent of r,Soo feet, terminating within 200
feet of the other.
The insolvency of the city of Edinburgh in 1833
led to important re-arrangements in connection with
the management of their now valuable docks ; and
by virtue of an Act of Parliament passed in 1838,
the care of the docks and harbour was vested in
eleven Commissioners-five appointed by the Lords’
of the Treasury, three by the city of Edinburgh,
and three by the town of Leith.
In the winter of 1838-9, Messrs. Walker and
Cubbitt, two eminent engineers of London, were
sent down by the Lords of the Treasury to undertake
jointly the duty of providing their lordships
“with such a plan as will secure to the Port of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p102.gif "Volume 6 Page 283")
... Leith ] BUILDING OF THE WESTERN DOCKS. 283
I Government advanced A25,ooo to the city of
Edinburgh on security of ...
Vol. 6 p. 283 (Rel. 0.32)
![Leith Wynd.] PAUL’S WORK. 301
issued an edict, that among the bedesmen entertained
there should be “na Papistes,” but men of
the “ trew religion.” The buildings having become
ruinous, were reconstructed under the name of
Paul’s Work in 1619, and five Dutchmen were
brought from Delft to teach certain boys and girls
lodged therein the manufacture of coarse woollen
stuffs. “ They furnished the poor children whom
The Town Council of Edinburgh became proprietors
of this charity, according to their Register,
in consequence of Queen Mary’s grant to them of
all such religious houses and colleges in Edinburgh;
and in 1582 they resolved to adapt the bishop’s
college for other purposes than he intended, and
‘ Edinburghers in 1621, as Calderwood records, on
the 1st of May, certain profane and shperstitious
“ weavers in Paul’s Worke, Englishe and Dutche,
set up a highe May-pole, with garlants and bells,”
crqusing a great concourse of people to assemble ;
and it seemed eventually that the manufacture did
not succeed, or the Town Council grew weary of
, encouraging it j so they converted Paul‘s Work
ding,” says Arnot, “and paid the masters of the
work, thirteen pence and a third 01 a penny
weekly, during the first year of their apprenticeship.
This was considered as a very beneficial institution,
and accordingly, many well-disposed people enriched
it with donations :’ but to the horror of the
COWGATE PORT. (Fvom a View by Ewbank, published in 1825.)](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p121.gif "Volume 2 Page 301")
... Leith Wynd.] PAUL’S WORK. 301
issued an edict, that among the bedesmen entertained
there should be “na ...
Vol. 2 p. 301 (Rel. 0.32)
... he became an apprentice on board a
merchant vessel at Leith -with his deaf and dumb
brother and sister, he ...
Vol. 2 p. 216 (Rel. 0.32)
... of Morton, brought about a reconciliation,
to Leith to beg his life as a boon at the hands ...
Vol. 2 p. 260 (Rel. 0.31)
![The water of Leith.] GEORGE RANKINE LUKE 81
memoir of him was prefixed by Dr. Leonhard
Schmitz to his last work, which was published six
years after his death, which occurred in his seventyfourth
year, at No. 21, St. Bernard’s Crescent, on
the 9th of July, 1859.
Academy, everywhere bearing off more prizes than
any of his contemporaries. Leaving the last in
1853, he w’ent to the University of Glasgow, and
at the close of the first session, when in his. seventeenth
year, he carried off the two gold medals
ST. STEPHEN’S CHURCH.
Our list of Stockbridge notabilities would be
incomplete were we to omit the name of one
whose fame, had he been spared, might have
been very glorious : young George Rankine Luke,
a Snell Exhibitioner at Baliol College, and one of
the most brilliant students at Oxford. Born in
Brunswick Street, in March, 1836, the son of Mr.
Tames Luke, a master baker, he passed speedily
through the ranks of the Hamilton Place Academy,
the Circus Place School, and the Edinburgh
107
for the senior Latin and Greek, three prizes for
Greek and Latin composition, the prize for the
Latin Blackstone, and the Muirhead prize. The
close of the second year saw him win the medal
for the Greek Blackstone, the highest classical
honour the University offers, Professor Lushington’s
final Greek prize, another for Logic, and for
Composition four others.
In 1855, as a Snell Exhibitioner at Oxford, he
, rapidly gained the Gaisford prizes for Greek prose](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p092.gif "Volume 5 Page 81")
... water of Leith .] GEORGE RANKINE LUKE 81
memoir of him was prefixed by Dr. Leonhard
Schmitz to his last work, ...
Vol. 5 p. 81 (Rel. 0.3)
![Burghmuir.] GOLF ON BRUNTSFIELD LINKS. 31
Lord High Treasurer, under James IV., the following
entries are found :-
In virtue of a bet in 1798, Mr. Scales of Leith,
and Mr. Smellie, a printer, were selected to perform
..
King , . . . . . . . ixs.
1503, Feb. 22. Item, xij Golf Balls to the King iiijs.
1506. Item, the 28th day of Julii for ij Golf Clubbes to the
King . . . . . . . ijs.
During the reign of James VI. the business of
club making had become one of some importance,
and by a letter, dated Holyrood, 4th April, 1603,
William Mayne, Bowyer, burgess of Edinburgh, is
appointed maker of bows, arrows, spears, and clubs
to the king. From thenceforward the game took a
firm hold of the people as a national pastime, and
it seems to have been a favourite one with Henry,
Duke of Rothesay, and with the great Marquis of
Montrose, as the many entries in his ‘‘ Household
Book ” prove. ‘‘ Even kings themselves,” says a
writer in the Sots Magazine for 1792, “did not
decline the princely sport; and it will not be
displeasing to the Society of Edinburgh Golfers to
be informed that the two last crowned heads that
ever visited this country (Charles I. .and James
VII.) used to practise golf on the Links of Leith,
now occupied by the society for the same purpose.”
In 1744 the city gave a silver club, valued at
LIS, to be played for on the 1st of April annually
by the Edinburgh Company of Golfers, the victor
to be styled captain for the time, and to append
a gold or silver -medal to the club, bearing his
name and date of victory. The Honourable Company
was incorporated by a charter froni the
magistrates in 1800, and could boast of the most
illustrious Scotsmen of the day among its members.
Until the year 1792 St. Andrews had a species of
monopoly in the manufacture of golf balls. They
are small and hard, and of old were always stuffed
with feathers. The clubs are from three to four
feet long. “The heads are of brass,” says Dr.
Walker, in a letter to the famous Dr. Carlyle of
Inveresk ; ‘‘ and the face with which the ball is
struck is perfectly smooth, having no inclination,
such as might have a tendency to raise the ball
from the ground. The game may be played by
any number, either in parties against each other,
or each person for himself, and the contest is to
hole the course in the fewest strokes.”
“Far!” or “Fore!” is the signal cry before the ball
is struck, to warn loiterers or spectators; and
“Far and Surc !” is a common motto with golf clubs.
.
the Erle of Bothwile . . . . xlijs
Feb. 4- Item to Golf‘ Clubbes and Ballis to the
the church. They were allowed the use of six
balls each. These‘ all went considerably higher
than the vane, and were found in the Advocate’s
Close, on the north side of the High Street.
Duncan Forbes, the Lord President, was so fond
of golf that he was wont to play on the sands of
Leith when the Links were covered with snow.
Kay gives us a portrait of a famous old golfer,
Andrew McKellar, known as the “Cock o’ the
Green,” in the act of striking the ball. This enthusiast
spent entire days on Bruntsfield Links,
club in hand, and was often there by night too,
playing at the “short holes” by lantern light
Andrew died about 1813.
Bruntsfield Links and those of Musselburgh are
the favourite places yet of the Edinburgh Club ;
but the St. Andrews meetings are so numerously
attended that the old city by the sea has been
denominated the MefropoZis of golfing.
In a miscellaneous collection, entitled “ Mistura
Curiosa,” a song in praise of golf has two verses
“ I love the game of golf, my boys, though there are folks in
Who, when upon the Links they walk, delight to run it
But then those folks who don’t love golf, of coursc, can’t
The fond love that exists between the golfer and his friend.
“For on the green the new command, that ye love one
Is, as a rule, kept better by a golfer than a brother;
For if he’s struck, a brother’s rage is not so soon appeased,
But the harder that Zhit my friend, the better he is pleased.”
Until the Royal Park at Holyrood was opened
up, levelled, and improved, at the suggestion of the
late Prince Consort, Bruntsfield Links was the
invariable place for garrison reviews and field days
by the troops ; but >neither they nor any one else
can interfere with the vested rights of the golfers
to play over any part of the open ground at all
times.
On the summit of the green slope now crowned
by the hideous edifice known as Gillespie’s Hospital,
a picturesque mansion of very great antiquity,
quadrangular in form, striking in outline, with its
peel-tower, turrets, crowstepped gables and gablets,
thus :-
town
down ;
comprehend
another,
1 east corner of the Parliament Square over the
weathercock of St. Giles’s, 161 feet from the base of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p042.gif "Volume 5 Page 31")
... are found :-
In virtue of a bet in 1798, Mr. Scales of Leith ,
and Mr. Smellie, a printer, were selected to ...
Vol. 5 p. 31 (Rel. 0.3)
... have been cast in France, and
was shipped from Dunkirk to Leith , where, during
the process of unloading, it ...
Vol. 1 p. 184 (Rel. 0.3)
![Gnonpnte.] JVHN PATERSON. I1
The latter is an anagram on the name of “John
Paterson,” while the quatrain was the production
of Dr. Pitcairn, and is referred to in the first
volume of Gilbert Stuart’s Edinburgh Magazine
andRevim for 1774, and may be rendered thus:
--“In the year when Paterson won the prize in
golfing, a game peculiar to the Scots (in which his
ancestors had nine times won the same honour), he
then raised this mansion, a victory more honourable
than all the rest.”
According to tradition, two English nobles at
Holyrood had a discussion with the royal duke
as to the native country of golf, which he was
frequently in the habit of playing on the Links of
Leith with the Duke of Lauderdale and others,
and which the two strangers insisted to be an
English game as well, No evidence of this being
forthcoming, while many Scottish Parliamentary
edicts, some as old as the days of James II., in
1457, could be quoted concerning the said game,
the Englishmen, who both vaunted their expertness,
offered to test the legitimacy of their pretensions
on the result of a match to be played by them
against His Royal Highness and any other .Scotsman
he chose to select. After careful inquiry he
chose a man named John Paterson, a poor shoemaker
in the Canongate, but the worthy descendant
of a long line of illustrious golfers, and the association
will by no means surprise, even in the present
age, those who practise the game in the true old
Scottish spirit The strangers were ignominiously
beaten, and the heir to the throne had the best of
this practical argument, while Paterson’s merits
were rewarded by the stake played for, and he
built the house now standing in the Canongate.
On its summit he placed the Paterson arms-three
pelicans vuZned; on a chief three mullets ; crest,
a dexter-hand grasping a golf club, with the wellold
and well-known tradition, Chambers says, “it
must be admitted there is some uncertainty. The
house, the arms, and the inscriptions only indicate
that Paterson built the house after being victor at
golf, and that Pitcairn had a hand in decorating it.’’
In this doubt Wilson goes further, and believes
that the Golfers’ Land was Zmt, not won, by the
gambling propensities of its owner. It was acquired
by Nicol Paterson in 1609, a maltman in Leith,
and from him it passed, in 1632, to his son John
(and Agnes Lyel, his spouse), who died 23rd April,
1663, as appears by the epitaph upon his tomb in
the churchyard of Holyrood, which was extant in
Maitland’s time, and the strange epitaph on which
is given at length by Monteith. He would appear
to have been many times Bailie of the Canongate.
known mOttO-FAR AND SURE. Concerning this
Both Nicol and John, it may be inferred from the
inscriptions on the ancient edifice, were able and
successful golfers. The style of the bNilding, says
Wilson, confirms the idea that it had been rebuilt
by him “with the spoils, as we are bound to
presume, which he won on Leith Links, from ‘OUT
auld enemies of England.’ The title-deeds, however,
render it probable that other stakes had been
played for with less success. In 1691 he grants
a bond over the property for A400 Scots. This is
followed by letters of caption and hornhg, and
other direful symptoms of legal assault, which
pursue the poor golfer to his grave, and remain
behind as his sole legacy to his heirs.”
The whole tradition, however, is too serious to
be entirely overlooked, but may be taken by the
reader €or what it seems worth.
Bailie Paterson’s successor in the old mansion
was John, second Lord Bellenden of Broughton
and Auchnoule, Heritable Vsher of the Exchequer,
who married Mary, Countess Dowager of Dalhousie,
and daughter of the Earl of Drogheda. Therein
he died in 1704, and was buried in the Abbey
Church ; and as the Union speedily followed, like
other tenements so long occupied by the old
courtiers in this quarter, the Golfers’ Land became,
as we find it now, the abode of plebeians.
Immediately adjoining the Abbey Court-house
was an old, dilapidated, and gable-ended mansion
of no great height, but of considerable extent,
which was long indicated by oral tradition as the
abode of David Rizzio. It has now given place
to buildings connected with the Free Church of
Scotland. Opposite these still remain some of
the older tenements of this once patrician burgh,
distinguishable by their lofty windows filled in with
small square panes of glass ; and on the south side
of the street, at its very eastern end, a series of
pointed arches along the walls of the Sanctuary
Court-house, alone remain to indicate the venerable
Gothic porch and gate-house of the once famous,
Abbey of Holyrood, beneath which all that was
great and good, and much that was ignoble and
bad have passed and repassed in the days that are
no more.
. This edifice, of which views from the east and
west are still preserved, is supposed to have been
the work of “the good-Abbot Ballantyne,” who
rebuilt the north side of the church in 1490, and
to whom we shall have occasion to refer elsewhere.
His own mansion, or lodging, stood here on the
north side of the street, and the remains of it,
together With the porch, were recklessly destroyed
and removed by the Hereditary Keeper of the
Palace in 1753.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p023.gif "Volume 3 Page 11")
... was
frequently in the habit of playing on the Links of
Leith with the Duke of Lauderdale and others,
and which ...
Vol. 3 p. 11 (Rel. 0.3)
... of which are on the North Esk,
and nine on the Water of Leith . The first papermill
was built at Lasswade about I ...
Vol. 6 p. 360 (Rel. 0.3)
![Leith Wynd.] TRINITY COLLEGE. 303
near its site stands one of the fine and spacious
school houses erected for the School Board.
At the foot of Leith Wynd, on the west side,
there was founded on the 5th of March, 1462, by
royal charter, the collegiate church of the Holy
Trinity, by Mary, Queen of Scotland, daughter of
Arnold Duke of Gueldres, grand-daughter of John
Duke of Burgundy, and widow of James II., slain
about two years before by the bursting of a cannon
at Roxburgh. Her great firniness on that disastrous
occasion, and during the few remaining
years of her own life, proves her to have been a
princess of no ordinary
strength of
mind. She took
an active part in
goyerning the stormy
kingdom of her son,
and died in 1463.
Her early death may
account for the nave
never being built,
though it was not
unusual for devout
persons in that age
of church buliding,
to erect as much
as they could finish,
and leave to the
devotion of posterity
the completion of
the rest. Pitscottie
tells us that she OLD COLLEGIATE SEALS,
his office shall be adjudged vacant, and the same
shall, by the Provost and Chapter, with consent of
the Ordinary, be conferred upon another. If any
of the said prebendaries shall keep a $ye-maker,
and shall not dismiss her, after being therein admonished
thereto by the Provost, his prebend shall
be adjudged vacant, and conferred on another, by
consent of the Ordinary as aforesaid.
“ The Provost of the said college, whenever the
office of provostry shall become vacant, shall by
us and our successors, Kings of Scotland, be presented
to the Ordinary; and the vicars belonging
to the out-churches
aforesaid shall be
presented by the
Provost and Chapter
of the said college
to the Ordinary,
fromwhomtheyshall
receive canonical institution;
and no
prebendary shall be
instituted unless he
can read and sing
plainly, count and
discount, and that
the boys may be
found docile in the
premises. And we
further appoint and
ordain, that whenever
any of the said
‘RINITY COLLEGE CHURCH. prebendwies shall
“was buried in the
Trinitie College, quhilk she built hirself.” Her
grave was violated at the Reformation.
The church was dedicated “to the Holy Trinity,
to the ever blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, to
3t. Ninian the Confessor, and to all the saints and
elect people of God.” The foundation was for a
provost, eight prebendaries, and two clerks, and
with much minuteness several ecclesiastical benefices
and portions of land were assigned for the
support of the several offices ; and in the charter
there are some provisions of a peculiar character,
in Scotland at least, and curiously illustrative of
the age and its manners :-
“Aud we appoint that none of the said preben-
,daries or clerks absent themselves from their offices
without the leave of the Provost, to whom it shall
not be lawful to allow any of them above the space
of fifteen days at a time, unless it be on extraordiaary
occasions, and then not without consent of
the chapter ; and whosoever of the said prebendaries
or clerks shall act contrary to this ordinance,
iead mass,‘ he shall,
after the same, in his sacerdotal habits, repair to
the tomb of the foundress with hyssop, and there
read the prayer Dep-ofmdis, together with that of
the faithful, and exhortation to excite the people to
devotion.’’ .
Thechoir of this church from the apse to the
west enclosure of the rood tower was go feet long,
and 70 feet from transept to transept window ; the
north aisle was 12 feet broad, and the south g feet.
It is a tradition in masonry that the north aisles of
all Catholic churches were wider than the south,
to commemorate the alleged circumstance of the
Saviour‘s head, on the cross, falling on his right
shoulder. In digging the foundation of the Scott
monument, an old quarry 40 feet deep was discovered,
and from it the stones from which the
church was built were taken. With the exception
of Holyrood, it was the finest example of decorated
English Gothic architecture in the city, with many
of the peculiarities of the age to which it belonged.
Various armorial bearings adorned different parts](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p123.gif "Volume 2 Page 303")
... Leith Wynd.] TRINITY COLLEGE. 303
near its site stands one of the fine and spacious
school houses erected for the ...
Vol. 2 p. 303 (Rel. 0.29)
... Earl of, I. 101
Kincleven Lord 111. 221
King Ceo;ge's dstion, Leith Dock,
Kinghorn, Earl of, 11. ...
Vol. 6 p. 381 (Rel. 0.29)
... it was ordained that a passenger stage
between Leith and Edinburgh should have a fixed
place for ...
Vol. 2 p. 202 (Rel. 0.29)
![High Street.] THE REGENT MORTON. 259
the king‘s chamber j the lie was given, and a somewhat
ribald altercation followed, but nothing occurred
for nearly three weeks after, till Sir William
Stewart, when coming down the High Street with
a party of his friends, met Bothwell, accompanied
by the Master of Gray and others, going up.
A collision between two such parties was inevitable,
and, in the spirit of the times, unavoidable.
Sword and dagger were instantly resorted to, and
in the general fight Sir William Stewart slew a friend
of Bothwell’s, but in doing so lost his sword, and,
being defenceless, was compelled to fly into
Blackfriars Wynd. Thither the vengeful Bothwell
pursued him ; and as he stood unarmed against a
wall, “strake him in at the back and out at the
belly, and killed him.”
For this Bothwell found it necessary to keep
out of the way only for a few days ; and such
events so commonly occurred, that it is not curious
to find the General Assembly, exactly a week
after this combat, proceeding qnietly with the
usual work of choosiiig a Moderator, providing for
ministers, and denouncing Popery, exactly as they
do in the reign of Queen Victoria.
The next most remarkable event was in 1668,
when, on Saturday the 9th of July, James Sharpe,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, whose residence was
then in the Wynd, so narrowly escaped assassination.
His apostacy from the Covenant, and unrelenting
persecution of his former compatriots, its adherents,
had roused the bitterness of the people against
him. He was seated in his coach, at the head of
the Wynd, waiting for Andrew Honeyman, Bishop
of Orkney, when Mitchell, a fanatical assassin and
preacher, and bosom friend of the infamous Major
Weir, with whom he was then boarding in the
house of Mrs. Grise1 Whiteford in the Cowgate,
fired a pistol at the primate, but, missing him,
dangerously wounded the Bishop of Orkney. He
was immediately seized, and, with little regard
to morality or justice, put to the torture, without
eliciting any confession ; . and after two years
seclusion on the Bass Rock, he was brought to
Edinburgh in 1676, and executed in the Grassmarket,
to strike terror into the Covenanters ; but
history has shown that their hearts never knew
what terror was.
Sir William Honeyman, Bart., Lord Armadale in
1797, was the fourth in descent from the bishop
who was wounded on this occasion by a poisoned
bullet, as it is affirmed.
While much of the west side of Blackfriars
Wynd was left standing, the east, in the city improvements,
was completely swept away. On the
latter side, near the head of the wynd, was a
house with a decorated lintel, inscribed-IN. THE.
LORD. IS. MY. nom. 1564. The ground floor of
it consisted of one great apartment, the roof or
ceiling of which was upheld by a massive stone
column. This hall formed the meeting-place of
those who adhered to the Covenanted Kirk, after
the Revolution of 1688, and was long known as
“ The Auld Cameronian Meeting-house,” and in
the upper storey thereof tradition alleges that
Nicol Muschat, the murderer, lived, when a student‘
attending the university.
On the west side of the Wynd was the ancient
residence of the Earls of Morton, with a handsome
ogee door-head and elaborate mouldings, shafted
jambs, and in the tympanum of the lintel a
coroneted shield supported by unicorns, though
the arms of the family have always had two savages,
or wild men, hence the edifice is supposed to be of a
date anterior to the days of the Regent. Yet it is
distinctly described, in a disposition by Archibald
Douglas younger of Whittinghame, as “ that tenement
which was sometime the Earl of Morton’s,’’
from which, according to Wilson, it may be inferred
to have been the residence of his direct ancestor,
John second Earl of Morton, who sat in the Parliament
of James IV. in 1504, and whose grandson,
William Douglas of Whittinghame, was created
a senator of the College of Justice in 1575.
Tradition has unvaryingly alleged this house to
have been that of the Regent Morton, in those
days when the king‘s men and queen’s men were
fighting all over the city, and Kirkaldy of Grange
was bent upon driving him out of it ; and here no
doubt it was that he had his body-guard, which
was commanded by Alexander Montgomery the
poet, whom Melvil in his diary mentions as
“Captain Montgomery, a good honest man, and
the Regent‘s domestic ; ” and the house is often
referred to, during the, civil wars of that period,
before he attained the Regency.
While Lennox was in office, Morton projected
the assassination of the Laird of Drumquhasel, whom
the former confined to his residence in Leith as a
protection. This Morton deemed an affront to
himself, and prepared to leave Leith and the king‘s
standard together. ‘‘ Alarmed .by the probable
loss of the most influential earl of the house of
Douglas, the weak Regent, affecting to be ignorant
of his wrathful intentions, sent a servant to acquaint
him that ‘he meant to dine with him that day,’
‘ I am sorry I cannot have the high honour of his
lordship’s company,’ replied the haughty earl ; ‘ my
business is pressing, and obliges me to leave Leith
without even bidding him adieu.’ Lennox was](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p079.gif "Volume 2 Page 259")
... whom
the former confined to his residence in Leith as a
protection. This Morton deemed an affront ...
Vol. 2 p. 259 (Rel. 0.29)
![rrs PRISONERS. 7 127 The Talbooth.]
was sitting in the Tolbooth hearing the case of the
Laud of Craigmillar, who was suing a divorce
against his wife, the Earl of Bothwell forcibly
dragged out one of the most important witnesses,
and carrying him to his castle of Cricliton, eleven
miles distant, threatened to hang him if he uttered
a word.
On the charge of being a “ Papist,” among many
other prisoners in the Tolbooth in 1628, was the
Countess of Abercorn, where her health became
broken by confinement, and the misery of a
prison which, if it was loathsome in the reign of
George III., must have been something terrible in
the days orCharles I. In 1621 she obtained a
licence to go to the baths of Bristol, but failing
to leave the city, was lodged for six months in the
Canongate gaol. After she had been under restraint
in various places for three years, she was permitted
to remain ir. the earl’s house at Paisley, in March
1631, on condition that she “ reset no Jesuits,”
and to return if required under a penalty of 5,000
merks.
Taken seriatim, the records of the Tolbooth
contain volumes of entries made in the following
brief fashion :-
“1662, June 10.-John Kincaid put in ward
by warrant of the Lords of the Privy Council, for
‘ pricking of persons suspected of witchcraft anwarranfably.’
Liberated on finding caution not to
do so again.
“-June 10.-Robert Binning for falsehood ;
hanged with the false papers about his neck.
“--4ug. q.-Robert Reid for murder. His
head struck from his body at the mercat cross.
“- Dec. 4.-James Ridpath, tinker ; to be qhupitt
from Castle-hill to Netherbow, burned on the
cheek with the Toun’s common mark, and banished
the kicgdom, for the crime of double adultery.
‘‘ 1663, March ~g.-ATexander Kennedy; hanged
for raising false bonds and aritts.
“-March z I.-Aucht Qwakers; liberated, certifying
if again troubling the place, the next prison
shall be the Correction House.
“- July 8.-Katherine Reid ; hanged for
theft.
“-July &--Sir Archibald Johnston of Wamston;
treason. Hanged, his head cut off and placed
on the Netherbow.
“ - July I 8.-Bessie Brebner ; hansed for
murder.
‘I -Aug. zS.-The Provost of Kirkcudbright ;
banished for keeping his house during a tumult.
“ - Oct. 5.-William Dodds ; beheaded for
murder.”
And so on in grim monotony, till we come to
the last five entries in the old record, which is
quite incomplete.
1728, Oct. zs.-John Gibson; forging a
declaration, 18th January, 1727. His lug nailed
to the Tron, and dismissed.
‘( 1751, March 18.-Helen Torrance :md Jean
Waldie were executed this day, for stealing a child,
eight or nine years of age, and selling its body to
the surgeons for dissection. Alive on Tuesday when
carried OK, and dead on Friday, with an incision in
the belly, but sewn up again.
“ I 7 5 6, May 4.-Sir William Dalrymple of Cousland;
for shooting at Capt. Hen. Dalrymple of
Fordell, with a pistol at the Cross of Edinburgh.
Liberated’on 14th May, on bail for 6,000 merks,
to answer any complaint.
“ 1752, Jan. 10.-Norman Ross ; hanged and
hung in chains between Leith and Edinburgh, for
issassinating Lady Bailie, sister to Home of
Wedderburn.
‘ I 1757, Feb. 4.-Janies Rose, Excise Officer at
Muthill ; banished to America for forging receipts
for arrears.”
It was a peculiarity of the Tolbooth, that through
clanship, or some other influence, nearly every
criminal of rank confined in it achieved an escape.
Robert fourth Lord Burleigh, a half insane peer,
who was one of the commissioners for executing
the office of Lord Register in 1689, and who
married a daughter of the Earl of hfelville about
the time of the Union, assassinated a schoolmaster
who had married a girl to whom he had paid improper
addresses, was committed to the Tolbooth,
and sentenced to death; and of his first attempt
to escape the following story is told He was
carried out of the prison in a large trunk, to be
conveyed to Leith, on the back of a powerful
porter, who was to put hini on board a vessel
about to sail for the Continent. It chanced that
when slinging the trunk on his back, the porter
did so with Lord Burleigh‘s head doiwnnmost, thus
it had to sustain the weight of his whole body.
The posture was agony, the way long and rough,
but life was dear. Unconscious of his actual
burden, the porter reached the Netherbow Port,
where an acquaintance asked him “whither he
was going?” ‘:TO Leith,” was the reply. “ Is the
work good enough to afford a glass before going
farther?” was the next question. The porter said
it was; and tossed down the trunk with such
violence that it elicited a scream from Lord Burleigh,
who instantly fainted.
Scared and astounded, the porter wrenched open
the trunk, when its luckless inmate was found
cramped, doubled-up, and senseless. A crowd](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p139.gif "Volume 1 Page 127")
... Jan. 10.-Norman Ross ; hanged and
hung in chains between Leith and Edinburgh, for
issassinating Lady Bailie, ...
Vol. 1 p. 127 (Rel. 0.29)
![THE PRECEPTORY OF ST. ANTHONY. 215 Leith]
not making any deliberate assault ; but a pistol
shot was heard, and in a few minutes the Sieur de
la Roche lay dead, with a sword thrust in his body,
while Isaac had a finger nearly hewn OK
The guard now came on the scene, and Mowat
was found under an outer stair, with a bent sword
in his hand, bloody from point to hilt, his hand
wounded, and the sleeves of his coat stained with
blood. On seeing the dead body, he viewed it
without emotion, and merely remarked that he
wondered who had slain him.
The Master, Mowat, and James Sinclair the writer,
were all tried for the murder of Elias Poiret before
the Court of Justiciary, but the jury brought in a
verdict of not proven. The whole affair might
have been easily explained, but for heat of temper,
intemperance, and the ready resort to arms so usual
in those days. The three Frenchmen concerned in
it were Protestant refugees who were serving as
privates in the Scottish Life Guards. The Mastet
of Tarbet became Earl of Cromarty in 1714 and
survived the death of Poiret forty years. Two of
his sons, who were officers in the Scots-Dutch
Brigade, perished at sea, and his eldest, the third
and last Earl of Cromarty, was nearly brought to
Tower Hill in 1746 for his loyalty to the House of
Stuart.
No. 141 Kirkgate was long the place of business
of Mr. Alexander Watson, who is chiefly remarkable
as being the nephew and close correspondent
of a very remarkable man, who frequently resided
with him-Robert Watson, who was made Principal
of the Scots College at Paris by the Emperor
Napoleon I., an office which he held for six years.
It was to his nephew at Leith, after his escape to
Rome (having been tried at the Old Bailey as
President of a Corresponding Society), he confided
his discovery of a large mass of correspondence
known as “ The Stuart Papers,” which he
purchased (as stated in the Courunt for 1819.)
In one of his letters, dated London, 6th April,
1818, he states that they consist ofhalf a million of
pieces, and are valued at ~300,000. ‘‘ The Pope,
however, took military possession of them, under
the protest that they were of too much importance
to belong to a private individual. I protested
against the arbitrary proceedings of his Holiness.
The Prince Regent sent two ships of war to Civita
Vecchia to bring them to London, and they are
now in Carlton House.”
To his nephew in the Kirkgate he subsequently
wrote that a Royal Commissiolr under the Great
Seal (including Sir James Mackintosh) was a p
pointed to examine these valuable papers ; and in
1824 he wrote that amongst other things of some
value which have fallen into my possession, are the
carriage and tent-bed of Bonaparte, taken at the
battle of Waterloo. Further events will decide
to what purposes I may apply it (the carriage),
though it is probable I shall keep it for my own
use.”
This singular person committed suicide in 1838,
by strangling himself in a London tavern, in the
ninety-second year of his age--“a case of suicide,”
it was said, “unparalleled in the annals of sorrow.”
On the east side of the Kirkgate, to take the
edifices in succession there, there was founded by
Robert Logan of Restalrig, in 1435, a preceptory
for the canons of St. Anthony, the only establkhment
of the kind in Scotland.
Arnot, in his history, unthinkingly mentions ‘‘ the
monastery of Knights Templars of St. Anthony”
at Leith. These canons, says Chalmers, “ seem to
have been an order of religious knights, not
Templars. The only document in which they are
called Templars is a charter of James VI. in 1614,
giving away their establishment and revenues; and
this mistake of an ignorant clerk is wildly repeated
by Arnot.”
Their church, burying-ground, and gardens were
in St. Anthony’s Wynd, an alley off the Kirkgate ;
and the first community was brought from St
Anthony of Vienne, the seat of the order in France
They were formed in honour of St. Anthony, the
patriarch of monks, who was born at Coma, a
village of Heraclea on the borders of Arcadia, in
A.D.‘z~I, and whose sister was placed in the first
convent that is recorded in history. A hermit by
habit, he dwelt long in the ruins of an old castle
that overlooked the Nile; and after his death (said
to have been in 356) his body was deposited in the
church of La Motte St. Didier, at Vienne, when,
according to old traditions, those labouring under
the pest known as St. ,4nthony’s Fire-a species of
erysipelas-were miraculously cured by praying at
his shrine.
Gaston, a noble of Vienne, and his son Gironde,
filled with awe, we are told, by these wonderful
cures, devoted their lives and estates to found a
hospital for those who laboured under this disease,
and seven others joined them in their attendance
on the sick; and on these Hospitaller Brethren
Boniface VIII. bestowed the Benedictine Priory
of Vienne, giving them the rules of St. Austin, and
declaring the Abbot General of this new orderthe
Canons Regular of St, Anthony. The superiors
of the subordinate preceptones were called commanders,
says Alban Butler, “ and their houses are
called commandenes, as when they were Hospitallers”
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p034.gif "Volume 6 Page 215")
... PRECEPTORY OF ST. ANTHONY. 215 Leith ]
not making any deliberate assault ; but a pistol
shot was heard, and in ...
Vol. 6 p. 215 (Rel. 0.29)
... a serious affair,
i~ 1708.
In a drinking match in a tavern in Leith he
insisted on making his friend Mr. ...
Vol. 6 p. 319 (Rel. 0.29)
![Leith.] THE BARTONS. 203
is the second of the name, who died in 1513,
John the senior was certainly dead in 1508.
Charles, Duke of Burgundy, was so incensed by
the capture of the Juliuna in Flemish waters that
he demanded the surrender of Pret and Velasquez
to himself, with due compensation to Barton, but
failed in both cases. Joam 111. was then King of
Portugal.
Robert Barton would seem also at one time to
have faHen into the hands of the Portuguese ; and
there is extant a letter sent by James IV. to the
Emperor Maximilian, requesting his influenCe to
have him released from prison, and therein the
king refers to the quarrel of 1476, and merely
states that old John Barton was thrown into a prison
also.
In 1506, at a tournament held by James IV. in
Stirling, we read of a blackamoor girl, captured
from the Portuguese by Captain Barton, seated in
a triumphal chariot, being adjudged the prize of
the victor knight ; but the Bartons sent other gifts
to the king, in the shape of casks full of pickled
Portuguese heads.
In 1498, when Perkin Warbecli and his wife, the
Lady Katharine Gordon, left Scotland for Flanders,
they were on board a ship which, Tytler says, was
commanded by and afterwards the property of the
celebrated Robert Barton. Amongst her stores,
noted in the “.Treasurefs Accounts,” are ‘‘ ten tuns
and four pipes of wine, 8 bolls of aitmele, 18 marts
of beef, 23 muttons, and a hogshead of herring.”
Andrew Barton, the brother of the captain (and,
like him, a merchant in Leith), is mentioned as
having furnished biscuit, cider, and beer, for the
voyage.
In 1508 this family continued their feud with the
Portuguese. In that year Letters of Marque were
granted to them by James IV., and they run thus,
according to the “Burgh Records of Edinburgh ” :-
“]~callus Dei Gratia Rex Scatorurn, deZectis semit
o d u s nosiris. John Barton and Robert Barton,
sons of our late beloved servant John Barton, shipmaster,
and other shipmasters our lieges and subjects,
in company of the said John Barton for the
time (greeting) :
“ Some pirates of the nation of Portugal attacked
a ship of our late illustrious ancestor (James HI.),
which, under God, the late John commanded, and
with a fleet of many ships compelled it to surrender,
robbed it of its merchandise, of very great
value, and stripped it of its armament On account
of which, our most serene father transmitted his complaint
to the King of Portugal.” Justice not having
been done, the document runs, Jarnes 111. decreed
Letters of Reprisal against the Portuguese. “ We,
moreover, following the footsteps of our dearly
beloved ancestor . . . . . concede and grant by
these presents to you, John and Robert aforesaid,
and our other subjects who shall be in your company
for the time, our Letters of Marque or Reprisai,
that you may receive and bring back to us
from any men whomsoever of the nation of Portugal,
on account of the justice aforesaid being.
desired, to the extent of 3,000 crowns of money
of France . . . . Givenunder our Privy Seal, &c.”
Under these letters the brothers put to sea in
the quaint argosies of those days, which had low
waists with towering poops and forecastles, and
captured many Portuguese ships, and doubtless
indemnified themselves remarkably well ; while
their elder brother, Andrew, an especial favourite
of James IV., who bestowed upon him the then
coveted honour of knighthood, “ for upholding
the Scottish flag upon the seas,” was despatched
to punish some Dutch or Flemish pirates who had
captured certain Scottish ships and destroyed theircrews
with great barbarity. These he captured,
with their vessel, and sent all their heads to LeitL
in a hogshead.
As is well known, he was killed fighting bravely
in the Downs on the 2nd August, 1511, after a
severe conflict with the ships of Sir Thomas and Sir.
Edward Howard, afterwards Lord High Admiral of
England, when he had only two vessels with him,
the Lion of 36 great guns, and a sloop name$ the.
Jenny. The Howards had three ships of war and
an armed collier. The Lion was afterwards added
to the English navy, as she was found to be only
second in size and armament to the famous Great
Harry. His grandson Charles married Susan
Stedman of Edinburgh, and from them are said tobe
descended nearly all of that name in Fife, Kinross,
and Holland.
For his services as Admiral on the West Coast,
John Barton received the lands of Dalfibble ; and
in April, 1513, he returned from a diplomatic mission
to France, accompanied by the Unicorn Pursuivant;
and so important was its nature that he
took horse, and rode all night to meet the king,
who was then on the eve of departing for Flodden.
On the 26th of July in the Same year he joined
the squadron, consisting of the Great Michael, the
James, Marguret, the S/$ of Lynne (an English
prize), a thirty-oared galley, and fourteen other
armed ships, commanded by Gordon of Letterfourie
(and having on board the Earl of Arran and
3,000 soldiers), which sailed from Leith as a present
to Anne, Queen of France-a piece of ill-timed
generosity on the part of the princely Jarnes IV.,
who accompanied the armament as far as the Isle](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p022.gif "Volume 6 Page 203")
... Leith .] THE BARTONS. 203
is the second of the name, who died in 1513,
John the senior was certainly dead in ...
Vol. 6 p. 203 (Rel. 0.29)
... that enormity so
ARIS. 0. LORD-MAIRIORIE.ROGER. 1573.
Leith , and in the summer of the same year he was
made ...
Vol. 2 p. 277 (Rel. 0.29)
... named the Salt Backet, which
ran between the head of Leith Street and the Low
Calton, and by this avenue, in ...
Vol. 3 p. 178 (Rel. 0.28)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
memorials of still earlier fabrics here and there
meet the eye, and carry back ...
Vol. 6 p. 214 (Rel. 0.28)
![Newhaven. ] HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 299
Newhaven was deemed a place of much more
importance in those days,than it has been in subsequent
times.
Thus, in 1554, the works then occupied the
attention of the Provost and Council repeatedly.
In February that year A500 was given for timber
to repair the harbour, to be taken with a portion
of the tax laid on the town for building forts upon
the Borders ; and in 1555 we read of timber again
for Newhaven, brought there by Robert Quintin,
but which was sold by the advice of Sir William
Macdowall, master of the works. (“Burgh Records?’)
In the Burgh Account, under date 1554-5, we
find some references to the locality, thus t
“Item, the vj day of July, 1555, for cords to
bind and hang the four Inglismen at Leyth and
Newhaven, iijs.
“ Item, geven to Gorge Tod, Adam Purves, and
ane servand, to mak ane gibbet at Newhaven, in
haist and evil wedder (weather), 4s.
“ Item, for garroun and plansheour naillis, xxd.
“ Item, for drink to them at Newhaven, vj4
“Item, to twa workmen to beir the wrychtis
lomis to the Newhevin and up again, and to beir
the work and set up the gibbet, xxd.”
In the same year extensive works seem to have
been in operation, as, by the Burgh Accounts,
they appear to have extended from August to
November, under Robert Quintin, master of the
works. The entries for masons’ wages, timber
work, wrights’ wages, “ on Saiterday at evin to thair
supperis,” are given in regular order. John Arduthy
in Leith seems to have contracted for the “ standarts
to the foir face of the Newhevin;” and for
the crane there, eighteen fathoms of “Danskin tow”
(rope), were purchased fram Peter Turnett’s wife,
at tenpence the fathom.
John Ahannay and Geoge Bennet did the smithwork
at the crane, bulwarks, and worklooms. The
works at Newhaven, commenced in August, 1555,
under John Preston, as City Treasurer, were continued
till the middle of December eventually, under
Sir John Wilson, “master of work at the Newhevin,”
when they were suspended during winter and resumed
in the spring of 1556 ; and “ drink silver,”
to all the various trades engaged, figures amply
among the items. (“ Burgh Accounts.”)
In 1573 the Links of Newhaven were let by the
city, at an annual rent of thirty merks per annum
as grazing ground, thus showing that they must
then have been about the extent of those at Leith.
In 1595 they only produced six merks, and from
this rapid fall Maitland supposes that the sea had
made extensive encroachments on the ground ; and
as they are now nearly swept away, save a space
500 yards by 250, at the foot of the Whale Brae,
we may presume that his conjecture was a correct
one.
Kincaid states that at one period Newhaven had
Links both to the east and west of it. Even
the road that must have bordered the east Links
was swept away, and for years a perilous hole,
known as the ‘‘ Man-trap,” remained in the placea
hole in which, till recently, many a limb was
fractured and many a life lost.
In one of the oldest houses in Newhaven, nearly
opposite the burial-ground, there is a large sculp
tured pediment of remarkable appearance. It is
surmounted by a thistle, with the motto Nemo me
impune Zacessit, on ,a scroll, and the date 1588, a
three-masted ship, with the Scottish ensign at each
truck, pierced for sixteen guns, and below the
motto, in Roman letters,
IN THE NUM OF GOD.
Below this again is a deeply-cut square panel,
decorated with a pair of globes, a quadrant, cross,
staff, and anchor; and beneath these part of the
motto “ Yirtzte sydera ’ may, upon very close examination,
still be deciphered; but the history of
the stone, or of the house to which it belonged, is
unknown.
Some hollows near the p?ace were known as the
Fairy Holes, and they are mentioned in the indictment
of Eufame McCulzane for witchcraft, who is
stated to have attended a convention of witches
there in 1591, and also at others called the “Brume
Hoillis,” where she and many other witches, with
the devil in company, put to sea in riddles.
In 1630 and 1631 we find from “Dune’s Decisions,”
James Drummond, tacksman to the Lord
Holyroodhouse, of the Tiend Fishes of Newhaven,
(‘ pursuing spulzie ,’ against the fishers there.
The year 1630 was the first year of the tack, and
the fishermen alleged that they had been in use to
pay a particular duty, that was condescended an,
“ of all years preceding this year now acclaimed.”
The Lords found there was no necessity to grant
an inhibition, and reserved to themselves the modification
of the duty or quantity to be paid.
Newhaven gave the title of Viscount to an
English family who never had any connection with
the place, when in 1681 Charles 11. raised to the
peerage of Scotland Charles Cheyne, of Cogenho,
in Middlesex (dcscended from an ancient family in
Buckinghamshire), with the titles of ‘‘ Lord Cheyne
and Viscount Newhaven, near Leith, in the county
of Midlothian,” by patent dated at Windsor. His
son, the second Viscount Newhaven, who was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Bucks by Queen](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p118.gif "Volume 6 Page 299")
... are given in regular order. John Arduthy
in Leith seems to have contracted for the “ standarts
to ...
Vol. 6 p. 299 (Rel. 0.28)
... and
nearly absorbed village on the banks of the Water
of Leith , which is there crossed by a narrow ...
Vol. 5 p. 90 (Rel. 0.28)
... at Edinburgh, to join the
DK. JOHN HOPE. (AferKay.)
leith , whose castle in those days would be quite
visible ...
Vol. 2 p. 364 (Rel. 0.28)
... as many towns and villages as he could; to
sack Leith , burn, and subvert it, and all the rest ...
Vol. 1 p. 43 (Rel. 0.28)
... from the Parliament Square to Holyrood,
and thence to Leith , wbere they shot for the
Edinburgh Arrow, and ...
Vol. 4 p. 354 (Rel. 0.28)
![The Water of Leith.] DANIEL STEWART. 67
with sword and sash, wig and cocked hat, queue
and ruffles. After looking at him steadily, but sadly,
the figure melted away; and, as usual with such
spectral appearances, it is alleged young Nisbet was
shot at the same moment, in an encounter with the
colonists.
In 1784 the Dean House was the residence of
Thomas Miller, Lord Barskimming, and Lord
Justice Clerk. In 1845 it was pulled down, when
the ground whereon it had stood so long was
acquired by a cemetery company, and now-save
the sculptured stones we have described--no relic
remains of the old Nisbets of Dean but their burial
place at the West Church-a gloomy chamber of
the dead, choked up with rank nettles and hemlock.
By 1881 the old village of Dean was entirely
cleared away. Near its centre stood the blacksmith’s
forge of Robert Orrock, who was indicted for
manufacturing pikes for the Friends of the People
in 1792. He and his friend, Arthur McEwan,
publican in Dean Side, Water of Leith village,
were legally examined at the time, and it is supposed
that many of the pikes were thrown into the
World’s End Pool, below the waterfall at the
Damhead. South of the smithy was the village
school, long taught by “ auld Dominie Fergusson.”
North of it stood the old farmhouse and steading
of the Dean Farm, all swept away like the quaint
old village, which’was wont to be a bustling place
when the commander-in-chief of the forces in
Scotland tenanted the Dean, and mounted orderlies
came galloping up the steep brae, and often reined
up their horses at the “Speed the Plough” alehouse,
before the stately gate.
Somewhere in the immediate vicinity of this
old village a meeting-house was erected in 1687
for the Rev. David Williamson, of St. Cuthbert’s,
who was denounced as a rebel, and intercommuned
in 1674 for holding conventicles, but was sheltered
secretly in the Dean House by Sir Patrick Nisbet.
