![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")
... BARON NORTON. I27
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DISTRICT OF RESTALRIG.
Abhey Hill-Baron Norton-Alex. Campbell ...
Vol. 5 p. 127 (Rel. 2.91)
... groups of huge, irregular, and diversified
tenements that could well be conceived. Here a
stunted little ...
Vol. 2 p. 320 (Rel. 2.56)
... 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. 1.98)
... Castle Hill.
solid, and her camage winning and affable to her
inferiors.” One of the most ardent of her ...
Vol. 1 p. 84 (Rel. 1.78)
... “ Church History,” were licensed by the
king ! This interdict was annulled by proclamation
at the Market ...
Vol. 3 p. 40 (Rel. 1.51)
... OJ,D AND NEW EDINBURGH. -. -
by a clause in one of the Acts of the North British
Railway; and since 1847 it ...
Vol. 3 p. 34 (Rel. 1.46)
... Gordon. Dr. Munro.
Lord Elliock. Dr. Hope.
Major-Gen. Fletcher CampbelL Dr. Black.
Adam Smith, Esq. Dr. ...
Vol. 3 p. 86 (Rel. 1.44)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
C
Cable’s Wynd, Leith, XI. 226, 227
Caddies,orstreetmesngers, I. 151,
Cadell and ...
Vol. 6 p. 372 (Rel. 1.42)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Bonnington.
In April, 1747, the Countess of Hugh, third Earl
of Marchmont (Anne ...
Vol. 5 p. 90 (Rel. 1.39)
![High Street.3 CHANGES IN THE HIGH STREET. 203
Mortality,” I 7041 gives us the long inscription on the
tomb of the Colonel’s wife, in the Greyfriars, beginning
:-“ Nic $osita Rdiquire Lectissrna rnatronq
Jeanne ]ohnsone, conizcgl’s Archibaldi Row, Re@
Scloppetarz>rum, hpmzis,” &c. She died in
1702.
On the 8th of March Anne was proclaimed
Queen of Scotland, at the Cross, with all the usual
solemnities.
In January, 1703, George Young, merchant in
the High Street, was appointed by the Provost, Si1
Hugh Cunningham, and the Council, to act a
a constable, and along with several other citizen:
of respectable position, “ oversee the manners and
order of the burgh, and the inhabitants thereof,
and on the evening of the 24th, being Sunday, he
went through some parts of the city to see “that
the Lord‘s day, and the laws made for the observance
thereof, were not violated.” ’ In the house
of Marjory Thom, a vintner, this new official found,
about 10 P.M., several companies in several rooms,
and expostulated with her on the subject, aftei
which, according to his own account, he quietly
withdrew.
As he proceeded up the close to the High Street,
he and his comrades were followed by Mr. Archi.
bald Campbell, son of the Lord Niel Campbell,
who warned him that if he reported Marjory’s
house to the magistrates, he would repent it. This
affair ended in a kind of riot next day, in Young’:
shop, opposite the Town Guard House, and Campbell
would probably have slain Young, had not the
latter contrived to get hold of his sword and keep
it till the Guard came, and the matter was brought
before the Privy Council, when such was the
influence of family and position, that the luckless
Mr. Young was fined 400 merks, to be paid to
Campbell, and to be imprisoned till the money
was forthcoming.
On the 14th of February, 1705, appeared tlie
first number of the Bdinbwgh Courant, a simple
folio broadsheet, published by James Watson, in
Craig’s Close. Its place was afterwards taken by
MacEwen’s Rdifzburgh Evening Courant, in I 7 18,
a permanent success to this day. It was a Whig
print, and caused the starting of the now defunct
Caledonkn Mercury, in the Jacobite interest,
a little quarto of two leaves.
According to the Courant of April gth, 1724 the
denizens of the High Street, aud other greater
thoroughfares, were startled by “a bank ” of drums,
beating up for recruits for the King of Prussia’s
-
gigantic regim’ent of Grenadiers. Two guineas as
bounty were offered, and many tall fellows were
enlisted. The same regiment was recruited for
in Edinburgh in 1728.