In 1689 he was restored to his charge at the West
Church, and was one of the commissioners sent to
congratulate King William on his accession to the
throne.
Now all the site of the village and farms, and
the land between them and the Dean Bridge, is
covered by noble streets, such as Buckingham
Terrace and Belgrave Crescent, the position of
which is truly grand. In 1876 a movement was
se: on foot by the proprietors of this crescent, led
by Sir James Falshaw, Bart, then Lord Provost,
which resulted in the purchase of the ground between
it and the Dean village, at a cost of about
A5,ooo. In that year it was nearlyall covered by
kitchen gardens, ruinous buildings, and brokendown
fences. These and the irregularities of the
place have been removed, while the natural undulations,
which add such beauty to the modem
gardens, have been preserved, and the plantations
and walks are laid out with artistic effect,
The new parish church-which was built in
1836, in the Gothic style, for accommodation of
the inhabitants of the Water of Leith village1 and
those of the village of Dean-stands on the western
side of the old Dean Path.
Farther westward is Stewart’s Hospital, built in
1849-53, after designs by David Rhind, at a cost
of about ~30,000, in a mixture of the latest
domestic Gothic, with something of the old castellated
Scottish style. It comprises a quadrangle,
about 230 feet in length by IOO feet in minimum
breadth, and has two main towers, each 120 feet
high, with several turrets.
Mr. Daniel Stewart, of the Scottish Exchequer,
who died in 1814, left the residue of his property,
amounting (after the erection and endowment of a
free school in his native parish of Logieraitj to
about ;G13,000, with some property in the old
town, to accumulate for the purpose of founding a
hospital for the maintenance of boys, the children
of honest and industrious parents, whose circumstances
do not enable them suitably to support and
educate their children at other schools. Poor boys
of the name of Stewart and Macfarlane, resident
within Edinburgh and the suburbs, were always
to have a preference. The age for admission was
to be from seven to ten, and that for leaving at
fourteen .
The Merchant Company, as governors, taking
advantage of the powers given them by the provisional
order obtained in 1870, opened the hospital
as a,day school in the September of that
year. The education provided is of a very superior
order, qualifying the pupils for commercial
or professional life, and for the universities. The
course of study includes English, Latin, Greek,
French, German, and all the usual branches, including
drill, fencing, and gymnastics.
The Orphan Hospital at the Dean was erected
in 1833, after elegant designs by Thomas Hamilton,
at a cost of A16,000, in succession to the
older foundation, which we have already described
as standing eastward of the North Bridge, on the
site of the railway terminus. It comprises a large
central block, with two projecting wings, a portico
of Tuscan columns, and two light, elegant quadrangular
towers with arches, and has within its
clock-turret on the summit of its front the ancient
clock of the Nether Bow Port.
Its white facade stands boldly and pleasingly](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p078.gif "Volume 5 Page 67")
... Water of Leith .] DANIEL STEWART. 67
with sword and sash, wig and cocked hat, queue
and ruffles. After looking ...
Vol. 5 p. 67 (Rel. 0.28)
![The Castle Hill.] THE DUKE OF GORDON’S HOUSE. 89
ter of the Duke of Norfolk and wife of Duke
George, who SO gallantly defended the Castle
against the troops of William of Orange; during
the lifetime of the duke she retired to a Belgian
convent, but afterwards returned to the old mansion
in Edinburgh, where she frequently resided till
her death, which took place at the abbey in 1732,
life, destroyed utterly the ancient Gothic fireplace,
which was very beautiful in its design.
This house is mentioned in the “Diurnal of
Occurrents” as being, in 1570, the residence of
~ Patrick Edgar; and after it passed from the Gordons
it was possessed by the family of Newbyth,
who resided in it for several generations, and
ALLAA RAMSAY’S HOUSE.
sixteen years after that of the duke at Leith.
The internal fittings of the mansion are in many
respects unchanged since its occupation by the
duchess. It is wood-panelled throughout, and
one large room which overlooks the Esplanade. is
decorated with elaborate carvings, and with a large
painting over the mantelpiece the production of
Norrie, a famous housedecorator of the eighteenth
century, whose genius for landscapes entitles him
to a place among Scottish painters. An explosion
of gunpowder which took place in the basement
of the house, in 1811, attended with serious loss of
12
therein, on the 6th December, 1757, was born
the gallant Sir David Baird, Bart., the hero of
Seringapatam and conqueror of Tippoo Saib ; and
therein he was educated and brought up. Returning
years after, he visited the place of his birth,
which had long since passed into other hands.
Chambers relates that the individual then occupying
the house received the veteran hero with great
respect, and, after showing him through it, ushered
him into the little garden behind, where some boys
were engaged in mischievously throwing cabbage
stalks at the chimneys of the Grassmarket. On](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p101.gif "Volume 1 Page 89")
... HOUSE.
sixteen years after that of the duke at Leith .
The internal fittings of the mansion are in ...
Vol. 1 p. 89 (Rel. 0.28)
... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -172
CHAPTER XXIV.
ELDER STREET- LEITH STREET-BROUGHTON ...
Vol. 4 p. 388 (Rel. 0.27)
![Holyrood.] SUCCESSION. OF ABBOTS. 47
between Randolph the famous’ Earl of Moray and
Sir William Oliphant, in connection with the forfeited
estate of William of Monte Alto. Another
species of Parliament was held at Holyrood on
the 10th of February, in the year 1333-4, when
Edward 111. received the enforced homage of his
creature Baliol.
XVI. JOHN II., abbot, appears as a witness to
three charters in 1338, granted to William of
Livingston, William of Creighton, and Henry of
Brade (Braid?).
XVII. BARTHOLOMEW, abbot in 1342.
XVIII. THOMAS, abbot, witnessed a charter to
William Douglas of that ilk, Sir James of Sandilands,
and the Lady Elenora Bruce, relict of Alexander
Earl of Carrick, nephew of Robert I., of the
lands of the West Calder. On the 8th of May,
1366, a council was held at Holyrood, at which the
Scottish nobles treated with ridicule and contempt
the pretensions of the kings of England, and sanctioned
an assessment for the ransom of David II.,
taken prisoner at the battle of Durham. That
monarch was buried before the high altar in 1371,
and Edward 111. granted a safe conduct to certain
persons proceeding to Flanders to provide for the
tomb in which he was placed.
XIX. JOHN III., abbot on the 11th of January,
~372. During his term of office, John of Gaunt
Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III., was
hospitably entertained at Holyrood, when compelled
to take flight from his enemies in England.
XX. DAVID, abbot on the 18th of January, in
the thirteenth year of Robert 11. The abbey was
burned by the armyof Richard 11. whose army
encamped at Restalrig; but it was soon after
repaired. David is mentioned in a charter dated
at Perth, 1384-5.
XXI. JOHN (formerly Dean of Leith) was abbot
on the 8th of May, 1386. His name occurs in
several charters and other documents, and for the
last time in the indenture or lease of the Canonmills
to the city of Edinburgh, 12th September,
1423. In his time Henry IV. spared the monastery
in gratitude for the kindness of the monks to
his exiled father John of Gaunt.
XXII. PATRICK, abbot 5th September, 1435.
In his term of office James II., who had been born
in the abbey, was crowned there in his sixth year,
on the 25th March, 1436-7; and anothet high
ceremony was performed in the same church when
Mary of Gueldres was crowned -as Queen Consort
in July, 1449. In the preceding year, John Bishop
of Galloway elect became an inmate of the abbey,
and was buried in the cloisters.
XXIII. JAMES, abbot 26th April, 14~0.
XXIV. ARCHIBALD CRAWFORD, abbot in 1457.
He was son of Sir William‘ Crawford of Haining,
and had previously been Prior of Holytood. In
1450 he was one of the commissioners who treated
with the English at Coventry concerning a truce ;
and again in 1474, concerning a marriage between
James Duke of Rothesay and the Princess Cecile,
second daughter of Edward IV. of England. He
was Lord High Treasurer of Scotland in 1480.
He died in 1483. On the abbey church (according
to Crawford) his arms were carved niore than
thirty times. “He added the buttresses on the
walls of the north and south aisles, and probably
built the rich doorway which opens into the north
aisle.” Many finely executed coats armorial are
found over the niches, among them Abbot Crawford’s
frequently- fesse ermine, with a star of five
points, in chief, surmounted by an abbot’s mitre
resting on a pastoral staff.
XXV. ROBERT BELLENDEN, abbot in 1486,
when commissioner concerning a truce with
England. He was still abbot in 1498, and his
virtues are celebrated by his namesake, the archdean
of Moray, canon of ROSS, and translator of
Boece, who says ‘‘ he left the abbey, and died ane
Chartour-monk.” In 1507 the Papal legate presented
James IV., in the name of Pope Julius II.,
in the church, amid a brilliant crowd of nobles,
with a purple crown adorned by golden lilies, and
a sword of state studded with gems, which is still
preserved in the Castle of Edinburgh. He also
brought a bull, bestowing upon James the title of
Defender of the Faith. Abbot Bellenden, in 1493,
founded a chapel in North Leith, dedicated to St.
Ninian, latterly degraded into a victual granary
The causes moving the abbot to build this chapei,
independent of the spiritual wants of the people,
were manifold, as set forth in the charter of
erection. The bridge connecting North and South
Leith, over which he levied toll, was erected at the
same time.
XXVI. GEORGE CRICHTOUN, abbot in 1515,
and Lord Privy Seal, was promoted to the see of
Uunkeld in 1528. As we have recorded elsewhere,
he was the founder of the Hospital of St. Thomas,
near the Water Gate. An interesting relic of his
abbacy exists at present in England.
About the year 1750, when a grave was being
dug in the chancel of St Stephen’s church, St.
Albans, in Hertfordshire, there was found buried
in the soil an ancient lectern bearing his name, and
which is supposed to have been concealed there at
some time during the Civil Wars. It is of cast
brass, and handsonie in design, consisting of an eagle
with expanded wings, supported by a shaft deco-
The piers still remain.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p059.gif "Volume 3 Page 47")
... dated
at Perth, 1384-5.
XXI. JOHN (formerly Dean of Leith ) was abbot
on the 8th of May, 1386. His name ...
Vol. 3 p. 47 (Rel. 0.27)
![Newhaven.] FISHER FEUD WITH PRESTONPANS 301
men of the town of Edinburgh, and Lady Greenwich,
on one part, and certain fishermen of
Prestonpans on the other. The point in dispute is
certain oyster scalps, to which each party claims an
exclusive right. Accusations of encroachment were
mutually given and retorted. At dredging, when
the parties met, much altercation and abusive
language took place-bloody encounters ensued,
but only occurs in the Tmendas, like hawkings,
huntings, or other words of style.
“ After various representations to the Judge-
Admiral, his lordship pronounced an interlocutor,
ordaining both parties to produce their prescriptive
rights to their fishings, and prohibited them from
dredging oysters in any of the scalps in dispute till
the issue of the cause.
November 10, 1786, in virtue of which his lordship
was infeft, interaZia, in the oyster scalps in question.
They also condescended on a charter granted by
King James VI., in 1585, to the town of Burntisland,
which is on record, and which they say establishes
their right. They further contend that the magistrates
have produced no proper titles to prove
their exclusive right to the scalps they have let in
tack to the Newhaven fishermen.
“The charter of King James VI. was resigned
,by the town in the time of Charles I,, and the new
charter granted by the latter, gives no right to the
oyster scalps in dispute. The word ‘fishings,’ in
was abolished in defiance of the principles of the
Treaty of Union) in favour of the Newhaven men;
but each party had to pay their own expenses.
So far back as 1789 we begin to read of the
encroachments made by the sea in this quarter, and
probably of what was afterwards so long known as
the “ Man-trap,” as the Advertiser mentions that ‘‘ a
young lady coming from Newhaven to Leith fell
over the precipice on the side of the sea,’’ and
that within six weeks the same catastrophe had
befallen four others, ‘‘ the road being so narrow
and dangerous that people at night run a great risk
of their lives”](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p120.gif "Volume 6 Page 301")
... that ‘‘ a
young lady coming from Newhaven to Leith fell
over the precipice on the side of the ...
Vol. 6 p. 301 (Rel. 0.27)
... In another case, reported by the same
lord in 1710, he appears as Dean of Guild in
a case against certain ...
Vol. 5 p. 46 (Rel. 0.27)
... weight, was removed from the Old
Weigh House at Leith , and lodged in the outer
aisle of the old church ...
Vol. 1 p. 186 (Rel. 0.27)
... issued from the Nether
Bow Gate, and fled towards Leith , but were met
midway by the inhabitants of that ...
Vol. 2 p. 331 (Rel. 0.27)
... contest took place at
the back of the Black Rocks, near Leith Harbour,
between a boat’s crew belonging to ...
Vol. 6 p. 300 (Rel. 0.26)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Wynd.
housses, biggins, and yards adjacent thereto, and
by and contigue to the ...
Vol. 2 p. 306 (Rel. 0.26)
... of
bailie over their lands of St. Leonard’s, in the town
of Leith , “from the end of the great volut ...
Vol. 3 p. 54 (Rel. 0.26)
... the year 1716, at his residence in the citadel of
Leith .
The Castle was once more fully repaired, ...
Vol. 1 p. 65 (Rel. 0.26)
... the
zgrd of March. He took his passage on board the
Leith smack Endeavorfr for that port, disguised as
an ...
Vol. 1 p. 115 (Rel. 0.26)
![Newhaven.] “OUR LADY’S PORT OF GRACE.” 295
1815 it was changed to a revolving light, as at
present. Its elevation is 235 feet above the waterline.
On the 1st October, 1835, thereflecting light was
discontinued, and a dioptric light was put in its
place, It consists of seven annular lenses, which
circulate round a great lamp having three concentric
wicks and produce brilliant flashes once in
every minute, and of five rows of curved mirrors,
which, being fixed, serve to prolong the duration
of the flashes from the lenses. The appearance of
the new light does not, therefore, differ materially
from that of the old one-save that the flashes
which recur at the same periods, are considerably
more brilliant, and of shorter duration. In clear
weather the light is not totally eclipsed between
the flashes at a distance of four or five miles, and
it is visible at the distance of eighteen nautical
miles. . The expense of this lighthouse in 1839 was
The old light of 1803~ with all its apparatus, was
purchased by the Government of Newfoundland,
and is still in use on Cape Spear, near the Narrows
of St. John.
A467 14s. sd.
C H A P T E R XXV.
NEWHAVEN.
Cobbett on Edinburgh-Jam- IV.5 Dockyard -Hi Gift or Newhaven to Edinburgh-The Gnat Mick&Embarkation of Mary of G b
Works at Newhaven in the Sixteenth Century-The L i V k u n t Newhaven-The Feud with Preston-The Sea Fencibles-
Chain Pier-Dr. Fairbairn-The Fishwives-Superstitions.
IT may not be uninteresting to quote, the ideas
entertained of Edinburgh by an English visitor in
the first years of the nineteenth century, as he was
-in his time-considered a typical John Bull,
I now come back to this delightful and beautiful
city,” wrote William Cobbett in his RegWr.
I thought Bristol, taking in its heights and Clifton
with its rocks and river, was the finest city in the
world; but it is nothing to Edinburgh, with its
castle, its hills, its pretty little seaport detached
from it, its vale of rich land lying all around, its
lofty hills in the background, its views across the
Firth. I think little of its streets and its rows of
fine houses, though all built of stone, and though
everything in London and Bath is begary to these ;
I thing nothing of Holyrood House ; but I think a
great deal of the fine and well-ordered streets of
shops ; of the regularity which you perceive everywhere
in the management of business ; and I think
still more of the absence of that foppishness and
that affectation of carelessness and insolent assumption
of superiority in almost all the young men you
meet in the fashionable parts of the great towns in
England. I was not disappointed, for I expected
to find Edinburgh the finest city in the kingdom. . . . The people, however, still exceed the
place; here all is civility; you do not meet with
rudeness, or with the want of disposition to oblige,
even in the persons of the lowest state of life. A
fiend took me round the environs of the city ; he
had a turnpike ticket, received at the first gate,
which cleared five or six gates. It was sufficient
for him to tell the gate-keepers that he had it.
When I saw that, I said to myself, ‘Nota bene:
gate keepers take people’s wordin Scotland,’ a thing
I have not seen before since I left Long Island.”
Now its seaport is no longer (‘ detached,” but has
become an integral part of Edinburgh, and all the
vale of rich land” between it and the Forth to
Granton, Trinity, and Newhaven, is covered by a
network of fine roads and avenues, bordered by
handsome villas.
Newhaven now conjoined to Leith, and long
deemed only a considerable fishing village, lies two
miles north of Princes Street, and yet consists
chiefly of the ancient village \;hich is situated,
quoad civilia, in the parish of North Leith, and
whose inhabitants are still noted as a distinct community,
rarely intermarrying with any other class.
The male inhabitants are almost entirely fishermen,
and the women are employed in selling the produce
of their husbands’ industry in the streets of the city
and suburbs. Intermarriage seems to produce
among them a peculiar cast of countenance and
physical constitution. The women, inured to outdoor
daily labour in all weathers, are robust, active,
and remarkable for their florid complexions, healthy
figures, and regular features, as for the singularity of
their costume.
In the fifteenth century this village was designated
“ Our Lady’s Port of Grace,” from a chapel dedicated
to the Virgin Mary and St. James, some
portions of which still exist in the ancient or
unused burial-ground of the centre of the village.
The nearly entire west gable, with a square window
in it, can still be seen in the Vennel, a narrow](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p114.gif "Volume 6 Page 295")
... bordered by
handsome villas.
Newhaven now conjoined to Leith , and long
deemed only a considerable fishing ...
Vol. 6 p. 295 (Rel. 0.26)
![Chongrte.] A LEGEND BY SIR WALTER SCOT‘I’. 5 -
when the Castle of Duiiglass was blown up by
gunpowder.
An old house at the head of the Canongate, on
the north side, somewhere in the vicinity of Coull’s
Close, but now removed, was always indicated as
being the scene of that wild story which Scott
relates in his notes to the fifth canto of ‘‘ Rokeby,”
and in his language we prefer to give it here.
He tells us that ‘( about the beginning of the
eighteenth century, when the large castles of the
Scottish nobles, and even the secluded hotels,
hke those of the French noblesse, which they
had each 40,000 merks Scots as a fortune, their
uncle, the Earl of Argyle, being cautioner for the
payment, “for relief whereof he got the wadset of
Lochaber and Badenoch” Lady Jean, a third
daughter, was also married in the ensuing January,
with a fortune of 30,000 merks, to Thomas, Earl
of Haddington, who perished in the following year,
bearers insisted upon his being blindfolded. The
request was enforced by a cocked pistol, and
submitted to ; but in the course of the discussion
he conjectured, from the phrases employed by the
chairmen, and from some parts of their dress not
completely concealed by their cloaks, that they
were greatly above the menial station they had
assumed. After many turnings and windings the
chair was carried upstairs into a lodging, where his
eyes were uncovered, and he was introduced into
a bed-room, where he found a lady nen-ly delivered
of an infant, and he was commanded by his
possessed in Edinburgh, were sometimes the scenes.
of strange and mysterious transactions, a divine of
singular sanctity was called up at midnight to pray
with a person at the point of death. This was no
unusual summons ; but what followed was alarming-
He was put into a sedanchair, and after he had
been transported to a remote part of the town the
EAST END OF HIGH STREET, NETHER BOW, AND WEST END OF CANONGATE. (Frmn G d w ofRofhiemay’r Mu!.)
48, Blackfriars Wynd : 49, l’odrig‘s Wynd ; 50, Gay’s Wynd ; 51, St. Mary’s Wynd : 58, Leith Wynd ; 8, Suburbs of the Canongate : g, High
Street : 14, The Nether How ; h, The Nether-bow Port; 18, The Flesh Stocks in the Goongate.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p017.gif "Volume 3 Page 5")
... Wynd ; 50, Gay’s Wynd ; 51, St. Mary’s Wynd : 58, Leith Wynd ; 8, Suburbs of the Canongate : g, ...
Vol. 3 p. 5 (Rel. 0.25)
![High Street.] PHILIP STANFIELD. 281
(presumed) Custom House of ice^ running out of it,
with something under his coat. There can be no
doubt that this was the murderer, and the description
given coincided exactly with the appearance
of Mackoull, Although the boy heard of the murder
before he lkft Leith, he never thought of communicating
what he had seen to the authorities ; he was
shortly after captured and carried to a French prison,
where he remained for many years. Mackoull resided
in Edinburgh from September, 1805, till the
end of 1806, lodging very near the scene of the
murder, and was a frequent visitor at the coffee-
It was raised from the grave, after it had lain
there two days, and the surgeons having made an
incision near the neck, became convinced that
death had been caused by strangulation, so all
supposition of suicide was abandoned. This examination
took place in a church. After the cut
had been sewn up, the body was washed, wrapped
in fresh linen, and James Row, merchant in Edini
burgh, and Philip Stanfield, the disinherited son,
lifted it for deposition in the coffin, when 10 ! on
the side sustained by Philip an effusion of blood
took place, and so ample as to defile both his hands.
printers and publishers.
The World’s End Close was the curious and
appropriate name bestowed upon the last gloomy,
and mysterious-looking alley on the south side of
the High Street, adjacent to the Netherbow Port,
when it lost its oXer name of Sir John Stanfield’s
Close.
At the foot of it an ancient tenement, has a shield
of arms on its lintel, .with the common Edinburgh
legend-“Praisze. the. Lord. for.all.His.giftis,M.S. ;I’
but save this, and a rich Gothic niche, built into a
modern “land ” of uninteresting aspect, nothing remains
of Stanfield‘s Close save the memory of the
dark tragedy connected with the name of the knight.
Sir Jaines Stanfield was one of those English manufacturers
who, by permission of the Scottish Government,
had settled at Newmills, in East Lothian.
He was a respectable man, but the profligacy of
Philip, his eldest son, so greatly afflicted him that
he became melancholy, and he disinherited his heir
by a will. On a day in the November of 1687 he
was found drowned, it wafi alleged, in a pool of
water near his country house at Newmills. Doubts
were started as to whether he had committed
suicide, in consequence of domestic troubles, or had
been murdered. The circumstances of his being
hastily interred, and that Lady Stanfield had a suit
of graveclothes all ready for him before his death,
‘seemed to point to the latter; and two surgeons
“ Tiditions and Antiquities of Leith.”
36
November, 1806, Mackoull was seized with convulsions,
and threw himself back on his bed and
began to rave.
Tweeddale House, after being quitted by the
British Linen Company for their new office in St.
after handled by the murtherar, it will ;ushe out of
blood, as if the blood were crying to heaven for
revenge of the murtherar.”
Accordingly, on the 7th of February, 1688,
Philip was brought to trial at Edinburgh, and after
the household servants had been put to torture
without eliciting anything on the strength of the
mysterious bleeding, according to Fountainhall, save
that he was known to have cursed his father, drunk
to the king’s confusion, and linked the royal name
with those of the Pope, the devil, and Lord Chancellor,
he was sentenced to death. He protested
his innocence to the last, and urged in vain that
his father was a melancholy man, subject to fits;
that once he set out for England, but because his
horse stopped at a certain place, he thought he saw
the finger of God, and returned home ; and that he
once tried to throw himself over a window at the
Nether Bow, probably at his house in the World’s
End Close.
Philip Stanfield was hanged at the Market Cross
on the 24th of February. In consequence of a slip
of the rope, he came down on his knees, and it was
necessary to use more horrible means of strangulation
His tongue was cut out for cursing his
father ; his right hand was struck off for parricide ;
his head was spiked on the East Port of.Haddington,
and his mutilated body was hung in chains
between L.eith and the city. After a few days the
body was stolen fiom the gibbet, and found lying
in a ditch among water. It was chained up again,
time groaning in great anguish, and refusing to
touch the corpse again, while all looked on with
dismay. The incident was at once accepted by
the then Scottish mind in the light of a revelation
of Philip’s guilt as his father’s murderer. “In a
Andrew Square, became, and is still, the establish- 3 I ment of Messrs. Oliver and Boyd, t!ie well-known
secret niurther,” says King James in his ‘ Damonology’-“
if the dead carkasse be at any time there](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p101.gif "Volume 2 Page 281")
... Although the boy heard of the murder
before he lkft Leith , he never thought of communicating
what he had ...
Vol. 2 p. 281 (Rel. 0.25)
... Drumsheugh, says
another account; between the city and Leith at the
Gallowlee, according to a third, with the ...
Vol. 1 p. 117 (Rel. 0.25)
... or &ipelas,
111. 215 216
St. Anthoiy's Hermitage, I. m, 11.
303, 19, 111. 216
St. Ant%ony's ...
Vol. 6 p. 389 (Rel. 0.25)
![Leith Walk.] THE REV. JOHN KELLOE. I55
of sand, much of it was carted away, and, with the
ashes of the malefactors of centuries, converted into
mortar, and used in the erection of the New Town.
So far from being a knoll, the place is now a hollow.
It is related that, every day while the carts were
taking away the sand, the proprietor of the knoll
stood regularly at the place receiving the money in
return, and “every little sum he got was converted
into liquor, and applied to the comfort of his inner
man. A public-house was at length erected oe the
spot for his particular behoof; and, assuredly, as
long as the Gallow Lee lasted this house did not
want custom, Perhaps, familiar as the reader may
be with stories of sots who have drunk away their
last coin, he never before heard of this thing being
done in so literal a manner.”
It immediately adjoined the place known as
Shrub Hill. Ordinary malefactors were hanged at
the Cross in the Grassmarket, or on the shore of
Leith ; but the Gallow Lee was latterly the special
place for the execution of witches, and for hanging
in chains the bodies of those who had committed
great crimes. Sometimes only a hand or other limb
was gibbeted here, while the rest of the body was
buried elsewhere. Among the most noted executions
and gibbetings here, we may add the following
to those which have been referred to incidentally
elsewhere in our pages :-
Crawford of Drumsoy records that two criminals
were burned to death here in 1570; and then he
relates an execution at the same place in the autumn
of the year, which made some excitement even in
the Scotland of those days.
Mr. John Kelloe, minister of Spott, near DunSar,
being seized by a sudden remorse of conscience,
came to Edinburgh, and judicially made confession
of a crime which otherwise would never have been
proved against him. He had been married to a
poor but very handsome and attractive girl, “ very
witty and fond, a very little woman, but well
shap’d,” before he got the benefice of Spott, after
which he began to propose to himself a second
marriage with the wealthy daughter of a laird,
whose name Crawford omits, provided he could by
any means rid himself of his first wife, to whom
now he began to behave harshly and petulantly.
To prepare the way for the execution of his design,
and to conceal it when done, he suddenly began to
dissemble in his treatment of her ; his manner was
full of tenderness, kindness, and delicacy.
“She who now thought herself the happiest of
her sex,” continues Crawford in his “ Memoirs,”
written in I 705, “ effusively strove to make him so
too, and hastened her own ruin ; for, upon a Sunday
morning, as she was saying her prayers upon
her knees, he came softly behind her, put a rope
(which he had kept all night in his pocket) about
her neck, and after he had strangled her tied her up
to an iron hook which a day or two before he had
purposely nailed to the ceiling of the room. This
done, he bolted his gate, crept out of his parlour
window, stept demurely to church, and charmed
his hearers with a most excellent sermon.”
The murderer next imited two or three of his
parishioners to sup with him, telling them casually,
as it were, that ‘‘ his wife was not well, and of late
somewhat inclined to melancholy ; that she had not’
come to kirk that day, but would be glad to see
them at her house.” On knocking at the gate, the
Rev. Mr. Kelloe affected to be much astonished
that there was no response. Ultimately he and his
guests were obliged to make a forcible entrance, and
the murdered wife was found hanging from the
hook to which her corpse had been attached. The
reverend incumbent of Spott now feigned grief
and counterfeited sorrow so much to the life that
his neighbours almost forgot to mourn for the dead
so much were they afraid of losing the living.
However, these forged tears, by the mercy of
God to this great offender, suddenly became real
ones.”
Tortured by conscience, after six weeks of misery
he made a confession of his crime to the schoolmaster
of Dunbar, according to Crawford-to
Andrew Simpson, minister there, according to the
“ Historie of King James the Sext ”-and after
being convicted, on his own confession, at Edinburgh,
he was conveyed to the Gallow Lee, on the
4th of October, and strangled. His corpse was
then consumed by fire and the ashes scattered on
the air. ‘‘ Never did any man appear more penitent
or less fearful of death. He was attended from
the prison to the stake by three of the clergy, and
by the way he rather instructed them than received
any assistance from them.”
A century or so later and we have some appalling
accounts of the cremation of so-called witches
at the terrible Gallow Lee.
In 1678 five were (mercifully) strangled first and
burnt to ashes there, by sentence of the Lords;
and other four, their companions, were burned
at Painston Muk, in their own parish. The accusations
against them were intimacy with the devil,
dancing with him, renouncing their baptism, and
being kissed by him, though his lip3 were icy cold,
and his breath like damp air ; taking a communion
at his hands, when ‘‘ the bread was like wafers, the
drink sometimes blood and other times like black
moss water,’’ and much more to the same purpose,
all of which is gravely recorded by Lord Fountain](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p166.gif "Volume 5 Page 155")
... Leith Walk.] THE REV. JOHN KELLOE. I55
of sand, much of it was carted away, and, with the
ashes of the ...
Vol. 5 p. 155 (Rel. 0.25)
![Currie.] LENNOX TOWER. 333
The surface of the pond on Harelaw Muir is 802
feet above the level of the sea.
One of the chief antiquities of Cume is Lennox
Tower, on a high bank overhanging the Water of’
Leith, and now called by the rather uncouth name
of Lumphoy. It is a massive edifice, measuring
externally fifty-five feet by thirty-five, with walls
above seven feet in thickness. It is entered by
an archway on the north, where the gate was
secured by a horizontal bar, the socket of which
as cattle were apt to stray into it. The extent of
the outer rampart, which goes round the brow of
the hill, is given in the “ Old Statistical Account ”
as measuring “304 paces, or 1,212 feet.”
It was surrounded by a moat, and there can still
be traced the remains of a deep ditch. Though
small, it was undoubtedly a place of some strength.
Amongst the many conjectures of which it has
been the subject, one declares it to have been a
hunting-seat of James VI. and a residence of George
still remains in the wall. It is all built of polished
ashlar; the hall windows are arched, with stone
seats within them, and the ascent to the upper
storeys has been by a narrow circular stair, part
of which still remains within the thickness of the
wall, at the north-east angle, the steps of which are
only three feet long.
It is said, traditionally, to take its name from the
Lennox family, to whom it belonged; and the
same vague authority assigns it as a residence to
Mary and Darnley, and afterwards to the Regent
Morton. It occupies very high ground, commandhg
a beautiful prospect of the Firth of Forth, and
has a subterranean passage to the river, which was
Heriot, hy whom it was bequeathed to a daughter,
“ from whom, along with the adjacent land, it was
purchased by an ancestor of the present proprietor.”
It has been alleged that there existed a subterranean
communication between it and Colinton
Tower, the old abode of the Foulis family; and
the common stock story is added that a piper once
tried to explore it, and that the sound of his pipes
was heard as far as Currie Bridge, where he
perished. But people were still living in 1845 who
had explored this secret passage for a considerable
way.
“ It is supposed that the garrison (in war time)
secured by this means a clandestine supply of water,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p152.gif "Volume 6 Page 333")
... on a high bank overhanging the Water of’
Leith , and now called by the rather uncouth name
of ...
Vol. 6 p. 333 (Rel. 0.25)
... though all it; features have not
been copied.
Inver leith , or Inner leith , as it was often called of
old, was ...
Vol. 5 p. 92 (Rel. 0.25)
... had an establishment at Currie, then
called Kill- leith (i.e., the
1
of Currie. These circumstances
tend ...
Vol. 6 p. 331 (Rel. 0.25)
... ruins of which
stand on the opposite bank of the Leith , at a little
distance, and which was the ...
Vol. 6 p. 334 (Rel. 0.25)
... in a deep and wooded dell, through which
the Water of Leith winds on its way to the Firth
of Forth, and around ...
Vol. 6 p. 322 (Rel. 0.25)
... spans a deep
ravine, through
which the Water ol
Leith finds its way
to the neighbouring
port. In ...
Vol. 1 p. 10 (Rel. 0.25)
... the
August of the same year.
In October he sailed from Leith to Gsit the
king again at Brussels on public ...
Vol. 6 p. 338 (Rel. 0.24)
... donjon keep ; but a body of the king's men
veyed to Leith , and hanged, while he had a narrow
escape, ...
Vol. 5 p. 36 (Rel. 0.24)
![Calton HiX] SHORT’S 0 ESERVATORY. ‘05
‘patriotic Earl of Morton gave a sun1 for the purpose;
leaving the management thereof to Colin
‘Maclaurin, Professor of Mathematics, and others
of the Senatus Academicus. Maclaurin, with his
characteristic liberality, added to the earl’s gift by
the profits arising from a course of lectures on
experimental philosophy ; but his death, in 1746,
put a stop a second time to the execution of the
disposal for the purpose of building an observatory,
and to allow him to draw the whole emoluments
arising from the use of his apparatus for a certain
number of years ; “but,” says Arnot, ‘‘ on condition
that the students should, in the meantime,
have access to the observatory for a small gratuity,
and that the building,withall the instruments, should
. be vested in the Town Council for ever, as trustees
THE CALTON HILL, CALTON GAOL, BURYING-GROUND, AND MONUMENTS.
In 1776 there came to Edinburgh Mr. Short,
brother and executor to Mr. James Short, F.R.S.,
formerly an optician in Leith, and who brought with
him all his brother‘s optical apparatus, particularly
a large reflecting telescope that magnified 1,200
times, “and is,” says the Week0 Magazine for
that year, “ superior to any in Europe, but one in
possession of the King of Spain.” Mr. Short
intended to erect an observatory, which was to
be his own private property, and from which he
expected to draw considerable emoluments ; but
Dr. Alexander Monro, Professor of Anatomy, one
of Lord Morton’s trustees, showed that an observatory
unconnected with the Council and University
would conduce but little to the progress of science,
62
after a certain period. Mr. Short readily agreed,
and the Council were applied to for their concurrence
and patronage.”
It appears from their Register that in the
summer of 1776 the Council granted to Mr. Short,
his sons and grandsons, a life-rent lease of
half an acre on the Calton HilL A plan of the
intended building was made by James Craig,
architect, and the foundation-stone was laid by
Provost James Stodart, in presence of the Senatus,
25th July, I 776 ; and upon the suggestion of Adam,
the famous architect, in consequence of the high
and abrupt nature of the site, the whole edifice was
constructed to have the aspect of a fortification. 1 In the partial execution of this faulty design, thc](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p117.gif "Volume 3 Page 105")
... to Mr. James Short, F.R.S.,
formerly an optician in Leith , and who brought with
him all his brother‘s ...
Vol. 3 p. 105 (Rel. 0.24)
... cross I. 383
Union BankofScotlind 11.150,151
Unlon Bank Leith I d . 239
Union Canal, The,'I$. 99, ...
Vol. 6 p. 391 (Rel. 0.24)
![Leith Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter’s sister, Maria Whiteford, afterwards Mrs.
Cranston, was the heroine of Bums’s song, “The
Idass 0’ Ballochmyle,” her father being one of the
poet’s earliest and warmest patrons.
The Gayfield quarter seems to have been rather
aristocratic in those days. In 1767, David, sixth
Earl of Leven, who had once been a captain in the
army, occupied Gayfield House, where in that year
his sister, Lady Betty, was married to John, Earl of
Walk is shown edificed from the corner of Picardy
Place to where we now find Gayfield Square,
which, when it was first erected, was called Gayfield
Place. West London Street was then called
Anglia Street, and its western continuation, in
which old Gayfield House is now included, was not
contemplated. North of this house is shown a
large area, “ Mrs. D. Hope’s feu ;” and between it
and the Walk was the old Botanical Garden.
In 1783 Sir John Whiteford, Bart., of that ilk,
Gordon, relict of Sir Alexander Gordon of Lesmoir,
Bart., died there.
Gayfield House is now a veterinary college.
In 1800 Sir John Wardlaw, Bart., of Pitreavie,
resided in Gayfield Square ; and there his wife, the
daughter of Mitchell of Pitteadie (a ruined castle
in Fifeshire), died in that year. He was a colonel
in the army, and died in 1823, a lieutenantcolonel
of the 4th West India Regiment.
No. I, Gayfield Place, was long the residence of
BOARD SCHOOL, LOVER’S LOAN.
a well-known citizen in his time, Patrick Crichton,
whose father was a coachbuilder in the Canongate,
and who, in 1805, was appointed lieutenantcolonel
commandant of the 2nd Regiment of Edinburgh
Local Militia. He had entered the army when
young, and attained the rank of captain in the
57th Regiment, with which he served during the
American war, distinguishing himself so much that
he received the public thanks of the comrnanderin-
chief. Among his friends and brother-oficers.
then was Andrew Watson, whose brother George
founded the Scottish Academy. When the war was
over he retired, and entered into partnership with
his father ; and on the first formation of the Volunteers,
in consequence of his great military e x p](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p172.gif "Volume 5 Page 161")
... Leith Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter’s sister, Maria ...
Vol. 5 p. 161 (Rel. 0.24)
![Princes Street.] EDINBURGH IN 1783. 119
vincial towns were combined in the case of Edinburgh
She was the titular capital of Scotland, and
as such, was looked up to with pride and veneration
by the nation at large. She was then the
residence of many of the old Scottish nobility, and
the exclusion of the British from the Continent,
during a long, protracted war, made her, either for
business, society, or education, the favourite resort
of strangers. She was the headquarters of the
legal profession at a time when both the Scottish
bench and bar were rendered illustrious by a numbet
of men celebrated far their learning, eloquence, and
wit. She was the head-quarters of the Scottish
Church, whose pulpits and General Assembly were
adorned by divines of great eminence and piety.
Lastly, she was the chief seat of scholarship, and
the chosen home of literature and science north of
the Tweed.”
With the Edinburgh of those days ,and of the
present we have now deal
CHAPTER XVII.
PRINCES STREET.
A Glance at Society-Change of BIanners, &-The Irish Giants-Poole’s Coffee-house-Shop of Constable 8 Co.-Weir’s Muscum, 1794-
The Grand Duke Nichoh-North British Insurance Life Association4ld Tax Office and New Club-Craig of Ricarton-“?he
White Rose of Scotland”‘-St. John’s Chapel-Its Tower and Vaults, &.-The Scott Monument and its MUseum-The Statues of Professor
Wilson, Allan Ramsay, Adam Black, Sir James Sirnpson, and Dr. Livingstone-The General Improvements in Princes Street.
IN 1774 a proposal to erect buildings on the south
side of Princes Street-a lamentable error in taste
it would have proved-led to an interdict by the
Court of Session, which ended in a reference to
the House of Lords, on which occasion Imd
Mansfield made a long and able speech, and the
result was, that the amenity of Princes Street was
maintained, and it became in time the magnificent
terrace we now find it.
Of the city in 1783 some glimpses are given us
in the ‘‘ Letters of Theophrastus,” appended to the
second edition of “Arnot.” In that year the
revenue of the Post Office was only ~ 4 0 , 0 0 0 .
There were four coaches to Leith, running every
half hour, and there were 1,268 four-wheeled carriages
and 338 two-wheeled paying duty. The
oystercellars had become numerous, and were
places of fashionable resort. A maid-servant’s
wages were about f;4 yearly. In 1763 they wore
plain cloaks or plaids; but in 1783 “silk, caps,
ribbons, ruffles, false. hair, and flounced. petticoats.”
In 1783 a number of bathing-machines had been
adopted at Leith. People of the middle class and
above it dined about four o’clock, after which no
business was done, and gentlemen were at no pains
to conceal their impatience till the ladies retired.
Attendance at church . was, much neglected, and
people did not think it “genteel” to take their
domestics with them. “In 1783 the daughters
even of tradesmen consume the moriings at the
toilet (to which rouge is now an appendage) or in
strolling from the perfumer‘s to the milliner’s.
They would blush to be seeri at market. The
cares of the family devolve upon a housekeeper,
’
and Miss employs those heavy hours when she
is disengaged from public or private amusements
in improving her mind from the precious stores of
a circulating library.” In that year a regular cockpit
was built for cock-fighting, where all distinctions
of rank and character were levelled. The weekly
concert of music began at seven o’clock, and
mistresses of boarding-schools, &c., would not allow
their pupils to go about unattended ; whereas,
twenty years before “young ladies might have
walked the streets in perfect security at all hours.”
In I 783 six criminals lay under sentence of death
in Edinburgh in one week, whereas it1 1763 three
was an average for the whole kingdom in a year.
A great number of the servant-maids still continued
“ their abhorrence of wearing shoes and stockings
in the morning.” The Register House was unfinished,
‘‘ or occupied by pigeons only,” and the
Records “ were kept in a dur.geon called the high
Parliament House.”
The High Street alone was protected by the
guard. The New Town to the north, and all the
streets and new squares to the south, were totally
unwatched ; and the soldiers of the guard still preserved
“the purity of their native Gaelic, so that
few of the citizens understand, or are understood
by them ;” while the king‘s birthday and the last
night of the year were ‘‘ devoted to drunkenness,
outrage, and riot, instead of loyalty, peace, and
harmony,” as of old.
One of the earliest improvements in the extended
royalty was lighting it with oil lamps; but in
the Adnerh’ser for 1789 we are told that “while all
strangers admire the beauty and regularity of the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p131.gif "Volume 3 Page 119")
... Post Office was only ~ 4 0 , 0 0 0 .
There were four coaches to Leith , running every
half hour, and there were ...
Vol. 3 p. 119 (Rel. 0.24)
... of the South Fencible Regiment, who
lost his life at Leith in 1779, when attempting to
quell a ...
Vol. 2 p. 299 (Rel. 0.24)
... of these two regiments.
After eight years of military parade, and many
a sham fight on Leith Links and at ...
Vol. 4 p. 372 (Rel. 0.24)
![Cnigmillar.] CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. 61
when descending Craigmillar Hill, a queen’s soldier,
who had a loose match in his hand, exploded
the powder-barrels, and mortally injured Captain
Melville, the kinsman of Sir William Kirkaldy.
The latter interred him with military honours in a
vault of Edinburgh Castle, where, doubtless, his remains
still rest
In 1589 there was granted a charter under the
great seal to John Ross of the lands of Limpitstoun,
which was witnessed in Craigmillar by the Arch-
%ishop of St. Andrews, John Lord Hamilton, the
Commendator of Arbroath, Maitland of Thirlstane,
Walter, Prior of Blantyre, and others.
Calderwood relates, that in January, 1590, when
Jaines VI. was sitting in the Tolbooth, hearing
to the gibbet by forty and fifty at a time. in the
sight of Edinburgh and Leith.
In 1573 the Loyalists, says Crawford of Drumsoy,
sent a strong body of horse and foot, in hope
to capture the Regent Morton at Dalkeith in the
aight; but found him ready to receive them on
Sheriff-hall Muir, from whence he drove them in as
far as the Burghmuir, and only lost the Laird of
Kirkmichael and some fifty men. Few were killed,
recent rains having wetted the gun-matches ; but
its ofice houses and grass,” it was advertised to be
let in the Edinburgh Cowant for 11th March, 1761.
In that year Sir Alexander Gilmour of Craigmillar
was elected M.P. for the county.
We cannot dismiss the subject of Craigmillar
without a brief glance at some of those who occupied
it
Sir Simon Preston, who obtained it from John
de Capella, traced his descent up to Leolph de
Preston, who lived in the reign of William the
Lion; and, according to Douglas, his father was
Sir John Preston, who was taken at the battle of
Durham in 1346, and remained in the Tower of
London until ransomed.
In 1434 Sir Henry Preston of Craigmillar (whose
the case of the Laird of Criigmillar, who was sueing
for a divorce against his wife, the Earl of Bothwell
forcibly carried off one of the most important witnesses
to his Castle of Crichton, threatening him
with the gallows, ‘&as if there had been no king
in Israel.”
It was not until after the beginning of the present
century that the castle was permitted to fall into
ruin and decay, which it did rapidly. It was
in perfect preservation, no doubt, when, with ‘‘ all
PEFFER MILL-HOUSE.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p072.gif "Volume 5 Page 61")
... and fifty at a time. in the
sight of Edinburgh and Leith .
In 1573 the Loyalists, says Crawford of ...
Vol. 5 p. 61 (Rel. 0.24)
... 111: 315
Inchmnny House, 11.60
Incorporated lrades of Edinburgh,
11. 29; of Leith , 111. 180
Incomration of ...
Vol. 6 p. 380 (Rel. 0.24)
... 111: 315
Inchmnny House, 11.60
Incorporated lrades of Edinburgh,
11. 29; of Leith , 111. 180
Incomration of ...
Vol. 6 p. 379 (Rel. 0.24)
... manufactory of paper at his mills of Dalry, on
the Water of Leith .
In April, 1682, John Chieslie complained to ...
Vol. 4 p. 217 (Rel. 0.24)
... on the 6th of June, 1796, there
landed at Leith , under a salute from the fort,
H.R.H. the Comte ...
Vol. 3 p. 76 (Rel. 0.24)
... and Wamston Crescent, both
running eastward off Inver leith Row, have been
recently built on the estate of ...
Vol. 5 p. 101 (Rel. 0.24)
... given in Latin in Camden’s
‘‘ Britannia ”:-
-“When Leith , a town of good account im
Scotland, and ...
Vol. 3 p. 56 (Rel. 0.24)
... society in a
city, the population of which, including Leith , was
then only 81,865, of whom 7,206 were in the ...
Vol. 3 p. 120 (Rel. 0.24)
![The Water of Leith.] ST. BERNARD’S WELL. 75
To protect it, a stone covering of some kind was
proposed, and in that year the foundation thereof
was actually laid by ‘‘ Alexander Drummond,
brother of Provost Drummond, lately British Consul
at Aleppo, and Provincial Grand Master of all
the Lodges in Asia and Europe holding of the
Grand Lodge, Scotland.” The brethren in their
insignia were present, the spring was named St.
Bernard’s Well, and the subject inspired the local
muse of Claudero.
A silly legend tells how St. Bernard, being sent
on a mission to the Scottish Court, was met with
so cold a reception that, in chagrin, he came to
this picturesque valley, and occupied a cave in
the vicinity of the well, to which his attention was
attracted by the number of birds that resorted to
it, and ere long he announced its virtues to the
people There is undoubtedly a cave, and of no
inconsiderable dimensions, in the cliffs to the westward,
and it is now entirely hidden by the boundarywall
at the back of Randolph Cliff; but, unfortunately
for the legend, in the Bollandists there are
at least three St Bernards, not one of whom ever
was on British soil.
The present well-a handsome Doric temple,
with a dome, designed by Nasmyth, after the Sybils’
Temple at Tivoli-was really founded by Lord
Gardenstone in May, 1789, after he had derived
great benefit from drinking the waters. “The
foundation stone was laid,” says the Advertiser for
that year, ‘‘ in presence of several gentlemen of the
neighbourhood.” A metal plate was sunk into it
with the following inscription ;-
‘< Erected for the benefit of the Public, at the sole expense
of Francis Garden, Esq., of Troupe, one of the senators of
the College of Justice, A.D. 1789. Alexander Nasmyth,
Architect ; John Wilson, Buiider.”
A fine statue of Hygeia, by Coade of London,
was placed within the pillars of the temple. For
thirty years after its erection it was untouched by
the hand of mischief, but now it is so battered
by stones as to be a perfect wreck. Since the
days of Lord Gardenstone the well has always
been more or less frequented. A careful analysis
of the water by Dr. Stevenson Macadam, showed
that it resembled closely the Harrogate springs.
The morning is the best time for drinking it.
During some recent drainage operations the water
entirely disappeared, and it was thought the public
would lose the benefit of it for ever; but after a
time it returned, with its medicinal virtues stronger
than ever.
A plain little circular building was erected in
1810 over another spring that existed a little to
the westward of St. Bernard’s, by Mr. Macdonald
of Stockbridge, who named it St. George’s Well.
The water is said to be the sameas that of the
former, but if so, no use has been made of it for
many years past. From its vicinity to the well.
Upper Dean Terrace, when first built, was called
Mineral Street. In those days India Place was
called Athole Street; Leggat’s Land was Braid’s
Row; and Veitch’s Square (built by a reputable
old baker of that name) was called Virgin’s Square.
The removal of the greater part of the latter,
which consisted of four rows of cottages, thirty in
number, and all thatched with straw, alters one of
the most quaint localities in old Stockbridge. Each
consisted only of a “but and a ben”-i.e., two
apartments-and in the centre was a spacious
bleaching green, past which flowed the Leith, in
those days pure and limpid. The cottages were
chiefly. if not wholly, occupied by blanchtsseuses,
and hence its name.
The great playground of the village children was
the open and flat piece of land in the Haugh, near
Inverleith, known as the Whins, covered now by
Hugh Miller Place and nine other streets of artisans’
houses.
In past times flour-mills and tan-pits were the
chief means of affording work for the people of
Stockbridge. About 1814 a china manufactory
was started on a small scale on the Dean Bank
grounds, near where Saxe-Coburg Place stands
now. It proved a failure, but some pieces of the
“Stockbridge china” are still preserved in the
Industrial Museum.
As population increased in this district new
churches were required. Claremont Street Chapel,
now called St. Bernard’s Church, was built for
those who were connected with the Establishment,
at a cost of ~4,000, and opened in November, 1823.
Its first incumbent was the Rev. James Henderson of
Berwick, afterwards of Free St. Enoch’s, Glasgow.
About the year 1826, persons connected with
the Relief Church built Dean Street Church in
the narrow street at the back of the great crescent,
and named it St. Bernards Chapel. It was after- ‘
wards sold to the United Secession body. In the
year 1843, at the Disruption, the Rev. Alexander
Brown, of St. Bernard’s, with a great portion of his
congregation, withdrew from the Church of Scotland,
and formed Free St. Bernard’s; and, more recently,
additional accommodation has been provided for
those of that persuasion by the re-erection in its
own mass, at Deanhaugh Street, of St. George’s
Free Church, which was built in the Norman style
of architecture, for the Rev. Dr. Candlish, at St.
Cuthbert’s Lane.
Mrs. Gordon is correct in stating that Stockbridge](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p086.gif "Volume 5 Page 75")
... Water of Leith .] ST. BERNARD’S WELL. 75
To protect it, a stone covering of some kind was
proposed, and in ...
Vol. 5 p. 75 (Rel. 0.24)
... and perhaps part
of the old wall of 1450. Descending Leith Wynd,
which was also closed by a port, the wall ...
Vol. 1 p. 38 (Rel. 0.24)
... up to May, 1881, was
A6,000, while the purchase of Inver leith House
entailed a further expenditure ot ...
Vol. 5 p. 98 (Rel. 0.23)
![336 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Stret.
brated chemist, Dr. Joseph Black, who, as we have
elsewhere stated, was found dead in his chair in
November, 1799, and whose high reputation contributed
so largely in his time to the growing fame
of our University.
The institution was first suggested by the celebrated
Dr. Thomas Blacklock, who lost his sight
before he was six months old, and by Mr. David
Miller, also a sufferer from blindness ; but it was
chiefly through the exertions of Dr. David Johnsales
of the above kinds of work have in some years
amounted to ;C;IO,OOO, and in 1880 to &18,724 8s.,
notwithstanding the general depression of trade ;
but this was owing to the Government contract for
brushes.' Hence the directors have been enabled
to make extensive alterations and improvements to
a large amount.
The asylum has received a new and elegant
fapde, surmounted by stone-faced dormer windows,
a handsome cornice, and balustrade, with a large
THE MAHOGANY LAND, POTTERROW, 1821. (Ajtecr a Paintinc ay W. McEwan, in the #osscsaim of Dr. ].A. Sidey.)
stone, the philanthropic minister of North Leith,
aided by a subscription of only A20 from the great
Wilberforce, that the asylum was founded in 1793,
ip one of the dingy old houses of Shakespeare
Square, into which nine blind persons were received;
but the public patronage having greatly increased,
in 1806 the present building, No. 58, was purchased,
acd in 1822 another house, No. 38, was
bought for the use of the female blind.
The latter are employed in sewing the covers
for mattresses and feather beds, knitting stockings,
Src. The males are employed in making mattresses,
mats, ,brushes, baskets of every kind, in weaving
sacking, matting, and " rag-carpets.'' No less than
eighteen looms are employed in this work. The
central doorway, in a niche above which is a bust
of Dr. David Johnstone, the founder, from the
studio of the late Handyside Ritchie.
The inmates seem to spend a very merry life,
for though the use of their eyes has been denied
them, they have no restriction placed upon their
tongues ; thus, whenever two or three of them are
together, they are constantly talking, or singing
their national songs.
A chapel is attached to the works, and therein,
besides regular morning worship, the blind hold
large meetings in connection with the various
benefit societies they have established among
themselves. The younger lads who come from the
Blind School at Craigmillar, and are employed here,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p156.gif "Volume 4 Page 336")
... of Dr. ].A. Sidey.)
stone, the philanthropic minister of North Leith ,
aided by a subscription of only A20 from ...
Vol. 4 p. 336 (Rel. 0.23)
![Parlient Close.] JOHN OSW.4LD. I79
his peculiar hze& or place of resort by day or
night, where merchants, traders, and men of every
station, met for consultation, or good-fellowship,
and to hear the items of news that came by the
mail or stage from distant parts; and Wilson,
writing in 1847, says, “ Currie’s Tavern, in Craig’s
Close, ‘once the scene of meeting of various clubs,
and a favourite resort of merchants, still retains
.a reputation among certain antiquarian bibbers for
an old-fashioned luxury, known by the name
of jaj-in, a strange compound of small-beer and
whiskey, curried, as the phrase is, with a little
aatmeal.”
Gossiping Wodrow tells us in his ‘I Analecta,”
that, on the 10th of June, 1712, “The birthday of
the Pretender, I hear there has been great outrages
.at Edinburgh by his friends. His health was drunk
early in the morning in the Parliament Close j and
at night, when the magistrates were going through
the streets to keep th: peace, several were
taken up in disguise, and the King‘s health (ie.,
James VIII.) was drunk out of several windows,
and the glasses thrown over the windows when
the magistrates passed by, and many windows
were illuminated. At Leith there was a standard
:set upon the pier, with a thistle and Nemo me
imjune Zaessit, and J ‘R. VI11 ; and beneath,
Noe Abjuration. This stood a great part of the
-day.” Had the old historian lived till the close
.of the century or the beginning of the present,
he might have seen, as Chambers tells us, “Singing
Jamie Balfour ”-a noted convivialist, of whom
a portrait used to hang in the Leith Golf-housewith
other topers in the Parliament Close, all bareheaded,
on their knees, and hand-in-hand, around
.the statute of Charles II., chorusing vigorously,
“T. King s h d enjoy his own again.” Jamie
Balfour was well known to Sir Walter Scott.
About the year 1760 John’s coffee-house was
kept by a man named Oswald, whose son John,
born there, and better known under his assumed
name of Sylvester Otway, was one of the most
extraordinary characters of that century as a poet
.and politician. He served an apprenticeship to a
jeweller in the Close, till a relation left him a
legacy, with which he purchased a commission in
the Black Watch, and in 1780 he was the third
lieutenant in seniority in the 2nd battalion when
serving in India. Already master of Latin and
Greek, he then taught himself Arabic, and, quitting
the army in 1783, became a violent Radical, and
published in London a pamphlet on the British
Constitution, setting forth his views (crude as they
were) and principles. His amatory poems received
she dpprobation of Bums; and, after publishing
various farces, effusions, and fiery political papers,
he joined the French Revolutionists in 1792, when
his pamphlets obtained for him admission into
the Jacobite Club, and his experiences in the
qznd procured him command of a regiment composed
of the masses of Paris, with which he
marched against the royalists in La Vendie, on
which occasion his men mutinied, and shot him,
together with his two sons-whom, in the spirit of
quality, he had made drummers-and an English
Zentleman, who had the misfortune to be serving
in the same battalion.
John third Earl, of Bute, a statesman and a
patron of literature, who procured a pension for
Dr. Johnson, and who became so unpopular as
a minister through the attacks of Wilkes, was
born in the Parliament Close on the 25th of May,
1713.
Near to John’s coffee-house, and on the south
side ,of the Parliament Close, was the banking-house
of Sir William Forbes, Bart., who was born at Edinburgh
in 1739. He was favourably known as the
author of the “Life of Beattie,” and other works,
and as being one of the most benevolent and highspirited
of citizens. The bank was in reality established
by the father of Thomas Coutts, the eminent
London banker, and young Forbes, in October,
1753, was introduced to the former as an apprentice
for a term of seven years. He became a copartner
in 1761, and on the death of one of the
Messrs. Coutts, and retirement of another on
account of ill-health, while two others were settled
in London, a new company was formed, comprising
Sir William Forbes, Sir James Hunter Blair,
and Sir Robert Hemes, who, at first, carried on
business in the name of the old firm.
In 1773, however, Sir Robert formed a separate
establishment in London, when the name was
changed to Forbes, Hunter, and Co., of which
firm Sir William continued to be the head till his
death, in 1806.
Kin&id tells us that, when their first bankinghouse
was building, great quantities of human
bones-relics of St. Giles’s Churchyard-were dug
up, which were again buried at the south-east
corner, between the wall of the edifice and the
Parliament Stairs that led to the Cowgate; and
that, “ not many years ago, numbers were also dug
up in the Parliament Close, which were carefully
put in casks, and buried in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard”
In accordance with a longcherished desire of
restoring his family-which had been attainted for
loyalty to the house of StuartLSir William Forbes
embraced a favourable opportunity for purchasing](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p191.gif "Volume 1 Page 179")
... passed by, and many windows
were illuminated. At Leith there was a standard
:set upon the pier, with ...
Vol. 1 p. 179 (Rel. 0.23)
... Execution of Sergeant
John. 11. 231
Noble Place, Leith , 111. 266
Noel, Miss, the vocalist, I. ...
Vol. 6 p. 385 (Rel. 0.23)
... hold, to all the customs of the haven and
harbour of Leith , with the proprietorship of the
adjacent coast, ...
Vol. 1 p. 35 (Rel. 0.23)
... so subject, elsewhere
he tells us that in 1778 ‘‘ the Leith Guard, consisting-
of a sergeant and twelve, ...
Vol. 2 p. 338 (Rel. 0.23)
... lines of defence from the base of the
Calton Hill-to Leith , and so completely baffled
Cromwell’s advance ...
Vol. 3 p. 182 (Rel. 0.23)
![Restalrig.] LHL LA31 UP THE LOGANS. I35 -_7n T I”-
,
sible eyrie, Fast Castle, there to await the orders
of Elizabeth or the other conspirators as to the disposal
of his person.
Logan’s connection with this astounding treason
remained unknown till nine years after his death,
when the correspondence between him and the
Earl of Gowrie was discovered in possession of
Sprott, a notary at Eyemouth, who had stolen
them from a man named John Bain, to whom
they had been entrusted. Sprott was executed,
and Logan’s bones were brought into court to
havea sentence passed upon them, when it was
ordained “that the memorie’and dignitie of the
said umqle Robert Logan be extiiict and abolisheit,”
his arms riven and deleted from all books
of arms and all his goods escheated.
The poor remains of the daring old conspirator,
were then retaken to the church of St. Mary at
Leith and re-interred j and during the alterations
in that edifice, in 1847, a coffin covered with the
richest purple velvet was found in a place where
no interment had taken place for years, and the
bones in it were supposed by antiquaries to be
those of the turbulent Logan, the last laird of
Restalrig.
His lands, in part, with the patronage of South
Leith, were afterwards bestowed upon James
Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino ; but the name still
lingered in Restalrig, as in 1613 we find that
John Logan a portioner there, was fined LI,OOO
for hearing mass at the Netherbow with James of
Jerusalem.
Logan was forfeited in 1609, but his lands had
been lost to him before his death, as Nether Gogar
was purchased from him in I 596, by Andrew Logan
of Coatfield, Restalrig in 1604 by Balmerino, who
was interred, in 1612, in thevaulted mausoleum beside
the church ; “and the English army,’ says
Scotstarvit, “ on their coming to Scotland, in 1650,
expecting to have found treasures in that place,
hearing that lead coffins were there, raised up his
body and threw it on the streets, because they
could get no advantage or money, when they expected
so much.”
In 1633 Charles I. passed through, or near,
Restalrig, on his way to the Lang Gate, prior to
entering the city by the West Port.
William Nisbet of Dirleton was entailed in the
lands of Restalrig in 1725, and after the attainder
and execution of her husband, Arthur Lord Balmerino,
in I 746, his widow-Elizzbeth, daughter
of a Captain Chalmers-constantly resided in the
village, and there she died on the 5th January, 1767.
Other persons of good position dwelt in the
village in those days; among them we may note
’
Sir James Campbell of Aberuehill, many years a
Commissioner of the Customs, who died there 13th
May, 1754, and was buried in the churchyard ; and
in 1764, Lady Katharine Gordon, eldest daughter
of the Earl of Aboyne, whose demise there is
recorded in the first volume of the Edinburgh
Adverhjer.
Lord Alemoor, whose town house was in Niddry’s
Wynd, was resident at Hawkhill, where he died in
1776 ; and five years before that period the village
was the scene of great festal rejoicings, when
Patrick Macdowal of Freugh, fifth Earl of Dumfries,
was married to Miss Peggy Crawford, daughter of
Ronald Crawford, Esq., of Restalng.”
From Peter Williamson’s Directory it appears
that Restalrig was the residence, in 1784, of Alexander
Lockhart, the famous Lord Covington. In
the same year a man named James Tytler, who had
ascended in a balloon from the adjacent Comely
Gardens, had a narrow escape in this quarter. He
was a poor man, who supported himself and his
family by the use of his pen, and he conceived the
idea of going up in a balloon on the Montgolfier
principle ; but finding that he could not carry a firestove
with him, in his desperation and disappointment
he sprang into his car with no other sustaining
power than a common crate used for packing
earthenware; thus his balloon came suddenly
down in the road near Restalrig. For a wonder
Tytler was uninjured; and though he did not
reach a greater altitude than three hundred feet,
nor traverse a greater distance than half a mile, yet
his name must ever be mentioned as that of the
first Briton who ascended with a balloon, and who
was the first man who so ascended in Britain.”
It is impossible to forget that the pretty village,
latterly famous chiefly as a place for tea-gardens
and strawbemy-parties, was, in the middle of the
last century, the scene of some of the privations
of the college life of the fine old Rector Adam of
the High School, author of “Roman Antiquities,”
and other classical works. In 1758 he lodged
there in the house of a Mr. Watson, and afterwards
with a gardener. The latter, says Adam, in some
of his MS. memoranda (quoted by Dr. Steven),
was a Seceder, a very industrious man, who had
family worship punctually morning and evening,
in which I cordially joined, and alternately said
prayers. After breakfast I went to town to attend
my classes and my private pupils. For dinner I
had three small coarse loaves called baps, which I
got for a penny-farthing. As I was now always
dressed in my best clothes, I was ashamed to buy
these from a baker in the street. I therefore went
down to a baker‘s in the middle of a close. I put](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p146.gif "Volume 5 Page 135")
... then retaken to the church of St. Mary at
Leith and re-interred j and during the alterations
in ...
Vol. 5 p. 135 (Rel. 0.23)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
Tience, he was appointed captain of the East New
Town Company, and ...
Vol. 5 p. 162 (Rel. 0.23)
... Inn-Pasqnale de Paoli-Ramsay Retires with a Fortune-Boyd's
'' White Horse" ...
Vol. 2 p. 389 (Rel. 0.23)
![Bmghton.]
The new Catholic and Apostolic church, a conspicuous
and spacious edifice, stands north of
all those mentioned at the corner of East London
Street. It was founded in November, 1873, and
opened with much ceremony in April, 1876. It is
in a kind of Norman style, after designs by R.
Anderson, and measures zoo feet long, is 45 feet
in height to the wall-head, and 64 to the apex
EAST LONDON STREET.
of the internal roof. It comprises a nave, chancel,
and baptistry. The nave measures IOO feet in
length, by 45 in breadth; is divided into five
bays, marked externally by buttresses, and has
at each corner a massive square turret surmounted
by a pinnacle rising as high as the 1;dge of the
roof. The chancel measures 614 feet, and communicates
with the nave.
PICARDY VILLAGE AND GAYFIELD HOUSE. (Aft# CkrR of Ekiin.)
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE NORTHERN NEW TOWN.
Picardy Place-Lords Eldm and Craig - Si David Milne-John Abetnumbie-Lard Newton-Commissionex Osbome-St. Paul's Church-
St. George's Chapel-Willii Douglas, Artist-Professor Playfair-General Scott of Bellevue-Drummond P k c d . K. Sharpc of Hoddam
--Lord Robertson-Abercrombic Place and Heriot Row-Miss Femer-House in which H. McKenAe died-Rev. A. Aliin-Great King
Street-% R. Christison--Si W illiam Hamilton-Si William Ab-L-ard Colonsay, &c.
THE northern New Town, of which we now propose
to relate the progress and history, i; separated
from the southern by the undulating and extensive
range of Queen Street Gardens, which occupy a
portion of the slope that shelves down towards the
valley of the Water of Leith.
It is also in a parallelogram extending, from the
quarter we have just been describing, westward to ,
72
the Queensferry Road, and northward to the line
of Fettes Row. It has crescental curves in some
of its main lines, with squares, and is constructed
in a much grander style of architecture than the
original New Town of 1767. Generally, it wqs
begun about 1802, and nearly completed by 1822.
In the eastern part of this parallelogram are Picardy
Place, York Place, Forth and Albany Streets,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p197.gif "Volume 3 Page 185")
... of the slope that shelves down towards the
valley of the Water of Leith .
It is also in a parallelogram ...
Vol. 3 p. 185 (Rel. 0.23)
![156 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Walk.
hall within thirty years of the time when Steele and
Addison were writing in the Specfatorf
The 10th of October, 1681, saw five unfortunate
victims of misrule, named Garnock, Foreman,
Russel, Ferrie, and Stewart, executed at the Gallow
Lee, where their bodies were buried, while their
heads were placed on the Cowgate Port. Some of
their friends came in the night, and reverently
lifting the remains, re-interred them in the West
Churchyard They had the courage also to take
half of the linen over them, and stufft the coffin
with shavings.” Many urged that the latter should
be borne through all the chief thoroughfares ; but
PatricK Walker adds that instead, we went out
by. the back of the [city] wall, in at the Bristo Port,
and turned up to the churchyard [Greyfrairs],
where they were interred close to the Martyrs’
tomb, with the greatest multitude of people, old
and young, men and women, ministers and others,
that I ever saw together.”
JOPPA PANS,
down the heads for the same purpose, but being
scared they were obliged to enclose them in a box,
which they buried in a garden at Lauriston. There
they lay till the 7th of October, 1726, a period of
forty-five years, when a Mr. Shaw, proprietor of the
garden, had them exhumed. The resurrection of
the ghastly relics of the Covenanting times made a
great excitement in Edinburgh. They were rolled
in four yards of fine linen and placed in a coffin.
‘( Being young men, their teeth all remained,” says
Patrick Walker (the author of ‘‘ Biographia Presbyteriana
”). “ All were witness to the holes in each
of their heads which the hangman broke with his
hammer ; and according to the bigness of their
skulls we laid their jaws to them, drew the other
On the 10th of January, 1752, there was taken
from the Tolbooth, hanged at the Gallow Lee, and
gibbeted there, a man named Norman ROSS, whose
remains were long a source of disgust and dismay
to all wayfarers on the Walk. His crime was the
assassination of Lady Baillie, a sister of Home the
Laud of Wedderburn. A relation of this murder
is given in a work entitled “Memoirs of an Anstocrat,”
published in 1838, by the brother of a
claimant for the Earldom of Marchmont, a book
eventually suppressed The lady in question married
Ninian Home, a dominie, but by failure of
her brothers ultimately became heiress, and the
dominie died before her.
Norman Ross was her footman, and secreted](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p167.gif "Volume 5 Page 156")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
hall within thirty years of the time when Steele and
Addison were writing ...
Vol. 5 p. 156 (Rel. 0.23)
... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Wynd. 304
of the building, among these; on a buttress, at the
west angle of the ...
Vol. 2 p. 304 (Rel. 0.23)
... I. 273, 11. 339,
Stonyhill House 111. 365, 366
Storm in Leith 'harbour, Terrible,
358, 111. ...
Vol. 6 p. 390 (Rel. 0.23)
... foreign
vessel had been lately compelled to take refuge in
Leith , and that before setting sail again, the ...
Vol. 3 p. 106 (Rel. 0.23)
![388 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
2307 33O7 3447.3501 359s
at er, 11. 255; hls fat er
house, 11. 340, *PI; his mdkk
11. 142, 340; his various resi
dences, 11. 163 -164, 165 111.
359; @~study,'II. 163; las; resi
dence in bdtnburgh, 11.210 ; hi!
birthplace, 11.251~255 ; his par
trait, 11. 254; his arms, 11. *a54
his school Me, 11. 293, 294, 326
111. 8 ; his childhood 11. 30
burial-place ofhisfamil;, 11. 383
hls first love ib.; his son, 11,
294 ; his dauihter 11.165
Scott, Anne (sir &alter Scott'!
daughter), 11. 165
Scott of Balcomie, General, 11.191,
201, 269, 111. 42, 307; anecdote
of, 11. 191 ; his wife, 111. 124
Scott of Bavelaw 111. 331
Scott of Branxhoim, Sir Water, I.
194
ScottofBuccleuch Sir Waiter,]. zz:
Smtt of Cauldhou& 11. 2.9
Scott of Harden, Slr Wllliam, I.
Scott'of Kirkstyle I. 210
Scott ofMalleny;i.hefamiIyof, 111.
a02 111. 136
. .
334,335
Scott of Scotstanit, Sir John, I.
167, zm, 11. 3, 223, Ill. 135,199,
ScottbfThirlstane SirFrancis,I.z71
Scott ofThirlstan;, Patrick, 11. a y
Swtt. Lieut.-Col. (Sir Walter'sson),
2903 317. 343, 364
11. 294
Scott, David, the painter, 11. 92,
111. 68, 78, 223
Scott ohn Miracle of, 11. 55, 56
Scottl dicLe1, €1.
Scott: William. Greek professor.
111; 15 .
16~
k t t centenary, The first, 11. 150,
scb;'is Close, 11.271
kott's monument, I. *r 11. 126,
127, *12g ; statnetteson'it II. 1z1
Scottlsh Academv of Paint& 11. -.
90s 9'
Scottish Antiquar$n Society, 1.
Scottlsh Baptist meeting-house,
Scottrsh Barrack office 11.42
Scottish Chamber ofA&ulture, I.
Scottish currency, Value of the, in
258, 270
+le Square, 11.274
291
1707, 1.270
Scottish Episcopal chapels, I. 278
Scottish Episcopalians, The, I. 239,
Scottish Equitable Asurance Sc-
Scottish Hentable Security Com-
111. 231
ciety, 11. 170
PanY 11. I53
Scottish Horse Guards The I. 5'
Scottish judge+ Emhent, i. 167,
Scottish Liberal Club 11. 125
Scottish matrons, S& spirit of,
169-173
Sck?sh Miniitem' Widows' Fund,
ScottLhmonarchs, Portraits of the,
11. 378
11. 73, 74,177
Scottish National Fire and Life
Scottish Naval anh Militarv
Assurance Company 11.168
Academy, 11. 138
Scottish MV~, Formation of a, 111.
Sc%h Provident Institution, 11.
168
Scottish Records State of I. 367
11. 119 ; the& removal' to thi
Register House, I. 368
Scottish ReformationSocietp I. 294
Scottish Rights Association i1. 150
Scottish Roscius, The, I. ;47 ; his
Scottiih School of Design 11. 86
ScottishTemplars, Trialsifthe, 11.
ScotkhTreacury Room, The, 1.178
Scottish Union and National Inwife
ib.
46 50, 51, 111. 130
surance Company, 11. 170, 171 * 172
Scottish Universities Act, 111.24
Scottish Vulcanite Company, I1
Scotttsk Widows' Fund, 11. 1%
Scou&l, John, the painter, I. 22:
Sculptured stone, Newhaven, I1
Sea Penctbles The 111. 303
Seafield Cha&ello: I. 163
Seafield' Earl of 11: 33 111. 191
Seafield' Leith ill. 14; 263 266
Seafie1d'Hous;and B a d , Hi. 26c
Seafield Toll 111. 286
Sea-fight in k i t h harbour. A. 111
219, 220
168 172
223, 11. 90
299 *3?
duel on the site of rb.
, . r83,-184
the, 11. 307-310
Seaforth Highlanders, Revolt (
Seaforth, Kenneth Mackenzie. Ea
of 11. 307, 3 9
Seaiorth, Franci Lord, 111. IOI
Seal of Edinburgh, The Commox
his son, i6.
1. *a
Se&an'sHospital, Leith, 111.22:
Seamen, Wages of the Leith. 111
278
Leith 111. 278
Seamen's Friendly Society, Th
Seaton,'Sir Alexander, I. 167
Seceders, 'lhe, 1. 323,325, 333
Secession and Relief Church=
Union of the 111. 88
Secret subtenahean pLssages,Edii
burgh Castle, I. 82
Secretary's Register The I. 370
Sedan chairs, Use o( in Edinburgl
11. 120, 343 ; number of in 1775
11. 282 ; fracas resulting from th
useof, 111. 13
Sederunt, ~ c t s oP I. IW 11.315
Seqave, Sir Johdde, Ilk 351
Selkirk. Earl of, I. 274, 373 11.144
166,205,III. 122; mansion ofthc
1. *273, 274, '276, 11. 246, 249
Selkirk Countess of, 11. 335
Sellars"Ciose, I. 55
Semple, Lords, I. 91,92,11.3oo,35
Semple's Close I. 91
Senate Hall, Edinburgh University
111. 23, 24, 27
Session, Court of, I. 166, 167, 337
11. 174; probable extinction a
the, I. 174
Seton, Lord, 11. 35, 52 ; Lady, 111
52, 53.
Seton, Sir Alexander, III.49,318
Seton family, The, 111. 53, 54, 24
>ton House I1 35
Seven sist2;s oi Borthwick."The
I. 36
%mow Lord Webb 11.347
SbakesGe Club Tie, 111.126
Shakespeare in dinburgh, 11.39
Shakespeare Square, I. 218, 340
343, 336, 47, 3531 11. 176, 336
337 ;new 20, the back of, 1. *34!
Shandwick Place, 11. z q , 210
Shank I. 254
Sharp:, James, Archbishop of St
Andrews, 1. 215 259; his son':
residence, 111. 385
Sharpe of Hoddam Charles Kirk
patrick, 11.191, I&, 193, 243,342
111.99, IZO, 131, 230 ; saleofhir
curiosities, 11. 193
Sharpe of Hoddam, Mrs., 11. 26
Shearsmith, The first, 11. 26
Sheephead Wynd, Leith, 113 227
Shellycoat, The demon, Ill. 282
Shepherds' Ha' 111. 144
Sheridan, the a&, I.
Sheriff Brae, or Shirra &ge, Leith,
111. 247 248 250 ~51,*253,zBs
Sheriff Coirt, i. 166
Sheriff Court Buildings, I. 294, 29:
Sheriff Hall, 111. 16 , 963
ship Hotel,Theold,fxtth, III.rg5,
245 246. the new 111. 245 246
;hipduildiAg at LeAh, Newkven,
&c. 111.281
jhip&ng, Numberof, in Leith, 111.
188 'go 276 277; lawsrespening'the
i11. ;75
jhipmast'ers' Widows' Fund, The,
111. 278
jhoemakers' C!ose, 11. 10, 19
Shoemakers' Lands 11. g 10
Shore, The, Leith,' 111. '177, 184
'94, 1959 207, 209, 21% 227. 22g
Short'Sanh The 111. 282
Short's O&rvat&y, I. 87, 91, I1
'05
ShrubHill 111. 155 163
Sibbald- Si Rohert i 123 167 201
304,&, 363,II. ;4;, I I i . r6;,33:
Sibbald, James, booksellexand anu
quary, I. 181 111. 154
Siddons Mrs.: 1. 108, 343, 344
amusing anecdote of, 111. 24a
Siddons, Henry, 1. 348, 11.125~17:
Siddons, Mrs. Henry, I. 348, 349
350,351,111. 158,159 ; her grand
father, I. 351
Sidey Dr. J. A. 11. 305,347
Signe;, Keeper df the I. 367, $8
librarian of the (sm Ikng, David
Silvermills, The, 11. 117, 182, 111
Sd~~nrulls House, 111.
Sirnon Master of Lovat, 9.3z57, 251
Simon'square, 11.337
Simond, theFrenchtraveller, 11.18:
Simony, Practice of 111. 116
Simple, Robert, the'player, 11. 9
Simpson, Professor Sir Jame
'156, &,170,315,362, III.79,xa
Simpson the architect, 111. 339
Sinclair 'EVI w i l l i I. 661 ; hi
prince& I.&?,III.&7; hisstyb
oflivini ib.
Sinclair(o; St. clair) family, E ~ I !
history of the, 11. 247,111. 34
Sinclairof Dunbeath, Sir John, If1
63 ; Dame, 111. 62, 63
Siclair, Si John, the agriculturist
11. 17, 120, 126, 144, 172; hi
daughter Catherine 11. 126 165
Sinclau, Sir William, k d the kigt
School affray of 1595, I. no
111 297.
Siucl;ir of Roslin, Sir William, 111
354
Sinclair, Henry first Lord, 11. 251
Sinclair ot Ulbster George 11.30:
Sinclair of Murkle: Lady, iI. 188
Sinclair, John, Bishop of Brechin
Sinclair, Lady Janet, 11. 17~ IM
Sinclair ofstevenaon, Lady, 11. 33:
Sinclair, Catherine, 11. 126, 165
Kinclair, Margaret, 11. 165
Sinclair, the actor, I. 350
Sinclair Fountain, The, 11. 126
Kiclair's, Professor, " Satan's In.
viribleWorld Discovered."I.~z8.
236 238 245,246, 247, PhtC 31
345 ; $er popularity, 1. 345, 346
8- 84.
Young 11. 130. 153, 154, 155
I. 121
Street 11. *r64
Six FeeiClub The 111. 125. 326
jkene, M a j o r h d r a l Robert, 11.
310
jkene of Rubislaw Sir W. Scott's
friend 11.98 163'III.86,145,3jq
jkenes :f CurAehiil, The, 111.334,
Sir Jam- and Sir John, 11.302,
4kinners The 11. 264,111. z
jkinner'i Cl&, I. 139, 266, 167,
3aney's Hotel, I. 222
ilnteford, I. 323, 111. 326
jlaughterhousea, The city 11. 218
ilezer, Captain, author ofl" Theatrum
Scotire," 11. ,367, 111. 350
heaton's Clore Leith 111. 226
hellie, Williad, thepkter, I. 235,
236,383.11. 87, 1p0 111.31
imellie, the naturalist: 11. 311
imith, Provost Sir John, I. 102, no,
11 "
I.II.334, 335
11.247
i%h; Lord Chief Baron, Episcopal
chapel founded by I. 262 11.247
imith, Adam, I. 114 156, i36, 273,
11. 17, 21, 161, 194, 111. 240;
residence of, 11. 21 ; graye of,
with, Alexander, the poet, 111.
102, 30!
Nmith George, I. 113 *117; rob- be4 in concern whh Deacon
Hrodie, I. 113-115
mith, Sydney, 11. 203
11. 29
Smith, Dr. John, the physician, 11,
SZA the banker, Deathof, 11.18,
Smollett, Tobu., I.@, 155,239,lI.
26 127, 111. 262. his sister 11.
26'; his wife, ib. f his h o d , 11.
-e '"
Smythe Sir Jeremiahand theDutch
Snuff-taking in church, an offence,
fleet, i. 58,111. re8
11. 133
Society Close, I. 213, -14
SocietyofEdiburghGolfers III.31
Society for the PropagaAon of
Chrlstian Knowledge, I. 214, 359
Society Port, The, II.231,234,268,
2% 274, 346
Soldiersof EdinburghCastle, Tomb
in memoryof 11. 30
Soldiers first iuartered in Leith,
III. '931 I94
Solicitors before the Supremecourt,
Library of I. 123
Solway, ad of 11.37
Solway, Rout &, 11. 64,65
Sothern the actor, 1. 351
Somers"tavern I. 120
Somerset Dulce of I, 43
Somervilie, Lards,'I. 150, 155,183.
316,II. 161 111. 346
Somervjlle fai!nily, The, 111. 346
Somerville Bartholomew, I. 97, 314
Somerville: Major, and Capt. Crawford
Encounter between I. 95
Somerhle mansion The i. 314
Sounding-boards I i 32d
South back of ;he Longate, 11.
238, 245
South Blacket Place 111. 55, 56
South Bridge, I. 24;. 373-382, 11.
139,238 251 274 282 2 8, 334,
359, I d . I&; %e ;or8 commenced,
I. 374; valueof thesite,
ib.
South Bridge Street I 374 111.23
South Castle Street '11: 82 '165
South Clerk Street,'III. 5;
SouthCollegeStreet 1I.330,111.23
South Foulis' Close,'I. 276
South Frederick Street 11. 92
South Gray's C l m 1. ;673 274
South Leith, 111. r&, 165, 166,188,
South Leith, b+dge of, 11. 47
South Leith bunal-ground, 111.171
South Leith Freechurch, 111.1~8,
South Leith Poor-house 111.249
South Lach,The, 1. 8, h . 2 7
South Hanover Street, 11. 162, 192
South Niddry Street, 11. 251
South St.Andrew Street II.99,159
South St. David Street.'II. oz. 160
193, 210, 21
266
, ~. -162
Southern Market The, 11. 346
Southfield 111. I&
Spalding Pund. The, 11. 92
Spalding Peter 11. 92
Spaldina: the dtorian. 11. 10. 111. . _. . .
211
Spence, Thomas, Bishop of Aber-
Spence Willim I. 59 6a
Spendthrift Clud, I.he,'III. r z ~
Spjttal, Sir James, 11. 215
Spittal Street, 11. 215, 223
Spattiswc.de, Archbishop, I. 287,
298, 11. 39, 111. 2x9 ; hls house,
I. 208
Spottigwoode I. 166
Sputtkwood 'John, Superintendent
of Lothid I. 46 208
Spottkwood Road,'I11. 46
Springfield, 111. 356, 360
Springfield Street, 111. 163
Spur, The, Edinburgh Castle, 1.36,
Spylaw 111. 34
Spynie'Lord I. mg IIZ. 113
St. Andrew the Apoitle I. 261
St. Asdrew'saltar. Hol;rwd. 11. z8
deen, I. 300, 301
49, 5x1 52, 54, 86, 218
St. Andrew's Chapel, 'Carrubbeis
St. Andrew's Church. Geom
Close, I. 239.11. 242
Street, 11. 120, 144, *145, 14,
17' ; interior of, 11. 148
9t. Andrew's Hall, 1. 302
St. Andrew's Lane, 11.160
3t. Andrew's Port, I. 366
3. Andrew's Square, I. 2r7, 222,
267, 279, 11. 110, 118, 136, 161,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p207.gif "Volume 6 Page 388")
... painter, I. 22:
Sculptured stone, Newhaven, I1
Sea Penctbles The 111. 303
Seafield Cha&ello: I. ...
Vol. 6 p. 388 (Rel. 0.23)
... by
the guard to the Tolbooth.
All the forces in Leith and the neighbourhood
mere marched into the ...
Vol. 5 p. 12 (Rel. 0.23)
... the Easter Road, was long the
chief access to the city from Leith j the only other,
until the formation of ...
Vol. 5 p. 128 (Rel. 0.23)
... the head of fifty horse, near the Rood Chapel
in Leith Loan, though his rival had only eight ...
Vol. 1 p. 42 (Rel. 0.23)
... all
RUINS OF ST. ANTHONY’S CHAPEL, LOOKING TOWARDS LEITH . (From n P4oiofln)h by Ale%. A. IngZis.)
bravely ...
Vol. 4 p. 320 (Rel. 0.23)
... of sunshine, and though equi-distant between
Edinburgh and Leith , it may be considered as
especially the ...
Vol. 5 p. 89 (Rel. 0.23)
... v11t
CHAPTER XXXIV.
INCHKEITH.
PAGE
The Defences of Leith -Inchkeith Forts-%. Serf-The Pest-stricken in ...
Vol. 6 p. 397 (Rel. 0.23)
... v11t
CHAPTER XXXIV.
INCHKEITH.
PAGE
The Defences of Leith -Inchkeith Forts-%. Serf-The Pest-stricken in ...
Vol. 6 p. 398 (Rel. 0.23)
... v11t
CHAPTER XXXIV.
INCHKEITH.
PAGE
The Defences of Leith -Inchkeith Forts-%. Serf-The Pest-stricken in ...
Vol. 6 p. 399 (Rel. 0.23)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Inver leith .
something at once strong and startling in the
consciousness that His Royal ...
Vol. 5 p. 96 (Rel. 0.23)
![Pottemw.] JEAN BROWN. 331
BeAoZd
a thing
and how be-
Togzfher
B d
In Unit&
Hmu good
it is,
comitzg we2
m h ns
k n ar
io h e l .
an unaristocratic quarter inay be inferred from the
fact that, so lately as 1716, Robert, seventh Earl
of Morton, a man who, Douglas says, “was well
versed in the knowledge of the antiquities of our
country,” had his residence there ; and later still,
in 1760, Archibald, Duke of Douglas, had a stately
mansion, surrounded by extensive grounds, immediately
on the west side of the Potterrow, near
the north end of which was his carriage entrance,
a gate within a recess, overlooked by the city wall.
Lady Houston lived in the Potterrow in 1784.
In the Diary of Lord Grange, we are told of
Jean Brown, a woman in humble life, residing in the
Potterrow in I 7 17, who had somecuriousexperiences,
which, while reminding us of those of St. Teresa,
the Castilian, the foundress of the Barefooted
Carmelites, were not, singular to say, inconsistent
with orthodox Presbyterianism.
Being taken, together with Mr. Logan, the incumbent
of Culross, to see this pious woman, at
Lady Aytoun’s lodging behind the College, he
found her to be between thirty and forty years of
age ; when, having Conrmunion administered to
her at Leith, in the October of that year, she had
striven to dwell deeply on the thought of Christ
and all His sufferings. Then she had a vision of
Him extended on the cross and in His rocky sepulchre,
“ as plainly as if she had been actually present
when these things happened, though there was
not any visible representation thereof made to her
bodily eyes. She also got liberty to speak to
Him, and asked several questions at Him, to
which she got answers, as if one had spoken to her
audibly, though there was no audible voice.”
Lord Grange admits that all this was somewhat
like delusion or enthusiasm, but deemed it far
from him to say it was either. Being once at Communion
in Kirkcaldy, a voice called to her, “.Arise
and eat; for thou hast a journey to make-a
Jordan to pass through.”
The latter proved to be the Firth of Forth, where
she was upset in the water, but floated till rescued
bpa boat. Lord Grange called frequently to see
her at her little shop in the Potterrow, but usually
found it so crowded 6th children buying her
wares that his wishes were frustrated. “Afterwards,”
he states, “I employed her husband (a
shoemaker) to make some little things for me,
mostly to give them business, and that I might
thereby get opportunity now and then to talk with
such as, I hope, are acquainted with the ways of
God.“
Middleton’s Entry, which opened westward off the
Potterrow, was associated with another of Bums’s
heroines, Miss Jean Lorimer, the flaxen-haired](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p151.gif "Volume 4 Page 331")
... of
age ; when, having Conrmunion administered to
her at Leith , in the October of that year, she had
striven ...
Vol. 4 p. 331 (Rel. 0.23)
![’ klth] KING JAMES V1.5 HOSPITAL 217
Barker, whose office ceased to exist after the Burgh
Reform Bill of 1833.
The seal of the preceptory is preserved in the
Antiquarian Museum. It bears the figure of St.
Anthonyina hermit’s garb, with a book in one
hand, a staff in the other, and by his side is a sow
with a bell at its neck. Over his head is a capital
T, which the brethren had sewn in blue cloth on
their black tunics. Around is the legend,
S. Cornmum PreceptoriC Sancfi Anthunii, Propc L&cht.
there when the ground was opened to lay down
gas-pipes; and in the title deeds of a property
here, “ the churchyard of St. Anthony ” is mentioned
as one of the boundaries.
The grotesque association of St. Anthony with a
sow is because the latter was supposed to represent
gluttony, which the saint is said to have overcome ;
and the further to conquer Satan, a consecrated
bell is suspended from his alleged ally the pig.
On the east side of the Kirkgate stood King
ST. MARY’S (SOUTH LEITH) CHURCH, 1820. (After .Ytme+.)
Sir David Lindesay of the Mount refers in his
vigorous way to
“The gruntil of St. Anthony’s sow,
There was an aisle, with an altar therein, dedicated
to him in the parish church of St. Giles; and among
the jewels of James 111. is enumerated “Sanct
Antonis cors,” with a diamond, a ruby, and a great
pearl,
Save the fragments of some old vaults, not a
vestige of the preceptory now remains, though its
name is still preserved in St. Anthony’s Street,
which opens westward off the Kirkgate, and is sup
posed to pass through what was its cemetery, as
large quantities of human bones were exhumed
Quhilk bore his holy bell.”
124
James’s Hospital, built in 1614 by the sixth monarch
of that name, and the site of which now forms
part of the present burying-ground. At the southeast
angle of the old churchyard, says Wilson, there
is an ‘‘ elegant Gothic pediment surmounting the
boundary wall and adorned with the Scottish regalia,
sculptured in high relief with the initials
J. R. 6., while a large panel below bears the
royal arms and initials of Charles 11. very boldly
executed. These insignia of royalty are intended
to mark the spot on which KiEg James’s Hospital
stood-a benevolent foundation which owed no
more to the royal patron whose name it bore than
the confirmation by his charter in 1614 of a portion
of those revenues which had been long before](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p036.gif "Volume 6 Page 217")
... east side of the Kirkgate stood King
ST. MARY’S (SOUTH LEITH ) CHURCH, 1820. (After .Ytme+.)
Sir David ...
Vol. 6 p. 217 (Rel. 0.23)
![Bomington] THE LAIRDS OF PILRIG. 91
His History of the Church and State of Scotland,”
though coloured by High Church prejudices,
is deemed a useful narration and very candid record
of the most controverted part of our national
annals, while the State documents used in its compilation
have proved of the greatest value to every
subsequent writer on the same subject. Very
curious is the list of subscribers, as being, says
Chambers, a complete muster-roll of the whole
Jacobite nobility and gentry of the period, including
among others the famous Rob Roy, the outlaw !
The bishop performed the marriage ceremony of
that ill-starred pair, Sir George Stewart of Grandtully
and Lady Jane Douglas, on the 4th of August, I 746.
In I 7 5 5 he published his well-known “ Catalogue
of Scottish Bishops,” a mine of valuable knowledge
to future writers.