By the year 1730 great changes had been
effected by the magistrates in enforcing cleanliness
in the streets, and repressing the habit (accompanied
by the temble cry of Gardezl‘eau) of throwing slops
and rubbish from the windows. Sir James Dick of
Prestonfield, the wise provost of 1679, transported
away by personal energy a vast stratum of the
refuse of ages, through which people had to make
literal lanes to their shops and house-doors and
therewith enriched his lands by the margin of
Duddingston Loch (Act of Parl. James VII., I.,
cap. IZ), till their fertility is proverbial to the
present day. But still there was no regular system
of cleaning, and though Sir Alexander Brand, a
well-known magistrate and manufacturer of Spanish
leather gilt hangings, made some vigorous proposals
on the subject, they were not adopted, till in
1730 the magistrates endeavoured by the strong arm
of the law to repress the obnoxious habit of
throwing household litter from the windows, a
habit amusingly described by Smollett forty years
after in his ’’ Humphrey Clinker.”
On the 6th of September, 1751, the fall of
a great stone tenement on the north of the High
Street, near the Cross, six storeys in height, with
attics, sinking at once from top to bottom, and
occasioning some loss of life, caused a general
alarm in the city concerning the probable state of
many of the more ancient and crumbring houses.
A general survey was made, and many were
condemned, and orderec! to be taken down.
But from 1707 Edinburgh stood singularly still
till 1763, when the citizens seemed to wake
fiom their apathetic lethargy. After that period
the erection of adjuncts to the old city (tcr
be referred to in their own localities) led to the
general desertion of it by all people of position and
wealth. Among the last who lingered there, and
retained his mansion in the High Street, was
James Fergusson of Pitfour, M.P., whose body was
borne thence in October, 1820, for interment in the
Greyfriars Churchyard.
In the March of 1820 the High Street was
iighted with gas for the first time. “ This has been
done,” says a print of the day, “by the introduction
of a single cockspur light into each of the
old globes, in which the old oil lamps were formerly
suspended.”](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p023.gif "Volume 2 Page 203")
... Street.3 CHANGES IN THE HIGH STREET. 203
Mortality,” I 7041 gives us the long inscription on the
tomb of the ...
Vol. 2 p. 203 (Rel. 1.29)
... MONBODDO. storm of just indignation was roused, and she was
with some dificulty rescued from rough ...
Vol. 1 p. 132 (Rel. 1.23)
![High Street.] LORD
Justice Clerk in 1748, who long occupied two flats
on the west side of the square, the back windows
of which overlook the picturesque vista of Cockburn
Street, and the door of which was among the
last that displayed the ancient riq.
This cadet of the loyal and ancient house of
ALVA. 23 7
Wily old Simon Lord Lovat, of the ’45, who
was perpetually involved in law pleas, frequently
visited Lord Alva at his house in Mylne’s Square ;
and the late Mrs. Campbell of Monzie, his
daughter, was wont to tell that when Lord Lovat
caught her in the stair “he always took her up
I ’
MYLNE’S SQUARE.
Mar was born in 1680, and died in 1763. Before
the nse of the new city, it affords us a curious
, glimpse of the contfnted life that such a legal
dignitary led in those days, when we find him
happy during winter in a double flat, in this
obscure place, and in summer at the little villa of
Drumsheugh, swept away in 1877, and of which
no relic now remains, save the rookery with its old
trees in Randolph Crescent.
in his arms and kissed her, to her horror-he was
In this mansion in Mylne’s Square Lord Alva’s
two step-daughters, the Misses Maxwell of Reston,
were married; one, Mary, became the Countess
of William Earl of Sutherland, a captain in
the 56th Foot, who, when France threatened
invasion in 1759, raised, in two months, a regment
among his own clan and followers; the
so ugly.’l](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p057.gif "Volume 2 Page 237")
... Street.] LORD
Justice Clerk in 1748, who long occupied two flats
on the west side of the square, the back ...
Vol. 2 p. 237 (Rel. 1.18)
... CREECH. The Lucknbooths.
remembered after he had passed away; but he
had acquired penurious habits, with ...
Vol. 1 p. 156 (Rel. 1.17)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [St. Andrew squan. I
CHAPTER XXII.
ST. ANDREW SQUARE.
St Andrew Square-List of Early ...
Vol. 3 p. 166 (Rel. 1.16)
... 28 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Prinm Street.
fiery oratory; and to succeeding times it will
preserve a vivid ...
Vol. 3 p. 128 (Rel. 1.12)
![Ceorge Street.] MRS. MURRAY OF HENDERLAND. f 43
teen, Mr. Bartlett, six, Mr. Hay, four-in all, fortyeight
shares.” From that time he grew in wealth
and fame with the establishment, which is now
merged in the Joint-stock Union Bank of Scotland.