The latter years of his useful and blameless life,
during which he was in frequent correspondence
with the gallant Marshal Keith, were all spent at
the secluded villa of Bonnyhaugh, which belonged
to himself. There he died on the 27th of January,
1757, in his seventy-sixth year, and was borne,
amid the tears of the Episcopai communion, to his
last home in the Canongate churchyard. There he
lies, a few feet from the western wall, where a plain
stone bearing his name was only erected recently.
In 1766 Alexander Le Grand was entailed in the
lands and estates of Bonnington.
In 1796 the bridge of Bonnington, which was of
timber, having been swept away by a flood, a
boat was substituted till 1798, when another wooden
bridge was erected at the expense of A30.
Here in Breadalbane Street, northward of some
steam mills and iron-works, stands the Bonnington
Sugar-refining Company’s premises, formed by a few
merchants of Edinburgh andLeith about 1865, where
they carry on an extensive and thriving business.
The property and manor house of Stewartfield
in this quarter, is westward of Bonnington, a square
edifice with one enormous chimney rising through a
pavilion-shaped roof. We have referred to the entail
of Alexander Le Grand, of Bonnington, in 1766.
The Scots Magazine for 1770 records an alliance
between the two proprietors here thus :-“At Edinburgh,
Richard Le Grand, Esq., of Bonnington
(son of the preceding?), to Miss May Stewart,
daughter of James Stewart of Stewartfield, Esq.”
On the north side of the Bonnington Road, and
not far from Bonnington House, stands that of
Pilrig, an old rough-cast and gable-ended mansion
among aged trees, that no doubt occupies the site
of a much older edifice, probably a fortalice.
In 1584 Henry Nisbett, burgess of Edinburgh,
became caution before the Lords of the Privy
Council, for Patrick Monypenny of Pilrig, John
Kincaid of Warriston, Clement Kincaid of the
Coates, Stephen Kincaid, John Matheson, and
James Crawford, feuars of a part of the Barony
of Broughton, that they shall pay to Adam Bishop
of Orkney, commendator of Holyrood House,
“what they ow-e him for his relief of the last
taxation of _f;zo,ooo, over and above the sum of
€15, already consigned in the hands of the col-
Lector of the said collection.”
In 1601 we find the same Laird of Pilrig engaged
in a brawl, “forming a specimen of the
second class of outrages.” He (Patrick Monypenny)
stated to the Lords of Council that he had
a wish to let a part of his lands of Pilrig, called the
Round Haugh, to Harry Robertson and Andrew
Alis, for his own utility and profit. But on a certain
day, not satisfied, David UuA; a doughty indweller in
Leith, came to these per‘sons, and uttering ferocious
menaces against them in the event of their occupying
these lands, effectually prevented them from
doing so.
Duff next, accompanied by two men named
Matheson, on the 2nd of March, 1601, attacked
the servants of the Laird of Pilrig, as they were
at labour on the lands in question, with similar
speeches, threatening them with death if they persisted
in working there; and in the night they,
or other persons instigated by them, had come
and broken their plough, and cast it into the
Water of Leith. “John Matheson,” continues the
indictment, ‘‘ after breaking the complenar‘s plew,
came to John Porteous’s house, and bade him gang
now betwix the Flew stilts and see how she wald go
till the morning:’ adding that he would have his
head broken if he ever divulged who had broken
the plough,
The furious Duff, not contentwith all this,trampled
and destroyed the tilled land. In this case the
accused were dismissed from the bar, but only, it
would appear, through hard swearing in their own
cause.
There died at Pilrig, according to the Scots
Magazine for 1767, Margaret, daughter of the late
Sir Johnstone Elphinstone of Logie, in the month of
January ; and in the subsequent June, Lady Elphinstone,
his widow. The Elphinstones of Logie were
baronets of 1701.
These ladies were probably visitors, as the then
proprietor and occupant of the mansion was James
Balfour of Pilng, who was born in 1703, and became
a member of the Faculty of Advocates on
the 14th of November, 1730, Three years later
on the death of Mr. Bayne, Professor of Scottish
Law in the University of Edinburgh, he and Mr.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p102.gif "Volume 5 Page 91")
... premises, formed by a few
merchants of Edinburgh and Leith about 1865, where
they carry on an extensive and ...
Vol. 5 p. 91 (Rel. 0.23)
... Rooms, The, 11.148,150
111. 271 283; rules of, 11. 149
Assemblykooms Leith 111. 1y8
Aaociation of ...
Vol. 6 p. 370 (Rel. 0.23)
![Arthut’s Seat] “ THE WILD MACRAAS.” 307
The Edinburgh Evening Courant of the 29th
of October, 1728, contains the following reference
to the Craigs, or the chasm, there named the
Catnick :-“ A person who frequents the (King‘s)
Park, having noticed a man come from a cleft
towards the north-west of Salisbury Rocks, had the
curiosity to climb the precipice, if possibly he
might discover something that could invite him
there, He found a shallow pit, which delivered
him into a little snug room or vault hung with
dressed leather, lighted from the roof, the window
covered with a bladder. It is thought to have been
the cave of a hermit of ancient times, though now
the hiding-place of a gang of thieves.”
The long, deep, and tremendous rift in the wes
t e n slope of Arthur’s Seat (locally known as the
Gutiit Haddie) was caused by a mighty waterspout,
on the 13th of September, 1744. “Dividing its
force ”-says the “ Old Statistical -4ccount ”-‘‘ it
discharged one part upon the western side, and
tore up a channel or chasm, which still remains a
monument of its violence ; the other division took
its direction towards the village of Duddingston,
carried away the gable .of the most westerly cottage,
and flooded the loch over the adjacent meadows.”
On the steep sloping shoulder of Arthur‘s Seat,
south-westward, under the Rock of Dunsappie, the
Highland army encamped in September before
the battle of Prestonpans, and from thence it was
-after the Prince had held a council of his chief5
and nobles-the march began at daybreak on the
morning of the 20th through the old hedgerow:
and woods of Duddingston, with pipes playing
and colours flying, after Charles, in front of thc
he, had significantly drawn his claymore and flung
away the scabbard.
From a letter which appears in the Advertiser foi
the 15th of January, 1765, the entrance to tne Park
from St. Anne’s Yard to the Duke’s Walk having
become impassable, was privately repaired at tht
expense of a couple of classical wits, whose name:
were unknown, but who placed upon the entrance
the following inscription :-
Ite nunc faciles per gaudia uestra,
3 Cpuepecun sua re@&durn cur.
CaLIan. MD.C.CLXl?
rJ*i faciant ut haec smpiusjunf.
QUIRITES
Mungo Campbell (formerly officer of Excise ai
Saltcoats), who shot Archibald, tenth Earl oj
Eglinton, committed suicide in the Tolbooth ic
1770, on the day after he had been sentenced
to death, when the judge also directed that hi2
body should be given to the professor of anatomy,
His counsel having interposed on the plea that dip
section was not a legal penalty for self-murder, it
was privately interred at the foot of Salisbury Craigs.
But the Edinburgh mob, who were exasperated by
the manner in which he had shot the earl in a
poaching affray, took the .body out of the grave,
tossed it about till they were tired, and eventually
flung it over the cliffs. After this, to prevent
further indecency and outrage, Campbell’s friends
caused the body to be conveyed in a boat from
Leith and sank it in the Firth of Forth. (Caldwell
Papers ; S o t s Mug., Vol. XXXII.)
Southward of the coue of Arthur‘s Seat are the
Raven’s Craig and the Nether Hill, or Lion’s
Haunch ; between the latter and the cone can still
be traced the trench and breastwork formed by the
Seaforth Highlanders when they revolted in 1778-
an event which created a profound sensation in
Scotland.
In the July of that year they had marched into
the Castle, replacing the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers,
or 80th Regiment of the Line, a corps
which was raised by General Sir William Erskme in
1777, and was disbanded in 1783-5.
Kenneth Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth, had
recently raised his noble regiment, which was then
numbered as the 78th (but is now known as the
Duke of Albany’s Own Highlanders), among his
clansmen in the district of Kintail and Applecross,
Kilcoy, and Redcastle ; of these Soawere from his
own estate; the rest were all from the others
named, and the corps mustered 1,130 bayonets at
its first parade in Elgin in the May of 1778 ; but
from a great number of another sept who were
in its ranks, the subsequent mutiny was known at
first as the afair of the WiZd Mwaas.
The latter was an ancient but subordinate tribe
of the west, who had followed the “ Caber Feigh,”
or banner of Seaforth, since the days when Black
Murdoch of Kintail carried it in the wars of
Robert I., and now many of its best men were
enrolled in Earl Kenneth‘s new Fencible regiment,
perfect subordination in the ranks of which was
maintained in the Castle until the 5th of August,
when an order was issued for marching at an hour’s
notice. A landing of a French force being expected
near Greenock, zoo of them, with seven
9-pounders, marched there with the greatest enthusiasm
to meet the foe, who never appeared; but
by the time these two companies returned, transports
to convey the whole for foreign service had come
to anchor in Leith Roads.
Where the scene of that service lay the men
knew not. It was kept a mystery from them and
their officers. The former would not believe a
rumour spread that it was to be tine Isle of Guern](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p127.gif "Volume 4 Page 307")
... friends
caused the body to be conveyed in a boat from
Leith and sank it in the Firth of Forth. ...
Vol. 4 p. 307 (Rel. 0.23)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
CHAPTER VIII.
VALLEY OF THE WATER OF LEITH (concluded).
Eminent ...
Vol. 5 p. 78 (Rel. 0.23)
![St. Mary’s Wynd.] sr. MARY’S CONVENT. 297
ST. MARY’S WYND, FROM ‘THE PLEASANCE (From a Viwpwbliahe-d in 1829)
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ST. MARY’S WYND.
St. Mary’s Wynd and Street-Sir David Annand-St. Mary‘s Cistercian Convent and Hospital-Bothwell’s Brawl in 1562-The Cowgate
Port-Rag Fair-The Ladies of Traquair-Ramsay’s “White Ham” Inn-Pasquale de Pad-Ramsay Retues with a Fortune-Boyds
“White Hone ” Inn-Patronised by Dr. Johnson-Improvements in the Wynd-Catholic Institute-The oldest Doorhead in the City.
ST. MARY‘S WYND and Leith Wynd lay in the
direct line of the old Roman road, that crossed
the rough and rugged slope on which, since then,
the old city has been gradually developed. The
former took its name from a chapel and convent
of Cistercian nuns, together with a hospital dedicated
to St. hfary, the two former being situated
on the west side of the street at the head thereof,
or near the boundary of the present Tweeddale
Court, or Close ; but when or by whom founded,
not a trace or record are given by history.
When the battle of the Burghmuir was fought in
1335, Abercrombiex tells us that the Nainurois,
when defeated by the Scots, “made an orderly
retreat to Edinburgh ; they faced about several
times, as occasion offered or necessity required,
particularly as they entered St. Mary‘s Wynd ; and
here a Scots knight, Sir David Annand, a man of
incredible strength and no less courage, having re-
* “Martial Achievements of the Scott’kh Nation”
SS
ceived a wound from one of the enemy, was thereby
so much exasperated, that, at once exerting all the
vigour of his unwearied arms, he gave his adversary
such a blow with an axe, that the sharp and ponderous
weapon clave both man and horse, and
falling with irresistible force to the ground, made a
lasting impression upon the very stones of the street.
This story may seem a little too romantic, and I
would not have related it had I not cited a very
good voucher, John de Fordoun, who flourished in
1360, not long after it happened.”
John de Fordoun, called the father of Scottish
history, was a priest in the diocese of St. Andrews,
and if the street was known as St. Mary’s Wynd in
his days, the convent must have existed in the
fourteenth century. The revenues of the hospital
were very small; thus the Town Council passed an
Act in 1499, during the provostry of Walter Bertraham,
ordaining the most respectable citizens to
beg daily through the streets from all well-disposed
persons ; the money so obtained to be applied for](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p117.gif "Volume 2 Page 297")
... oldest Doorhead in the City.
ST. MARY‘S WYND and Leith Wynd lay in the
direct line of the old Roman road, ...
Vol. 2 p. 297 (Rel. 0.23)
![THE FREE CHURCH COLLEGE. 95 The Mound.]
Much of all this was altered when the bank was
enlarged, restored, and most effectively re-decorated
by David Bryce, R.S.A., in 1868-70. It now
presents a lofty, broad, and arch-based rear front of
colossal proportions to Princes Street, from whence,
and every other poiiit of view, it forms a conspicuous
mass, standing boldly from among the
many others that form the varied outline of the
Old Town, and consists of the great old centre with
new wings, surmounted by a fine dome, crowned
by a gilded figure of Fame, seven feet high. In
length the facade measures 175 feet; and 112 in
height from the pavement in Bank Street to the
summit, and is embellished all round with much
force and variety, in details of a Grecian style.
The height of the campanile towers is ninety feet.
The bank has above seventy branches ; the subscribed
capital in 1878 was A1,875,000 ; the paidup
capital LI,Z~O,OOO. There are a governor (the
Earl of Stair, K.T.), a deputy, twelve ordinary
and twelve extra-ordinary directors.
The Bank of Scotland issues drafts on other
places in Scotland besides those in which it has
branches, and also on the chief towns in England
and Ireland, and it has correspondents throughout
the whole continent of Europe, as well as in
British America, the States, India, China, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere-a ramification
of business beyond the wildest dreams oi
John Holland and the original projectors of the
establishment in the old Bank Close in 1695.
Concerning the Earthen Mound, the late Alex.
ander Trotter of Dreghorn had a scheme foi
joining the Qld Town to the New, and yet avoiding
Bank Street, by sinking the upper end of the
mound to the leve! of Princes Street, and carrying
the Bank Street end of it eastward along the north
of the Bank of Scotland, in the form of a handsomc
terrace, and thence south into the High Street b)
an opening right upon St. Giles’s Church. Thf
next project was one by the late Sir Thomas Dick
Lauder. He also proposed to bring down thc
south end of the mound “to the level of Prince;
Street, and then to cut a Roman arch through thc
Lawnmarket and under the houses, so as to pas!
on a level to George Square. This,” say!
Cockburn, “was both practical and easy, but i
was not expounded till too late.’’
Not far from the Bank of Scotland, in I(
North Bank Street, ensconced among the might!
mass of buildings that overlook the mound, arc
the offices of the National Security Savings Ban1
of.Edinburgh, established under statute in 1836, an(
certified in terms of the Act 26 and 27 Victoria
cap. 87, managed by a chairman and cominittel
I
if management, the Bank of Scotland being
reasurer.
Of this most useful institution for the benefit of
,he thrifty poorer classes, suffice it to say, as a
ample of its working, that on striking the yearly
iccounts on the 20th of November, 1880, “the
balance due to depositors was on that date
&r,305,27g 14s. 7d., and that the assets at the
same date were x1,3og,3g2 Ss., invested with the
Commissioners for the Reduction of the National
Debt, and A3,1o4 3s. gd., at the credit of the
3ank’s account in the Bank of Scotland, making
the total assets L1,312,496 11s. gd., which, after
ieductionof the above sum of L1,305,279 14s. 7d.,
leaves a clear surplus of A7916 17s. zd. at the
:redit of the trustees.”
The managers are, ex oficio, the Lord Provost,
the Lord Advocate, the senior Bailie of the city,
:he Members of Parliament for the city, county,
md Leith, the Provost of Leith, the Solicitor-
General, the Convener of the Trades, the Lord
Dean of Guild, and the Master of the Merchant
Company.
In the sanie block of buildings are the offices of
the Free Church of Scotland, occupying the site of
the demolished half of James’s Court. They were
erected in 1851-61, and are in a somewhat
Rorid variety of the Scottish baronial style, from
designs by the late David Cousin.
In striking contrast to the terraced beauty of the
New Town, the south side of the vale of the old
loch, from the North Bridge to the esplanade of
the Castle, is overhung by the dark and lofty gables
and abutments of those towering edifices which
terminate the northern alleys of the High Street,
and the general grouping of which presents an
aspect of equal romance and sublimity. From
amid these sombre masses, standing out in the
white purity of new freestone, are the towers and
facade of the Free Church College and Assembly
Hall, at the head of the Mound.
Into the history of the crises which called
these edifices into existence we need not enter
here, but true it is, as Macaulay says, that for the
sake of religious opinion the Scots have made
sacrifices for which there is no parallel in the
annals of England; and when, at the Disruption,
so many clergymen of the Scottish Church cast
their bread upon the waters, in that spirit of
independence and self-reliance so characteristic of
the race, they could scarcely have foreseen the
great success of their movement.
This new college was the first of those instituted
in connection with the Free Church. The idea
was origipally entertained of making provision for](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p107.gif "Volume 3 Page 95")
... city,
:he Members of Parliament for the city, county,
md Leith , the Provost of Leith , the Solicitor-
General, ...
Vol. 3 p. 95 (Rel. 0.23)
... Leith Wynd.1 THE DUCHESS OF LENNOX
Pont, an illustrious Venetian who came to Scotland
in the train of Mary of ...
Vol. 2 p. 305 (Rel. 0.23)
![The Water of Leith.] THE LAUDERS. 83
massive little mansion of Groat Hall, with a thatched
roof, whilom the property of Sir John Smith, Provost
of the city in 1643, whose daughter figured
as the heroine of the strange story connected with
the legend of the Morocco Land in the Canongate,
and whose sister (Giles Smith) was wife of Sir
William Gray of Pittendrum.
St. Cuthbert’s Poorhouse, a great quadrangular
edifice, stands in the eastern vicinity of Craigleith
Quarry. It was built in 1866-7, at a cost of
jG40,000, and has amenities of situation and
elegance of structure very rarely associated with
a residence for the poor.
Eastward of Stockbridge, and almost forming an
integral part of it, lies the now nearly absorbed and
half extinct, but ancient, village of Silvermills, a secluded
hamlet once, clustering by the ancient milllade,
and which of old lay within the Earony of
Broughton. It was chiefly occupied by tanners,
whose branch of trade is still carried on there by
the lade, which runs under Clarence Street: through
the village, and passes on to Canonmills. Some of
the houses still show designs of thistles and roses
on gablets, With the crowsteps of the sixteenth
century.
A little to the west of St. Stephen’s Church, a
narrow lane leads downward to the village, passing
through what was apparently the main street, and
emerges at Henderson Row, so called from the
Lord Provost of that name. According to
Chambers, a walk on a summer day from the old
city to the village, a hundred years ago, was considered
a very delightful one, and much ‘adopted
by idlers, the roads being then through corn-fields
and pleasant nursery-grounds.
No notice, says Chambers, has ever been taken
of Silvermills in any of the books regarding Edicburgh,
nor has any attempt ever been made to
account for its somewhat piquant name. “I
shall endeavour to do so,” he adds. “In 1607
silver was found in considerable abundance at
Hilderstone, in Linlithgowshire, on the property of
the gentleman who figures as Tarn 0’ the Cowgate.
Thirty-eight barrels of ore were sent to the mint in
the Tower of London to be tried, and were found
to give twenty-four ounces of silver for every
hundredweight. Expert persons were placed upon
the mine, and mills were erected upon the Water
of Leith for the melting and fining the ore. The
sagacious owner gave the mine the name of Go8s
BZessing. By-and-bye the king heard of it, and,
thinking it improper that any such fountain of
wealth should belong to a private person, purchased
‘ God‘s Blessing’ for L~,OOO, that it might
be worked upon a larger scale for the benefit of
the public But somehow, from the time it left
the hands of the original owner, ‘ God’s Blessing’
ceased to be anything like so fertile as it had been,
and in time the king withdrew from the enterprise,
a great loser. The Silvermills I conceive to have
been a part of the abandoned plant.”
This derivation seems extremely probable, but
Wilson thinks the name may have originated in
some of the alchemical projects of James IV., or
his son, James V.
city,” says the Edinburgh Week& Magazine for
January, 1774, “we are informed of a very singular
accident. On the nights of the zznd, 23rd, and
24th inst., the Canonmills dam, by reason of the
intenseness of the frost, was so gorged with ice and
snow, that at last the water, finding no vent, stagnated
to such a degree that it overfIowed the
lower floors of the houses in Silvermills, which
obliged many of the inhabitants to remove to the
risi,ng grounds adjacent. One family in particular,
not perceiving their danger till they observed the
cradle with a child in it afloat, and all the furniture
swimming, found it necessary to make their
escape out of the back windows, and were carried
on horseback to dry land.”
St. Stephen’s Established Church, at the foot
of St. Vincent Street, towers in a huge mass over
Silvermills, and was built in 1826-8, after designs
by W. H. Playfair, It is a massive octagonal
structure in mixed Roman style, with a grand, yet
simple, entrance porch, and a square tower 165 feet
high. It contains above 1,600 sittings. The parish
was disjoined from the conterminous parishes in
1828 by the Presbytery of Edinburgh and the Teind
Court. Itwas opened on Sunday, the 20th December,
1828, when the well-known Dr, Brunton preached
to the Lord Provost and magistrates in their official
robes, and the Rev. Henry Grey officiated in the
afternoon.
In an old mansion, immediately behind where
this church now stands, were born Robert Scott
Lauder, R.S. A., and his brother, James Eckford
Lauder, RSA., two artists of considerable note in
their time. The former was born in 1803, and for
some years, after attaining a name, resided in.No. 7,
Carlton Street. A love of art was early manifested
by him, and acquaintance with his young neighbour,
David Roberts, fostered it. The latter instructed
him in the mode of mixing colours, and urged him
to follow art as a profession ; thus, in his youth he
entered the Trustees’ Academy, then under the
care of Mr. Andrew Wilson.
After this he went to London, and worked with
great assiduity in the British Museum. In 1826
“From Silvermills, a little northward of this .](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p094.gif "Volume 5 Page 83")
... Water of Leith .] THE LAUDERS. 83
massive little mansion of Groat Hall, with a thatched
roof, whilom the ...
Vol. 5 p. 83 (Rel. 0.22)
![Canonmills.] THE ROYAL GYMNASIUM. 87
to search for and seize them for his own use.
Hunter also prosecuted him for throwing his wife
into the mill-lade and using opprobrious language,
for which he was fined 650 sterling, and obliged
to find caution.
A hundred years later saw a more serious tumult
in Canonmills.
In 1784 there was a great scarcity of food in
Edinburgh, on account of the distilleries, which
were said by some to consume enormous quantities
of oatmeal and other grain unfermented, and
to this the high prices were ascribed. A large mob
proceeded from the town to Canonmills, and attacked
the great distillery of the Messrs. Haig
there j but meeting with an unexpected resistance
from the workmen, who, as the attack had been
expected, were fully supplied with arms, they retired,
but not until some of their number had been
killed, and the “Riot Act” read by the sheriff,
Baron Cockburn, father of Lord Cockburn. TheiI
next attempt was on the house of the latter;
but on learning that troops had been sent for, they
desisted. In these riots, the mob, which assembled
by tuckof drum, was charged by the troops, and
several of the former were severely wounded.
These were the gth, or East Norfolk Regiment,
under the command of Colonel John Campbell 01
Blythswood, then stationed in the Castle.
During the height of the riot, says a little “Histoq
of Broughton,” a private carriage passed through thc
village, and as it was said to contain one of thc
Haigs, it was stopped, amid threats and shouts
Some of the mob opened the door, as the bIindr
had been drawn, and on looking in, saw that th<
occupant was a lady; the carriage was therefore
without further interruption, allowed to proceed tc
its destination-Heriot’s Hill.
On the 8th of September subsequently, two of thf
rioters, in pursuance of their sentence, were whippei
through the streets of Edinburgh, and afterwards
transported for fourteen years.
In the famous “Chaldee MS.,” chapter iv.
reference is made to “a lean man who hath hi!
dwelling by the great pool to the north of the Nelr
City.” This was Mr. Patnck Neill, a well-knowr
citizen, whose house was near the Loch side.
In this quarter we now find the Patent Roya
Gymnasium, one of the most remarkable anc
attractive places of amusement of its kind in Edin
burgh, and few visitors leave the city without seeing
it. At considerable expense it was constructed bj
Mr. Cox of Gorge House, for the purpose of afford
ing healthful and exhilarating recreation in the ope1
air to great numbers at once, and in April, 1865
was publicly opened by the provosts, magistrates
tnd councillors of Edinburgh and Leith, accom-
?anied by all the leading inhabitants of the city and
:ounty.
Among the many remarkable contrivances here
was a vast “rotary boat,” 471 feet in circumference,
seated for 600 rowers ; a “ giant see-saw,” named
I‘ Chang,” IOO feet long and seven feet broad, supported
on an axle, and capable of containing zoo
?ersons, alternately elevating them to a height of
ifty feet, and then sinking almost to the ground;
i “ velocipede paddle merry-go-round,” 160 feet
in Circumference, seated for 6co persons, who propel
the machine by sitting astride on the rim, and
push their feet against the ground ; a “ self-adjust-
Lng trapeze,” in five series of three each, enabling
gymnasts to swing by the hands 130 feet from one
trapeze to the other; a “compound pendulum
swing,” capable of holding about IOO persons, and
kept in motion by their own exertions.
Here, too, are a vast number of vaulting and
climbing poles, rotary ladders, stilts, spring-boards,
quoits, balls, bowls, and little boats and canoes on
ponds, propelled by novel and amusing methods.
In winter the ground is prepared for skaters on a
few inches of frozen water, and when lighted up at
night by hundreds of lights, the scene, with its
musical accessories, is one of wonderful brightness,
gaiety, colour, and incessant motion.
Here, also, is an athletic hall, with an instructor
always in attendance, and velocipedes, with the
largest training velocipede course in Scotland. The
charges of admission are very moderate, so as to
meet the wants of children as well as of adults.
A little eastward of this is a large and handsome
school-house, built and maintained by the congregation
of St. Mary’s Church. A great Board
School towers up close by. Here, too, was Scotland
Street Railway Station, and the northern entrance
of the longsince disused tunnel underground to
what is now called ~e Waverley Station at Princes
Street.
A little way northward of Canonmills, on the
north bank of the Water of Leith, near a new bridge
of three arches, which supersedes one of considerable
antiquity, that had but one high arch, is the
peculiar edifice known as Tanfield Hall. It is an
extensive suite of buildings, designed, it has been
said, to represent a Moorish fortress, but was erected
in 1825 as oil gasworks, and speedily turned to
other purposes. In 1835 it was the scene of a
great banquet, given by his admirers to Daniel
O’Connell; and in 1843 of the constituting of the
first General Assembly of the Free Church, when
the clergy first composing it quitted in a body the
Establishment,as described in our account of George](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p098.gif "Volume 5 Page 87")
... the provosts, magistrates
tnd councillors of Edinburgh and Leith , accom-
?anied by all the leading inhabitants ...
Vol. 5 p. 87 (Rel. 0.22)
... Leith Wynd.1
the interest of LI,OOO to day labourers as aforesaid
of the neighbouring parish of Liberton ; ...
Vol. 2 p. 309 (Rel. 0.22)
... which company, so formed,
shall meet on the Links of Leith ,” or elsewhere ;
each archer, ‘‘ with ...
Vol. 4 p. 352 (Rel. 0.22)
![323 *la.] ADV.4NCE OF THE * HIGHLANDERS, -__
appointed thereto in 1716), mustered the outpensioners
of Chelsea, and officered them, locally,
from the half-pay list.
Doubtful of the faith of Preston, as a Scotsman,
the Government superseded him in command, and
sent in his place Lieutenant-General Joshua Guest,
an Englishman, who proved a staunch Jacobite,
and on the approach of the Highlanders he was
the first to propose a capitulation, a measure
vigorously opposed by Preston, a resolute Whig 01
the old King William school, who thereupon undertook
the defence, with a gamson which consisted
only of the old Castle company, the two companies
of the 47th, each mustering about seventy bayonets,
under Major Robertson, the Chelsea Pensioners,
and Lieutenant Brydone’s artillery company, which
had landed at Leith on the 4th of September, and
marched in with a great quantity of the munitions
of war.
The other troops in Scotland at this time consisted
only of the 13th and 14th Light Dragoons
at Edinburgh, the company of the Royals captured
at Spean Bridge, the 6th Foot at Aberdeen, two
companies of the 21st Scots Fusiliers at Glasgow,
the 25th Edinburgh regiment in Fifeshire, two
companies of the 4znd at Crieff, five of the 44th
in the West, and another five at Berwick, the 46th
(known as ‘‘ Murray’s Bucks ”) scattered over the
Highlands, Loudon’s Highlanders (disbanded in
1749) stationed in the north ; in all not quite 4,ooc
men ; but, collecting these, Sir John Cope prepared
to bar the Prince’s way into the Lowlands.
Quitting Perth at the head of little more than
2,000 men,* only the half of whom had arms, the
latter, on the 11th September, resumed his adventurous
march southward, and crossing the Forth
by the perilous fords of Frew, to avoid the guns
of Stirling, he held on his way by the Scottish
Marathon, by the Torwood and Linlithgow, traversing
scenes that he, the heir of the ancient regal
line, could not have beheld without emotion, engaged,
as he was, on an enterprise more daring
and more desperate than had ever been undertaken
by any of his ancestors since Bruce fought
the battle of Dalry.
On the 1,gth he was at Corstorphine, less than
A true account of thestrengthof the Highland army, aph August, 1745.
Lochiel ........................... 700
Clanmnald, having men of his Islands ...... 050
The Stewarts of Appin under Ardsheil ...... a50
Keppoch ........................... 260
and the Grants of Glenmorriston ...... 600
, Glengawy’s men, induding Knoydart, Glencoe.
2 . h
(“ Culloden Papers. ’3
“The Highlanders were not more than 1,800, and the half of them only
Were armed.” (“Autobiography of Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk”)
lour miles distant from the capital, and to avoid
exposing his troops to the Castle guns in advancing,
he wheeled southward towards Slateford, and fixed
his quarters at Gray’s Mill, two miles from the
city.
Great was now the excitement within the walls.
The militia, called the trained bands, consisted of
sixteen companies, or 1,000 men, entirely undisciplined,
and many of them entirely disloyal to the
Hanoverian cause. In their own armoury the
citizens had 1,259 muskets and zoo bayonets, 300
sets of accoutrements, a considerable quantity of
ammunition, with seventy-five stand of arms and
Lochaber axes belonging to the City Guard. On
Sunday, 16th September, Hislop, keeper of this
arsenal, issued 500 rounds of ball ammunition and
sixty firelocks to each company of the trained
bands, thirty-nine firelocks to the additional
company of the City Guard, and twenty-four to the
company of the Canongate-head, 500 rounds of
ball to the Seceders, whose muster-place was the
Infirmary, and 450 Ibs. of powder for the cannon on
the walls. All the rest he sent to the Castle. The
banner borne by the Seceders is now in the Museum
3f Antiquities, and was once used at Bothwell
Brig. It is blue, with a white St. Andrew‘s saltire,
charged with five roses, and the motto, Cmenanfs,
Ueligion, Kin& and Kingdoms.
Towards the end of the preceding month the
nore zealous citizens had proposed to raise a
regiment 1,000 strong for the defence of the town ;
but the royal permission therefor was not accorded
till the 9th of September, and by the time that
the Prince drew near only zoo men had been
enrolled, all of the most dissolute character, and
tempted by the proffered pay alone. In addition
to these was the regiment of Edinburgh Volunteers,
400 strong, divided into six companies, and drilled
regularly twice daily. Cannon from the ships at
Leith were mounted on the walls together with
swivels or pateraroes (i.e., small cannon). The ports
were barricaded ; there was much military bluster,
with much Singing of psalms ; but as the Highlanders
drew nearer all this show of valour died away.
When the Prince’s vanguard was at Kirkliston, it
was proposed by General Guest that the two Light
Dragoon regiments, supported by the City Guard,
the so-called Edinburgh Regiment, and 250 volunteers,
should march out and give battle to the
insurgents !
The signal was given ; on the forenoon of Sunday
the 15th of September the clang of the alarm
bells came during sermon, and the people rushed
rorth from the churches to find the detailed force
&-awn up under arms ia the High Street; but the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p143.gif "Volume 2 Page 323")
... Brydone’s artillery company, which
had landed at Leith on the 4th of September, and
marched in with a ...
Vol. 2 p. 323 (Rel. 0.22)
... than that of the king. The duke golfed
frequently at Leith . “ I remember in my youth,”
wrote Mr. William ...
Vol. 3 p. 75 (Rel. 0.22)
![Calton HilL] THE NATIONAL MONUMENT. 109
~
Grand Master of Scotland, the various loQges
proceeded in procession from the Parliament Square,
accompanied by the commissioners for the King,
and a brilliant concourse. The foundation-stone
of the edifice (which was to be 228 feet long, by
IOZ broad) weighed six tons, and amid salutes of
cannon from the Castle, Salisbury Craigs, Leith
Majesty, the patron of the undertaking. The celebrated
Parthenon of Athens being model of the edifice.”
The Scots Greys and 3rd Dragoons formed
the escorts. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm displayed
when the undertaking was originated, and
though a vast amount of money was subscribed, the
former subsided, and the western peristyle alone
THE NATICNAL MORUMEST, CALTON HILL.
Fort, and the royal squadron in the roads, the
inscription plates were deposited therein, One is
inscribed thus, and somewhat fulsomely :-
‘‘ To the glory of God, in honour of the King, for
the good of the people, this monument, the tribute
of a gratefur country to her gallant and illustrious
sms, as a memorial of the past and incentive to the
future heroism of the men of Scotland, was founded
on the 27th day of August in the year of our Lord
1822, and in the third year of the glorious reign of
George IV., under his immediate auspices, and in
commemoration of his most gracious and welcome
visit to his ancient capital, and the palace of his
royal ancestors; John Duke of Atholl, James Duke
of Montrose, Archibald Earl of Rosebery, John
Earl of Hopetoun, Robert Viscount Melville, and
Thomas Lord Lynedoch, officiating as commissioners,
by the special appointment of his august
was partially erected. In consequence of this
*emarkable end to an entefprise that was begun
mder the most favourable auspices, the national
monument is often referred to as “Scotland’s
pride and poverty.” The pillars are of gigantic
proportions, formed of beautiful Craigleith stone ;
each block weighed from ten to fifteen tons, and
each column as it stands, with the base and frieze,
cost upwards of LI,OOO. As a ruin it gives a
classic aspect to the whole city. According to the
original idea, part of the edifice was to be used as
a Scottish Valhalla
On the face of the hill overlooking Waterloo
Place is the monument of one of Scotland’s gredtest
philosophers. It is simply inscribed :-
DUGALD STEWART.
BORN NOVEMBER 22ND, 1753;
DIED JUKE KITH, 1828.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p121.gif "Volume 3 Page 109")
... salutes of
cannon from the Castle, Salisbury Craigs, Leith
Majesty, the patron of the undertaking. The ...
Vol. 3 p. 109 (Rel. 0.22)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
he was again in his native city, when he re-entered
.the Academy, ...
Vol. 5 p. 84 (Rel. 0.22)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
~ ‘‘ Raeburn married Ann Edgar, daughter of Peter
Edgar, Esq., ...
Vol. 5 p. 76 (Rel. 0.22)
![Holyrood.] ROYAT, MARRIAGES. 55
with the Dukes of Savoy and Burgundy. She
landed at Leith amid a vast concourse of all
classes of the people, and, escorted by a bodyguard
of 300 men-at-arms, all cap-d+e, with
the citizens also in their armour, under Patrick
Cockburn of Nevtbigging, Provost of Edinburgh
and Governor of the Castle, was escorted to the
monastery of the Greyfriars, where she was warmly
welcomed by her future husband, then in his
twentietb year, and was visited by the queenmother
on the following day.
The week which intervened between her arrival
and‘her marriage was spent in a series of magnificent
entertainments, during which, from her great
beauty and charms of manner, she won the devoted
affection of the loyal nobles and people.
A contemporary chronicler has given a minute
account of one of the many chivalrous tournaments
that took place, in which three Burgundian nobles,
two of them brothers named Lalain, and the thud
HervC Meriadet, challenged any three Scottish
knights to joust with lance, battle-axe, sword, and
dagger, a defiance at once accepted by Sir James
Douglas, James Douglas of Lochleven, and Sir
John Ross of Halkhead, Constable of Renfrew.
Lances were shivered and sword and axe resorted
to with nearly equal fortune, till the king threw
down his truncheon and ended the combat.
The royal marriage, which took place in the
church at Holyrood amid universal joy, concluded
these stirring scenes. At the bridal feast the first
dish was in the form of a boar’s head, painted and
stuck full df tufts of coarse flax, served up on an
enormous platter, with thirty-two banners, bearing
the arms of the king and principal nobles ; and the
flax was set aflame, amid the acclamations of the
numerous assembly that filled the banquet-hall.
Ten years after Holyrood beheld a sorrowful
scene, when, in 1460, James, who had been slain
by the bursting of a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh
on the 3rd August, in his thirtieth year, was
laid in the royal vault, “with the teares of his
people and his hail1 army,” says Balfour.
In 1467 there came from Rome, dated zznd
February, the bull of Pope Paul II., granting, on
the petition of the provost, bailies, and community
of the city, a con~mission to the Bishop of Galloway,
“et dilectojZio Abbafi Monasterii Sancta Cmcis mini
viuros de Rdynburgh,” to erect the Church of St.
Giles into a collegiate institution.
Two years afterwards Holyrood was again the
scene of nuptial festivities, when the Parliamen!
met, and Margaret of Norway, Denmark, and
Sweden, escorted by the Earl of Arran and a
gallant train of Scottish aad Danish nobles, landed
at Leith in July, 1469. She was in her sixteenth
year, and had as her dowry the isles of Orkney
and Shetland, over which her ancestors had hitherto
claimed feudal superiority. James III., her
husband, had barely completed his eighteenth
year when they were married in the abbey church,
where she was crowned queenconsort. ‘‘ The marriage
and coronation gave occasion to prolonged
festivities in the metropolis and plentiful congratulations
throughout the kingdom. Nor was the
flattering welcome undeserved by the queen ; in the
bloom of youth and beauty, amiable and virtuous,
educated in all the feminine accomplishments of
the age, and so richly endowed, she brought as
valuable an accession of lustre to the court as of
territory to the kingdom.”
In 1477 there arrived “heir in grate pompe,”
says Balfour, “Husman, the legate of Pope
Xystus the Fourth,” to enforce the sentence of
deprivation and imprisonment pronounced by Hjs
Holiness upon Patrick Graham, Archbishop of St.
Andrews, an eminent and unfortunate dignitary of
the Church of Scotland. He was the first who
bore that rank, and on making a journey to Rome,
returned as legate, and thus gained the displeasure
of the king and of the clergy, who dreaded his
power. He was shut up in the monastery of Inchcolm,
and finally in the castle of Lochleven. Meanwhile,
in the following year, William Schivez, a
great courtier and favourite of the king, was
solemnly consecrated in Holyrood Church by the
papal legate, from whose hands he received a pall,
the ensign of archiepiscopal dignity, and with great
solemnity was proclaimed ‘‘ Primate and Legate of
the realm of Scotland.” His luckless rival died
of a broken heart, and was buried in St. Serf‘s
Isle, where his remains were recently discovered,
buried in a peculiar posture, with the knees drawn
up and the hands down by the side.
In 1531, when Robert Cairncross was abbot,
there occurred an event, known as “ the miracle of
John Scott,” which made some noise in its time.
This man, a citizen of Edinburgh, having taken
shelter from his creditors in the sanctuary of Holyrood,
subsisted there, it is alleged, for forty days
without food of any kind.
Impressed by this circumstance, of which some
exaggerated account had perhaps been given to
him, James V. ordered his apparel to be changed
and strictly searched. He ordered also that he
should be conveyed from Holyrood to a vaulted
room in David‘s Tower in the castle, where he was
barred from access by all and closely guarded.
Daily a small allowance of bread and water were
placed before him, but he abstained from both for](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p067.gif "Volume 3 Page 55")
... 55
with the Dukes of Savoy and Burgundy. She
landed at Leith amid a vast concourse of all
classes of the ...
Vol. 3 p. 55 (Rel. 0.22)
![High Street.] BISHOP KENNEDY. 241
counsellor of James 11. and James 111. The
building indicated as having been his residence is
a large stone tenement of great antiquity on the
east side, having thereon a coat of arms and a
mitre, which were removed a few years ago ; and
our best antiquary asserts that ‘‘ the whole appearance
of the building is perfectly consistent with
the supposition” that it had been Bishop Kennedy’s
abode. “ The form and decorations of the
doorways all prove an early date ; while the large
“A large and convenient house, entering by a
close mostly paved with flagstones, on the north
side of the street near the Nether Bow, consisting
of eight rooms, painted last year, or papered, some
with Chinese paper ; a marble chimney-piece from
the ceiling in one, concaves and slabes (sic) two
other of the rooms ; the drawing-room elegantly
fitted up, painted, gilded, and carved in the newest
style, with light closets to all the bed-rooms and
other conveniences to the dining-room and parlour ;
HOUSE IN HIGH STREET WITH MEMORIAL WINDOW, I‘ HEAVE AWA, LADS, I’M NO DEID YET !”
and elegant mouldings of the windows, and the
massive appearance of the whole building, indicate
such magnificence as would well consort with the
dignity of the primacy at that early period.”
Bishop Kennedy, author of a history of his
own times, now lost, died in 1466, and was interred
at St. Andrews.
. Baron Grant’s and Bailie Grant’s Closes were
among the last alleys on this side, adjoining the
Nether Bow Port. An advertisement in the Edinburgh
Cvurani for 1761, in describing the house of
Mr. Grant (who was a Baron of the Exchequer
Court) as offered for sale, gives us a pretty accurate
idea of what a mansion in the Old Town was in
those days :-
31
wine cellar and large kitchen, a coal-fauld, fire-room
for servants, and larder; a hen-house and cribbs,
for feeding all sorts of fowls ; a house for a sedanchair;
a rack to contain 10 gross of bottles, all
built and slated; a garden extending down the
greatest part of Leith Wynd, planted with flowering
shrubs, and servitude for a separate entry to it,
passing by the gate of Lord Edgefield’s house.”
The garden referred to must have been bounded
by the massive portion of the eastern wall of the
city, which fell down about twenty years ago ; and
the Lord Edgefield, whose neighbour the Baron
had been, was Mr. Robert Pringle, who was raised
to the Bench in 1754, and, dying ten years after,
was succeeded by the well-known Lord Pitfour.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p061.gif "Volume 2 Page 241")
... slated; a garden extending down the
greatest part of Leith Wynd, planted with flowering
shrubs, and servitude ...
Vol. 2 p. 241 (Rel. 0.22)
![Lord Provost?.] THE DUNDAS RIOTS. 281
daughter of the head of the firm. When he took
ofice politics ran high, The much-needed reform
of the royal burghs had been keenly agitated
for some time previous, and a motion on the subject,
negatived in the House of Commons by a
majority of 26, incensed the Scottish public to a
great degree, while Lord Melville, Secretary of
State, by his opposition to the question, rendered
himself so obnoxious, that in many parts of Scotland
he was burned in effigy. In this state of excitement
Provost Stirling and others in authority at
Edinburgh looked forward to the King’s birthdaythe
4th of June, 1792-with considerable uneasiness,
and provoked mischief by inaugurating the festival by
sending strong patrols of cavalry through the streets
at a quick pace with swords drawn. Instead of
having the desired effect, the people became furious
at this display, and hissed and hooted the cavalry
with mocking cries of “Johnnie Cope.” In the
afternoon, when the provost and magistrates were
assembled in the Parliament House to drink the
usual loyal toasts, a mob mustered in the square, and
amused themselves after a custom long peculiar to
Edinburgh on this day, of throwing dead cats at
each other, and at the City Guard who were under
arms to fire volleys after every toast.
Some cavalry officers incautiously appeared at this
time, and, on being insulted, brought up their men
to clear the streets, and, after considerable stonethrowing,
the mob dispersed. Next evening it
re-assembled before the house of Mr. Dundas in
George Square, with a figure of straw hung from a
pole. When about to burn the effigy they were
attacked by some of Mr. Dundas’s friends-among
others, it is said, by his neighbours, the naval hero
of Camperdown, and Sir Patrick Murray of
Ochtertyre. These gentlemen retired to Dundas’s
house, the windows of which were smashed by the
mob, which next attacked the residence of the
Lord Advocate, Dundas of Amiston. On this it
became necessary to bring down the 53rd Re$-
ment from the Castle ; the Riot Act was read, the
people were fired on, and many fell wounded, some
mortally, who were found dead next day in the
Meadows and elsewhere. This put an end to the
disturbances for that night ; but on Wednesday
evening the mob assembled in the New Town with
the intention of destroying the house of Provost
Stirling at the south-east corner of St. Andrew
Square, where they broke the City Guards’ sentry
boxes to pieces. But, as an appointed signal, the
ancient beacon-fire, was set aflame in the Castle,
the Bind frigate sent ashore her marines at Leith,
and the cavalry came galloping ih from the eastward,
an which the mob separated finally.
By this time Provost Stirling had sought shelter
In the Castle from the mob, who were on the point
Jf throwing Dr. Alexander Wood (known as Lang
Sandy) over the North Bridge in mistake for him.
For his zeal, however, he was made a baronet of
Great Britain. The year 1795 was one of great
listress in the city ; Lord Cockbum tells us that
16,000 persons (about an eighth of the population)
were fed by charity, and the exact quantity of food
each family should consume was specified by public
proclamation. In 1793 a penny post was established
in Edinburgh, extending to Leith, Musselburgh,
Dalkeith, and Prestonpans. Sir James
Stirling latterly resided at the west end of Queen
Street, and died in February, 1805.
Sir William Fettes, Lord Provost in 1800 and
1804, we have elsewhere referred to ; but William
Coulter, a wealthy hosier in the High Street, who
succeeded to the civic chair in 1808, was chiefly remarkable
for dying in office, like Alexander Kina
i d thirty years before, and for the magnificence
with which his funeral obsequies were celebrated.