Si John Hay died in 1830, in his seventy-fifth
year.
No. 86 was the house of his nephew, Sir
William Forbes, Bart., who succeeded to the title
on the death of the eminent banker in 1806, and
who married the sole daughter and heiress of Sir
John Stuart of Fettercairn, whose arms were thus
quartered with his ovn.
In May, 1810, Lord Jeffrey-then at the bar as a
practising advocate-took up his dwelling in No.
92, and it was while there resident that, in consequence
of some generous and friendly criticism in
the Rdinburgh Reviaer, pleasant relations were
established between him and Professor Wilson,
which, says the daughter of the latter, “led to a
still closer intimacy, and which, though unhappily
interrupted by subsequent events, was renewed in
after years, when the bitterness of old controversies
had yielded to the hallowing influences of time.”
Lord Jeffrey resided here for seventeen years.
In the second storey of No. 108 Sir Walter Scott
dwelt in 1797, when actively engaged in his German
translations and forming the Edinburgh Volunteer
Light Horse, of which he was in that year, to
his great gratification, made quartermaster. Two
doors farther on was the house of the Countess of
Balcarres, the venerable dowager of Earl Alexander,
who died in 1768. She was Anne, daughter of
Sir Robert Dalrymple of Castleton.
No. 116, now formed into shops, was long the
residence of Archibald Colquhoun of Killermont,
Lord Advocate of Scotland in 1807. He was
Archibald Campbell of Clathick, but assumed the
name of Colquhoun on succeeding to the estate of
Killermont. He came to the bar in the same
year, 1768, or about the same time as his friends
Lord Craig and the Hon. Henry Erskine. He
succeeded Lord Frederick Campbell as Lord
Clerk Register in 1816. His mind and talents
were said to have been of a very superior order ;
he was a sound lawyer, an eloquent pleader, and
his independent fortune and proud reserve induced
him to avoid general business, while in his Parliamentary
duties as member for Dumbarton he was
unremitting and efficient.
The Edinburgh Association of Science and Arts
now occupies the former residence of the Butters
of Pitlochry, No. ‘17. It is an institution formed
in 1869, and its title is sufficiently explanatory of
its objects.
An interesting lady of the old school abode long
He died in 1820.
in No. I 22-Mrs. Murray of Henderland. She was
resident there from the early part of the present
century. The late Dr. Robert Chambers tells us
he was introduced to her by Dr. Chalmers, and found
her memories of the past went back to the first
years of the reign of George 111. Her husband,
Alexander Murray, had been, he states, Lord
North’s Solicitor-General for Scotland. His name
appears in 1775 on the list, between those of
Henry Dundas and Islay Campbell of Succoth.
‘‘ I found the venerable lady seated at a window
of her drawing-room in George Street, with her
daughter, Miss Murray, taking the care of her
which her extreme age required, and with some
help from this lady we had a conversation of about
an hour.” She was born before the Porteous Mob,
and well remembering the ’45, was now close on
her hundredth year.
She spoke with affection and reverence of her
mother’s brother, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield ;
“and when I adverted,” says Chambers, “ to the
long pamphlet written against him by Athenian
Stuart, at the conclusion of the Douglas cause, she
said that, to her knowledge, he neyer read it, such
being his practice in respect to ail attacks made
upon him, lest they should disturb his equanimity
in judgment. As the old lady was on intimate terms
with Boswell, and had seen Johnson on his visit to
Edinburgh-as she was the sister-in-law of Allan
Ramsay, the painter, and had lived in the most
cultivated society of Scotland all her life-there
were ample materials for conversation with her ;
but her small strength made this shorter and slower
than I could have wished. When we came upon
the poet Ramsay, she seemed to have caught new
vigour from the subject ; she spoke with animation
of the child-parties she had attended in his house
on the Castle Hill during a course of ten years
befoie his death-an event which happened in 1757.
He was ‘ charming,’ she said ; he entered so heartily
into the plays of the children. He, in particular,
gained their hearts by making houses for their
dolls. How pleasant it was to learn that our great
pastoral poet was a man who, in his private capacity,
loved to sweeten the daily life of his fellow-creatures,
and particularly of the young ! At a warning from
Miss Murray I had to tear myself away from this
delightful and never-to-be-forgotten interview.”
From this we may suppose that the worthy publisher
never saw the venerable occupant of No. 123
again.