He died at Morningside Lodge, and the cortkge
was preceded by the First R E. Volunteers, and
the officers of the three Regiments of Edinburgh
local militia, and the body was in a canopied
hearse, drawn by six horses, each led by a groom in
deep mourning. On it lay the chain of office, and
his sword and sash as colonel of the volunteers.
A man of great stature, in a peculiar costume,
bore the banner of the City. When the body was
lowered into the grave, the senior herald broke and
threw therein the rod of office, while the volunteers,
drawn up in a line near the Greyfriars’ Church,
fired three funeral volleys.
Sir John Marjoribanks, Bart., Lord Provost in
1813, was the son of Marjoribanks of Lees, an
eminent wine merchant in Bordeaux, and his
mother was the daughter of Archibald Stewart, Lord
Provost of the city in the memorable ’45. Sir John
was a partner in the banking-house of Mansfield,
Ranisay, and Co., and while in the civic chair was
the chief promoter of the Regent Bridge and Calton
Gaol, though the former had been projected by Sir
James Hunter Blair in 1784 When the freedom
of thedty was given to Lord Lynedoch, “the gallant
Graham,” Sir John gave h k a magnificent dinner,
on the 12th of August, I815-two months after
Waterloo. There were present the Earl of Morton,
Lord Audley, Sir David Dundas, the Lord Chief
Baron, the Lord Chief Commissioner, Sir James
Douglas, Sir Howard Elphinstone, and about a
hundred of the most notable men in Edinburgh,
the freedom of which was presented to Lord
Lynedoch in a box of gold ; and at the conclusion](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p103.gif "Volume 4 Page 283")
... the Castle,
the Bind frigate sent ashore her marines at Leith ,
and the cavalry came galloping ih from the ...
Vol. 4 p. 283 (Rel. 0.22)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
On the east side of the walk, overlooking the
steep and deep Greenside ...
Vol. 5 p. 158 (Rel. 0.22)
![GENERAL INDEX. 387
Rhind. David. architect. 11. 147
275, '2 6, I I t . 67 244 .
Rhmd, {anet, ToAb of, 11. 262
Riccarton, 111. 319; its loca
history, 111. 321
Riccarton House 111. 322
Richard 11. of E h a n d . 11. 2
Richardson, Messrs., tobacconists
Richardson, W.L.,theartist, 111.8:
Richmond Court 11. 338
Richmond Stree; 11. 188 333, 332
Riding School ?he 11. 1>8
Riding School'Lani, 11. 135
Riddell's Close, I. 110, 1rr,z82, ng:
Riddell's Land, I. 98, 110, 11. 9
Riddle Sir Jama 11. 187 194
Riddle's Close, Liith, 111: 226, 22(
Ri ht of sanctuary, Edinburgt
tastle deorived of the. I. 67
111. 34
, ,
Rillbank IiI. 55
Riots at ;he Cananmills, 111. 87
Risps, or ancient knockers, I. 94
237, 271, 11. 253
35'
Ristori, Madam, the actress, I
Ritchie, the sculptor, 11. 134, 147
336
Ritchie, hitch, 111. 79
Ritchie, Prof. Uavid 11. rg6
Ritchie. William. iditor of thq
Scoto;mm, I. 284
of the Scottish bank note: RE25 and 5s.. 11. 94
Rirzio, David, Murder of, I. 6, 50
92. 3173 11. 41, 58, 66,68, 70, 71
92; abude of. 11. 11,111. 361
Rivio Joseph 11. 68, 70,
Robe4 Abbot)of H~lyrood,~II. 3
Rober;[., 11. 307, 111. 35, 94, 166
Robert II., I. 26, 27. 142, 11. 3
Robeh III., I. 27, 11. 54,111. 317
Robert Bruce, I. 23,24,III. 199,34:
Robert Gourlays house, 1. 116
327,343, 348
323 338, 348.354. 362
331, 354, 355
278, 111. 32, 59, 118, 166, 315
*rao 123 &. David. the oainter. 11. 80 Robei
III. +, 83; his p;rents,lI~. 7;
78; his birthplace, 111. -77, 78
Robertson, Patrick, Lord, 11. 156
175, 191, 193, 19% zoo, 111. 126
240; Lockhart's description 0:
him, 11. I 3 ; Lockhart'sepitaph:
an him, I?. 194
Robertson, Dr., I. 101, 231, 236
271, 273, 11. 27, 194: tomb of
11. * 381. (See also the two fol
Iaving articles)
Robertson, Principal, 1. 106, 261
(See tkc $re.
11. 255, 281, 24% 293. 378, 379
111. 20, 22, 23,45.
ceding andfolrauing artider)
Robertson, the historian, 11. 168
his death, 111. 49; his materna
niece, Lord Brougham's mother
11. 168. (See the two precedizg
Robertson Memorial Estahlishec
Chutch, 111. 50
Robertson, Dr., the Leith historian
111. 167, 173, 218, 219, zzo, 222
226, zA, 229, 23r. 235, 236, 238.
239,245, 2471 249, 256, 259:
2697 2701 276
Robertson Mr I. 175
Robertsonlof zochart, George, I.
204 206
Robekson of Lude, Lieut.-General.
111. 34 ; his black Servant, ib.
Robertson, Geordie, 11. 3'6
Kcbertson, John, and the lepers,
11. I02
Robertson Mrs. Hannah reputed
grand-diughter of Chahes II.,
Robertson's Close, 11. 250, 251
Robertson's Land, I. 178
"Robin Hood,"Gameof, forbidden,
I . 116, 277 ; riot in wnsequence,
II.21,355
1. 126
"Robin Mend-the-Market," 111.
274
RobRoy, 111,9r; thesonsof,I.70;
popularity of the play of, I. 349,
350
Rob Roy's purse, 11. 87
Rohinson, Professor, 11. 86, 191
Rohinson's Land, I. 264
FWwn, the actor, I. 351
Rocheid of Inverleith, Sir James, I
Rocheid family The 111. 94
Rocheid of 1n;erleith James, 111.
95 ; his encounter d t h the Duke
of hlontaw, ib. ; his mother, ib.
111.94, 343
architect. 11. 184
5, 6
Rollinson, the comedian, I. 350
Rollo, Lord, I. 208
Rollock, Hercules, 11. 288, 289
Rullock of Pilton Peter 111. 307
Rollock Robert,' PrinApal of the
Univirsity, I1 -78,111.8,9,16,2
Roman CatholicJchapels attacked
by the mob, 11. 282
Roman Eagle Hall I. IrI
Romanism, BurleAue on 11. 289
Roman relics and coins i. 10
Roman road near Portdbello. I. 10. . . * I2
I. +I0
319
Roman urn foundnear DeanBridge,
Romieu, Paul, the clockmaker, I.
Rood Chapel, Broughton, 111. 151
Rose, Bishop Alexander, 11. 22,
Rosebery, Archibald Earl of, I.
Rosebery Earls of I. g 111. 106
Rosebery: Lord, IiI. :5, 3 5
Rosebery James Ear? of, ?I. 324:
singula; advertisement, ib.
Rosehaugh, the persecutor, 11. 331,
375
Rosehaughs Close I. 253 25
Rose Court, Georie Stree;, If. 1x8
Rosehill, DavidLord, 111. 30
ROM Street, 11. 146, 158, 159, 163,
Rose Street Lane, 11. 150
Rosebank Cemetery, 111. 89
Roseburn Howe 111. I-, 103,
*104; lintel at: III. *Io3; 111-
scriptions at, ib.
Roseburn Mqltings, 111. 102
Rosevale Place 111. 266
Roslin Castle, iII. 346, 3 , *348,
351 ; its early history, 141. 347-
s p ; the St. Clairs (Sinclairs),
111. 131
2572 11. 1042 109
96
say, D a d ) ' ;, Lords, I. 66, 11.326, 339,111.
362
Ross of Hawkhead, Lord, 111.260
Ross, John Earl of I. 247
ROSS David comedian, I. 341, 342
Koss: Walte:, the antiquary, I. 230,
Ross House 11. 338, 339
Ross Park iI. 338, 339
Rosslyn. Earls of, I. 271-273, 111.
33% 111. 71-73
349-
Rosr's Court I. 91
Ross's Towe:. or " Follv."
Rothes, Earls of, I. 159, 11. p, 218,
Rothesay, Duke of, 1. 26, 27. 142,
Rothesay, Earl of, 11. 65
Rothesay Place, 111. 62
Kothiemay, Lady, 1. 281
Rotten Row, Leith, 111. 167. 235
Kotunda The 11. 83
Roubilkk, the'sculptor I. 159
Routing Well, The, 11). 364
Row, Colonel Archibald, I. zoz ; his
wife s tomb, 1. 203
Row, the Church hiatorian, 111.260
Rowites The I. 239
Rowland Hili, the preacher, 11. 103
Roxburgh, Dukes of,I. 128,223,Il.
' 5 , '23
Roxburgh, Earls of, I. 223, 11. 3,
15,50,181,111.57; houseof 11.34
Roxburgh, Dr., botanist, IIi. 162
258
11. 47, 243. 111. 31, 32
Roxburgh Close I. 223
Roxburgh Club,'I. 375
Roxburgh parish 11. 135
Roxburgh Place 'I. 362 111 338
Roxburgh Terrice, 11. j38
Royal apartments in Holpood
Xowl dank. I. 217. 222, 24% 11.
Palace Piate 15
Fro 115, 136 170"171 *17a'
the, 1. 182
335337 *?40
*IQ) its curator 111. 98
111. 71
b y a i Bank Ciose, iI1. h 4 ; fire in
hsyal Blindksylum andschool, 11.
Royal Bo;anic Gardens, 111. gb,
Royal kircus, 11. '195, 199, *ZOI,
Royal Collegeof Physicians, I. 362,
11. 247
Royal Company of Archers 11.348
3, 354; their hall, Ii. * 3 y :
Royal Crescent 111. a6
Royal Edinbuigh Asylum, 111.
25,53
39
Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, I. 63,
Royal Exchange, The, I. 79, 183-
187, *r8 191, 228, 229, a42, 255,
11. 281 ?I]. 125 ;.plan of the, I.
* t 8 8 ; ;he Council Chamber, I.
11. 307. *377, 111. 105, 264
184, 186, Pkfc 7; back of the
Royal Exchange, Plafe 10
Royal family, Submission by the
Jacobites to the, 11. 247
Royal gardens, Holyrood Palace,
11. "65 *69, 9
Royal H~ghlanJ Society, 111. 127
Royal Horse Bazaar 11.225
Royal Hotel, 11. I&; its distinguhhed
guests, ib.
Royal Infirmary, 11. 146, 147, 28r,
282,296, 298-302, 359, 111. 114;
thenewbuilding 11.358,359,*361
Royal Institution,'The, 11. 83, 86,
88. 01. 0 2 : in 1810. 11. *84: at ..
present -11. "85 ='
Royal Lhth Volunteers, The, 111.
198, 264
burgh Castle, I. 32, 36, *68
Royal Life Guards 11. 217
Royal lodging, 0; palace, Edin-
Roval Maternitv Hosnital. 11.2'1
Royal Maternity and $impson hie-
Royal Medical S&iety, I. 123, 11.
morial Hospital 11. 362
yx.303, 111. 266, 311
Royal Riding School, 11. 334, 335
Royal Scots Grey Dragoons I. 64
Rqyal Scottish Academy, 11:86,88,
Royal Scottlsh Naval and Military
Royal Scotkh Volunteer review,
Royal Society, l h e , 11. 83, 86, 204,
89, 9x7 921, I97
Academy 11. 335
11. 320, 354. Plate 23
111. 77
~Oy.2 Terrace 11.103
Royal Terrace'Gardens, 111. 158
Royal tournaments, I. 35
Royston, Lord I. rrr,273,III.310,
311 ; eccenhc pranks of his
daughter, I. 111,135,III.11q, 312
Royston, III.308,310
Koyston Ca5tle, 111. 311
Ruddiman, Thorn=, grammarian,
I. 110, 123, 11. 291, 382, 111. 363
Ruddiman, theprinter, 11.310,III.
Ruglen, Earl of, 111. 122, 3'7
Ruins of the old Market Closeafter
Rule, Principal Gilbert, 111. 14, 16
Rullion Green, 111. p. 334. *337
Rumhold, Richard, 1. 59, 60
Runciman. the oainter. I. oz. axo.
363
the fire, I. *177.
Russell Bishop of Leith 111. 187
Russell: Rev. 'Dr. h d a e l , 111.
Russell the actor I. 350
Rutheriord, Lord: 11. 98, 174, 111.
RutAerford Sir John 11. 356
Rutherford: Alison, iI. 156
Rutherford, Andrew, 11. 156
Rutherford, Dr., the fint inventor
243
68 ITI
of gas, I. 274, 276, 11. 383; hu
nephew, Sir Walter Scott, I. 276
Rutherford the botanist 11. 1zo
Rutherford: Anne(Si WAterScott's
mother) 11. 142
Rutherfurd-Clark, Lord, 111.26
Ruthven David Lord I. 178
Ruthven: Williarn Loh I. 6 206
215, 316, 11. 66, 70, 71; II1.'174!
his dagger I. 317
Ruthven Si; Patrick, I. 52, 54, 95
Ruthven' the printer 11.18 111.271
Ruthven's Land L i d I. 5x6
Rutland Street, \I. I$, zog
Ryan, the actor, 11.23
S
Sabbath, Breaches of the, 11. 132,
Sadler Sir Ralph, 111. 154 20)
Sailin;, Early restrictions on, III.
I33
'59
ailors' Home, Leith, 111. a59
'Salamander Land," The, 1. 142
Salamander Street, Leith, 111. 239
Salisbury, Earl of I1 305
Salisbury Craigs, \. I&, 384,II. 60,
161, 303, 305, 34, 3'372 311. 111,
142
Salisbury Road 111. 55
Salmon, Charle;, the local poet, 11.
310
111. 164
Salmon Pool, The, Water of Leith,
Salt Backet The, 11. 178
Saltoun, h i d , 11. 343, 344
Fmpson's Grave,!I. 319
Sarnsou's Ribs, I. 11. 11. 312,
313
Sancto Claro, W i l l i de, 111. 35
Sanctuary Court-house, 11. 11
Sand Port Leith 111.171, 177,281
Sand PoriStreet' Leith 111. 259
Sandford Bishod 11. 1:6 111. 147
Sandford: Sir Dakel K. iI. 126
Sand-glasses, Use of, in law courts,
Sandiland, James, 111. 42
Sandilands, Sir James, I. 195, 245,
302 11. 47 65 111. 116
Sandhand's ho;e I 240
Saughton Bridge'IiI. 319, *3zo
Saughton Hall, iII. 19
Saughton House, I d . 3 9 , * 320; a
drunken brawl I11 19
Saughton Laan knd,'dl. 319
Saunders Street, 111. 76
Saxe-Coburg Place 111. 75
Schmitz, Dr.Leonhh, 11.111,III.
School House Wynd, 111.2
School Lane, 111. 28
Sciennes Court, 111. 54
Sciennes Hall 111. 51
Sciennes Hill house 111. 55
Sciennes b a n III. \4
Sciennes, The,' 111. 29, 50, 51, $2,
I. I72
81
Scott William Lord Stowell, I. 299
Scott: LordJdhn, 111. 322
Scott, Sir Gilbert, the architect, 11.
111, 213, 111. 243
Scott, Sir John, 1. 210
Scott, Sir Walter, I. 3, 7, 12, 7'. 75,
1077 '23,1% 1% 150, 1549 163.
166, 171,173, 179, 182, 211, 222,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p206.gif "Volume 6 Page 387")
... 168. (See the two precedizg
Robertson Memorial Estahlishec
Chutch, 111. 50
Robertson, Dr., the Leith ...
Vol. 6 p. 387 (Rel. 0.21)
... OLD AND NEW' EDINBURGH.
'Plague in Leith , The 111. 180,186
Plainstane's close ~ i . ...
Vol. 6 p. 386 (Rel. 0.21)
... 307
Circus Place School 111. 81
Circus, The, Leith ’Walk, I. 346,
Ci:adel Port Leith , 111. 257, ...
Vol. 6 p. 373 (Rel. 0.21)
![3 76 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
Xrskine, Lady Elizabeth, 11. 115
3rskine. Mrs. Mary, 11. 272, 362
Erskine Club, 11. 27
2scape of risoners from Edinburgh
Ssk, The river, 111. 318, 346, 353,
3% 361, 364;
Sskgrove, Lord,\I.d, 120,111.367
Ssplanade, The, I. 79, 83, 86
Esten, Mrs., the actress, I. 346,
Castle, &tempted, I. 71
3557 357, 358, 35
the coal seams 171. 358, 359
11. 778
Edinburgh Dock, Leith, 111. 284,
Edinburgh Duke of 111. 288
Edinburgh' Dukedok of 111. 126
Edinburghkducational Ihstitution,
Edinburgh Hospital for Incurables,
Edinburgh IndustrialSchool, I. 264,
Edinburgh Institution for Educa-
286, 287
11. 158
111. 55
* 265
tion
Edinb
Educafion 11. 344
Edinburgh ~teruyInstitute,III.g~
Edinburgh Mechanics' Subscription
tion If. 200
Edindlrrgh Kruinv, The, I. 339,
11. 143 191 203 47 111. 43
Edinburih difle b k n t e e r Hall,
11. 326
Edinburgh School of Art, I. 379,380
Edinbureh Theatrical Fund Asso-
Gr; ~ ~ a t e ' 2 9
,gh kolunteer Artillery, I.
286, 323
Edinburgh Volunteers, 11. 76, 82,
188, 219, 371, 372, 373. 374>'"377r
Edidurgk We&& jrrumal, 111.
799 82, 89, 143, 754
Edzn6argh WreRly IWagozitre, I.
3331 11. 3 53 111.83, 1:4~ IS?, 744
Edinburgh toung Mens Chnstran
Association I. 379
Edmonston 6dge, 1. 43, 111. 338
Edmonstone, Lord, 111. 339
Edmonstone, Colonel, 11. 161
Edmouctone 111. 339
EAmonstone'House, 111. 338, '31;
its owners, 111. 338, 33
Edmonstone of Duntreat;, 11. 139,
111. 338
Edmonstones The 111. 338, 339
Edward I., 1.'23, i1. 46,111.41~43,
351 ; captures Edinburgh Castle,
111.39
338
Elcho, Lord, I. 326,327.11.31~318,
Elder. Lord Provost. 11. IW. 176.
322, 111. 198, zzz, 366
, -.. . .
17?.'282. 111. 21
Eldii, Li&t.-Col&el, 11. 371
Elder Street, 11. 176
Eldin, Lord, II., 186, 187, 111. 167,
260; hisfondnessforuts, 11. 186'
;cadent at the sale ofhis effects.
11.
Eldin:%hn Clerk of, 11. 186, 191
Eldin douse, 111. 359
Electric time-ball, The, 11. 108
Elgin Earl of I. 107, 336
Elibak, PatAck Lord, I. 83, 101,
Elizabeth Countess of Ross, I. 246
Elizabeth: Queen, I. 47. 49, 111.
174, 175, 178 : her death, I. zoz
Elllock, Lord, 111. 142
Elliot, Sir George, I. 210
11. 27, 166, 351
Elliot Sir Gilbert, 11. 273
Ellio; Sir ohn 111. 340
Elliot: Archaid architect, 11. 188
Klliot of Minto, sir Gilbert, 11. 161
Elliot of Minto, Miss Jeannie,
Elliot thepublisher I. 181 111.154
Elm Place Leith, iII. 268
Elm Row Leith Walk, II1.154,158
Elphinstdne, Lord, 11. 103, 352
Elphinstone, James, Lord Balme-
Elphidstone, Charles Lord, 11.174 ;
Elphinstone, 3owager Lady, 11.
authoress, 11. a71
rino 111. 135
his sons, i6.
279
11. 274
'36
Elphinstone, Admiral Sir Charles,
Elphinstone, Lieut.-Gen. Lord, 11.
Elphmstone, Sir Howard, 11. a83
Elphinstone, Sir James, I. 271, 11.
Elphinstone Sir ohn 111. 42
Elphinstone' Sir fohnitone, 111. 91
Elphinstone: Hon. Alexander, 111.
262, 263
Elphinstone Court, I. 271--274,
*27z ; distinguished residents in,
203. 111.128
I. 271-274
Elphinstone of Barnton, Lord Bal-
Elphinstone, The Master of, 111.
merino, 111. 317
182
Elphinstone family, The, 111. azz
Elphinstone, Mistress of, I. 257
Elphinetones of Lopie, The, 111. 91
Emery, the actor, I. 348
" Encyclopredia Britannica." The,
I. ZII, 223, 339,Il. 126,165, 111.
En myhe's Well, 1. 276, 277
English Episcopal Chapel, I. 262
English in Scotland, The, I. 23, 24,
II!. 3+, 35: ; driven out, I. 25
English invasion expected, 11. 330
Englishmen captured by Scotsmen,
7$ 247
1. 3'
Entablature above the Gateway,
Edinburgh Castle I. 51
Environs of Edinbdrgh, The, 111.
314-368 : map of, 111. * 325
EpimplChapel Cowgate 11.247
*q9, 111. 63 ;'its bell, iI. 247 i
its ministers, i6.
Episcopal €hapel, Leith, Theearly,
111. 230
Episcopacy in Edinburgh, Attempt
to enforce,.I. 51 144 208, 11. 131,
a46, 375 ; its sekcei at one time
@armed by stealth, 111. 231
Euiscoualian Church. Portobello.
-111. i '53
Errol, Earl of, I. 147, 11. 159, 318,
111. 323 ; Countess of, II.59,166,
3x8
Erskine. Tohn. Earl of Mar. I. *37. . ...
44 335- .
Ersdine, Lord Chancellor, 11. 111,
Erskine, John Lord, 11. zrg, 111.
z87, 111. 271
31?
111. 318
Erskme, Sir Alexander, I. 220,371,
Erskine of Cynbq Sir Charles, I.
37'
Erskine, Sir Harry, 11. 344
Erskine, SirThomas 111. 318
Erskme, Gen. Sir Wham, 11.307
Erskine Sir William I. 63 111.258
Erskingof Alva, Chgles h r d Justice-
clerk I. 236 237
Erskineof &a, SiiCharles, 11.243
Erskine of Cardross, I. 282
Erskine of Carnock 11.379
Erskine of Dun II.'67, 68
Enkine of Foikst, Capt. James
Erskine of Mar, John Francis, 11.
Erskme of Scotscraig, Sir Arthur,
Erskine of Torrie, Sir James, 11.89
Enkine, Hon. Andrew. 11.115
Erskine. Hon. Henrv. 1. 115, 15%
Francis, 11. 282
249
11. 70
166, G5, II.26,122; 143, 163, rig;
Enkme, Hon. James, I. 247 (sec
Grange, Erskine, Lord)
Erskine, Dr. John, 11. 37
Erskine, Lady Barbara, I?. 319,320
248, 339, 111. 34, 362
Eton Tekace, 111. 74
Ettrick Shepherd, The (see Hogg,
Etty, the painter, 11. 89, 91
Evers Lord I. 43
Ewbank, John, the painter, 11. 19,
Ewing, Greville, I. 361, 362
Exchange, The I. 176 178
Exchange Buiidings, 'Leith, 111.
1713 244, "245
Exchequer, The, I. 178
Excise Office, The, 1. IIZ, 113, 217,
*zm, 11. 23, 110, 191. 259, 260;
robberies at the, I. n2--114
Excise Office, Drummond Place, 11. * rgz, 111. '24
Execution of English pirates at
Leith, 111. 190, 191
Executions for various offences, I.
83. 84. 867 115, 117, 122, 1 6 2347
281, 332, 11. 228, 230,231, 238
(set &sa Grassmarket)
James)
111. 79
F
Faed, the painter, 11. 89, 111. 82
Fairbairn, Rev. Dr., 111. 303, *304;
Fairfax Admiral d r W. G., 11. 198
Fairho<me Adam 111. 47
Fairholm: Bailie' 111. 47
Fairholme: Jam,;, 111. 46, 47
Fairholme, George, 111. 47
Fairholme Thomas, 111. 47
Fairies' or Ha gis Knowe, 11. 319
Fair Maid of 8alloway, The, I. 31
Fairnielee, Alan of, Provost, 11. 278
Fairy Boy, The, 11. 101
Fairy Halec Newhaven 111. 299
Falcon Had, 111. 39 ; 'its owner,
Falconer, hliss, 111. 38
Falconer of Borrowstounnes. Sir
his philanthropy 111. 303
111. 38
David, Lord President, II.'379,
Falconer Patrick 111. 365
Falconer' Will& author of the
Falconer ofHalkertoun.Lord.II.97~
111. 199, 202, 206
"Shipkreck," I.'216
Falkirk, Battle of (see battl&] "-_
Falkirk Road, 11. 215
False news, Easy circulation of,
I. 60
11. &A. *&F. 111. 67
Falshaw, Sir James, Lord Provost,
FalshawStreG; 111.
Fast Castle, 111. 37, 134, 135
Faucit, Mis Helen, actress, I. 351
Fenton, Viscount, 111. 318
Fentonbams, Lord, I. 207
Fenwick, the ainter, 11. 1%
Fergusson Large (Lord Her.
mand) i. 170 173 11. 207; hir
defenh of the '45pr?lsoners, I. 17c
Fergussan, Sir C. Dalrymple, 111.
367
Fergusson, Robert, poet, I. I q ,
119, 230, 238, 348, 11. 127. 194,
310, 324, 38, 111. 125, 295, 269
tomb of If. * 30
Fergusso;, Robert, I' the plotter,'
I. 66
Fergusson of Pitfour Jams I. 202
Fergusson, Dr. A&, histokm, I.
123,236,11.27,29,191,111.55,24~
Fergussoii, Dr., the friend of H u e ,
1. 99
Fergusson, Dr., 11. 153
Ferrier, James, Clerk of Session,
11. 139
Ferrier, Miss Susan, novelist, I.
106, 11. 139, 194; her husband,
Ferries of Leith, The ancient, 111.
Ferry Rcad, 11.82, I I ~ , 116,111.64
11. 139
211,212
Fettes, Lord Provost Sir William,
11.31. 173,283.111.82, 97 ; Lady,
11. 318
Fettes College, 111. *Eo, 82, 97, 288
Fettes, the painter, 11. 89
Fettes Row, I. 135, 11. 185
Feuds of the Newhaven and her.
toil ns fishermen 111. 300 01
Fife, Earl of, I. 350,'II. 86, &86,
146 ; Lady, 111. 265
Figgate Burn. 111. 143, 144, 146,
259, 263
Figgate hluir, 111 142, 143
Figgate Whins 111. 144, 236
Filby, Goldsmih's tailor, 11. a51
Fincaytle Lord 11. 120
Fingzie Glace, Leith, 111. 266
Finlay, Wilson's friend, 11. 199
Fire of 1824, Ruins of the, I. ' 185
Fire, SirW. Scott'ssto ofa, 11.5 6
First Parliament of Tames VIi.
Cavalcadeat theopening of, I.%;
FirthofForth,The, 11.151.319,III.
164, 165, 166, 169, 180, 181, 188,
191, 192, 1931 198, 201, 202, 209,
2x2, 228, 270. 274, 282, 287, 312,
Fishermen, Rigits of the Newhaven,
111. 301
Fisher's Close, I. I I I . 11. 242
Fish-hwks, First mmufacturer of.
314, 3227 326, 66
11. 263
" Fishwives' Causeway," I. 10, 12,
Fishwomen ot Musselburgh, 11. 22
F.( sec . also Newhaven)
itzsimmons, Rev. Mr., 11. 248
Flaxman the sculptor, 11. 135
Fleming,'Lurd, I. 40, 262, 111.~98,
349; marriage of 11. 306
Flemihg, Sir lame;, I. 196
Fleshers The 11. 265
Flesh Mkket,'The,I. 1gz,21g,II.17
Fleshmarket Close, 1.113, 1~1,138,
*232, 236, 338, 11. 77 ; formerly
the Provost's office 11. 227
Fletcher Laurence cbmedian, 11.40
Fletche;ofSaltoui, 11.34, 111. go,
Flockhart's tavern 11. 333
Flodden Field Ba;Lle of(reeBatt1es)
Flodden Wall: The, I. 38, + 40,183,
278, 381, 11. 221, 239, 339 a
Flora Macdonald, 11. 87, ~ 1 4 ~ 124
Faod riots 111. 87
Football, k'rohibition of, 111. p
Foote, the comedian, I. 342, 343,
Fwte, Maria, actresq, I. 350
Forks Lord 11. 194
Forbeid Cuioden, Lord President
Duncan 1. 159,161, 166, 330, 11.
83,382;'his fondness for golf, 111.
31, 262 ; his biographer, 111. 43
Forbes Sir John Stuart 11. 151
~ o r h ' of Pitsligo, sir killiam, I.
142, 143, 188, ?93, 318,'11I. 47:
244, 323 ; his wife, 11. 383
Forks, Prof. Edward, t he naturalist,
111. 68 242, 307
Forbes df Tolquhoun, Sir Alexander,
I. 236
Forks-Drummond, Sir JohnJI. 270
Forks The Master of 1. 8
F o r k : Rev. Rokrt: Bisiop of
Fordun, John de, I. 297, 11. 53,
Fordyce of Aytoun, I. 275
Foreign clothiers. Introduction of,
111. 144, 165
150
111. 163
158, 176, 179-181, 239 11. 120
Caithness, 111. 231
111. 27
Forglen, Lord, I. 235, 236
Forglen's Park, 11. 325
Forres Street 11.
Forrest of domiston, Sir James,
Lord Provost, 11. 284, 111. 326
Forrest Road, 11. 103, ~ 6 7 ~ 323.326,
Forrest's Coffee-house, Edinburgh,
Forrester Lord 111. 119
Forrester: Sir kdam, I. 122, 278,
Forrester Sir Andrew, 11. 24
Forrester: Sir John, I, 31, Ill. 115,
367
111. 210 .
111. 115, 118, 327
11% 318
Forreater Lords, 111. 119-121
Forreste; family, The, 111. 116,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p195.gif "Volume 6 Page 376")
... 35
the coal seams 171. 358, 359
11. 778
Edinburgh Dock, Leith , 111. 284,
Edinburgh Duke of 111. ...
Vol. 6 p. 376 (Rel. 0.21)
... John Sandilands, and Bullock also. Anchoring
in Leith Roads, the latter presented himself to ...
Vol. 1 p. 25 (Rel. 0.2)
... east, on the north side of the road
from Edinburgh to Leith .”
V. JOHN, abbot in 1173, witnessed a charter ...
Vol. 3 p. 46 (Rel. 0.2)
... 111. 27
Adamsonlot Craigcrook, 111. 107
Adelphi Theatre, Leith Walk, I.
51, 11. 1%
Advocates’ Close, ...
Vol. 6 p. 369 (Rel. 0.19)
![Munayfield.] ROSEEURN HOUSE. 103
WHEN YOU
WILL ENTER
AT CHRIST
HIS DOOR
AYE MIND
YOU THE ROOM
TO THE POOR.
frages of the Saints,” and is still used after vespers
in all Roman Catholic churches, is a curious feature
in a Scottish house of post-Reformation times.
Westward of Coltbridge there is pointed out a
spot where Cromwell’s forces occupied the rising
ground in I 650, after his repulse before Edinburgh,
and where he was again out-generalled by the
gallant Sir David Leslie, whose army was posted
by the Water of Leith and the marshy fields along
its banks.
Tradition assigns to R~seburn House the honour
of having given quarters for that night to Oliver
Cromwell, which is probable enough, as it is in
the immediate vicinity of the position assumed by
his army; and with this tradition the history, if
it can be called so, of Roseburn ends.
In levelling some mounds here, some few years
since, “some stone coffins were found,” says
LINTEL AT ROSEBURN HOUSE.
the portion of a legend, GOD KEIP OURE CROWNE,
AND SEND GUDE SUCCESSION, and the date 1526.
The other lintel is over an inner door, and has a
shield with two coats of arms impaled : in the first
canton are three rose-buds, between a chevron
charged with mullets ; in the second canton are
three fish, fess-wise ; in the panel are the initials
M. R. and K. F. ; and underneath the legend and
date, “ All my hoip is in ye Lord, I j62.”
Why this house-the whole lower storey of which
is strongly vaulted with massive stone-should be
decorated with the royal arms, it is impossible to
learn now, but to that circumstance, and perhaps to
the date 1562, and the initials M. R., evidently those
of the proprietor, may be assigned the unsupported
local tradition, which associates it with the presence
there of Mary and Bothwell j but the house was
evidently in existence when the latter seized the
former on the adjacent highway. According to Mr.
James Thomson, the present occupant of Roseburn
House, whose forefathers have resided in it for
more than a century, tradition names one of the
apartments “Queen Mary’s room,” being, it is said,
the room in which she slept when she lived there.
The long legend, which is taken from the “ Suf.
Daniel Wilson, “and a large quantity of human
bones, evidently of a very ancient date, as they
crumbled to pieces on being exposed to the air ;
but the tradition of the neighbouring hamlet is
that they were the remains ot some of Cromwell’s
troopers. Our informant,” he adds, “ the present
intelligent occupant of Roseburn House, mentioned
the curious fact that among the remains
dug up were the bones of a human leg, with fragments
of a wooden coffin, or case of the requisite
dimensions, in which it had evidently been buried
apart.”
North-west of Coltbridge House and Hall lies
Murrayfield, over which the town is spreading fast
in the form ot stately villas. Early in the last
century it was the property of Archibald Murray of
Murrayfield, Advocate, whose son Alexander, a
Senator of the College of Justice, was born, in 1736,
at Edinburgh. Being early designed for the Bar,
he became a member of the Faculty of Advocates
in 1758, and three years after was appointed sheriff
at Peebles.
In 1765 he succeeded his father as one of the
Commissaries of Edinburgh, and a few years after
saw him Solicitor-General for Scotland, in place of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p114.gif "Volume 5 Page 103")
... Sir David Leslie, whose army was posted
by the Water of Leith and the marshy fields along
its banks.
Tradition ...
Vol. 5 p. 103 (Rel. 0.19)
... begun business in a tiny
;hop as a bookstall-keeper, in Leith Walk, and
iaving a strong literary turn, he ...
Vol. 2 p. 224 (Rel. 0.19)
![Grassmarket.] THE GREYFRIARS MONASTERY. 233
while behind the noble pile of Heriot‘s Hospital thereof, Henry granted to them a charter empowertowers
above them, as a counterpart to the old I ing the latter to trade to any part of England,
Castle that rises majestically over the north side of subject to no other duties than those payable by
the same area Many antique features are dis- the most highly favoured natives of that country,
cernible here. Several of the older houses are in acknowledgment, as he states, of the humane
built with bartizaned roofs and ornamental copings, i and honourable treatment he met with from the
designed to afford their inmates an uninterrupted
view of the magnificent pageants
that were wont of old to defile through
the wide area below, or of the gloomy
tragedies that were so frequently enacted
here between the Restoration and the
Revolution. ”
Towards the south-east end of the market
place stood the ancient monastery of Grey
Friars, opposite where the Bow Foot Well,
erected in 1681, now stands. James I., a
monarch, who by many salutary laws and
the encouragement of learning, endeavoured
to civilise the country, long barbarised
by wars with England, established this
monastery. In obedience to a requisition
made by him to the Vicar-General of the
Order at Cologne, a body of Franciscans
came hither under Comelius of Zurich, a
scholar of great reputation. The house
prepared for their reception proved so
magnificent for the times, says Arnot, that
in the spirit of humility and self-denial
they declined to live in it, and could only
be prevailed upon to do so at the earnest
request of the Archbishop of St. Andrews
; consequently a considerable time
must have elapsed ere they were finally
established in the Grassmarket. There
they taught divinity and philosophy till
the Reformation, when their spacious and
beautiful gardens, that extended up the
slope towards the town wall, were bestowed
on the citizens as a cemetery by Queen
Mary.
That the monastery was a sumptuous
edifice according to the times, is proved
by its being assigned for the temporary
abode of the Princess Mary of Gueldres, who after
her arrival at Leith in June, 1449, rode thither on
a pillion behind the Count de Vere, and was visited
by her future husband, James II., on the following
In 1461, after the battle of Towton, its roof
afforded shelter to the luckless Henry VI. of England
when he fled to Scotland, together with his
heroic Queen Margaret and their son Prince
Edward. The fugitives were so hospitably entertained
by the court and citizens, that in requital
day.
78
EAST END OF THE GRASSMARKET, SHOWING THE WEST BOW,
(FaC-iitRik of an Eichiwg by Jam8 S h of RnbXaw.)
THE GALLOWS, AND OLD CORN MARKET.
Provost and burgesses of Edinburgh. As the
house of Lancaster never regained the English
throne, the charter survives only as an acknowledgment
of Henry’s gratitude. How long the latter
resided in the Grassmarket does not precisely
appear. Balfour states that in 1465, Henry VI.,
“ having lurked long under the Scotts King’s wing
as a privat man, resolves in a disgyssed habit to
enter England.” His future fate belongs to English
history, but his flight from Scotland evidently
was the result of a treaty of truce, in Feb., 1464. I](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p053.gif "Volume 4 Page 233")
... the Princess Mary of Gueldres, who after
her arrival at Leith in June, 1449, rode thither on
a pillion behind ...
Vol. 4 p. 233 (Rel. 0.19)
... . 317
Ruins of St. Anthony’s Chapel, looking towards Leith 320
The Volunteer Review in the Queen’s Park, ...
Vol. 4 p. 394 (Rel. 0.19)
... 324;
proposed statue to, 111. 123 : announcement
of the death of, I. 201
W i l l i IV. in Leith Roads, ...
Vol. 6 p. 392 (Rel. 0.18)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
C
Cable’s Wynd, Leith , XI. 226, 227
Caddies,orstreetmesngers, I. 151,
Cadell and ...
Vol. 6 p. 372 (Rel. 0.18)
... forged to wound the virgin soil.?*
In those days the Leith must have been a broader
and a deeper river than ...
Vol. 1 p. 12 (Rel. 0.18)
... in the brawl at Donnibristle,
had been brought to Leith , together with
Moray’s dead body, having a ...
Vol. 5 p. 113 (Rel. 0.18)
... 266
266
Heriot's Trust, 11. 358
Hermand, Lord (sec Fergusson,
Hermitage, The, Leith Links, ...
Vol. 6 p. 378 (Rel. 0.17)
... of St. Anthony;
the old fighting merchant
mariners of Leith , such as
the Woods, the Bartons,
and Sir ...
Vol. 1 p. 8 (Rel. 0.17)
![Lad Plovosts] PROVOST DRUMMOND. 281 -
fluence of the Duke of Lauderdale. in return for
ment of Colonel Gordon, who with Leslie and
Walter Butler of the Irish Musketeers, slew the
great M’allenstein, Duke of Friedland.
Sir Hugh Cunningham was provost when Anne
was proclaimed by the heralds at the Cross, on
the 8th of March, 1702, Queen of Scotland ; and
she in her first letter to Parliament pressed them
to consider the advantages which might accrue to
of the city. A cadet of the noble house of Perth, he
his view of the city-a work wonderful for its ’ got a protection to enable him to appear in this
I minuteness and fidelity-to provost Tod and the matter. “ Thus he was brought to the street again.”
Council, who made him a free burgess, and paid him His predecessor in 1676 was a Sir William Binny,
A333 6s. 8d. Scots, or A27 16s. 8d. sterling for who, in 1686 had a curious case before the Court I the drawing, which was engraved in Holland by of Session, against Hope of Carse, on the testa-
De Witt, and dedicated to the provost and magisi
trates, who appear by the city accounts to have had
a collation on the occasion.
The provost who was present at and presided over
the barbarous execution of Montrose, in 1650, was
Sir James Stewart of Coltness, who suffered therefor
a long imprisonment after the Restoration,
and was only rescued from something worse by
his having obtained for his Grace L6,ooo as the
price of the citadel of Leith. Sir Andrew while in
the civic chair conducted himself so tyrannically,
by applying the common good of the city for the
use of himself and his friends, and by inventing new
employments and concessory offices within it, to
provide for his dependents, that the citizens, weary
of his yoke, resolved to turn him out at the next
election ; but he having had a majority the burgesses
were forced to “intent a reduction of the
election.”
This case being submitted to the Chancellor and
President, they ordered an Act to be passed in the
Common Council of the city, declaring that none
should hereafter continue in office as provost for
more than two years. But this regulation has not
been strictly observed, and the Lord Prwosts of
the city are now elected for three years.
In 1683 Sir George Drummond was Lord Pre
vost ; but in August, 1685, he became a bankrupt,
and took refuge in the Sanctuary at Holyrood, the
first, says Fountainhall, “that during his office has
broke in FAinburgh.” A week or two afterwards, a
riot having taken place at the Town Guard-house,
the Lord Chancellor, the Earl oi Perth, who was
bound to do what he could to protect the provost,
84
was born in 1687, and when only eighteen years
of age was employed by the Committee of the
Scottish Parliament to give his assistance in the
arrangement of the national accounts prior to the
Union; and in 1707, on the establishment of the
Excise, he was rewarded with the office of Accountant-
General, and in I 7 I 7 he was a Commissioner
of the Board of Customs. In 1725 he was elected
Lord Provost for the first time, and two’years afterwas
named one of the commissioners and trustees for
improving the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland.
Hewasthe principal agent in the erection of the
Royal Infirmary ; and in I 745 he served as a volunteer
with Cope’s army at the Rattle of Prestonpans.
As grand-master of the freemasons he laid the
foundation-stone of the Royal Exchange, and in
1755 was appointed to that lucrative-if dubious
-office, a trustee on the forfeited estates of the
Jacobite lords and landholders. We have related
(in its place) how he laid the foundation-stone of the
North Bridge. He died in 1766 in the eightieth
year of his age, and was honoured, deservedly,
with a public funeral in the Canongate. To
Provost Drummond Dr. Robertson the historian
owed his appointment as Principal of the University,
which was also indebted to him for the institu](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p101.gif "Volume 4 Page 281")
... for his Grace L6,ooo as the
price of the citadel of Leith . Sir Andrew while in
the civic chair conducted ...
Vol. 4 p. 281 (Rel. 0.17)
... 130 131 132
Letter-& Violation of I. 354
Letters of Marque Leith III. 27
Leven and bIelvillb, David Earl ...
Vol. 6 p. 382 (Rel. 0.17)
... 130 131 132
Letter-& Violation of I. 354
Letters of Marque Leith III. 27
Leven and bIelvillb, David Earl ...
Vol. 6 p. 383 (Rel. 0.17)
... 130 131 132
Letter-& Violation of I. 354
Letters of Marque Leith III. 27
Leven and bIelvillb, David Earl ...
Vol. 6 p. 384 (Rel. 0.17)
... the and of February a mob,
including 500 sailors from Leith , burned this
chapel and plundered another, while ...
Vol. 2 p. 261 (Rel. 0.17)
... by 6,000 Hessians, who landed under the
Landgrave at Leith , he proceeded to obliterate
“ all memory of the ...
Vol. 2 p. 334 (Rel. 0.17)
... Stone The I. 79
Blind Schdl, Cdigmillar, 11. 336
Blockhouse of St. Anthony. Leith .
111. 222, ...
Vol. 6 p. 371 (Rel. 0.16)
... a+, w; denounced by the
Presbytery, II.24,39 ; theCalton
Hill plays 11. IDrawbridge'lhe
Leith 111. ...
Vol. 6 p. 375 (Rel. 0.16)
... in Edinburgh, as intending
to pass to a horse-race in Leith ; but after
they came, they passed forward to the ...
Vol. 2 p. 246 (Rel. 0.16)
... 11. 236
Currie's Tavern, I. 179
Curriehill. Lord. 11. qm
Curriehil~castle, 111: 334
Currichill How, 11. ...
Vol. 6 p. 374 (Rel. 0.16)
... Edinburgh he
found the whole Scottish army skilfully entrenched
parallel with Leith Walk, its flanks ...
Vol. 1 p. 54 (Rel. 0.16)
... Guest's "Brave~~"-Popularity of the Prince-Castle Blockaded-It Fires on the City- Leith ...
Vol. 2 p. 390 (Rel. 0.16)
... in
1488, gave to Thomas Hope a grant of some land
near Leith .
No. 71 is Sandiland’s Close, where tradition, ...
Vol. 2 p. 240 (Rel. 0.16)
![Canongate.] , THE MOROCCO LAND. 7
per month. A number of the ailing were hutted
in the King’s Park, a few were kept at home, and
aid for all was invoked from the pulpits. The
Session of the Canongate ordained, on the 27th of
June, that, “to avoid contention in this fearful
time,” all those who died in the park should be
buried therein ; for it would seem that those who
perished by the plague were buried in places apart
from churchyards, lest the infection might burst
forth anew if ever the graves were reopened.’
Maitland records. that such was the terror prevailing
at this period that the prisoners in the
Tolbooth were all set at liberty, and all who were
not free men were compelled,
under severe penalties, to quit
the city, until at length, “ by the
unparalleled ravages committed by
the plague, it was spoiled of its
inhabitants to such a degree that
there were scarcely sixty men left . capable of assisting in the defence
of the town in case of an
attack,”
At this crisis a large armed
vessel of peculiar rig and aspect
entered the Firth of Forth, and
came to anchor in Leith Roads.