No. 123, on the opposite side, was the residence
of the well-known Sir John Watson Gordon,
President of the Royal Scottish Academy, who
died June Ist, 1863, and to whom reference has](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p155.gif "Volume 3 Page 143")
... Street.] MRS. MURRAY OF HENDERLAND. f 43
teen, Mr. Bartlett, six, Mr. Hay, four-in all, ...
Vol. 3 p. 143 (Rel. 1.1)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Aliison Squam
Chloris of some of his finest lyrics, the daughter of
a prosperous ...
Vol. 4 p. 332 (Rel. 1.02)
... of Belhaven, the Earl Marischal, after having
opposed the Union in all its stages, refused to be
present at ...
Vol. 1 p. 67 (Rel. 0.95)
![Parliament House.] TREATY OF UNION. 163
to regain the throne; for the proposed union
with England had inflamed to a perilous degree
the passions and the patriotism of the nation.
In August the equivalent money sent to Scotland
as a blind to the people for their full participation
in the taxes and old national debt of England, was
pompously brought to Edinburgh m twelve great
waggons, and conveyed to the Castle, escorted by
a regiment of Scottish cavalry, as Defoe tells us,
amid the railing, the reproaches, and the deep
curses of the people, who then thought of nothing
but war, and viewed the so-called equivalent as
the price of their Scottish fame, liberty, and
honour.
In their anathemas, we are told that they spared
not the very horses which drew the waggons, and on
the return of the latter from the fortress their fury
could no longer be restrained, and, unopposed by
the sympathising troops, they dashed the vehicles
to pieces, and assailed the drivers with volleys of
stones, by which many of them were severely
injured.
“It was soon discovered, after all,” says Dr.
Chambers, “ that only LIOO,OOO of the money was
specie, the rest being iu Exchequer bills, which the
Bank of England had ignorantly supposed to be
welcome in all parts of Her Majesty’s dominions.
This gave rise to new clamours. It was said the
English had tricked them by sending paper instead
of money. Bills, payable 400 miles of, and which
if lost or burned would be irrecoverable, were a
pretty price for the obligation Scotland had come
under to pay English taxes.’’
In the following year, during the sitting of the
Union Parliament, a terrible tumult arose in the
west, led by two men named Montgomery and
Finlay. The latter had been a sergeant in the
Royal Scots, and this enthusiastic veteran burned
the articles of Union at the Cross of Glasgow, and
with the little sum he had received on his discharge,
enlisted men to march to Edinburgh, avowing his
intention of dispersing the Union Parliament,
sacking the House, and storming the Castle. I n
the latter the troops were on the alert, and the
guns and beacons were in readiness. The mob
readily enough took the veteran’s money, but
melted away on the march ; thus, he was captured
and brought in a prisoner to the Castle, escorted by
250 dragoons, and the Parliament continued its
sitting without much interruption.
The Articles of Union were framed by thirty
commissioners acting for England and thirty acting
for Scotland ; and though the troops of both COUTI’
tries were then fighting side by side on the Continent,
such were their mutual relations on each side
of the Tweed, that, as Macaulay says, they could
not possibly have continued for one year more ‘‘ on
the terms on which they had been during the
preceding century, and that there must have been
between them either absolute union or deadly
enmity; and their enmity would bring frightful
calamities, not on themselves alone, but on all the
civilised world Their union would be the best
security for the prosperity of both, for the internal
tranquillity of the island, for the just balance of
power among European states, and for the immunities
of all Protestant countries.”
As the Union debates went on, in vain did the
eloquent Belhaven, on his knees and in tears,
beseech the House to save Scotland from extinction
and degradation; in vain did the nervous
Fletcher, the astute and wary Lockhart, plead for
the fame of their forefathers, and denounce the
measure which was to close the legislative hall
for ever. “ Many a patriotic heart,” says Wilson,
“ throbbed amid the dense crowd that daily assembled
in the Parliament Close, to watch the decision
of the Scottish Estates oa the detestable scheme
of a union with England. Again and again its fatetrembled
in the balance, but happily for Scotland,
English bribes outweighed the mistaken qeal ot
Scottish patriotism and Jacobitism, united against
the measure.”
On the 25th of March, 1707, the treaty or
union was ratified by the Estates, and on the zznd
of April the ancient Parliament of Scotland adjourned,
to assemble no more. On that occasion
the Chancellor Seafield made use of a brutal jest,
for which, says Sir Walter Scott, his countrymen
should have destroyed him on the spot.