By experienced seamen she was
at once pronounced to be an
Algenne rover, and dismay spread
over all the city. This soon
reached a culminating point when
a strong band landed from her,
and, entering the Canongate by
Moors. After some conference with his men he
intimated his possession of an elixir of wondrous
potency, and demanded that the Provost’s daughter
should be entrusted to his skill, engaging that if he
did not cure her immediately to embark with his
men, and free the city without ransom. After considerable
parley the Provost proposed that the
leader should enter the city and take up an abode
in his house.”
This was rejected, together with higher offers of
ransom, till Sir John Smith yielded to the exhortations
of his friends, and the proposal of the Moor
was accepted, and the fair sufferer was borne to a
house at the head of the Canongate,
wherein the corsair had taken
up his residence, and from thence
she went forth quickly restored
and in health.
The most singular part of this
story is its denouement, from
which it would appear that the
corsair and physician proved to
be no other than the condemned
fugitive Andrew Gray, who had
risen high in the favour and service
of the Emperor of Morocco.
“He had returned to Scotland,”
says Wilson, ‘‘ bent on revenging
his own early wrongs on the magis-.
trates of Edinburgh, when, to his
surprise, he found in the destined
object of his special vengeance
relation of his own. He married
the Provost’s daughter, and settled EFFIGY OF THE MOOR, MOROCCO LAND.
the.Water Gate, advanced to the
Netherbow Port and required admittance. The
magistrates parleyed with their leader, who demanded
an exorbitant ransom, and scoffed at the
risk to be run in a plague-stricken city.
The Provost at this time was Sir John Smith, of
Groat Hall, a small mansion-house near Craigleith,
and he, together with his brother-in-law, Sir William
Gray, Bart., of Pittendrum, a staunch Cavalier,
and one of ’the wealthiest among the citizens, to
whom we have referred in our account of Lady
Stair’s Close, agreed to ransom the city for a
large sum, while at the same time his eldest son
was demanded by the pirates as a hostage. “ It
seems, however,” says Wilson, “that the Provost’s
only child was a daughter, who then lay stricken
of the plague, of which her cousin, Egidia Gray,
had recently died. This information seemed to
work an immediate change on the leader of the
-
“Dom. Ann.,” Vol. 11.
down a wealthy citizen in the burgh
of Canongate. The house to which his fair patient.
was borne, and whither he afterwards brought
her as his bride, is still adorned with an effigy
of his royal patron, the Emperor of Morocco,
and the tenement has ever since borne the name
of the Morocco Land. . . . . We have had
the curiosity to obtain a sight of the title-deeds
of the property, which prove to be of recent
date. The earliest, a disposition of 1731, so far
confirms the tale that the proprietor at that date is
John Gray, merchant, a descendant, it may be, of
the Algerine rover and the Provost’s daughter.
The figure of the Moor has ever been a subject of
pcapular admiration and wonder, and a variety of
legends are told to account for its existence. Most
of them, though differing in almost every other
point, seem to agree in connecting it with the last
visitation of the plague.’’
Near this tenement, a little to the eastward, was
the mansion of John Oliphant of Newland, second](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p019.gif "Volume 3 Page 7")
... the Firth of Forth, and
came to anchor in Leith Roads.
By experienced seamen she was
at once ...
Vol. 3 p. 7 (Rel. 0.16)
... to the wooden, or Stokebridge,
and the ford on the Leith at the back of the
present Malta Terrace, where it ...
Vol. 3 p. 114 (Rel. 0.16)
... 111. 74, 77. 86, 146; ~ P U -
larity of, 1. 350, 11. 5 8 ; prqlamation
of, 111. 107 ; his landing
at ...
Vol. 6 p. 377 (Rel. 0.15)
... The situation of No. 3,
or the south-east fort, facing Leith , which is the
largest of the whole, and is ...
Vol. 6 p. 294 (Rel. 0.15)
![REGENT MURRAY’S FUNERAL. 143 St. Giles’s Church.]
Beware of injured Rothwellhaugh !
“ The death-shot parts-the charger springs-
Wild rises tumult’s startling roar !
And Murray’s plumy helmet rings-
Rings on the ground to rise no mare ! ”
When his remains were committed to the tomb in
which they still lie, the thousands who crowded
the church were moved to tears by the burning
eloquence of Knox. “Vpoun the xiiij day of the
moneth of Februar, 1570,” says the “ Diurnal of
Occurrents” “ my lord Regentis corpis, being brocht
in ane bote be sey, frz Stirling to Leith, quhair it
was keipit in Johne Wairdlaw his hous, and thereafter
cary it to the Palace of Holyrudhous, wes
transportit fra the said Palace to the College Kirk
the Regent Murray, the Regent Morton, and his
great rival, John Stewart Earl of Athole, are buried ;
and adjoining the aisle where the sorely mangled
remains of the great Marquis of Montrose were
so royally interred on the 7th of January, 1661.
The Regent’s tomb, now fully restored, stands
on the west side of the south transept, and on
many accounts is an object of peculiar interest.
Erected to the memory of one who played so conspicuous
a part in one of the most momentous
periods of Scottish history, it is well calculated to
interference of the General Assembly, and a riot
ensued.
The portion of the church which contained
these monuments was eftered by a door adjoining
the Parliament Close, and, as it was never shut,
“the gude regent’s aisle,” as it was named,
became a common place for appointments and
loungers. Thus French Paris-Queen Mary’o
servant-in his confession respecting the murder
of King Henry, stated that during the communings
which took place before that dark deed was resolved
on, he one day “took his mantle and sword
and went to prumencr (walk) in the high church.”
Probably in consequence of the veneration entertained
for the memory of the Regent, his tomb
rouse many a stirring association.
All readers of
history know how the Regent
fell under the bullet
of Bothwellhaugh, at Linlithgow,
in avenging the
wrongs inflicted on his
wife, the heiress of Woodhouselee.
As the “Cadyow
Ballad ” has it-
“ ’Mid pennoned spears a stately
Proud Murray’s plumage
Scarce could his trampling
So close the minions crow-
“ From the raised vizor’s shade,
Dark rolling, glanced the
And his steel truncheon waved
Seemed marshalling the iron
“But yet his saddened brow
A passing shade of doubt
Some fiend was whispering in
grove,
floated high ;
charger move,
ded nigh.
his eye,
ranks along ;
on high,
throng,
confessed,
and awe ;
his breast,
~
of Sanctgeill, in this manner; that is to say,
.i‘illiam Kirkaldie of Grange, Knycht, raid fra the
said palace in dule weid, bearing ane pensal!
quherin was contenit ane Reid Lyon; after him
followit Colvill of Cleishe, Maister (of the) Houshold
to the said Regent, with ane quherin was
contenit my lords regentis armes and bage.” The
Earls of Mar, Athole, Glencairn, the Lords
Ruthven, Methven, and Lindsay, the Master of
Graham, and many other nobles, bore the body
through the church to the grave, where it “was
JOHN KNOX’S PULPIT, ST. GILES’S.
(From tk Scottish Anfaquarinn Museum).
buryit in Sanct Anthonie’s
yle.” On the front of the
restored tomb is the ancient
brass plate, bearing
an inscription composed
by George Buchanan :-
’( Iur060 Stuvarto, Mwm’e Cornifi,
Scotie Prwqi;
Vim, a t a t i s szw, longe opt*
mo : a6 inirnik,
0mni.- rnemorie deterrimis, ex
insdiis exfindo,
Ceu pafn‘ commwni, pafna
mcprens $omit.’’
Opposite, on the north side
of the west transept, was
the tomb in which the Earl
of Athole, Chancellor of
Scotland, who died suddenly
at Stirling, not without
suspicion of poison,
was interred with great
solemnity on the 4th of
July, 1579. A cross was
used on this occasion, and
as flambeaux were borne,
according to Calderwood,
the funeral probably occurred
at night ; these paraphernalia
led to the usual](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p155.gif "Volume 1 Page 143")
... being brocht
in ane bote be sey, frz Stirling to Leith , quhair it
was keipit in Johne Wairdlaw his hous, ...
Vol. 1 p. 143 (Rel. 0.15)
... noble
qualities. ascribed to them by the historian of
Leith , in the days when old Dr. Johnston was
their ...
Vol. 6 p. 306 (Rel. 0.15)
... the new one, by the aid of certain mariners
from Leith . Rebuilt thus in 1617, nearly on the
site of an ...
Vol. 1 p. 150 (Rel. 0.15)
... of the Pentlands, is Bonally, with
the Vale of the Leith , and enters the parish here,
on the west side by a ...
Vol. 6 p. 326 (Rel. 0.15)
... to Birrel.
On the 3rd of June the Duke embarked at Leith ,
under a salute of sixty pieces of cannon from ...
Vol. 1 p. 111 (Rel. 0.15)
... of distinction.
CHAPTER IX.
CANONMILLS AND INVER LEITH .
Canonmills-The Loch-Riots of &+-The ...
Vol. 5 p. 86 (Rel. 0.15)
![canongate.] ROXBURGH HOUSE. 15
~~ House, there stood in those days the mansion of
the Earls of Roxburgh, surrounded by a beautiful
As a set-off against these items, we have the following,
in 1660-1, when Argyle’s fate came :-
To Alexander Davidson for a new axe to ye
Maiden, and is to maintain it all ye days of his
life . . . . . * . . . . p 12 o
To 4 Drummers when ArgyZe and Swzjtton were
brought from Leith . . . . . 14 8 o
To 17 extra Drummers, a days, when Montrose
was buried and Argyle executed . . , 21 12 o
The marquis was interred amid great pomp in
the Church of St. Giles at the Restoration; but
when a search was made for his remains in the
Chepman aisle, in April, 1879, no trace of them
whatever could be found there.
Amid the gloom and’horror of scenes such as
these executions, and the general events of the wars
of the Covenant, all traces of gaiety, and especially
of theatrical entertainments, disappeared in Edinburgh,
as forbidden displays; but in January,. 1659,
the citizens were regaled with the sight of a travelling
dromedary, the first that had ever been in
Scotland. Nicoll describes it as “ane heigh great
beast, callit ane dummodary, quhilk being keepit
clos in the Canongate, none had a sight of it, without
three pence the person. . . . . It was
very big, and of great height, cloven futted like
unto a kow, and on the bak ane saitt, as it were
a sadill to sit on. Thair was brocht in with it ane
lytill baboun, faced lyke unto an aip.”
In 1686 the public attendance at mass by some
of the officers of state excited a tumult in the city,
and many persons of rank were insulted on returning
therefrom by the rioters. One of these, a
journeyman baker, was, by order of the Privy
Council, whipped through the Canongate, and
ultimately the Foot Guards had to fire on the mob
that assembled.
In that year an Act of Parliament empowered
the magistrates to impose a tax of A500 sterling
yearly, for three years, to cleanse the town and
Canongate, and free both from beggars ; and in 1687
the whole members of the College of Justice voluntarily
offered to bear their full share of this tax,
and appointed two of their body to be present when
it was levied.
In 1692 we find an instance in the Canongate
of one of the many troubles which in those days
arose from corporation privileges, by which the
poor and industrious tradesman was made the
victim of monopoly.
In the open ground which now surrounds Milton
I which performs the whole journey in thirteen days,
I without any stoppage (if God permit), having eighty
Fepairs in this house, when Thomas Kinloch, Dea-
:on of the Wrights in the Canongate, came with
Jthers, and violently carried off all the tools of
Somerville and his workmen, on the plea that they
were not freemen of the burgh; and when the
tools were demanded formally, two days after,
they were withheld.
Robert, Earl of Roxburgh (who afterwards died
m his travels abroad), was then a minor, but his
curators resented the proceedings of Kinloch, and
sued him for riot and *oppression. Apparently, if
the Roxburgh mansion had been subject to the
jurisdiction of the Canongate, the Privy Council
would have given no redress ; but when the earl’s
ancestor, in 1636, had given up the superiority
of the Canongate, as he reserved his house to be
holden of the Crown, it was found that the local
corporation had no right to interfere with his
workmen, and Somerville’s tools were restored to
him by order of the Council.
Earl Robert was succeeded in this house by his
brother John, fifth Earl and first Duke of Roxburgh,
K.G., who sold his Union vote for LSOO,
became Secretary of State for Scotland in 1716,
and died in 1741.
Long ere that time the effect of the Union had
done its worst upon the old court burgh. Maitland,
writing in 1753, says :-“This place has suffered
more by the inion of the kingdoms than all the
other parts of Scotland : for having, before that
period, been the residence of the chief of the
Scottish nobility, it was thqn in a flourishing condition
; but being deserted by them, many of their
houses are fallen down, and others in a ruinous
condition ; it is in a piteous case ! ”
Five years after the Union we find a London
coach announced as starting from the Capongate,
the advertisement for which, with regard to expedition,
comfort, and economy, presents a curious contrast
to the announcements of to-day, and is worth
giving at length, as we find it in the NkwcastZe
Cau~unt of October, I 7 I 2.
“ Edinburgh, Berwick, Newcastle, Durham, and
London Stage-coach begins on Monday, 13th
October, 1712. All that desire to pass from
Edinbro’ to London, or from London to Edinbro’,
or any place on that road, let them repair to Mr.
John Baillie’s, at the Coach and Horses at the head
of the Canongate, every Saturday, or the Black
Swan in Holborn, every other Monday, at both of
which places they may be received in a stagexoach](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p027.gif "Volume 3 Page 15")
... 4 Drummers when ArgyZe and Swzjtton were
brought from Leith . . . . . 14 8 o
To 17 extra Drummers, a days, ...
Vol. 3 p. 15 (Rel. 0.15)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Coltbridge;.
from Inver leith Row, and a third from the narrow
lane leading to East ...
Vol. 5 p. 102 (Rel. 0.15)
![The Castle Hill.] THE RAGGED SCHOOL. 87
the said burgh situated under the Castle Hill t+
wards the north, to the head of the bank, and so
going down to the said North Loch,” &c.
This right of proprietary seems clear enough,
yet Lord Neaves decided in favour of the Crown,
and found that the ground adjacent to the
Castle of Edinburgh, including the Esplanade and
the north and south banks or braes,” belonged,
(‘jure coronte, to Her Majesty as part and pertinent
of the said Castle.”
CHAPTER IX.
THE CASTLE HILL (cmclded).
Dr. Guthrie’s Original Ragged School-Old Houses in the Streetof the Castle Hill-Duke of Gordon’s House, Blair’s Close-Webster‘s
CloscDr. Alex. Webster-Boswell’s Court-Hyndford House-Assembly Hall-Houses of the Marquis of Argyle, Sir Andrew Kcnnedy,
the Earl of Cassillis, the Laird of Cockpen--Lord Semple’s House-Lord Semple-Palace of Mary of Gub-Its Fate.
ON the north side of this thoroughfare-which,
within 150 years ago, was one of the most
aristocratic quarters of the old city-two great
breaches have been made: one when the Free
Church College was built in 1846, and the other, a
little later, when Short’s Observatory was built in
Ramsay Lane, together with the Original Ragged
School, which owes its existence to the philanthropic
efforts of the late Dr. Guthrie, who, with
Drs. Chalmers, Cunningham, and Candlish, took
so leading a part in the pon-intrusion controversy,
which ended in the disruption in 1843 and the
institution of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1847
Guthrie’s fervent and heart-stirring appeals on behalf
of the homeless and destitute children, the little
street Arabs of the Scottish capital, led to the
establishment of the Edinburgh Original Ragged
Industrial School, which has been productive of
incalculable benefit to the children of the poorer
classes of the city, by affording them the blessing of
a good common and Christian education, by training
them in habits of industry, enabling them to
earn an honest livelihood, and fitting them for
the duties of life,
All children are excluded who attend regular
day-schools, whose parents have a regular income,
or who receive support or education from the parochial
board; and the Association consists of all subscribers
of 10s. and upwards per annum, or donors
of A5 and upwards; and the general plan upon
which this ragged school and its branch establishment
at Leith Walk, are conducted is as follows,
viz.:-“To give children an adequate allowance of
food for their daily support; to instruct them in
reading, writing, and arithmetic ; to train them in
habits of industry, by instructing and employing
them in such sorts of work as are suited to their
years; to teach them the truths of the Gospel,
making the Holy Scriptures the groundwork of
instruction. On Sabbath the children shall receive
food as on other days, and such religious instruction
as shall be arranged by the acting committee,”
which consists of not less than twelve members.
To this most excellent institution no children
are admissible who are above fourteen or under five
years of age, and they must either be natives of
Edinburgh or resident there at least twelve months
prior to application for admission, though, in special
cases, it may be limited to six. None are admitted
or retained who labour under infectious disease, or
whose mental or bodily constitution renders them
incapable of profiting by the institution. All must ,
attend church on Sunday, and no formula of
doctrine is taught to which their parents may
object ; and children are excused from attendance
at school or worship on Sunday whose parents
object to their attendance, but who undertake that
the children are otherwise religiously instructed in
the tenets of the communion to which they belong,
provided they are in a condition to be entrusted
with the care of their children.
Such were the broad, generous, and liberal views
of Dr. Guthne, and most ably have they been
carried out.
According to the Report for 187g-which may
be taken as fairly typical of the work done in this
eminently useful institution-there was an average
attendance. in the Ramsay Lane Schools of 216
boys and 89 girls. The Industrial Department
comprises carpentry, box-making, shoemaking, and
tailoring, and the net, profits made by the boys
in these branches amounted to &;I& 14s. 5+d.
Besides this the boys do all the washing, help the
cook, make their beds, and wash the rooms they
occupy twice a week. The washing done by boys
was estimated at A130, and the girls, equally
industrious, did work to the value (including the
washing) of A109 7s.
Full of years and honour, Dr. Thomas Guthne
died 24th February, 1873.
Memories of these old houses that have passed
away, yet remain, while on the opposite side of the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p099.gif "Volume 1 Page 87")
... this ragged school and its branch establishment
at Leith Walk, are conducted is as follows,
viz.:-“To ...
Vol. 1 p. 87 (Rel. 0.15)
![Portobello.] THE FIGGATE MUIR ‘43
to the line of the turnpike road. The whole surface
of the district round them is studded with
buildings, and has only so far subsided from the
urban character as to acquire for these, whether
villa or cottage, the graceful accompaninients of
garden or hedge-row. “A stroll from the beautified
city to Piershill,” says a writer, “when the
musical bands of the barracks are striving to drown
the soft and carolling melodies of the little songsters
on the hedges and trees at the subsession ot
Arthur’s Seat, and when’ the blue Firth, with its
many-tinted canopy of clouds, and its picturesque
display of islets and steamers, and little smiling
boats on its waters, vies with the luxuriant lands
upon its shore to win the award due to beauty, is
indescribably delightful.”
C H A P T E R X I V .
PORTOBELLO.
Portolxll~The Site before the Houses-The Figgate Muir-Stone Coffins-A Meeting with Cromwell-A Curious Raae--Portobello Hut-
Robbqrs-Willkq Jamieson’s Feuing-Sir W. Scott and “The Lay “-Portobello Tower-Review of Yeomanry and H i g h d e w
Hugh Miller-David Laing-Joppa-Magdalene Bridge-Brunstane House.
PORTOBELLO, now a Parliamentary burgh, and
favourite bathing quarter of the citizens, occupies a
locality known for ages as the Figgate Muir, a once
desolate expanse of muir-land, which perhaps was
a portion of the forest of Drumsheugh, but which
latterly was covered With whins and furze, bordered
by a broad sandy beach, and extending from Magdalene
Bridge on the south perhaps to where Seafield
now lies, on the north-west.
Through this waste flowed the Figgate Bum out
of Duddingston Loch, a continuation of the Braid.
Figgate is said to be a corruption of the Saxon
word for a cow’s-ditch, and here ‘the monks of
Holyrood were wont to pasture their cattle.
Traces of early inhabitants were found here
in 1821, when three stone cofiins’were discovered
under a tumulus of sand, midway between Portobello
and Craigantinnie. These were rudely put
together, and each contained a human skeleton.
‘‘ The bones were quite entire,’’ says the Week&
JournnZ for that year, “and from their position it
would appear that the bodies had been buried with
their legs across. At the head of each was deposited
a number of flints, from which it is conjectured
the inhumation had taken place before the
use of metal in this country; and, what is very
remarkable, the roots of some shrubs had penetrated
the coffins and skulls of the skeletons, about which
and the ribs they had curiously twisted themselves.
The cavities of the skeletons indeed were quite
filled with vegetable matter.”
It was on the Figgate Muir that, during the
War of Independence, Sir William Wallace in 1296
mustered his zoo patriots to join Robert Lauder
and Crystal Seton at Musselblirgh for the pursuit
of the traitor Earl of Dunbar, whom they fought at
Inverwick, afterwards taking his castle at Dunbar.
In the Register of the Privy Council, January,
1584, in a bond of caution for David Preston of
Craigmillar, Robert Pacok in Brigend, Thomas
Pacok in Cameron, and others, are named as sureties
that John Hutchison, mirchant and burgess
of Edinburgh, shall be left peaceably in possession
of the lands ‘‘ callit Kingis medow, besyde the
said burgh, and of that pairt thairof nixt adjacent
to the bume callit the Figott Burne, on the north
side of the same, being a proper pairt and pertinent
of the saidis landis of Kingis Medow.”
Among the witnesses is George Ramsay, Dean of
Restalrig.
We next hear of this locality in 1650, when it
was supposed to be the scene of a secret meeting,
‘‘ half way between Leith and Musselburgh Rocks,
at low water,” between Oliver Cromwell and the
Scottish leaders, each attended by a hundred
horse, when any question the latter proposed to
ask he agreed to answer, but declined to admit
alike of animadversion or reply. A part of this
alleged conference is said to have been-
“ Why did you put the king to death ?
‘‘ Because he was a tyrant, and deserved death.”
“ Why did you dissolve the Parliament ? I’
‘“ Because they .were greater tyrants than the
king, and required dissolution.”
The Mercurius CaZtdoonius of 1661 records a very
different scene here, under the name of the Thicket
Burn, when a foot-race was run from thence to the
summit of Arthur’s Seat by twelve browster-wives,
“all of them in a condition which makes violent
exertion unsuitable to the female form.” The prizes
on this occasiofi were, for the first, a hundredweight
of cheese and “a budge11 of Dunkeld aquavite,
andarumpkin of Brunswick rum for the second, set
down by the Dutch midwife. The next day six](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p154.gif "Volume 5 Page 143")
... be the scene of a secret meeting,
‘‘ half way between Leith and Musselburgh Rocks,
at low water,” ...
Vol. 5 p. 143 (Rel. 0.15)
... obliged to come from the High Street
by the way of Leith Wynd, or by Halkerston’s
Wynd, which, in the ...
Vol. 2 p. 342 (Rel. 0.14)
... their dead and drank the ashes in wine !
Henry de Leith Rector of Restalrig, Nicholas
Vicar of Lasswade, ...
Vol. 3 p. 51 (Rel. 0.14)
... crystal bottles, cast on purpose at
the Glass House of Leith , were deposited in the
cavity, containing coins of ...
Vol. 5 p. 22 (Rel. 0.14)
![North Bridge.] MR. AND MRS. WYNDHAM. 351
who was present can ever forget. Scott, it may be
remarked, was sensible to various impulses which
are utterly blank to other men. There were associations
about Mr. Murray and his sister as ‘ come
of Scotland’s gentle bluid’ and the grandchildren
of a man prominent in the Forty-five which helped
not a little to give him that strong and peculiar
interest in the Theatre Royal, which he constantly
displayed from 1809 downwards.”
The association here refeAed to was the circumstance
that Mrs. Henry Siddons and her brother
were the grandchildren of John Murray of Broughton,
who was secretary to Prince Charles Edward,
and gained a somewhat unenviable notoriety by
turning king‘s evidence against Lord Lovat and
others, when he was taken prisoner subsequent to
the battle of Culloden.
Mrs. Henry Siddons’ twenty-one years of the
patent ended in 1830; but her completion of
twenty-one annual payments of L2,ooo to the
representatives of Mr. John Jackson made her
sole proprietor of the house; and on the 29th of
March she took farewell of the Edinburgh stage,
in the character of Lady Townley in the Prmuked
Husband, and retired, into private life, carrying
with her, as we are told, “the good wishes of all
in Edinburgh, for they had recognised in her not
merely the accomplished actress, but the good
mother, the refined lady, and the irreproachable
member of society.”
Her brother, Mr, Murray, obtaining a renewal of
the patent, leased the house from her for twentyone
ye‘ars; but, save Rob Roy and Gzry Manner-
&, the day of the Waverley dramas was past, yet
to him the speculation did not prove an unsuccessful
one; and the supernumerary house, the Adelphi
in Leith Walk, was alike a rival, and a dead weight
on his hands, till, on the expiring of his lease,
he retired, in the zenith of his favour with the
Edinburgh public, in 1851, and with a moderate
competency, withdrew to St. Andrews, where he
died not long after.
After being let for a brief period to Mr. Lloyd
the comedian, Mr. Rollinson, and Mr. Leslie, all
of whom failed to make the speculation a paying
one, it passed into the management of its last lessees,
Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Wyndham, the greatest
favourites, as managers, and in public and private
life, that the Royal had ever possessed, not even
excepting Mrs. Henry Siddons.
Mr. Wyndham, a gentleman by education and
position, who adopted the stage by taste as a profession,
came to Edinburgh, about 1845, as a
member of Mr. Murray’s company, to support Miss
Helen Faucit, and after being in management at
,
*
the Adelphi, he obtained that of the Royal in
succession to Messrs. Rollinson and Leslie, and,
as managed by him and Mrs. Wyndham, it
speedily attained the rank and character of
one of the best-conducted theatres in the three
kingdoms. The former, always brilliant in light or
genteel comedy, was equally pleasing and powerful
in his favourite delineations of Irish character,
while Mrs. Wyndham was ever most touching and
pathetic in all tender, wifely, and motherly parts,
and could take with equal ease and excellence
Peg Woffington or Mrs. Haller, Widow Smilie or
Lady Macbeth.
Under their rkiime, the scenery and properties
attained a pitch of artistic excellence of which
their predecessors could have had not the slightest
conception; and some of the Waverley dramas
were set upon the stage with a magnificence and
correctness never before attempted. While pleasing
the public with a constant variety, these, the
last lessees of this famous old theatre, did much
for the intellectual enlightenment of Edinburgh by
producing upon their boards all the leading members
of the profession from London, and also
giving the citizens the full benefit of Italian opera
almost yearly.
Kean and Robson, Helen Faucit, old Paul
Bedford in conjunction with Wright, and latterly
J. L. Toole, the unfortunate Gustavus V. Brooke,
Madame Celeste, Alfred Wigan, Mrs. Stirling,
Sothern, Mesdames Ristori and Titiens, Mario and
Giuglini, and all the most famous artistes in every
branch of the modern drama, actors and singers,
were introduced to the Edinburgh public again
and again ; and, though last, not least in stature,
Sir William Don, of Newton-Don, “ the eccentric
Baronet.”
In recognition of these services, and their own
worth, a magnificent service of plate was presented
to them in 1869. It was unquestionably under
Mr. Wyndham’s management that the Edinburgh
stage was first raised to a perfect level with the
stages of London and Dublin, and it was under
his auspices that both Toole the comedian and
Irving the tragedian first made a name an the
boards.
The acquisition of the site occupied by the old
theatre by the Government for the sum of A5000
for the erection of a new General Post Office thereon,
though the latter had long been most necessary,
and the former was far from being an ornament to
the city, was a source of some excitement, and of
much regret to all old playgoers; and when the
night came t k t the curtain of fate was to close
upon it, after a chequered course of niriety years,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p171.gif "Volume 2 Page 351")
... and the supernumerary house, the Adelphi
in Leith Walk, was alike a rival, and a dead weight
on ...
Vol. 2 p. 351 (Rel. 0.14)
... was the only open
thoroughfare to the north between Leith Wynd
’
Kinloch’s mansion and that which ...
Vol. 3 p. 17 (Rel. 0.14)
... now fled .from his pursuers
towards the Water of Leith , thinking to drown
himself, but was taken, brought ...
Vol. 3 p. 183 (Rel. 0.14)
... family, who
also possessed house p,roperty in Leith , according
to a case in Durie’s “ Decisions ...
Vol. 6 p. 339 (Rel. 0.14)
... Downie
accompanied Watt to his place at the Water of Leith ,
where the order was given for the pikes.
William ...
Vol. 4 p. 238 (Rel. 0.14)
... water known as Corstorphine
Loch, and so deep was the Leith in those
days, that provisions, etc., for the ...
Vol. 5 p. 118 (Rel. 0.14)
... third,
persons of the same age belonging to Edinburgh
and Leith , failing whom, from all other parts ...
Vol. 5 p. 34 (Rel. 0.14)
![The West BOW.] MAJOR WEIR.
even to this day, a deep-rooted impression on the
popular mind.
A powerful hand at praying and expounding,
46 ‘ he became so notoriously regarded among the
Presbyterian sect, that if four met together, be sure
Major Weir was one,”’ says Chambers, quoting
Fraser’s MS. in the Advocate’s Library ; “ ‘at private
meetings he prayed to admiration, which
He
never married, but lived in a private lodging with
his sister Grizel Weir. Many resorted to his
house to join with him, and hear him pray; but it
was observed that he could not officiate in any
holy duty without the black staff, or rod, in his
hand, and leaning upon it, which made those who
heard him pray, admire his flood in prayer, his
ready extemporary expression, his heavenly gesture,
so that he was thought more an angel than a
man, and was termed by some of the holy sisters,
ordinarily Angelid Tho?nas.’ ’’
“ Holy sisters,” in those days abounded in the
major’s quarter ; and, indeed, during all the latter
part of the 17th century the inhabitants of the Bow
enjoyed a peculiar fame for piety and zeal in the
cause of the National Covenant, and were frequently
subjected to the wit of the Cavalier faction;
Dr. Pitcairn, Pennycook, the burgess bard, stigmatised
them as the (‘ Bow-head Saints,” the “ godly
plants of the Bow-head,” &c. ; and even Sir Walter
Scott, in describing the departure of Dundee,
sings :-
“ As he rode down the sanctified bends of the Bow,
Ilka carline was flyting and shaking her POW i’
and it was in this quarter that many of the polemical
pamphlets and sermons of Presbyterian
divines have since been published.
after a life characterised externally
by all the graces of devotion, but polluted in secret
by crimes of the most revolting nature, and which
little needed the addition of wizardry to excite the
horror of living men, fell into a severe sickness,
which affected his mind so much that he made
open and voluntary confession of all his wickedness.”
According to Professor Sinclair, the major had
made a compact with the devil, who of course outwitted
his victim. The fiend had promised, it was
said, to keep him scatheless from all peril, but a
single “ burn ; hence the accidental naming of a
man named Bum, by the sentinels at the NetheI
Bow Port, when he visited them as commande1
of the Guard, cast him into a fit of terror; and
on another occasion, finding Libberton Burn
’before him, was sufficient to make him turn back
trembling.
. made many of that stamp court his converse.
.
Major Weir,
____ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~
His sick-bed confession, when he was now
verging on his seventieth year, seemed at first so
incredible that Sir Andrew Ramsay of Abbotshall,
who was Lord Provost from 1662 to 1673, refused
for a time to order his arrest. Eventually, however,
the major, his sister (the partner of one of his
crimes), and the black magical staff, were all taken
into custody and lodged in the Tolbooth.
The staff was secured by the express request of
his sister, and local superstition still records how it
was wont to perform all the major‘s errands for any
article he wanted from the neighbouring shops ;
that it answered the door when “the pin was
tirled,” and preceded him in the capacity of a linkboy
at night in the Lawnmarket. In his house
several sums of money in dollars were found
wrapped up in pieces of cloth. A fragment of the
latter, on being thrown on the fire by the bailie in
charge, went up the wide chimney with an explosion
like a cannon, while the dollars, when the
magistrate took them home, flew about in such a
fashion that the demolition of his house seemed
imminent.
While in prison he confessed, without scruple,
that he had been guilty of crimes alike possible
and impossible. Stung to madness by conscience,
the unfortunate wretch seemed to feel some comfort
in sharing his misdeeds with the devil, yet he
refused to address himself to Heaven for pardon.
To all who urged him to pray, he answered by
wild screams. “Torment me no m o r e 1 am tortured
enough already !’, was his constant cry ; and
he declined to see a clergyman of any creed, saying,
acdording to “ Law’s Memorials,” that ‘‘ his
condemnation was sealed; and since he was to go
to the devil, he did not wish to anger him !”
When asked by the minister of Ormiston if he
had ever seen the devil, he answered, (‘ that any
fealling he ever hade of him was in the dark.”
He and his sister were tried on the 9th of April,
1670, before the Justiciary Court; he was sentenced
to be strangled and burned, between Edinburgh
and Leith, and his sister Grizel (called Jean
by some), to be hanged in the Grassmarket.
When hi’s neck was encircled by the fatal rope
at the place of execution, and the fire that was to
consume his body-the “burn to which, as the
people said the devil had lured him-he was bid
to say, “Lord, be merciful to me!” but he only
replied fiercely and mournfully, “ Let me alone-
I will not ; I have lived as a beast and must die
like a beast.” When his lifeless body fell from the
stake into the flaming pyre beneath, his favourite
stick, which (according to RavaiZZm Rediuivus)
‘‘ was all of one piece of thornwood, with a crooked
~](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p131.gif "Volume 2 Page 311")
... be strangled and burned, between Edinburgh
and Leith , and his sister Grizel (called Jean
by some), ...
Vol. 2 p. 311 (Rel. 0.14)
... can never die.
The day on which the queen arrived at Leith ,
after a thirteen years’ absence from her native ...
Vol. 3 p. 66 (Rel. 0.14)
... young king
concealed, with his own consert. He was thus
conveyed to Leith , and from thence by water ...
Vol. 1 p. 30 (Rel. 0.14)
![North Bridge.] JOHN EARL OF MAR. 335
have foreseen; we say long-suggested, for, though
not carried out till the early years of George 111.’~
reign, it had been projected in the latter end of
the reign of Charles 11.
The idea was first suggested when James VII.,
as Duke of Albany and York, was resident Royal
Commissioner at Holyrood, in the zenith of the
only popularity he ever had in Scotland. Vast
numbers of the Scottish nobility and gentry flocked
.around him, and the old people of the middle of
xhe eighteenth century used to recall with delight
the magnificence and brilliance of the court he
gathered in the long-deserted palace, and the
general air of satisfaction which pervaded the
entire city.
Despite the recent turmoils and sufferings consequent
on the barbarous severity with which the
Covenanters had been treated, Edinburgh was prosperous,
and its magistrates bestowed noble presents
upon their royal guest; but the best proof of the
city’s prosperity was the new and then startling idea
s f having an extended royalty and a North Bridge,
;and this idea the Duke of Albany warmly patronised
and encouraged, and towards it gave the citizens a
grant in the following terms :-
“That, when they should have occasion to
enlarge their city by purchasing ground without
tthe town, or to build bridges or arches for the accomplishing
of the same, not only were the propietors
of such lands obliged to part With the same
an reasonable terms, but when in possession thereof,
they are to be erected into a regality in favour of
the citizens ; and after finishing the Canongate
church, the city is to have the surplus of the
20,ooo merks given by Thomas Moodie, in the
year 1649, with the interest thereof; and as all
public streets belong to the king, the vaults and
cellars under those of Edinburgh being forfeited to
the Crown, by their being built without leave or
consent of his majesty, he granted all the said
vaults or cellars to the town, together with a power
to oblige the proprietors of houses, to lay before
their. respective tenements large flat stones for the
conveniency of walking.”
James VII. had fully at heart the good of Edinburgh,
and but for the events of the Revolution
the improvements of the city would have commenced
seventy-two years sooner than they did, but
the neglect of subsequent monarchs fell heavily alike
on the capital and the kingdom. “Unfortunately,”
. :says Robert Chambers, “the advantages which
Edinburgh enjoyed under this system of things
were destined to be of short duration. Her royal
:guest departed, with all his family and retinue, in
May, 1682. In six years more he was lost both
:o Edinburgh and Britain; and ‘a stranger filled
:he Stuart’s throne,’ under whose dynasty Scotland
?ined long in undeserved reprobation.”
The desertion of the city consequent on the
Union made all prospect of progress seem hopeless,
yet some there were who never forgot the cherished
idea of an extended royalty. Among various
plans, the most remarkable for its foresight was that
3f John eighteenth Lord Erskine and eleventh
Earl of Mar, who was exiled for his share in the
insurrection of I 7 I 5.
His sole amusement during the years of the long
exile in which he died at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1732
was to draw plans and designs for the good of his
beloved native country and its capital; and the
paper to which we refer is one written by him in
1725, and mentioned in vol. 8 of the “Old Statistical
Account of Scotland,” published in 1793.
“All ways of improving Edinburgh should be
thought on : as in particular, making a Zarge bridge
flfhree arch, over the ground betwixt the North
Loch and Physic Gardens, from the High Street at
Liberton’s Wynd to the Multersey Hill, where
many fine streets might be built, as the inhabitants
increased. The access to them would be easy on
all hands, and the situation would be agreeable and
convenient, having a noble prospect of all the fine
ground towards the sea, the Firth of Forth, and
coast of Fife. One long street in a straight line,
where the Long Gate is now (Princes Street?) ; on
one side of it would be a fine opportunity for
gardens down to the North Loch, and one, on the
other side, towards Broughton. No houses to be
on the bridge, the breadth of the North Loch ; but
selling the places or the ends for houses, and the
vaults and arches below for warehouses and cellars,
the charge of the bridge might be defrayed.
“ Another bridge might also be made on the other
side of the towq, and almost as useful and commodious
as that on the north. The place where it
could most easily be made is St. Mary‘s Wynd, and
the Pleasance. The hollow there is not so deep, as
where the other bridge is proposed, so that it is
thought that two storeys of arches might raise it near
the level with the street at the head of St. Mary’s
Wynd. Betwixt the south end of the Pleasance and
the Potter-row, and from thence to Bristo Street,
and by the back of the wall at Heriot‘s Hospital, are
fine situations for houses and gardens. There would
be fine avenues to the town, and outlets for airing
and walking by these bridges ; and Edinburgh, from
being a bad incommodious situation, would become
a very beneficial and convenient one ; and to make
it still more so, a branch of that river, called the
Water of Leith, misht, it is thought, be brought](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p155.gif "Volume 2 Page 335")
... and to make
it still more so, a branch of that river, called the
Water of Leith , misht, it is thought, be ...
Vol. 2 p. 335 (Rel. 0.14)
... sought to get out of the city by dropping from
the wall at Leith Wynd, but were forced once more
to rouse t6e ...
Vol. 5 p. 6 (Rel. 0.14)
... who derive their rights from John Touris
of Inver leith .
In Edgar’s map the main street of the ...
Vol. 4 p. 330 (Rel. 0.14)
![The Mound.] A PROPOSED HARBOUR. no
“And such a lot, my Skene, was thine,
When thou of late wert doomed to twine- - Just when thy bridal hour was by-
The cypress with the myrtle tie.
Just on thy bride her sire had smiled,
And blessed the union of his child,
When love must change its joyous cheer,
And wipe affection’s filial tear.”
In the subsequent March Scott had left his
beloved house in Castle Street for ever.
Among the memorials of the Pictish race, illustrated
so ably in Dr. Stuarfs “ Sculptured Stones
of Scotland,” is one with the peculiar emblems of
the crescent and sceptre, which was found under
the Castle rock and near the west churchyard.
The line of railway which intersects the garden,
and passes by a tunnel under the new portion of
St. Cuthbert’s churchyard, fails to mar its beauty,
as it is almost entirely hidden by trees and
shrubbery, especially about the base of the rock,
from which the castle “looks down upon the
city as if out of another world: stem with all its
peacefulness, its garniture of trees, its slopes of
grass. The rock is dingy enough in colour,
but after a shower its lichens laugh our greenly
in the returning sun, while the rainbow is brightening
on the lowering sky beyond. How deep
the shadow which the castle throws at noon
on the gardens at its feet, where the children
play! How grand when giant bulk and towery
crown blacken against the sunset !
In the extreme western portion of the gardens
lie some great fragments of masonry, which have
fallen down in past sieges from some of the older
walls in the vicinity of the sallyport, while thefoundations
of these are to be traced from point to point,
some feet on the outside of the present fortifications,
and lower down the rock.
In the western hollow is an ornamental fountain
of considerable beauty, and formed of iron, named
after its donor, Mr. Ross, who spent A3;ooo on
its erection. In 1876 the gardens were acquired
by the citizens, and were thea much improved
They are used in summer for musicaI promenades,
and in contour and embellishment, though
much more extensive, have a certain resemblance
to the gardens on the east side of the Earthen
Mound.
For long years after the loch had passed away
the latter was but a reedy, marshy hollow, intersected
by what was called the Little Mound, that
led from near South St. Andrew Street to the foot
of Mary King’s Close. The ground was partially
drained when the North Bridge was built, but
more effectually about 1821, when it was let as a
nursery.
.When the Union canal was projected, towards
the close of the last century, the plans for it, not
unlike those of the Earl of Mar in 1728, included
the continuation of it through the bed of the North
Loch, past where a street was built, and actually
called Canal Street. “From thence it was proposed
to conduct it to Greenside, in the area of
which was an immense harbour ; and this, again,.
being connected by a broad canal with the sea, it
was expected that by such means the New Town
would be converted into a seaport, and the
unhappy traders of Leith compelled either to
abandon their traffic or remove within the precincts
of their jealous rivals. Chimerical as this project
may now appear, designs were furnished by experienced
engineers, a map of the whole plan was
engraved on a large scale, and no doubt our civic
reformers rejoiced in the anticipation of surmounting
the disadvantages of an inland position, and
seeing the shipping of the chief ports of Europe
crowding into the heart of their new capital ! ”
The operations for forming the canal were
delayed in 1776 by a dispute between the magistrates
and the feuars of the extended royalty
relative to Canal Street, that ended in the Court
of Session, which sustained “ the defences pled by
the magistrates of Edinburgh, and assoilie from the
conclusion of the declarator j but with respect to
the challenge brought with regard to particular
houses being built contrary to the Act of Parliament,
1698, remit to the Lord Ordinary to hear
parties to do as he shall see cause.” The Lord
President, the Lord Justice Clerk, and Lord
Covington, were of a different opinion from the
rest of the court, and condemned the conduct of
the magistrates in very severe terms.
The Act of 1698, referred to, was one restricting
the height of houses within the city, and to
the effect that none should be above five storeys,
with a front wall of three feet in thickness at the
base. In March, 1776, the dispute was adjusted,
and a print of the time tells us that the public
‘‘ will now be gratified with a pleasure-ground upon
the south side of Princes Street, to a considerable
extent ; and the loch will in time be formed into a
canal, which will not only be ornamental, but of
great benefit to the citizens”
This Utopian affair was actually commenced, for
in the Edinburgh We&y Magazine of the 28th
March, 1776, we are told that on the 25th instant
twenty labourers “ began to work at the banks of
the intended canal between the old and new town
but how far the work proceeded we hake no means
of knowing.
The site of the projected canal is now occupied](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p111.gif "Volume 3 Page 99")
... be converted into a seaport, and the
unhappy traders of Leith compelled either to
abandon their traffic or ...
Vol. 3 p. 99 (Rel. 0.14)
![Newhaven.] REV. DR. FAIRBAIRN. 303
In 1820 there were landed at the old stone
pier of Newhaven, John Baud and fourteen other
prisoners, ‘f Radicals ” who had been taken after
the skirmish at Bonny Bridge, by the 10th Hussars
and the Stirlingshire yeomanry. They had been
brought by water from the castle of Stirling, and
were conveyed to gaol from Newhaven in six carriages,
escorted by a macer of justiciary, and the
detachment of a Veteran Battalion.
In the following year, and while railways were
still in the womb of the future, the Scots Magazine
announces, that a gentleman who had left
Belfast on a Thursday, “reached Glasgow the
same evening, and embarked on board the Tounit
(steamer) at Newhaven on Friday, and arrived at
Aberdeen that night. Had such an event been
predicted fifty years ago, it would have been as
easy to make people believe that this journey would
have been accomplished by means of a balloon.”
About five hundred yards westward oi the stone
pier, a chain pier was constructed in the year 1821,
by Captain (afterwards Sir Samuel) Brown, of the
Royal Navy, at the cost of A4,ooo. It is five
hundred feet long, four feet wide, has a depth
at low water of from five to six feet, and served
for the use of the steam packets to Stirling,
Queensferry, and other places above and below
Leith; yet, being unable to offer accommodation for
the bulky steam vessels that frequent the harbour
of the latter or that of Granton, it is now chiefly
used by bathers, and is the head-quarters of the
Forth swimming club.
It was opened on the 14th of October, ISzr,
and was afterwards tested by a weight of twentyone
tons placed upon the different points of
suspension. In 1840 it became the property of
the Alloa Steam Packet Company.
In 1838 Newhaven was erected into a quoad
sma parish, by the aathority of the Presbytery .of
Edinburgh, when a handsome church was erected
for the use of the community, from a design by
John Henderson of Edinburgh.
Near it, in Main Street, is the Free Church,
designed in good Gothic style by James A. Hamilton
of Edinburgh, an elegant feature in the locality,
but chiefly remarkable for the ministry of the late
Rev. Dr. Fairbairn, who died in January, 1879-
a man who came of a notable race, as the wellknown
engineers of the same name were his
cousins, as was also Principal Fairbairn of Glasgow.
He was ordained minister at Newhaven in 1838.
The great majority of his congregation were fishermen
and their families, who were always keenly
sensible of the mode in which he prayed for those
who were exposed to the dangers of the deep.
During his long pastorate these prayers were.a
striking feature in his ministrations, and Charles
Reade, while residing in the neighbourhood, frequently
attended Newhaven Free Church, and has,
in his novel of “ Christie Johnstone,” given a lifelike
portrait of his demeanour when administering
consolation, after a case of drowning.