It is, of course, a matter of common history,
that the legislative union between Scotland and
England was carried by the grossest bribery and
corruption; but the sum actually paid to members
who sat in that last Parliament are not perhaps
so well known, and may be curious to the
reader.
During some financial investigations which were
in progress in 1711 Lockhart discovered and
made public that the sum of Lzo,540 17s. 7d. had
been secretly distributed by Lord Godolphin, the
Treasurer of England, among the baser members ot
the Scottish Parliament, for the purpose of inducing
them to vote for the extinction of thek country,
and in his Memoirs of Scotland from the Accession
of Queen Anne,” he gives us the following list of
the receivers, with the actual sum which was paid
to each, and this list was confirmed on oath hy
David Earl of Glasgow, the Treasurer Deputy of
Scotland .
I
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p175.gif "Volume 1 Page 163")
... House.] TREATY OF UNION. 163
to regain the throne; for the proposed union
with England had inflamed to ...
Vol. 1 p. 163 (Rel. 0.94)
... the two boys to him, he upbraided
them with their informing upon him, and told them
that they must ...
Vol. 3 p. 183 (Rel. 0.93)
... in the old house, of the plague. His widow
survived him, and the street was named Lady
Gray’s Close till ...
Vol. 1 p. 103 (Rel. 0.92)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
helmet, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum
-and the entrance gate or ...
Vol. 6 p. 258 (Rel. 0.91)
![C a n d l d a Raw.] GEORGE BROWN. 269 ’
school ; but Lord Hailes, after removing from
Todrig’s Wynd, occupied a house in “The So-
. ciety,” before locating himself in New Street.
Brown Square, now nearly swept away, was a
small oblong place, about zoo feet east and west,
by 150 north and south. During the long delay
which took place between the first project of having
a New Town, and building a bridge that was to
lead to it, a rival town began to spring up in
another quarter, which required neither a bridge
nor an Act of Parliament, nor even the unanimity
of several interested proprietors to mature it, and
it soon became important enough to counteract for
some years the extension by the ridge of the Lang
In this quarter a fashionable boading-school
for young ladies was established in the middle of
$he last century by Mrs. Janet Murray, widow of
Archibald Campbell, collector of the customs at
Prestonpans. She died in the Society in 1770,
and the establishment was then conducted by her
friends under the name of “ Mrs. Murray’s Boarding
School”
To those who remember it in its latter days the
locality seems a strange one for a young ladies’
On the ground acquired so cheaply he proceeded
at once to erect, in 1763-4, houses that were
deemed fine mansions, and found favour with the
upper classes, before a stone of the New Town
was laid. Repenting of their mistake, the magistrates
offered Mr. Brown Az,ooo for the grouid;
but he, perceiving the success of his scheme, demanded
Lzo,ooo, so the city relinquished the
idea The square was quickly finished on nearly
three sides, including the Society, znd one old
mansion having an octagon turnpike stair, dated
17 18, at the north-east corner next Crombie’s Close,
and became filled with inhabitants of a good class
while George Square rose collaterally with it.
~
Dykes. This might have been prevented had the
magistrates contrived to acquire a piece of ground
south of the Old Town, which was offered to them
for only ~ I , P O O , but which was purchased by a
builder and architect namedGeorge Brown, abrother
of Brown of Lindsaylands and Elliston. He was
the projector and builder of George Square, and
Jso built the large house of Bellevue (for General
Scott of Balcomie), which stood so long in Dmmmond
Place.
THE CUNZIE HOUSE, CANDLEMAKER ROW,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p089.gif "Volume 4 Page 269")
... a n d l d a Raw.] GEORGE BROWN. 269 ’
school ; but Lord Hailes, after removing from
Todrig’s Wynd, occupied a ...
Vol. 4 p. 269 (Rel. 0.91)
![High Street.] THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY. 279
resided here was John, fourth Marquis, who was
Secretary of State for Scotland from 1742 till 1745,
when he resigned the office, on which the Government
at once availed themselves of the opportunity
for leaving it vacant, as it has remained ever since.
He died in 1762, and soon after the carriageentrance
and the fine old terraced garden of the
house, which lay on the slope westward, were
removed to make way for the Episcopal church in
the Cowgate-doomed in turn to be forsaken by
its founders, and even by their successors.
From the Tmeeddale family the mansion passed
into the hands of the British Linen Company, and
became their banking house, until they deserted it
for Moray House in the Canongate, from which they
ultiniatelymigrated to a statelier edifice inSt. Andrew
Square. This company was originally incorpo-
Tated by a charter under the Privy Seal granted by
George 11. on the 6th of July, 1746, at a time
when the mind of the Scottish people was still
agitated by the events of the preceding year and
the result of the battle of Culloden; and it was
deemed an object of the first importance to tranquillise
the country and call forth its resources, so
that the attention of the nation should be directed
to the advantages of trade and manufacture. With
this view the Government, as well as many gentlemen
of rank and fortune, exerted themselves to
promote the linen manufacture, which had been
lately introduced, deeming that it would in time
become the staple manufacture of Scotland, and
provide ample employment for her people, while
.extensive markets for the produce of their labour
would be found alike at home and in the colonies,
then chiefly supplied by the linens of Germany.
By the Dukes of Queensberry and Argyle, who
became the first governors of the British Linen
Company, representations to this effect were made
to Government, and by the Earls of Glencairn, Eglinton,
Galloway, Panmure, and many other peers,
together with the Lord Justice Clerk Fletcher of
Saltoun, afterwards Lord Milton, who was the first
deputy governor, and whose mother, when an exile
in Holland during the troubles, had secretly obtained
a knowledge of the art of weaving and of
dressidg the fine linen known as “ Holland,” and
introduced its manufacture at the village of Saltoun;
by the Lord Justice Clerk Alva ; Provost George
Drummond ; John Coutts, founder of the famous
banking houses of Forbes and Co., and Coutts
and Co. in the Strand; by Henry Home, Lord
Kames ; and many othqs, all of whom urged the
establishment of the company, under royal sanction,
and offered to become subscribers to the undertaking.
A charter was obtained in accordance with their
views and wishes, establishing the British Linen
Company as a corporation, and bestowing upon
it ample privileges, not only to manufacture and
deal in linen fabrics, but also to do all that
might conduce to the promotion thereof; and
authority was given to raise a capital of ~roo,ooo,
to be enlarged by future warrants under the
sign manual of his Majesty, his heirs and successors,
to such sums as the affairs of the company
might .require. After this the company engaged to
a considerable extent in the importation of flax and
the manufacture of yarns and linens, having warehouses
both in Edinburgh and London, and in its
affairs none took a more active part than Lord
Milton, who was an enthusiast in all that related to
the improvement of trade, agriculture, and learning,
in his native country; but it soon became apparent
that the company “ would be of more utility, and
better promote the objects of their institution, by
enlarging the issue of their notes to traders, than
being traders and manufacturers themselves.”
By degrees, therefore, the company withdrew
from all manufacturing operations and speculations,
and finally closed them in 1763, from which year
to the present time their business has been confined
to the discount of bills, advances on accounts,
and other b.ank transactions, in support of Scottish
trade generally, at home and abroad. “By the
extension of their branch agencies to a great number
of towns,” to quote their own historical report, “ and
the employment in discounts and cash advaqces of
their own funds, as well as of that portion of the
formerly scanty and inactive money capital of Scotland
which has been lodged with the company, they
have been the means of contributing very materially
to the encouragement of useful industry throughout
Scotland, and to her rapid progress in agricultural
and mechanical improvements, and in commercial
intercourse with foreign countries. As regards the
particular object of the institution of the companythe
encouragement of the linen manufa.cture-considerably
more than half of the flax and hemp
imported into the United Kingdom, is now (in
1878) brought to the Scottish ports.”
Now the bank has nearly eighty branch or subbranch
offices over all Scotland alone. The company’s
original capital of AIOO,OOO has been
gradually increased under three additional charters,
granted at different times, under the Great Seal
By Queen Victoria, their fourth charter, dated 19th
March, 1849, ratifies and confirms all, their privileges
and rights, and power was given to augment
their capital to any sum not exceeding A r,5oo,ooo
in all, for banking purposes. The amount of new](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p099.gif "Volume 2 Page 279")
... Street.] THE BRITISH LINEN COMPANY. 279
resided here was John, fourth Marquis, who was
Secretary of State ...
Vol. 2 p. 279 (Rel. 0.9)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith.
beneath it “ The Triumph of Bacchus,” beautifully
executed in ...
Vol. 5 p. 72 (Rel. 0.9)
... 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. 0.9)