Perhaps the most useful of thii amiable old
pastor’s philanthropic schemes was that of the
reconstruction of the Newhaven fishing fleet. He
perceived early that the boats in use were wholly
unsuited for modem requirements, and some years
before his death he propounded a plan for replacing
them by others having decks, bunks, and
other compartments. As soon as a crew came forward
with a portion of the money required, Dr. Fairbairn
had no difficulty in getting the remainder
advanced. Thirty-three large new boats, each
costing about Lzso, with as much more for fishing
gear, were the result of his kindly labours. They
have all been prosperous, and hundreds of the
inhabitants of Newhaven, when they stood around
his grave, remembered what they owed to the
large-hearted and prudent benevolence of this old
ministei.
In 1864 a local committee was appointed for
the purpose of erecting a breakwater on the west
side of the present pier, so as to form a harbour
for the fishing craft. Plans and specifications
were prepared by Messrs. Stevenson, engineers,
Edinburgh, and the work was estimated at the
probable cost of L;~,OOO ; and while soliciting aid
from the Board of Fisheries, the Board of Trade,
and the ,magistrates of Edinburgh, the fishermen
honourably and promptly volunteered to convey ’
all the stonework necessary in their boats or otherwise
from the quarry at‘ Qleensferry.
The fishermen of Newhaven rarely intermany
With the women of other fisher communities ; and
a woman of any other class, unacquainted with the
cobbling of nets, baiting and preparation of lines,
the occasional use of a tiller or oar, would be useless
as a fisherman’s wife; hence their continued
intermarriages cause no small confusion in the
nomenclature of this remarkable set of people.
The peculiar melodious and beautiful cry of the
Newhaven oyster-woman-the last of the quaint
old Edinburgh street cries-is well known ; and so
also is their costume ; yet, as in time it may become
a thing of the past, we may give a brief description
of it here. “A cap of linen or cotton,’J says a
writer in Chambers’s EdinQurgh Journal, ‘‘ surmounted
by a stout napkin tied below the chin,
composes the investiture of the hood ; the showy
structures wherewith other females are adorned
,
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p122.gif "Volume 6 Page 303")
... and other places above and below
Leith ; yet, being unable to offer accommodation for
the ...
Vol. 6 p. 303 (Rel. 0.14)
![Convi~ialii] THE SPENDTHRIFT CLUB. 12.5
called one of his brother boars by his proper outof-
club name, the term < Sir ’ being only allowed.
The entry-money, fines, and other pecuniary acquisitions,
were hoarded for a grand annual dinner.”
In 1799 some new officials were added, such
as a poet-laureate, champion, archbishop, and chief
grunter, and by that time, as the tone and expenses
of the club had increased, the fines became
very severe, and in the exactions no one met with
any mercy, ‘‘ as it was the interests of all that the
& should bring forth a plenteous farrow.” This
practice led to squabbles, and the grotesque fraternity
was broken up.
The COUNTRY DINNER CLUB was a much more
sensible style of gathering, when some respectable
citizens of good position were wont to meet on the
afternoon of each Saturday about the year 1790 to
dine in an old tavern in Canonmills, then at a
moderate distance from town. They kept their
own particular claret. William Ramsay, a banker,
then residing in Warriston House, was deemed
‘( the tongue of the trump to the club,” which entirely
consisted of hearty and honest old citizens,
all of whom have long since gone to their last account.
The EAST INDIA CLUB was formed in 1797, and
held its first meeting in John Bayll’s tavern on
the 13th of January that year, when the Herald
announces that dinner would be on the table at the
then late and fashionable hour of four, but the body
does not seem to have been long in existence ; it
contributed twenty guineas to the sufferers of a fire
in the Cowgate in the spring of 1799, and fifty to
the House of Industry in 1801.
John Bayll managed the “George Square assemblies,”
which were held in Buccleuch Place.
His tavern was in Shakespeare Square, where his
annual balls and suppers, in 1800, were under the
patronage of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Mrs.
Dundas of Amiston.
Of the CAPE CLUB, which was established on
the 15th of March, 1733, and of which Fergusson
the poet and Runciman the painter were afterwards
members, an account will be found in Vol. I.,
which, however, omitted to give the origin of the
name of that long-existing and merry fraternity,
and which was founded on an old, but rather weak,
Edinburgh joke of the period.
Some well-known burgess of the Calton who WE
in the habit of spending the evening hours with
friends in the city, till after the ten o’clock drum
had been beaten and the Netherbow Port wa:
shut, to obtain egress was under the necessity 01
bribing the porter there, or remaining within the
walls all ni&it. On leaving the gate he had tc
turn acutely to the left to proceed down Leith
Wynd, which this facetious toper termed ‘‘ doubling
the Cape.” Eventually it became a standing joke
in the small circle of Edinburgh then, “and the
Cape Club owned a regular institution from 1763,”
says Chambers, but its sixty-fifth anniversary is
announced in the HeraZd of 1798, for the 15th of
March as given above.
The SPENDTHRIFT CLUB, was so called in ridicule
of the very moderate indulgence of its members,
whose expenses were limited to fourpence-halfpenny
each night, yet all of them were wealthy or
well-to-do citizens, many of whom usually met after
forenoon church at the. Royal Exchange for a walk
in the country-their plan being to walk in the
direction from whence the wind blew and thus
avoid the smoke of the city. “ In 1824,” says
ChamberS, ‘‘ in the recollection of the senior members,
some of whom were of fifty years’ standing,
the house (of meeting) was kept by the widow of a
Lieutenant Hamilton of the army, who recollected
having attended the theatre in the Tennis Court at
Holyrood when the play was the ‘ Spanish Friar,,
and many of the members of the Union Parliament
were present in the house.”
The meetings of this club were nightly, till reduced
to four weekly, Whist was played for a
halfpenny. Supper originally cost only twopence,
and half a bottle of strong ale, with a dram, cost
twopence-halfpenny more ; a halfpenny to the
servant-maid, was a total of fivepence for a night of
jollity and good fellowship.
The PIOUS CLUB was composed of respectable
and orderly business-men who met every night,
Sundays not excepted, in the Pie-house-hence their
name, a play upon the words. We are told that
“the agreeable uncertainty as to whether their
name arose from their pie& or the circumstance of
their eating piesy kept the club hearty for many
years.”
Fifteen members constituted a full night, a gill of
toddy to each was served out like wine from a d e
canter, and they were supposed to separate at ten
o’clock.
The ANTEMANUM CLUB was composed of men of
respectability, and many who were men of fortune,
who dined together every Saturday. “ Brag” was
their chief game with cards. It was a purely convivial
club, till the era of the Whig party being in
the ascendant led to angry political discussions, and
eventual dissolution.
The SIX FEET CLUB was composed of men who
were of that stature or above it, if possible. It was
an athletic society, and generally met half-yearly at
the Hunter‘s Tryst, near Colinton, or similar places,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p136.gif "Volume 5 Page 125")
... the gate he had tc
turn acutely to the left to proceed down Leith
Wynd, which this facetious toper termed ...
Vol. 5 p. 125 (Rel. 0.14)
... portrait alleged
to be of her in the Trinity House at Leith is a bad
copy, by Mytens, of that of her daughter ...
Vol. 1 p. 94 (Rel. 0.14)
... from the city, marched several
bands of soldiers from Leith , their head-quarters,
.and concealed them under ...
Vol. 2 p. 218 (Rel. 0.14)
... for building, lying on the
west side of the new road to Leith , immediately
adjoining to Picardy Gardens. The ...
Vol. 3 p. 186 (Rel. 0.14)
... the masters of the Trinity Hospital at the foot
of Leith Wynd.
A library for the benefit of the institution ...
Vol. 4 p. 290 (Rel. 0.14)
... of
the ground.”
The place chosen was on the west side of Leith
Walk. It was laid out under the eye of ...
Vol. 2 p. 363 (Rel. 0.14)
... were captured and shot, chiefly by
Perth’s Regiment, on Leith Links.
Charles contemplated the summons of a ...
Vol. 2 p. 330 (Rel. 0.14)
... of the Scots
Greys were quartered in the Canongate and Leith
to enforce order, “ The magistrates of ...
Vol. 4 p. 246 (Rel. 0.14)
... in the names
of the Forth, the Almond, the Esk, the Leith ,
the Gore, the Gogar, and of Cramond, ...
Vol. 6 p. 318 (Rel. 0.14)
... the lease of the Canonmills
was granted by Dean John of Leith , sometime
Abbot of Holyrood, to “ the aldermen, ...
Vol. 4 p. 278 (Rel. 0.14)
... seamen of the
Russian fleet, which lay for a time at Leith , and
who died in the infirmary, were buried ...
Vol. 4 p. 287 (Rel. 0.14)
... :-A36 “to David Melville, indweller in
, Leith , for ane pair of organs to the chapel in ...
Vol. 3 p. 58 (Rel. 0.14)
... Improvement -4ct of 1867. It commences
at the head of Leith Wynd, and‘occasioned
there the demolition of ...
Vol. 2 p. 290 (Rel. 0.14)
![238 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street.
other, Willielmina, became the wife of John Lord
Glenorchy.
The fate of the Earl of Sutherland, and of his
countess, whose beauty excited the admiration of
all at the coronation of George III., was a very
cloudy one. In frolicking with their first-born, a
daughter, the earl let the infant drop, and it sustained
injuries from which it never recovered, and
the event had so serious an effect on his mind,
that he resorted to Bath, where he died of a
malignant fever. For twenty-one days the countess,
then about to have a babe again, attended him
unremittingly, till she too caught the distemper, and
predeceased him by a few days, in her twenty-sixth
year. Her death was sedulously concealed from
him, yet the day before he expired, when delirium
passed away, he said, I am going to join my dear
Wife,” as if his mind had already begun to penetrate
the veil that hangs between this world and the
next.
In one grave in Holyrood, near the north-east
corner of the ruined chapel, the remains of this
ill-fated couple were laid, on the 9th of August,
1766.
Lady Glenorchy, a woman remarkable for the
piety of her disposition, was far from happy in her
marriage j but we are told that she met with her
rich reward, even iii this world, for she enjoyed
the applause of the wealthy and the blessings of the
poor, with that supreme of all pleasures-the conviction
that the eternal welfare of those in whose
fate she was chiefly interested was forwarded by
her precepts and example.”
In after years, the Earl of Hopetoun, when
acting as Royal Commissioner to the General
Assembly, was wont to hold his state levees in the
house that had been Lord Alva’s.
To the east of hfylne’s Square stood some old
alleys which were demolished to make way for the
North Bridge, one of the greatest local undertakings
of the eighteenth century. One of these alleys was
known as the Cap and Feather Close, immediately
above Halkerston’s Wynd. The lands that formed
the east side of the latter were remaining in some
places almost intact till about 1850.
In one of these, but which it was impossible
to say, was born on the 5th of September, 1750,
that luckless but gifted child of genius, Robert
Fergusson, the poet, whose father was then a clerk
in the British Linen Company; but even the site
of his house, which has peculiar claims on the
interest of every lover of Scottish poetry, cannot
be indicated.
How Halkerston’s Wynd obtained its name we
have already told. Here was an outlet from the
ancient city byway of a dam or dyke across the
loch, to which Lord Fountainhall refers in a case
dated zIst February, 1708. About twenty years
before that time it would appear that the Town
Council “had opened a new port at the foot
of Halkerston’s Wynd for the convenience of those
who went on foot to Leith; and that Robert
Malloch, having acquired some lands on the other
side of the North Loch, and made yards and built
houses thereon, and also having invited sundry
weavers and other good tradesmen to set up
on Moutree’s Hill [site of the Register House], and
the deacons of crafts finding this prejudicial
to them, and contrary to the 154th Act of Parliament,
I 592,’’ evading which, these craftsmen paid
neither scot, lot, nor stent,” the magistrates closed
up the port, and a law plea ensued between them
and the enterprising Robert Malloch, who was
accused of filling up a portion of the bank of the
loch with soil from a quarry. “The town, on the
other hand, did stop the vent and passage over the
loch, which made it overtlow and drown Robert’s
new acquired ground, of which he complained as
an act of oppression.”
Eventually the magistrates asserted that the loch
was wholly theirs, and ‘( that therefore he could
drain no part of it, especially to make it regorge
and inundate on their side. The Lords were
going to take trial by examining the witnesses, but
the magistrates prevented it, by opening the said
port of their own accord, without abiding an order,
and let the sluice run,” by which, of course, the
access by the gate was rendered useless.
Kinloch‘s Close adjoined Halkerston’s Wynd, and
therein, till about 1830, stood a handsome old
substantial tenement, the origin and early occupants
of which were all unknown. A mass of curious
and abutting projections, the result of its peculiar
site, it had a finely-carved entrance door, with
the legend, Peir. God. in . Luzy., 1595, and the
initials I. W., and the arms of the surname of
Williamson, together with a remarkable device, a
saltire, from the centre of which rose a crosssymbol
of passion.
Passing Allan Ramsay’s old shop, a narrow bend
gives us access to Carrubber’s Close, the last stronghold
of the faithful Jacobites after 1688. Episcopacy
was abolished in 1689, and although from
that period episcopal clergymen had no legal provision
or settlement, they were permitted, without
molestation, to preach in meeting-houses till I 746 ;
but as they derived no emolument from Government,
and no provision from the State, they did not,
says Arnot, perplex their consciences with voluminous
and unnecessary oaths, but merely excluded](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p058.gif "Volume 2 Page 238")
... Wynd for the convenience of those
who went on foot to Leith ; and that Robert
Malloch, having acquired some ...
Vol. 2 p. 238 (Rel. 0.14)
![Albany Street.] GENERAL SCOTT. 19=
Gray was ordained his successor to that charge in
1773, but he resigned it ten years afterwards. In
1785 he was appointed joint Professor of Mathematics
in the University of Edinburgh with the
celebrated Adam Ferguson, LL.D., and discharged
the duties of that chair till the death of
his friend Professor Robinson, in 1805, when he
was appointed his successor. Among his works
are “ Elements of Geometry ” published in I 796 ;
“Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the
Earth ” in 1804; ‘‘ Outlines of Natural Philosophy;”
besides many papers to the scientific department
of the Edinburgh &view and to various other
periodicals.
He died at No. 2, Albany Street, in his seventieth
year, on the 20th of July, 1819. An unfinished
‘‘ Memoir of John Clerk of Eldin,” the inventor of
naval tactics, left by him in manuscript, was
published after his death in the ninth volume of
the “ Edinburgh Transactions.” An interesting account
of the character and merits of this illustrious
mathematician, from the pen of Lord Jeffrey,
was inserted in the ‘‘ Encyclopzdia Britannica ”
and in the memoir prefixed to his works by his
nephew, and a noble monument to his memory
is erected on the Calton Hill.
Northwards of the old village of Broughton,
in the beginning of the present century, the land
was partly covered with trees ; a road led fkom it
to Canonmills by Bellevue to Newhaven, while
another road, by the water of Leith, led westward.
In the centre of what are now the Drummond
Place Gardens stood a country house belonging
to the Lord Provost Drummond, and long inhabited
by him ; he feued seven acres from the
Governors of Heriot’s Hospital. The approach to
this house was by an avenue, now covered by West
London Street, and which entered from the north
road to Canonmills.
On the site of that house General Scott of Balcolnie
subsequently built the large square threestoreyed
mansion of Bellevue, afterwards converted
into the Excise Office, and removed when the
Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee Railway Company
constructed the now disused tunnel from Princes
Street to the foot of Scotland Street.
In 1802 the l a d s of Bellevue were advertised
to be sold “by roup within the Justiciary
Court Roomy for feuing purposes, but years
elapsed before anything was done in the way of
building. In 1823 the papers announce that
‘‘ preparations are making for levelling Bellevue
Gardens and filling up the sand-pits in that
neighbourhood, with a view to finishing Bellevue
Crescent, which will connect the New Town with
Canonmills on one side, as it is already connected
with Stockbridge on the other.”
By that year Drummond Place was nearly completed,
and the south half of Bellevue Crescent
was finished and occupied; St. Mary’s parish church
was founded and finished in 1824 from designs b j
Mr. Thomas Brown, at the cost of A13,ooo for
1,800 hearers. It has a spire of considerable elegance,
168 feet in height.
General Scott, the proprietor of Bellevue, was
one of the most noted gamblers of his time. It
is related of him that being one night at Stapleton’s,
when a messenger brought him tidings that Mrs.
Scott had been delivered of a daughter, he turned
laughingly to the company, and said, “You see,
gentlemen, I must be under the necessity of
doubling my stakes, in order to make a fortune for
this little girl.“ He accordingly played rather
deeper than usual, in consequence of which, after
a fiw hours’ play, he found himself a loser by
A8,ooo. This gave occasion for some of the
company to rally him on his ‘‘ daughter‘s fortune,”
but the general had an equanimity of temper
that nothing could ruffle, and a judgment in play
superior to most gamesters. He replied that he
had still a perfect dependence on the luck of the
night, and to make his words good he played steadily
on, and about seven in the morning, besides
clearing his .&8,000, he brought home A15,ooo.
His eldest daughter, Henrietta, became Duchess
of Portland.
Drummond Place was named after the eminent
George Drummond, son of the Laird of Newton, a
branch of the Perth family, who was no less than
six times Lord Provost of the city, and who died
in 1776, in the eightieth year of his age.
The two most remarkable denizens of this
quarter were Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe of Hoddam
(previously of 93, Princes Street) and Lord
Robertson.
Among the attractions of Edinburgh during the
bygone half of the present century, and accessible
only to a privileged few, were the residence
and society of the former gentleman. Born of an
ancient Scottish family, and connected in many
ways with the historical associations of his country,
by his reputation as a literary man no less than
by his high Cavalier and Jacobite tenets, Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe was long looked up to as one
of the chief authorities on all questions connected
with Scottish antiquities.
No. 93, Princes Street, the house of Mrs. Sharpe
of Hoddam, was the home of her son till the time
of her death, and there he was visited by Scotc
Thomas Thomson, and those of the next genera](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p203.gif "Volume 3 Page 191")
... Bellevue to Newhaven, while
another road, by the water of Leith , led westward.
In the centre of what are now ...
Vol. 3 p. 191 (Rel. 0.14)
... footpath that skirted the bank
af the Water of Leith , he passed St. Bernard’s,
where almost ...
Vol. 3 p. 92 (Rel. 0.14)
![The Water of Leith.] MAJOR-GENERAL MITCHELL. 79
1849. Horatio Macculloch, R.S.A., a most distinguished
landscape painter, lived for many years
in No. 7, Danube Street, where the best of his
works were executed. With Sir Daniel Macnee,
P.R.S.A., he first obtained employment from Lizars,
the engraver, as colourists of Selby’s ‘‘ Ornithology.”
In 1829 he first exhibited; and from thence onwards,
to his death in 1867, he contributed to the
yearly exhibitions, and won himself much fame in
Scotland.
In No. 16, Carlton Street, adjoining, lived for
many years his chief friend, Kenneth Macleay,
R.S.A., who was born at Oban in 1802, and after
being educated at the Trustees’ School, was one of
the thirteen founders of the Royal Scottish Academy,
and at his death was the last survivor of
them. He was chiefly famous for his beautiful
miniatures on ivory, and latterly was well known
for his occasional sketches and delineations of
Highland life, many of which were painted at the
express desire of Her Majesty. He died at No. 3,
Malta Terrace, in 1878, in his seventy-sixth year.
He was an enthusiastic Celt, and fond of wearing
the Highland dress on Academy receptions, and
on every possible occasion.
Among others connected with art who made
Stockbridge their residence was George Kemp, the
luckless architect of Sir Walter Scott’s monument,
who had a humble flat in No. 28, Bedford Street ;
James Stewart, the well-known engraver of Sir
Wlliam Allan’s finest works, who lived in No. 4
of that gloomy little street called Hermitage Place ;
and Comely Bank, close by, was not without its
famous people too, for there, for some years after
his marriage, dwelt Thomas Carlyle, and, in No. I I,
James Browne, LL.D., author of the “History 01
the Highland Clans,” and editor of the CaZea’onian
Mermv and of The Edinburgh Week& JournaZ,
and Macvey Napier’s collaborateur in the ‘‘ Encyclopzdia
Britannica.” Some differences having
arisen between him and Mr. Charles Maclaren,
the editor of the Scotsman, regarding a fine-art
criticism, the altercation ran so high that a hostile
meeting took place at seven o’clock in the morning
of the 12th of November, 1829, somewhere neaI
Ravelston, but, fortunately, without any calamitous
sequel. He took a great lead in Liberal politics,
and in No. 11 entertained Daniel O’Connell more
than once. He died at Woodbine Cottage, Trinity,
an the 8th of April, 1841, aged fifty years. John
Ewbank, R.S.A., the marine and landscape painter,
livedat No. 5, Comely Bank; while No. 13 was thc
residence of Mrs. Johnstone, who while there
wrote many of her best novels-among them, “ Clan
Albyn : a National Tale ”-and contributed man]
able articles to johnstone’s Magazine, a now forgotten
monthly.
From a passage in a memoir of himself prefixed
to “ The Mountain Bard,” we find that the Ettrick
Shepherd, about 1813, was living in Deanhaugh
Street while at work on the “Queen’s Wake,”
which he produced in that year; and that, in his
lodgings there, he was wont to read passages of
his poems to Mr. Gray, of the High School, whose
criticisms would seem to have led to a quarrel
between them.
Sir James Young Simpson, Bart., in his boyhood
and as a student lived with his brother, David
Simpson, a respectable master baker, in the shop,
No. I, Raeburn Place, at the corner of Dean Street.
When he first began to practise as a physician, it
was in a first flat of No. 2, Deanhaugh Street ; and
as his fame began to spread, and he was elected
Professor of Midwifery in the University in 1840,
in succession to Dr. Hamilton, he was living in
No. I, Dean Terrace.
In St. Bernard’s Crescent, for many years while
in the employment of the Messrs. Chambers, lived
Leitch Ritchie, author of ‘‘ Schinderhannes, the
Robber of the Rhine,’’ a famous romance in its
day ; also of ‘‘ Travelling Sketches on the Rhine,
in Belgium, and Holland,” and many other works.
He was born in 1801, and died on the 16th of
January, 1865.
His neighbour and friend here was Andrew
Crichton, LL.D., author of a ’‘ History of Scandinavia
I’ and other works, and twenty-one years
editor of the Edinburgh Advertiser.
In the same quarter there spent many years of
his life Major-General John Mitchell, a gallant old
Peninsular officer, who was an able writer on military
matters and biography. In 1803 he began life
as an ensign in the 57th Foot, and served in
all the campaigns in Spain and Portugal, France
and Flanders. Under the nomdepZuume of “Sabretache,”
he wrote some very smart things, his
earliest productions appearing in Fraser’s Magazine
and the United Serzlice JournaZ. He was the
author of a “ Life of Wallenstein” (London,
1837), which, like his “Fall of Napoleon,” was
well received by the public ; and Sir Robert Peel
acknowledged the importance of the information
he derived from the latter work, after the appearance
of which, Augustus, King of Hanover, presented
the author with a diamond brooch. He
was the author of many other works, including
“Biographies of Eminent Soldiers.” He was a
handsome man, with great buoyancy of spirit and
conversational powers ; thus “ Old Sabretache,” as
he was often called, was welcome everywhere. A](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p090.gif "Volume 5 Page 79")
... Water of Leith .] MAJOR-GENERAL MITCHELL. 79
1849. Horatio Macculloch, R.S.A., a most distinguished
landscape ...
Vol. 5 p. 79 (Rel. 0.14)
... whose beauty
led to the rivalry and fierce combat in Leith Loan
between Squire Meldrum of the Binns and ...
Vol. 4 p. 223 (Rel. 0.14)
... now defunct village
of Picardie, between the city and Leith . It is
chiefly celebrated for its lime-kilns, ...
Vol. 6 p. 342 (Rel. 0.14)
![The High Street.] THE HIGH STREET.
six storeys each ; in short, down as far as the Cowgate
nothing was to be seen but frightful heaps of
calcined and blackened ruins, with gaping windows
and piles of smoking rubbish.
In the Par!iament Square four double tenements
of from seven to eleven storeys also perished, and
the incessant cmsh of falling walls made the old
vicinity re-echo. Among other places of interest
destroyed here was the shop of Kay, the cancaturist,
always a great attraction to idlers.
During the whole of Thursday the authorities
were occupied in the perplexing task of .examining
the ruined edifices in the Parliament Square. These
being of enormous height and dreadfully shattered,
threatened, by their fall, destruction to everything
in their vicinity. One eleven-storeyed edifice presented
such a very striking, terrible, and dangerous
appearance, that it was proposed to batter it down
with cannon. On the next day the ruins were inspected
by Admiral Sir David Milne, and Captain
(afterwardssir Francis) Head of theRoyal Engineers,
an officer distinguished alike in war and In literature,
who gave in a professional report on the subject,
and to him the task of demolition was assigned.
’
In the meantime offers of assistance from Captain
Hope of H.M.S. BnX, then in Leith Roads,
were accepted, and his seamen, forty in number,
threw a line over the lofty southern gable above
Heron’s Court, but brought down only a small
portion Next day Captain Hope returned to the
attack, with iron cables, chains, and ropes, while
some sappers daringly undermined the eastern wall.
These were sprung, and, as had been predicted by
Captain Head, the enormous mass fell almost
perpendicularly to the grognd.
At the Tron Church, on the last night of every
year, there gathers a vast crowd, who watch with
patience and good-humour the hands of the illuminated
clock till they indicate one minute past
twelve, and then the New Year is welcomed in
with ringing cheers, joy, and hilarity. A general
shaking of hands and congratdlations ensue, and
one and all wish each other ‘‘ A happy New Year,
and mony 0’ them.” A busy hum pervades the older
parts of the city; bands of music and bagpipes
strike up in many a street and wynd; and, furnished
with egg-flip, whiskey, &c., thousands hasten off in
all directions to “first foot” friends and relations,
CHAPTER XXI.
THE HIGH STREET,
A Place for Brawling-First Paved and Lighted-The Meal and Flesh MarketsState of the Streets-Municipal Regulations 16th Century-
Tuleies-The Lairds of Ainh and Wemyss-The Tweedies of Drummelzier-A Mont- Quarrel-The Slaughter of Lord Tarthorwald-
-A Brawl in 1705-Attacking a Sedan Chair-Habits in Lhe Seventeenth Century-Abduction of Women and Girls-Sumptuary Law6
against Women.
BEFORE narrating the wondrous history of the many
quaint and ancient closes and wynds which diverged
of old, and some of which still diverge, from the
stately High Street, we shall treat of that venerable
thoroughfare itself-its gradual progress, changes,
and some of the stirring scenes that have been witnessed
from its windows.
Till so late as the era of building the Royal
Exchange Edinburgh had been without increase
or much alteration since King James VI. rode
forth for England in 1603. “The extended wall
erected in the memorable year 1513 still formed
the boundary of the city, with the exception of the
enclosure of the Highriggs. The ancient gates remained
kept under the care of jealous warders,
and nightly closed at an early hour ; even as when
the dreaded iiiroads of the Southron summoned
the Burgher Watch to guard their walls. At the
foot of the High Street, the lofty tower and spire
of the Nether Bow Port terminated the vista, surmounting
the old Temple Bar of Edinburgh, interposed
between the city and the ancient burgh of
Canongate.”
On this upward-sloping thoroughfare first rose
the rude huts of the Caledonians, by the side of
the wooded way that led to the Dun upon the rock
-when Pagan rites were celebrated at sunrise on
the bare scalp of Arthur‘s Seat-and destined
to become in future years “the King’s High
Street,” as it was exclusively named in writs and
charters, in so far as it extended from the Nether
Bow to the edifice named Creech’s Land, at the
east end of the Luckenbooths. “Here,” says a
writer, “ was the battle-ground of Scotland for
centuries, whereon private and party feuds, the
jealousies of nobles and burghers, and not a few of
the contests between the Crown and the people,
were settled at the sword.”
As a place for brawling it was proverbial ; and
thus it was that Colonel Munro, in “His Expedition
with the Worthy Scots Regiment called
Mackeyes,” levied in 1626, for service in Denmark](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p203.gif "Volume 1 Page 191")
... of assistance from Captain
Hope of H.M.S. BnX, then in Leith Roads,
were accepted, and his seamen, forty in ...
Vol. 1 p. 191 (Rel. 0.14)
![High Street.] TULZIES IN THE HIGH STREET. 195 - -
his own friends and servants into two armed parties,
set forth on slaughter intent.
He directed his brothers John and Robert
Tweedie, Porteous of Hawkshaw, Crichton of
Quarter, and others, to Conn’s Close, which was
directly opposite to the smith’s booth; while he,
accompanied by John and Adam Tweedie, sons of
the Gudeman of Dura, passed to the Kirk (of Field)
Wynd, a little to the westward of the booth, to cut
off the victim if he hewed a way to escape ; but as
he was seen standing at the booth door with his
back to them, they shot him down with their
pistols in cold blood, and left him lying dead on
the spot.
For this the Tweedies were imprisoned in the
Castle; but they contrived to compromise the
matter with the king, making many fair promises ;
yet when he was resident at St. James’s, in 1611,
he heard that the feud and the fighting in Upper
Tweeddale were as bitter as ever.
On the 19th of January, 1594, a sharp tulzie, or
combat, ensued in the High Street between the
Earl of Montrose, Sir James Sandilands, and others.
10 explain the cause of this we must refer to
Calderwood, who tells us that on the 13th of
February, in the preceding year, John Graham of
Halyards, a Lord of Session (a kinsman of Montrose),
was passing down Leith Wynd, attended by
three or four score of armed men for his protection,
when Sir Janies Sandilands, accompanied by his
friend Ludovic Duke of Lennox, with an armed
I company, met him. As they had recently been
in dispute before the Court about Some temple
lands, Graham thought he was about to be attacked,
and prepared to make resistance. The
duke told him to proceed on his journey, and that
no one would molest him; but the advice was
barely given when some stray shots were fired by
the party of the judge, who was at once attacked,
and fell wounded. He was borne bleeding into
an adjacent house, whither a French boy, page to
Sir Alexander Stewart, a friend of Sandilands, followed,
and plunged a dagger into him, thus ending
a lawsuit according to the taste of the age.
Hence it was that when, in the following year,
John Earl of Montrose-a noble then about fifty
years old, who had been chancellor of the jury that
condemned the Regent Morton, and moreover was
Lord High Chancellor of the kingdom-met Sir
James Sandilands in the High Street, he deemed
it his duty to avenge the death of the Laird of
Halyards. On the first amval of the earl in Edinburgh
Sir James had been strongly recommended
by his friends to quit it, as his enemies were too
strong for him ; but instead of doing so he desired
the aid and assistance of all his kinsmen and
friends, who joined him forthwith, and the two
parties meeting on the 19th of January, near the
Salt Tron, a general attack with swords and hack
buts begun. One account states that John, Master
of Montrose (and father of the great Marquis), first
began the fray; another that it was begun by Sir
James Sandilands, who was cut down and severely
wounded by more than one musket-shot, and
would have been slain outright but for the valour
of a friend named Captain Lockhart. The Lord
Chancellor was in great peril, for the combat was
waged furiously about him, and, according to the
“ Historie of King James the Sext,” he was driven
back fighting “to the College of Justice ( i e . , the
Tolbooth). The magistrates of the town with
fencible weapons separatit the parties for that time ;
and the greatest skaith Sir James gat on his party,
for he himself was left for dead, and a cousingerman
of his, callit Crawford of Kerse, was slain,
and many hurt.” On the side of the earl only one
was killed, but many were wounded.
On the 17th of June, 1605, there was fought in
the High Street a combat between the Lairds of
Edzell and Pittarrow, with many followers on both
sides. It lasted, says Balfour in his AnnaZes, from
nine at night till two next morning, with loss and
many injuries. The Privy Council committed the
leaders to prison.
The next tulzie of which we read arose from the
following circumstance :-
Captain James Stewart (at one time Earl of
Arran) having been slain in 1596 by Sir James
Douglas of Parkhead, a natural son of the Regent
Morton, who cut off his .head at a place called
Catslack, and carried it on a spear, “leaving his
body to be devoured by dogs and swine;” this
act was not allowed to pass unrevenged by the
house of Ochiltree, to which the captain-who had
been commander of the Royal Guard-belonged.
But as at that time a man of rank in Scotland
could not be treated as a malefactor for slaughter
committed in pursuance of a feud, the offence was
expiated by an assythement. The king strove
vainly to effect a reconciliation ; but for years the
Imds Ochiltree and Douglas (the latter of whom
was created Lord Torthorwald in 1590 by James
VI.) were at open variance.
It chanced that on the 14th of July, 1608, that
Lord Torthonvald was walking in the High Street
a little below the Cross, between six and seven in
the morning, alone and unattended, when he suddenly
met William Stewart, a nephew of the man
he had slain. Unable to restrain the sudden rage
that filled him, Stewart drew his sword, and ere](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p015.gif "Volume 2 Page 195")
... of Session (a kinsman of Montrose),
was passing down Leith Wynd, attended by
three or four score of armed men ...
Vol. 2 p. 195 (Rel. 0.14)
![Inverleith.] MRS. ROCHEID OF INVERLEITH. s 95
to the estate of‘his maternal grandmother, took
the name of Rocheid. His son, James Rocheid
.of Inverleith, was an eminent agriculturist, on
whose property the villas of Inverleith Row were
built.
He died in 1824 in the house of Inverleith.
He was a man of inordinate vanity and family
pride, and it used to be one of the sights of Stockbridge
to see his portly figure, in a grand old family
carriage covered with heraldic blazons, passing
through, to or from the city; and a well-known
anecdote of how his innate pomposity was humbled,
is well known there still.
On one occasion, when riding in the vicinity, he
took his horse along the footpath, and while doing
so, met a plain-looking old gentleman, who firmly
declined to make way for him; on this Rocheid
ordered him imperiously to stand aside. The
pedestrian declined,saying that the otherhad no right
whatever to ride upon the footpath. “DO you
know whom you are speaking to ?” demanded the
horseman in a high tone. “ I do not,” was the
quiet response. “Then know that I am John
Rocheid, Esquire of Inverleith, and a trustee upon
this road !
“ I am George, Duke of Montagu,” replied the
other, upon which the haughty Mr. Rocheid took
to the main road, after making a very awkward
apology to the duke, who was then on a visit to
his daughter the Duchess of Buccleuch at Dalkeith.
He had a predilection for molesting pedestrians,
and was in the custom of driving his carriage along
a strictly private footpath that led from Broughton
Toll towards Leith, to the great exasperation of
those at whose expense it had been constructed.
It is of his mother that Lord Cockburn gives
us such an amusing sketch in the ‘‘ Memorials of
his own Time,”-thus: ICLacly Don and Mrs.
Rocheid of Inverleith, .two dames of high and
aristocratic breed. They had both shone at first
as hooped beauties in the minuets, and then as
ladies of ceremonies at our stately assemblies ; and
each carried her peculiar qualities and air to the
very edge of the grave, Lady Don’s dignity softened
by gentle sweetness, Mrs. Rocheid’s made more
formidable by cold and severe soleinnity. Except
Mrs. Siddons, in some of her displays of magnificent
royalty, nobody could sit down like the Lady
of Inverleith. She would sail like a ship from
Tarshish, gorgeous in velvet or rustling silk,
done up in all the accompaniment of fans, earrings,
and finger-rings, falling-sleeves, scent-bottle,
embroidered bag, hoop and train, all superb, yet all
in purest taste ; managing all this seemingly heavy
rigging with as much ease as a full-blown swan
Who are you, fellow ? ”
does its plumage. She would take possession of
the centre of a large sofa, and at the same moment,
without the slightest visible exertion, cover the
whole of it with her bravery, the graceful folds
seeming to lay themselves over it, like summer
waves. The descent from her carriage too, where
she sat like a nautilus in its shell, was a display
which no one in these days could accomplish or
even fancy. The mulberry-coloured coach, but
apparently not too large for what it carried, though
she alone was in it-the handsome, jolly coachman
and his splendid hammer-cloth loaded with lacethe
two respectful livened footmen, one on each
side of the richly carpeted step, these were lost
sight of amidst the slow majesty with which the
lady came down and touched the earth. She presided
in this imperial style over her son’s excellent
dinners, with great sense and spirit to the very last
day almost of a prolonged life.”
This stateliness was not unmixed with a certain
motherly kindness and racy homeliness, peculiar to
great Scottish dames of the old school.
In InverleithTerrace, oneof thestreetsbuilt on this
property, Professor Edmonstone Aytounwas resident
about 1850 ; and in No. 5 there resided, prior to his
departure to London, in 1864, John Faed, the eminent
artist, a native of Kirkcudbright, who, so early
as his twelfth year, used to paint little miniatures,
and after whose exhibition in Edinburgh, in 1841,
his pictures began to find a ready sale.
In Warriston Crescent, adjoining, there lived for
many years the witty and eccentric W. R. Jamieson,
W.S., author of a luckless tragedy entitled
“Timoleon,” produced by Mr. and Mrs. Wyndham,
at the old Theatre Royal, and two novels, almost
forgotten now, “ The Curse of Gold,’’ and “ Milverton,
or the Surgeon’s Daughter.” He died in obscurity
in London.
Inverleith Row, which extends north-westwards
nearly three-quarters of a mile from Tanfield Hall,
to a place called Golden Acre, is bordered by a
row of handsome villas and other good residences.
In No. 52, here, there lived long, and died on
6th of November, 1879, a very interesting old
officer, General William Crokat, whose name was
associated with the exile and death of Napoleon
in St. Helena. “So long ago as 1807,” said a
London paper, with particular reference to this
event, “ William Crokat was gazetted as ensign in
the 20th Regiment of Foot, and the first thought
which suggests itself is, that from that date we are
divided by a far wider interval than was Sir Walter
Scott from the insurrection of Prince Charlie, when
in 1814, he gave to his first novel the title of
‘Waverley, or ’Tis Sixty Years Since.’ There is](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p106.gif "Volume 5 Page 95")
... leith .] MRS. ROCHEID OF INVER LEITH . s 95
to the estate of‘his maternal grandmother, took
the name of ...
Vol. 5 p. 95 (Rel. 0.14)
![Great Stuart Street.] LORD JERVISWOODE. 209
memories. He was the second son of George
Baillie of Jerviswoode; and a descendant of that
memorable Baillie of Jerviswoode, who, according
to Hume, was a man of merit and learning, a
cadet of the Lamington family, and called "The
Scottish Sidney," but was executed as a traitor on
the'scaffold at Edinburgh, in 1683, having identified
himself with the interests of Monmouth and Argyle.
* Lord Jerviswoode was possessed of more than
average intellectual gifts, i and still more with
charms of person and manners that were not confined
to the female side of his house. One sister,
the Marchioness of Breadalbane, and another, Lady
Polwarth, were both celebrated for their beauty,
wit, and accomplishments. On the death of their
cousin, in the year 1859, his eldest brother became
tenth. Earl of Haddington, and then Charles, by
royal warrant, was raised to the rank of an earl's
brother. ' '
Prior to this he had a long and brilliant course
in law, and in spotless honour is said to have been
'' second to none." He was called to the Bar in
1830, and after being Advocate Depute, Sheriff of
Stirling, and Solicitor-General, was Lord Advocate
in 1858, and M.P. for West Lothim in the following
year, and a Lord of Session. In 1862 he
became a Lord of Justiciary. He took a great
interest in the fine arts, and was a trustee of the
Scottish Board of Manufactures; but finding his
health failing, he quitted the bench in July, 1874.
* He died in his seventy-fifth year, on the 23rd of
July, 1879, at his residence, Dryburgh House, in
Roxburghshire, near the ruins of the beautiful
abbey in which Scott and his race lie interred. For
the last five years of his life little had been heard of
him in the busy world, while his delicate health
and shy nature denied him the power of taking part
in public matters.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE WESTERN NEW TOWN-HAYMARKET-DALRY-FOUNTAINBRIDGE.
Maitland Street and Shandwick Place--The Albert Institute-Last Residmn of Sir Wa!ter Scott in Edinburgh-Lieutenult-General Dun&
-Melville Street-Patrick F. Tytler-Manor Plan-%. Mary's Cathedral-The Foundation Lid-Ita Sic and Aspcct-Opened for
Service-The Copestone and Cross placed on the Spire-Haymarket Station-Wmter Garden-Donaldron's H o s p i t a l d t l c Terrpoh
Its Chur&es-C&tle Barns-The U. P. Theological Hdl-Union Canal-First Boat Launched-Ddry-The Chieslics-The Caledonian
Distille~-Fountainbridge-Earl Grey Street-Professor G. J. Bell-The . Slaughter-houses-Bain Whyt of Binfield-North British
India. Rubber WorkScottish Vulcanite Company-Their Manufactures, &,.-Adam Ritchie.
THE Western New Town comprises a grand series
of crescents, streets, and squares, extending from
the line of East and West Maitland Streets and
Athole Crescent northward to the New Queensferry
Road, displaying in its extent-and architecture,
while including the singulax-ly ' picturesque
ravine of the Water of Leith, a' brilliance' and
beauty well entitling it to be deemed, par excellence,
" Z?w West End," and was built respectively about
1822, 1850, and 1866.
. Lynedoch Place, so named from the hero of
Barossa, opposite Randolph Crescent, was erected
in 1823, but prior to that a continuation of the line
of Princes Street had been made westward towards
the lands of Coates. This was finally effected by
the erection of East and West Maitland Streets,
Shandwick Place, and Coates and Athole Crescents.
In the latter are some rows of stately old trees,
which only vigorous and prolonged remonstrance
prevented fiom being wantonly cut down, in accordance
with the bad taste which at one time
prevailed in Edinburgh, where a species of war
was waged against all.groWing timber.
75
The Episcopal chapel of St Thomas is now
compacted with the remaining houses at the east
end of Rutland Street, but presents an ornamental
front in 'the Norman style immediately east of
Maitland Street, and shows there a richly-carved
porch, with some minutely beautiful arcade work.
Maitland Street and Shandwick Place, once a
double line of frontdoor houses for people of good
style, are almost entirely lines of shops or other
new buildings. In the first years of the present
century, Lockhart of Castlehill, Hepburn of Clerkington,
Napier of Dunmore, Tait of Glencross,
and Scott of Cauldhouse, had their residences in
the former; and No. 23, now a shop, was the
abode, about the year 1818, of J. Gibson Lockhaqt,
the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Walter
Scott He died at Abbotsford in 1854 .
In Shandwick Place is now the Albert Institute
of the Fine Arts; erected in 1876, when property
to the value of £25,ooo was acquired for the
purpose. The objects of this institute are the
advancement of the cause of art generally, but
more especially contemporary Scottish art; to](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p029.gif "Volume 4 Page 209")
... displaying in its extent-and architecture,
while including the singulax-ly ' ...
Vol. 4 p. 209 (Rel. 0.14)
... seized all the provisions that
were brought into Leith , and garrisoned St. Giles’s
church, into the ...
Vol. 1 p. 47 (Rel. 0.14)
... rival
house, which he called a circus, at the head of
Leith walk, the future site of many successive
theatres. ...
Vol. 2 p. 346 (Rel. 0.14)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
and verse, the Ireland Scholarship, and a studentship
at Christ ...
Vol. 5 p. 82 (Rel. 0.14)
... and superintending
the unloading of a great vessel at Leith ;
a second represents him in the hands of ...
Vol. 2 p. 222 (Rel. 0.14)
... of
Cromwell’s troops which garrisoned the citadel of
Leith in 1652, brought with them a printer ...
Vol. 2 p. 286 (Rel. 0.14)
... (since reduced to
A2,170) secured upon the revenues of Leith
Docks,” is assigned to the purposes of the ...
Vol. 5 p. 26 (Rel. 0.14)
![THE OLD TOWN GUARD. I35 The Tolbooth.]
impartial rule of the Cromwellian period, formed
the scene of many an act of stern discipline, when
drunkards were compelled to ride the wooden
horse, with muskets tied to their feet, and “ a drinking
cup,” as Nicoll names it, on their head. ‘‘ The
chronicles of this place of petty durance, could
they now be recovered, would furnish many an
amusing scrap of antiquated scandal, interspersed
at rare intervals with the graver deeds of such
disciplinarians as the Protector, or the famous sack
of the Porteous mob. There such fair offenders as
the witty 2nd eccentric Miss Mackenzie, daughter
of Lord Royston, found at times a night’s lodging,
when she and her maid sallied out aspreux chma-
Ciers in search of adventures. Occasionally even
grave jidge or learned lawyer, surprised out of
his official decorum by the temptation of a jovial
club, was astonished, oh awaking, tu find himself
within its impartial walls, among such strange bedfellows
as the chances of the night had offered
to its vigilant guardians.’’ A slated building of
one storey in height, it consisted of four apartments.
In the western end was the captain’s room;
there was also a “ Burghers’ room,” for special prisoners
; in the centre was a common hall ; and at
the east end was an apartment devoted to the
use of the Tron-men, or city sweeps. Under
the captain’s room was the black-hole, in which
coals and refractory prisoners were kept. In I 785
this unsightly edifice was razed to the ground,
an3 the soldiers of the Guard, after occupying the
new Assembly Rooms, had their head-quarters
finally assigned them on the ground floor of the
old Tolbooth.
It is impossible to quit our memorials of the
latter without a special reference to the famous
old City Guard, with which it was inseparably
connected.
In the alarm caused by the defeat at Flodden,
all male inhabitants of the’ city were required to
be in arms and readiness, while twenty-four men
were selected as a permanent or standing watch,
and in them originated the City Guard, which,
however, was not completely constituted until
1648, when the Town Council appointed a body
of sixty men to be raised, whereof the captain
was, says Amot, “to have the monthly pay of
LII 2s. 3d. sterling, two lieutenants of E2 each,
two sergeants of AI 5s., three corporals of AI,
and the private men 15s. each per month.”
No regular fund being provided to defray this
expense, after a time the old method of “watching
and warding,” every fourth citizen to be on duty in
arms each night, was resumed; but those, he adds,
on whom this service was incumbent, became so re-
,
-
laxed in discipline, that the Privy Council informed
the magistrates that if they did not provide an
efficient guard to preserve order in the city, the
regular troops of the Scottish army would be
quartered in it
Upon this threat forty armed men were raised as.
a guard in 1679, and in consequence of an event
which occurred in 1682, this number was increased
to 108 men. The event referred to was a riot,
caused by an attempt to carry off a number of
lads who had been placed in the Tolbooth for
trivial offences, to serve the Prince of Orange as.
soldiers. As they were being marched to Leith,
under escort, a crowd led by women attacked the
latter. By order of Major Keith, commanding, the
soldiers fired upon the people ; seven men and two
women were shot, and twenty-two fell wounded.
One of the women being with child, it was cut from
her and baptised in the street. The excitement of
this affair caused the augmentation of the guard, for
whose maintenance a regular tax was levied, while
Patrick Grahame, a younger son of Inchbraikiethe
same officer whom Macaulay so persistently
confounds with Claverhouse-was appointed captain,
with the concurrence of the Duke of York
and Albany. Their pay was 6d. daily, the drummers’
IS., and the sergeants’ IS. 6d. In 1685
Patnck Grahame, “ captain of His Majesty’s
company of Foot, within the town of Edinburgh
(the City Guard), was empowered to import 300
ells of English cloth of a scarlet colour, with
wrappings and other necessaries, for the clothing
of the corps, this being in regard that the manufactories
are not able to furnish His Majesty’s
(Scottish) forces with cloth and other necessaries.”
After the time of the Revolution the number of
the corps was very fluctuating, and for a period,
after 1750, it consisted usually of only seventy-five
men, a force most unequal to the duty to be done.
“The Lord Provost is commander of this useful
corps,” wrote Amot, in 1779. “ The men are properly
disciplined, and fire remarkably well. Within
these two years some disorderly soldiers in one of
the marching regiments, having conceived an umbrage
at tha Town Guard, attacked them. They
were double in number to the party of the Town
Guard, who, in the scuffle, severely wounded some
of their assailants, and made the whole prisoners.”
By day they were armed with muskets and bayonets ;
at night with Lochaber axes. They were mostly
Highlanders, all old soldiers, many of whom had
served in the Scots brigades in Holland. In the
city they took precedence of all troops of the line.
At a monthly inspection of the corps in 1789 the
Lord Provost found a soldier in the ranks who had](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p147.gif "Volume 1 Page 135")
... of Orange as.
soldiers. As they were being marched to Leith ,
under escort, a crowd led by women attacked ...
Vol. 1 p. 135 (Rel. 0.14)
... mansion their family residence
appears to have been in Leith , and it is referred to .
in a poem by Francis ...
Vol. 1 p. 91 (Rel. 0.14)
... ; and the way of reaching the Calton Hill
was to go by Leith Street to its base (as may yet
be done), and then ...
Vol. 3 p. 107 (Rel. 0.14)
![Leith Wynd.] THE TRINITY HOSPITAL. 307
was abandoned. At length, as stated, Robert
Pont, in. 1585, resigned all his rights and interests
in the establishment, for the sum of 300 merks
down, and an annuity of A160 Scots.
In 1587 an Act was passed revoking all grants
made during the king’s minority, of hospitals,
Maiso’ss Dieu, and “ lands or rentis appertaining
thereto,” the object of which was, that they might
be applied to this original purpose-the sustentation
of the poor, and not to the aggrandisement of
mere individuals ; and in this Act it was specially
ordained, that the rents of the Trinity College,
“ quhilk is now decayit,” be .assigned to “ the new
hospital1 erectit be the Provest, Baillies, and
Counsall;” and thus it became for ever a corporation
charity, for which a suitable edifice was found
by simply repairing the ruinous buildings, occupied
of old by the Provost and prebends, south of the
church, and on the west side of the wynd.
It was a fine specimen of the architecture and
monastic accommodation of the age in which it
was erected. It was two storeys high, and formed
two sides of a square, and though far from ornamental,
its air of extreme antiquity, the smallness
and depth of its windows, its silent, melancholy,
and deserted aspect, in the very heart of a crowded
city, and latterly amid the uproar and bustle of the
fast-encroaching railway, seldom failed to strike the
passer with a mysterious interest.
Along the interior of the upper storey of the
longer side there was a gallery, about half the
width of the house, lighted from the west, which
served alike as a library (consisting chiefly of
quaint old books of dry divinity), a promenade, and
grand corridor, winged with a range of little rooms,
some whilom the prebends’ cells, each of which had
a bed, table, and chair, for a single occupant The
other parts of the building were more modem
sitting rooms, the erection of the sixteenth century,
when it became destined to support decayed
burgesses of Edinburgh, their wives and unmarried
children, above fifty years of age. “Five men
and two women were first admitted into it,” says
h o t , “ and, the number gradually increasing,
amounted AD. 1700 to fifty-four persons. It was
found, however, that the funds of the hospital
could not then support so many, and the number
of persons maintained in it,has frequently varied.
At present (‘779) there are within the hospital
forty men and women, and, there are besides twentysix
out-pensioners. The latter have E 6 a year,
the former are maintained in a very comfortable
manner. Each person has a convenient room.
The men are each allowed a hat, a pair of breeches,
a pair of shoes, a pair of stackings, two shirts, and
two neckcloths, yearly; and every other year a
coat‘and waistcoat The women have yearly, a
pair of shoes, pair of stockings, two shifts; and
every other year a gown and petticoat. For buying
petty necessaries the men are allowed 6s. Sd.,
the women 6s. 6d., yearly. Of food, each person
has a daily allowance of twelve ounces of household
bread; and of ale, the men a Scots pint each,
the women two-thirds of a pint. For breakfast
they have oatmeal-porridge, and for dinner, four
days in the week, broth and boiled meat, two days
roast meat, and each Monday, in lieu of flesh, the
men are allowed zd., the women rid. apiece.”
Such was this old charity towards the close of
the eighteenth century. The inmates were of a
class above the common, and whom a poor-house
life would have degraded, yet quarrels, even riots,
among them were 80 frequent, that the attention of
the governors had more than once to be called
to the subject, though they met only at meals
and evening worship. Yet, occasionally, some
belonged to the better classes of society. Lord
Cockburn, writing in 1840, says:-“One of the
present female pensioners is ninety-six. She was
sitting beside her own fire. The chaplain shook her
kindly by the hand, and asked her how she was.
‘ Very weel-just in my creeping ordinary.’ There
is one Catholic here, a merry little woman, obviously
with some gentle blood in her veins, and delighted
to allude to it. This book she got from Sir John
Something ; her great friend had been Lady something
Cunningham ; and her spinet was the oldest
that had ever been made ; to convince me of which
she opened it, and pointed exultingly to the year
I 776. Neither she nor the ninety-six-year-old
was in an ark, but in a small room. On overhearing
my name, she said she was once at Miss Brandon’s
boarding-school, in Bristo Street, with a Miss
Matilda Cockburn, ‘ a pretty little girl.’ I told her
that I remembered that school quite well, and that
the little girl was my sister ; and then I added as a
joke, that all the girls at that school were said
to have been pretty, and all light-headed, and given
to flirtation ; the tumult revived in the vestal’s veins.
Delighted with the imputation, she rubbed her
hands together, and giggled till she wept.” The
octogenarian he refers to was a Miss Gibb, and
the last nearly of the old original inmates.
By 1850 the revenues amounted to about
#,ooo per annum.
At its demolition, in 1845, forty-two persons
were maintained within the hospital, who then
received pensions of A26 each. Those elected
since that period receive L20 yearly each; one
hundred and twenty others have an annual allowance](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p127.gif "Volume 2 Page 307")
... Leith Wynd.] THE TRINITY HOSPITAL. 307
was abandoned. At length, as stated, Robert
Pont, in. 1585, resigned all ...
Vol. 2 p. 307 (Rel. 0.13)
![Holyrood.] THE ABBEY CHURCH IN RUINS. 59
and cannon were two ship’s masts, fully rigged,
one on the right bearing the Scottish flag, another
on the left bearing the English. ‘‘ Above all these
rose the beautiful eastem window, shedding a flood
of light along the nave, eclipsing the fourteen
windows of the clerestory. The floor was laid
with ornamental tiles, some portions of which are
yet preserved.”
In the royal yacht there came to Leith from
London an altar, vestments, and images, to complete
the restoration of the church to its ancient uses.
As if to hasten on the destruction of his house,
James VII., not content with securing to his
Catholic subjects within the precincts of Holyrood
that degree of religious toleration now enjoyed
by every British subject, had mass celebrated there,
and established a college of priests, whose rules
were published on the zznd of March, 1688, inviting
people to send their children there, to be
educated gratis, as Fountainhall records. He also
appointed a Catholic printer, named Watson (who
availed himself of the protection afforded by the
sanctuary) to be “ King‘s printer in Holyrood ;”
and obtained a right from the Privy Council
to print all the “ prognostications at Edinburgh,”
an interesting fact which accounts for the number
of old books bearing Holyrood on their
title-pages. Prior to all this, on St. Andrew’s
Day, 30th November, the whole church was
sprinkled with holy water, re-consecrated, and a
sermon was preached in it by a priest named
Widerington.
Tidings of the landing of William of Orange
roused the Presbyterian mobs to take summary vengeance,
and on being joined by the students of the
University, they assailed the palace and chapel royal.
The guard, IOO strong-“ the brats of Belia1”-
under Captain Wallace, opened a fire upon them,
killing twelve and wounding many more, but they
were ultimately compelled to give way, and the
chapel doors were burst open. The whole interior
was instantly gutted and destroyed, and
the magnificent throne, stalls, and orgab, were
ruthlessly tom down, conveyed to the Cross, and
there consigned to the flames, amid the frantic
shrieks and yells of thousands. Not content with
all this, in a spirit of mad sacrilege, the mob, now
grown lawless, burst into the royal vault, tore some
of the leaden coffins asunder, and, according to
Amot, camed off the lids.
By the middle of the eighteenth century the rooG
which had become ruinous, was restored with flagstones
in a manner too ponderous for the ancient
arches, which gave way beneath the superincumbent
weight on the 2nd of December, 1768; and again
the people of Edinburgh became seized by a spirit
of the foullest desecration, and from thenceforward,
until a comparafively recent period, the ruined
church remained open to all, and was appropriated ‘
tu the vilest uses. Grose thus describes what he
saw when the rubbish had been partly cleared
away :-“ When we lately visited it we saw in the
middle of the chapel the columns which had been
borne down by the weight of the roof. Upon
looking into the vaults which were open, we found
that what had escaped the fury of the mob at the
Revolution became a prey to the mobwho ransacked
it after it fell. In A.D. 1776 we had seen the body
of James V. and others in their leaden coffins;
the coffins are now stolen. The head of Queen
Margaret (Magdalene?), which was then entire, and
even beautiful, and the skull of Damley, were also
stolen, and were last traced to the collection of a
statuary in Edinburgh.”
In 1795 the great east window was blown out
in a violent storm, but in 1816 was restored from
its own remains, which lay scattered about on the
ground. In the latter year the north-west tower,
latterly used as a vestry, was still covered by an
ogee leaden roof.
The west front of what remains, though the W0i-k
perhaps of different periods, is in the most beautiful
style of Early English, and the boldly-cut heads
in its sculptured arcade and rich variety of ornament
in the doorway are universally admired.
The windows above it were additions made so
latelyas the time of Charles I., and the inscriptions
which that upfortunate king had carved on the
Ornamental tablet between them is a striking illustration
of the vanity of human hopes. One runs :-
Ultimately this also fell.
“Basiluam ham, Carolus Rex, @firnus imtaxravit, 1633.”
The other :-
“HE SHALL ESTABLISH ANE HOUSE FOR MY NAME, AND I
WILL ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF HIS KINGDOM FOR
EVER.”
In the north-west tower is amarble monument to
Robert, Viscount Belhaven, who was interred there
in January, 1639. His nephews, Sir Archibald and
Sir Robert Douglas, placed there that splendid
memorial to perpetuate hisvirtues as a man and
steadiness as a patriot. A row of tombs of Scottish
nobility and others lie in the north aisle. The
Roxburgh aisle adjoins the royal vault in the
south aisle, and in front of it lies the tomb of the
Countess of Errol, who died in 1808. Close by.
it is that of the Bishop of Orkney, already referred
to. “ A flattering inscription enumerates the.
bishop’s titles, and represents this worldly hypocrite](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p071.gif "Volume 3 Page 59")
... are
yet preserved.”
In the royal yacht there came to Leith from
London an altar, vestments, and images, to ...
Vol. 3 p. 59 (Rel. 0.13)
![Abbeyhill.] BARON NORTON. I27
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DISTRICT OF RESTALRIG.
Abhey Hill-Baron Norton-Alex. Campbell and “ Albyn’s Anthology ”--Comely Gardens-Easter Road-St. Margaret’s Well-Church and
Legend of St. Triduana-Made Collegiate by James 111.-The Mausoleum-Old Bardns of Restalrig-pe Logans, &c.-Conflict of
Black Saturday-Residents of Note-First Balloon in Britain-Rector Adams-The Nisbets of Craigantinnie and Dean-The Millers-
The Craieantinnie Tomb and Marbles-The Marionville Traeedv-The Hamlet of Jock‘o Lodge-Mail-bag Robberies in seventeenth and - _
eighteenth centuries-Piershill House and Barracks.
AT the Abbey Hill, an old house-in that antiquated
but once fashionable suburb, which grew
up in the vicinity of the palace of Holyrood-with
groups of venerable trees around it, which are now,
like itself, all swept away to make room for the present
Abbeyhill station and railway to Leith, there
lived long the Hon. Fletcher Norton, appointed one
of the Barons of the Scottish Exchequer in 1776,
with a salary of &2,865 per annum, deemed a handsome
income in those days.
He was the second son of Fletcher Norton of
Grantley in Yorkshire, who was Attorney-General
of England in 1762, and was elevated to the British
peerage in 1782, as Lord Grantley.
He came to Scotland at a time when prejudices
then against England and Englishmen were strong
and deep, for the rancour excited by the affair of
1745, about thirty years before, was revived by the
periodical publication of the Nhth Briton, but
Baron Norton soon won the regard of all who knew
him. His conduct as a judge increased the respect
which his behaviour in private life obtained, His
perspicacity easily discovered the true merits of any
cause before him, while his dignified and conciliatory
manner, joined to the universal confidence
which prevailed in his rigid impartiality, reconciled
to him even those who suffered by such verdicts as
were given against them in consequence of his
charges to the juries.
He married in 1793 a Scottish lady, a Miss Balmain,
and in the Edinburgh society of his time stood
high in the estimation of all, “as a husband, father,
friend, and master,” according to a print of 1820.
“ His fund of information-of anecdotes admirably
told-his social disposition, and the gentlemanly
pleasantness of his manner, made his society to be
universally coveted. Resentment had no place in
his bosom. He seemed almost insensible to injury
so immediately did he pardon it. Amongst his
various pensioners were several who had shown
marked ingratitude ; but distress, with him, covered
every offence against himself.”
He was a warm patron of the amiable and enthusiastic,
but somewhat luckless Alexander Campbell,
author of “ The Grampians Desolate,” which
“fell dead ” from the press, and editor of “ Albyn’s
Anthology,” who writes thus in the preface to the
first volume of that book in 1816, and which, we
may mention, was a “ collection of melodies and
local poetry peculiar to Scotland and the isles ” :-
“ So far back as the year 1780, while as yet the
editor of ‘Albyn’s Anthology’ was an organist to
one of the Episcopal chapels in Edinburgh, he projected
the present work. Finding but small encouragement
at that period, and his attention being
directed to pursuits of quite a different nature, the
plan was dropped, till by an accidental turn of conversation
at a gentleman’s table, the Hon. Fletcher
Norton gave a spur to the speculation now in its
career. He with that warmth of benevolence
peculiarly his own, offered his influence with the
Royal Highland Society of Scotland, of which he is
a member of long standing, and in conformity with
the zeal he has uniformly manifested for everything
connected with the distinction and prosperity of our
ancient realm, on the editor giving him a rough
outline of the present undertaking, the Hon. Baron
put it into the hands of Henry Mackenzie, Esq., of
the Exchequer, and Lord Bannatyne, whose influence
in the society is deservedly great. And
immediately on Mr. Mackenzie laying it before a
select committee for music, John H. Forbes, Esq.
(afterwards Lord Medwyn), as convener of the
committee, convened it, and the result was a recommendation
to the society at large, who embraced
the project cordially, voted a sum to enable the
editor to pursue his plan ; and forthwith he set out
on a tour through the Highlands and western
islands. Having performed a journey (in pursuit
of materials for the present work) of between eleven
and twelve hundred miles, in which he collected
191 specimens of melodies and Gaelic vocal poetry,
he returned to Edinburgh, and laid the fruits of
his gleanings before the society, who were pleased
to honour with their approbation his success in
attempting to collect and preserve the perishing remains
of what is so closely interwoven with the
history and literature of Scot!and.”
From thenceforth the ‘‘ Anthology” was a success,
and a second volume appeared in 1818. Under
the influence of Baron Norton, Campbell got many
able contributors, among whom appear the names
of Scott, Hogg, Mrs. Grant of Laggan, RIaturin, and
Jamieson.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p138.gif "Volume 5 Page 127")
... make room for the present
Abbeyhill station and railway to Leith , there
lived long the Hon. Fletcher Norton, ...
Vol. 5 p. 127 (Rel. 0.13)
... same evening the mastermasons
of the city, Canongate, Leith , and suburbs,
met in order to concert what ...
Vol. 4 p. 326 (Rel. 0.13)
... magnificent prospect
over the valley of the Water of Leith and away to
the Forth
Moray Place, which reaches ...
Vol. 4 p. 202 (Rel. 0.13)
![High Street.] ST. MARY’S CHA4PEL. 247
made out by Latinising his name into Nz’choZaus
Ea’wfirtus. It occupied the western side of Lockhart’s
Court, and was accessible only by a deep
archway.
In an Act passed in 158r, ‘<Anent the Cuinzie,”
Alexander Clark of Balbirnie, Provost of Edinburgh,
and Nicol Edward, whose houses were both
in this wynd, are mentioned with others. The
latter appears in 1585 in the Parliament as Commissary
for Edinburgh, together with Michael Gilbert;
and in 1587 he appears again in an Act of
Parliament in favour of the Flemish craftsmen,
whom James VI. was desirous of encouraging ; but,
!est they should produce inferior work at Scottish
prices, his Majesty, with the advice of Council,
hes appointit, constitute, and ordainit, ane honest
and discreit man, Nicolas Uduart, burgess of Edinburgh,
to be visitor and overseer of the said craftsmen’s
hail warks, steiks, and pieces . . . the said
Nicolas sal have sic dueties as is contenit within
the buke, as is commonly usit to be payit therfore
in Flanderis, Holland, or Ingland ; I’ in virtue
of all of which Nicholas was freed froin all watching,
warding, and all charges and impositions.
In that court dwelt, in 17534761, George Lockhart
of Carnwath One of the thirteen roonis in his
house contained a mantelpiece of singular magnificence,
that reached the lofty ceiling; but the
house had a peculiar accessory, in the shape of (‘ a
profound dungeon, which was only accessible by a
secret trapdoor, opening through the floor of a
small closet, the most remote of a suite of rooms
extending along the south and west sides of the
court. Perhaps at a time when to be rich was
neither so common nor so safe as now, Provost
Edward might conceal his hoards in this massy
more.”
The north side of Lockhart’s Court was long
occupied by the family of Bruce of Kinnaird, the
celebrated traveller.
In Niddry‘s Wynd, a little below Provost Edward’s
house on the opposite side, stood St.
Mary’s Chapel, dedicated to God and the Blessed
Virgin Mary, according to Arnot, in 1505. Its
foundress was Elizabeth, daughter of James, Lord
Livingstone, Great Chamberlain of Scotland, and
Countess of Ross-then widow of John Earl of
Ross and Lord of the Isles, who, undeterred by
the miserable fate of his father, drew on him, by
his treasonable practices, the just vengeance of
James III., and died in 1498.
Colville of Easter U‘emyss, and afterwards
Richardson of Smeaton, became proprietors and
patrons of this religious foundation ; and about
the year 1600, James Chaliners, a macer before the
Court of Session, acquired a right to the chapel,
and in 1618 the Corporations of Wrights and
Masons, known by the name of the United Incorporations
of Mary’s Chapel, purchased this subject,
“where they still possess, and where they hold
meetings,” says Arnot, writing in 1779.
In the CaZedonian Mercury for 1736 we read
that on St. Andrew’s Day the masters and wardens
of forty masonic lodges met in St. Mary’s Chapel,
and unanimously elected as their grand-master
William Sinclair of Roslin, the representative of
an ancient though reduced family, connected for
several generations with Scottish freemasonry.
For this ancient chapel a modern edifice was
substituted, long before the demolition of Niddry’s
Wynd; but the masonic lodge of Mary’s Chapel
still exists, and we believe holds its meetings
there.
Religious services were last conducted in the
new edifice when Viscountess Glenorchy hired it.
She was zealous in the cause of religion, and conceived
a plan of having a place of worship in
which ministers of every orthodox denomination
might preach; and for this purpose she had St.
Mary’s Chapel opened on Wednesday, the 7th
March, 1770, by the Rev. Mr. Middleton, the
minister of a small Episcopal chapel at Dalkeith ;
but she failed to secure the ministrations of any
clergyman of the Established Church, though in
1779 the Rev. William Logan, of South Leith, a
poet of some eminence in his time, gave his course
of lectures on the philosophy of history in the
chapel, prior to offering himself as a candidate for
the chair of civil history in the University.
On the east side of Niddry’s Wynd, nearly opp0-
site to Lockhart’s Court, was a handsome house,
which early in the eighteenth century was inhabited
by the Hon. James Erskine, a senator, better
known by his legal and territorial appellation of
Lord Grange, brother of John Earl of Mar, who
led’ the great rising in 1715 on behalf of the
Stuarts. He was born in 1679, and was called to
the Scottish bar in 1705. He took no share in
the Jacobite enterprise which led to the forfeiture
of his brother, and the loss, ultimately of
the last remains of the once great inheritance in
the north from which the ancient family took its
name.
He affected to be a zealous Presbyterian and
adherent of the House of Hanover, and as such he
figures prominently in the ‘‘ Diary” of the indus .
trious \ffodrow, supplying that writer with many
shreds of the Court gossip, which he loved so
dearly ; but Lord Grange is chiefly remembered for
the romantic story of his wife, which has long filled](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p067.gif "Volume 2 Page 247")
... Church, though in
1779 the Rev. William Logan, of South Leith , a
poet of some eminence in his time, gave his ...
Vol. 2 p. 247 (Rel. 0.13)
... wa:
hoisted on the castle, and a cannon, brought from
Leith Fort, was discharged in Heriot’s Green, ...
Vol. 4 p. 371 (Rel. 0.13)
... is sacnficed
to worldly policy. On her arrival at‘ Leith in
an open boat in 1766, her whole bearing ...
Vol. 1 p. 131 (Rel. 0.13)
![Holyrocd.] HOWIESON OF BRAEHEAD. 63
space of one year, with great triumph and mem
ness.” He diligently continued the works begur
by his gallant father, and erected the north-wes
towers, which have survived more than one con
flagration, and on the most northern of which coulc
be traced, till about 1820, his name, IACOBVS RE)
SCOTORVM, in large gilt Roman letters.
In 1528 blood was again shed in Holyrooc
during a great review of Douglases and Hamilton:
held there prior to a march against the Englis€
’borders. A groom of the Earl of Lennox perceiv
ing among those present Sir James Hamilton o
Finnart, who slew that noble at Linlithgow, intent or
vengeance, tracked him into the palace “by a dad
staircase which led to a narrow gallery,” and then
attacked him, sword in hand. Sir James en
deavoured to defend himself by the aid of hi:
. velvet mantle, but fell, pierced by six wounds, nonc
of which, however, were mortal. The gates wen
closed, and while a general mClCe was on the poin
of ensuing between the Douglases and Hamil
tons, the would-be assassin was discovered With hi:
bloody weapon, put to the torture, and then hi:
right hand was cut 04 on which “he observed
with a sarcastic smile, that it was punished les:
than it deserved for having failed to revenge tht
murder of his beloved master.’’
James V. was still in the palace in 1530, as we find
in the treasurer‘s accounts for that year : ‘‘ Item, tc
the Egiptianis that dansit before the king in Holy
rud House, 40s.” He was a monarch whose pure
benevolence of intention often rendered his roman.
tic freaks venial, if not respectable, since from his
anxiety to learn the wants and wishes of his humbler
subjects he was wont, like Il Boadocan4 or Haroun
Alrdschid, to traverse the vicinity of his palaces
in the plainest of disguises ; and two comic songs,
composed by himself, entitled “We’ll gang nae
mair a-roving,” and “The Gaberlunzie Man,” are
said to have been founded on his adventures while
masked as a beggar; and one of these, which
nearly cost him his life at Cramond, some five
miles frum Holyrood, is given in Scott’s ‘‘ Tales of
a Grandfather.”
While visiting a pretty peasant girl in Cramond
village he was beset by four or five persons, against
whom he made a stand with his sword upon the
high and narrow bridge that spans the Almond,
in a wooded hollow. Here, when well-nigh beaten,
and covered with blood, he was succoured and
rescued by a peasant armed with a flail, who conducted
him into a barn, where he bathed his wounds;
and in the course of conversation James discovered
that the summit of his deliverer’s earthly wishes
was to be proprietor of the little farm of Braehead,
on which he was then a labourer. Aware that it was
Crown property, James said, ‘‘ Come to Holyrood,
and inquire for the gudeman of Ballengeich,” referring
to a part of Stirling Castle which he was
wont to adopt as a cognomen.
The peasant came as appointed, and was met
by the king in his disguise, who conducted him
through the palace, and asked him if he wished
to see the king. John Howison-for such was his
name-expressed the joy it would give him, provided
he gave no offence. But how shall I know
him?” he added.
“ Easily,” replied James, “All others will be
bareheaded, the king alone will wear his bonnet.”
Scared by his surroundings and the uncovered
crowd in the great hall, John Howison looked
around him, and then said, naively, “The king
must be either you or me, for all but us are bareheaded.”
James and his courtiers laughed ; but
he bestowed upon Howison the lands of Braehead,
‘‘ on condition that he and his successors should
be ready to present an ewer and basin for the king
to wash his hands when His Majesty should come
to Holyrood or pass the bridge of Cramond.
Accordingly, in the year 1822, when George IV.
came to Scotland, a descendant of John Howison,
whose hmily still possess the estate, appeared at a
solemn festival, and offered His Majesty water from
a silver ewer, that he might perform the service by
which he held his land.”
Such pranks as these were ended by the king‘s marriage
in I 53 7 to the Princess Magdalene, the beautiful
daughter of Francis I., with unwonted splendour in
the cathedral of Notre Dame, in presence of the
Parliament of Paris, of Francis, the Queens of
France and Navarre, the Dauphin, Duke of Orleans,
md all the leading peers of Scotland and o(
France. On the 27th of May the royal pair
landed at Leith, amid every display of welcome,
md remained a few days at Holyrood, tin the
mthusiastic citizens prepared to receive them in
state with a procession of magnificence.
Magdalene, over whose rare beauty consump-
:ion seemed to spread a veil more tender and
rlluring, was affectionate and loving in nature. On
anding, in the excess of her love for James,
;he knelt down, and, kissing the soil, prayed God
:o bless the land of her adoption-scotland, and
ts people.
The “ Burgh Records ” bear witness how anxious
he Provost and citizens were to do honour to the
)ride of ‘‘ the good King James. All beggars were
varned off the streets : ‘lane honest man of ilk
:lose or two,” were to see this order enforced ; the
vbbish near John Makgill’s house and “the litster](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p075.gif "Volume 3 Page 63")
... o(
France. On the 27th of May the royal pair
landed at Leith , amid every display of welcome,
md remained a few ...
Vol. 3 p. 63 (Rel. 0.13)
... to watch the crowds
returning from the races on Leith sands.
In this new tenement on Bunker’s Hill ...
Vol. 2 p. 366 (Rel. 0.13)
... pendicle of
the Knights Hospitallers of St. Anthony in Leith .
Yet it is extremely probable that it was in ...
Vol. 4 p. 319 (Rel. 0.13)
![307 - Trinity.] EASTER AND WESTER PILTON.
Now Trinity possesses a great number of handsome
villas in intersecting streets, a railway station,
and an Episcopal chapel called Christ Church,
which figured in a trial before the law courts of
Scotland, that made much noise in its time-the
Yelverton case.
At Wardie, not far from it, there died, in only
his thirty-eighth year, Edward Forbes, who, after
being a Professor in King’s College, London, was
appointed to the chair of Natural History in the
University of Edinburgh in May, 1854. He was
a man of distinguished talent and of an affectionate
nature, his last words being “ My own wife 1 ” when
she inquired, as he was dying, if he knew her.
Soon after she contracted a marriage with the
Hon. Major Yelverton, whose battefy of artillery
had just returned from Sebastopol, and was
quartered in Leith Fort. The marriage took place
in the little church at Trinity, and was barely
announced before the Major was arrested on a
charge of bigamy by the late Miss Theresa Longworth,
with whom he had contracted, it was
averred, an irregular marriage in Edinburgh. Before
this she had joined the Sisters of Chanty at T’arna,
and lived a life of adventure. Not satisfied with the
Scottish marriage, they went through another ceremony
before a Catholic priest in Ireland, where the
ceremony was declared legal, and she was accepted
as Mrs. Yelverton. She then endeavoured to
prove a Scottish marriage, by habit and repute, residence
at Circus Place, and elsewhere, but judgment
was given against her by the late Lord Ardmillan,
and after twenty years of wandering all over the
world, writing books of travel, she died at Natal in
September, 1881, retaining to the last the title of
Viscountess, acguired on old Lord Avonmore’s
death.
Horatio Macculloch, R.S.A., the well-known
landscape painter, lived latterly in a villa adjoining
Trinity Grove, and died there on the 15th June,
1867.
In 1836 some plans were prepared by Messrs.
Grainger and Miller, the eminent Edinburgh engineers,
and boldly designed for the construction of
a regular wet dock at Trinity, with a breakwater
outer harbour of twenty acres in extent, westward
of Newhaven pier and the sunken rock known as
the West Bush ; but the proposal met with no support,
and the whole scheme was abandoned.
On the noble road leading westward to
Queensfeny there was completed in April, 1880,
near the head of the Granton thoroughfare, a
Free Church for the congregation of Granton and
Wardie, which, since its organisation in 1876, under
the Rev. P. C. Purves, had occupied an iron building
near Wardie Crescent. The edifice is an ornament
to the swiftly-growing locality. The relative
proportions of the nave, aisles, and transepts, are
planned to form a ground area large enough tg
accommodate the increasing congregation, and
galleries can be added if required. This area is
nearly all within the nave, and is lighted by the
windows of the clerestory, which has flying buttresses.
The style is Early English, the pulpit is of
oak on a stone pedestal. This church has a tower
seventy-five feet high, and arrests the eye, as it
stands on a species of ridge between the city and
the sea.
Ashbrook, Wardieburn House, and other handsome
mansions, have been erected westward, and
ere long the old farmsteading of Windlestrawlee
(opposite North Inverleith Mains) will, of course,
disappear. It is called ‘‘ Winliestraley ” in Kincaid’s
‘‘ Local Gazetteer” for 1787, and is said to take its
name from ‘‘ windlestrae (the name given to crested
dogstail grass- Cynosurus prisfatus), and applied
in Scotland to bent and stalks of grass found OII
moorish ground.”
An old property long known as Cargilfield, lay to
the north-east of it, and to the westward are Easter
and Wester Pilton, an older property still, which
has changed owners several times.
On the 16th of May, 1610, Peter Rollock, of
Pilton, had a seat on the bench as Lord Pilton.
He had no predecessor. He had been removed,
when Bishop of Dunkeld (in 1603), says Lord
Hailes, that the number of extraordinary lards
might be reduced to four, and he was restored by
the king’s letter, with a special proviso that this
should not be precedent of establishing a fifth extraordinary
lord. The lands-or a portion thereof
-afterwards became a part of the barony of Royston,
formed in favour of Viscount Tarbet; but
previous to that had been in possession of a family
named Macculloch, as Monteith in his “ Theatre
of Mortality,” inserts the epitaph upon the tomb on
the east side of the Greyfriars Church, of Sir Hugh
Macculloch, of Pilton, Knight, descended from the
ancient family of Macculloch of CadbolI. He died
in August, 1688, and the stone was erected by his
son James. About I 780 Pilton became the property
of Sir Philip Ainslie, whose eldest daughter Jean
was married there, in 1801, to Lord Doune, eldest
son of the Earl of Moray-a marriage that does not
appear in the “Peerages ” generally, but is recorded
in the Edinburgh HeruZd for that year. She was his
second wife, the first being a daughter of General
Scott of Bellevue and Balcomie. Lord Doune
then resided, and for a few years before, in the old
Wrightshouse, or ‘‘ Bruntsfield Castle,” as it is](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p126.gif "Volume 6 Page 307")
... just returned from Sebastopol, and was
quartered in Leith Fort. The marriage took place
in the little church ...
Vol. 6 p. 307 (Rel. 0.13)
... and other weapons, came
to the village of the Water of Leith , and attacked
:he house of Bailie John ...
Vol. 5 p. 42 (Rel. 0.13)
... was purchased by the city from Towers of
Inver leith .
In 1530 a woman named Katharine Heriot,
accused ...
Vol. 4 p. 234 (Rel. 0.13)
... Provost, two bailies, seven councillors, and other
officials In conjunction with Leith and Musselg
In the pre- ...
Vol. 5 p. 146 (Rel. 0.13)
... strength and
Stature, he actually conveyed him to Leith , a distance
of two miles; and, when the sun rose, ...
Vol. 1 p. 34 (Rel. 0.13)
![Firinburgh Castle.] THE. REGIMENT OF EDINBURGH. 63
and all loyalists to quit the city. “At the head
of his forlorn band, consisting of sixty cavalier
troopers-Guardsmenand Greys mingled-Dundee,
the idol of his party, quitted Edinburgh by the
Leith Wynd Port; and, through a telescope, the
Duke of Gordon watched them as they wound
past the venerable church of, the Holy Trinity,
among the cottages and gardens of Moutries Hill,
and as they rode westward by the Lang Gate, a solitary
roadway bordered by fields and farmhouses.”
According to Balcarres this was on the 18th of
March, 1689, and as Gordon wished to confer with
the viscount, the latter, on seeing a red flag waved
at the western postern, rode down the Kirk Brae,
and, quitting his horse, all heavily accoutred as he
was, climbed the steep rock to hold that conference
of which so little was ever known. He is said to
have advised the’duke to leave the Castle in charge
of Winram, on whom they could depend, and seek
their fortunes together among the loyal clans in the
north. But the duke declined, adding, “Whither
“Wherever the shade of Montrose may direct
me,” was the pensive and poetical reply, and then
they parted to meet no more. But the moment
Dundee was gone the drums of the Cameroniaas
beat to ;urns, and they came swarming out of theix
places of concealment, mustering for immediate
ackioion, while, in the name of the Estates, the Earl$
of Tweeddale arid Lothian appeared at the gate d
the fortress, requesting the duke to surrender ii
within four-and-twenty houm, and daringly offering
a year’s pay to every soldier who would desert him.
‘‘ My lords,” said he, “without the express order?
of my royal master, James VII., I cannot surrendei
this castle.”
By the heralds and pursuivants the Duke 01
Gordon was now, as the only alternative, declarec
a traitor. He tossed them some guineas to drink
the health of James VII., adding, with a laugh, ‘‘I
would advise you not to proclaim men traitors whc
wear the king’s coat till they have turned it”
Under the highest penalties, all persons were non
forbidden to correspond with him or his garrison
and the Earl of Leven was ordered to blockadethc
rock with his Cameronians, to whom were addec
300 Highlanders under Argyle. Out of this bodj
there were formed in one day two battalions of thc
line, which still exist-the 25th, or old Edinburgt
regiment, which bears on its colours the tripk
castle, with the motto, ‘‘ Nisi Dominus Frustra,”*
go you ? ”
-
There was a second regiment, called the bth. or Royal Edinburgl
Volunteers, raised by Major-General Sir William Erskine. Bart., in 1777
It served rinder Cornwallis in the American War, and wasdibanded ai
the close thereof. Its Lieuteoant-Colooel was Dundas of Fingask, wh<
died at Guadaoupe
and the 26th, or Cameronians, whose appointments
bear the five-pointed mullet-the .arms of their
first colonel ; while three battalions of the Scots
Brigade, from Holland, were on their march, under
Lieutenant-General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, to
press the siege. Daily matters looked darker and
darker for the gallant Gordon, for now seventy-four
rank and file demanded their discharges, and were,
like their predecessors, stripped and expelled.
The gates were then barricaded, and preparations
made for resistance to the last; but though Sir
James Grant of Dalvey (fomierly King’s Advocate),
and Gordon of Edintore, contrived to throw in a
supply of provisions, the
that he could not hold
out beyond the month
of June unless relieved.
The entire strength
of the garrison, including
okers and gentlemen-
volunteers, was
only eighty-six men,
who had to work
twentv-two Dieces of
@j duke wrote King James -
(exclusive of FACSIMILE OF THE MEDAL
OF THE EDINBURGH REfield-
pieces) ranging VOLUTION CLUB.
from 42 to I a-pounders.
They had no doctor, no
engineer, no money, Mnrl in 1688.)
(=nick in 1753 in ~ommn~mmtiom
a d ~,ztrtu 6,. Wiziiam aw
of the recmwy of tkir Rrligwr
and only thirty barrels of powder in actual quantity.
It was truly a desperate hazard !
By the 18th the entire rock was fully and hopelessly
invested by the Earl of Leven, a Brandenburg
colonel, who displayed a great want of skill; and on
the following night the battlements were blazing
with bonfires and tar barrels in honour of King
Jam& safe arrival in Ireland, of which tidings had
probably been given by Grant of Dalvey. On the
25th came Mackay, with the three battalions of
the Scots Brigade, each consisting of twelve companies,
all splendidly-trained soldiers, a brigade of
guns, and a great quantity of woolpacks with
which to form breastworks. A11 within the Castle
who had gun-shot wounds suffered greatly from
the want of medical attendance, till the duke’s
family physician contrived to join him, probably by
the postern.
On the 13th of March he heavily cannonaded the
western entrenchments, and by dint of shot and
shell retnded the working parties; but General
Mackay now formed a battery of 18-pounders, at
the Highnggs, opposed to the royal lodging and
the half-moon. On the 3rd of April the Duke discovered
that the house of Coates, the ancient](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p075.gif "Volume 1 Page 63")
... idol of his party, quitted Edinburgh by the
Leith Wynd Port; and, through a telescope, the
Duke of ...
Vol. 1 p. 63 (Rel. 0.13)
![Firinburgh Castle.] THE. REGIMENT OF EDINBURGH. 63
and all loyalists to quit the city. “At the head
of his forlorn band, consisting of sixty cavalier
troopers-Guardsmenand Greys mingled-Dundee,
the idol of his party, quitted Edinburgh by the
Leith Wynd Port; and, through a telescope, the
Duke of Gordon watched them as they wound
past the venerable church of, the Holy Trinity,
among the cottages and gardens of Moutries Hill,
and as they rode westward by the Lang Gate, a solitary
roadway bordered by fields and farmhouses.”
According to Balcarres this was on the 18th of
March, 1689, and as Gordon wished to confer with
the viscount, the latter, on seeing a red flag waved
at the western postern, rode down the Kirk Brae,
and, quitting his horse, all heavily accoutred as he
was, climbed the steep rock to hold that conference
of which so little was ever known. He is said to
have advised the’duke to leave the Castle in charge
of Winram, on whom they could depend, and seek
their fortunes together among the loyal clans in the
north. But the duke declined, adding, “Whither
“Wherever the shade of Montrose may direct
me,” was the pensive and poetical reply, and then
they parted to meet no more. But the moment
Dundee was gone the drums of the Cameroniaas
beat to ;urns, and they came swarming out of theix
places of concealment, mustering for immediate
ackioion, while, in the name of the Estates, the Earl$
of Tweeddale arid Lothian appeared at the gate d
the fortress, requesting the duke to surrender ii
within four-and-twenty houm, and daringly offering
a year’s pay to every soldier who would desert him.
‘‘ My lords,” said he, “without the express order?
of my royal master, James VII., I cannot surrendei
this castle.”
By the heralds and pursuivants the Duke 01
Gordon was now, as the only alternative, declarec
a traitor. He tossed them some guineas to drink
the health of James VII., adding, with a laugh, ‘‘I
would advise you not to proclaim men traitors whc
wear the king’s coat till they have turned it”
Under the highest penalties, all persons were non
forbidden to correspond with him or his garrison
and the Earl of Leven was ordered to blockadethc
rock with his Cameronians, to whom were addec
300 Highlanders under Argyle. Out of this bodj
there were formed in one day two battalions of thc
line, which still exist-the 25th, or old Edinburgt
regiment, which bears on its colours the tripk
castle, with the motto, ‘‘ Nisi Dominus Frustra,”*
go you ? ”
-
There was a second regiment, called the bth. or Royal Edinburgl
Volunteers, raised by Major-General Sir William Erskine. Bart., in 1777
It served rinder Cornwallis in the American War, and wasdibanded ai
the close thereof. Its Lieuteoant-Colooel was Dundas of Fingask, wh<
died at Guadaoupe
and the 26th, or Cameronians, whose appointments
bear the five-pointed mullet-the .arms of their
first colonel ; while three battalions of the Scots
Brigade, from Holland, were on their march, under
Lieutenant-General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, to
press the siege. Daily matters looked darker and
darker for the gallant Gordon, for now seventy-four
rank and file demanded their discharges, and were,
like their predecessors, stripped and expelled.
The gates were then barricaded, and preparations
made for resistance to the last; but though Sir
James Grant of Dalvey (fomierly King’s Advocate),
and Gordon of Edintore, contrived to throw in a
supply of provisions, the
that he could not hold
out beyond the month
of June unless relieved.
The entire strength
of the garrison, including
okers and gentlemen-
volunteers, was
only eighty-six men,
who had to work
twentv-two Dieces of
@j duke wrote King James -
(exclusive of FACSIMILE OF THE MEDAL
OF THE EDINBURGH REfield-
pieces) ranging VOLUTION CLUB.
from 42 to I a-pounders.
They had no doctor, no
engineer, no money, Mnrl in 1688.)
(=nick in 1753 in ~ommn~mmtiom
a d ~,ztrtu 6,. Wiziiam aw
of the recmwy of tkir Rrligwr
and only thirty barrels of powder in actual quantity.
It was truly a desperate hazard !
By the 18th the entire rock was fully and hopelessly
invested by the Earl of Leven, a Brandenburg
colonel, who displayed a great want of skill; and on
the following night the battlements were blazing
with bonfires and tar barrels in honour of King
Jam& safe arrival in Ireland, of which tidings had
probably been given by Grant of Dalvey. On the
25th came Mackay, with the three battalions of
the Scots Brigade, each consisting of twelve companies,
all splendidly-trained soldiers, a brigade of
guns, and a great quantity of woolpacks with
which to form breastworks. A11 within the Castle
who had gun-shot wounds suffered greatly from
the want of medical attendance, till the duke’s
family physician contrived to join him, probably by
the postern.
On the 13th of March he heavily cannonaded the
western entrenchments, and by dint of shot and
shell retnded the working parties; but General
Mackay now formed a battery of 18-pounders, at
the Highnggs, opposed to the royal lodging and
the half-moon. On the 3rd of April the Duke discovered
that the house of Coates, the ancient](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p076.gif "Volume 1 Page 64")
... idol of his party, quitted Edinburgh by the
Leith Wynd Port; and, through a telescope, the
Duke of ...
Vol. 1 p. 64 (Rel. 0.13)
... Scott, it was sent
home to Edinburgh, and escorted from Leith back
to its old place in the Castle by three ...
Vol. 1 p. 75 (Rel. 0.13)
... and
obediently. On that night they all sailed from
Leith to Guernsey, from whence they were soon ...
Vol. 4 p. 309 (Rel. 0.13)
... stairs to the Parliament House,
fled the same day from Leith in a smack, and did
not revisit Edinburgh for ...
Vol. 4 p. 242 (Rel. 0.13)
... the subsequent conflicts of 1572, the house?
in Leith Wynd and St. Mary’s Wynd were unroofed
.
nd all ...
Vol. 2 p. 298 (Rel. 0.13)
... he handled the old printing press
in his little shop in Leith Walk, William’s pen was
yet busy, and ...
Vol. 2 p. 226 (Rel. 0.13)
... amounted to A38,427.
Connected, of course, with the head office, there
were in Edinburgh, Leith , and the ...
Vol. 2 p. 358 (Rel. 0.13)
![253 Leith.] ST. NINIAN’S CHURCH.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p072.gif "Volume 6 Page 253")
![Leith.] MONSON'S SUGGESTIONS. 185
12 0](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p196.gif "Volume 5 Page 185")
![Leith.] JAMES IV. AND THE SCOTTISH NAVY. 205](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p024.gif "Volume 6 Page 205")
