![North Bridge.] LADY GLENORCHY. 361
they dispensed with the ‘moderation of the call,’
a form about which they stickle zealously, if by it
they could get a minister presented by the legal
patron to be rejected; while they did not insist
upon the stipend being properly secured ; while
they agreed to permit Lady Glenorchy to dispose
without control, upon those pious offerings which
should have been applied towards the support of
the chanty workhouse; while they, in fact, eluded
that right of patronage over all churches in this city,
the chapel to all the privileges it had enjoyed
by the countenance and protection of the
Presbytery.
In 1776 Lady Glenorchy invited Dr. Thomas
Snell Jones, a Wesleyan Methodist, to accept the
charge of her chapel, and after being ordained to
the office of pastor by the Scottish Presbytery of
London he became settled as incumbent on the
25th of July, 1779, and from that date continued
to labour as such, until about three years before his
holding communion with the Established ministers,
which is vested in the magistrates of Edinburgh ;
and while they had no powver to depose from the
benefice in this chapel the minister installed by
them in case of his errors in life or doctrine !”
To avoid unpleasantness, Mr. Balfour, like Mr.
Grove, declined the charge.
It was now that the matter came before the
Synod, which not only gave judgment in the
matter, but forbade all ministers or probationers
within their bounds to preach in this unlucky
chapel, or to employ the minister of it in any
capacity. From this sentence the Presbytery of
Edinburgh appealed to the next General Assembly
of the Church, which reversed it, and restored
46
death, which occurred on the 3rd of March, 1837,
a period of nearly fiRyeight years.
He preached the funeral sermon on the demise
of Lady Glenorchy on the 17th July, 1786, in
her forty-fourth year. She was buried, by her
own desire, in avault in the centre of the chapel
By a settlement made some time before her death,
she endowed the latter with a school which wac
built near it. Therein, a hundred poor children
were taught to read and write. It was managed
by trustees, with instructions which secure its perpetuity.
Lady Glenorchy’s Free Church schooI is
now at Greenside.
In I 792 Dr. Jones had as a colleague, Dr. Greville
Ewing, afterwards editor of 2’’ Missionary](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p181.gif "Volume 2 Page 361")
... Bridge.] LADY GLENORCHY . 361
they dispensed with the ‘moderation of the call,’
a form about which they ...
Vol. 2 p. 361 (Rel. 4.75)
... that was deemed necessary.
The pond sam parish called Lady Glenorchy ’s
lies eastward of Nicolson Street, and ...
Vol. 4 p. 338 (Rel. 2.83)
![Cramond.] CRAMOND BRIG. 317
Robert Bruce, “the King’s meadow and muir of
Cramond I’ are mentioned. Among the missing
charters of Robert III., are two to William Touris,
“of the lands of Berntoun))’ and another to the
same of the superiority of King’s Cramond.
William Touris, of Cramond, was a bailie of the
city in 1482. These Touris were the same family
who afterwards poFsessed Inverleith, and whose
name appears so often ill Scotstarvit’s “ Calendar.”
In I j38 the family seems to have passed to Bristol,
in England, as Protestants, Pinkerton suppose$, for
and has already been referred to in a preceding
chapter. In February, 1763, there died in Barnton
House, in the sixty-fourth year of her age,
Lady Susannah Hamilton, third daughter of John,
Earl of Ruglen, whose son William was styled
Lord Daer and Riccarton. She was buried in the
chapel royal at Holyrood.
In 1771 the Scots Magazine records the demise
of John. Viscount Glenorchy “at his house of
Barnton, five miles west of Edinburgh.” He was
husband of Lady Glenorchy of pious memory.
VIEW BELOW GRAMOND BRIG, (Alter a Phufog-rajh by G. W. WiZsom & Co.)
1r1 that year a charter of part of Inverleith is granted
to George Touris, of Bristol; but Lord Durie, in
1636, reports a case concerning ‘‘ umquhile James
Touris, brother to the laird of Inverleith.”
As stated elsewhere, Overbarnton belonged, in
~508, to Sir Robert Barnton, who was comptroller
of the household to James V. in 1520, and who
acquired the lands by purchase with money found
by despoiling the Portuguese ; but a George Maxwell
of Barnton, appears among the knights slain
at Flodden in 1513. He obtained Barnton by a
royal charter in 1460, on his mother’s resignation,
and was a brother of John, Lord Maxwell, who
also fell at Flodden. This property has changed
hands many times. James Elphinston of Barnton,
was the first Lord Balmerino, a Lord of the Treasury,
In after years it became the property of the
Ramsays, one of whom was long known in the
sporting world.
The quaint old bridge of Cramond is one of the
features of the parish, and is celebrated as the
scene of that dangerous frolic of James V., related
in our account of Holyrood. It consists of three
Pointed arches, with massively buttressed piers.
It became ruinous in 1607, and was repaired in
1619, 1687, and later still in 1761 and 1776: as a
panel in the parapet records. Adjoining it, and
high in air above it, is the new and lofty bridge of
eight arches, constructed by Rennie.
A little to the eastward of the village is Cramond
House, a fine old residence within a wooded
domain. Sir John Inglis cf Cramond was made](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p136.gif "Volume 6 Page 317")
... five miles west of Edinburgh.” He was
husband of Lady Glenorchy of pious memory.
VIEW BELOW GRAMOND BRIG, ...
Vol. 6 p. 317 (Rel. 2.64)
![North Bridge.] THE ORPHAN HOSPITAL 359
c
CHAPTER XLVI:
EAST SIDE OF THE NORTH BRIDGE (concZdeJJ.
The Old Orphan Hospital-Its Foundation. Object, and Removal-Lady Glenorchy’s Chapel-Her Disputes with the Presbytery-Dr. SnelI
Jones-Demolition of the Chapel and School-Old Physic Gardens Formed-The Gardens-Sir Andrew Balfm-James Sutherland-
Inundated in x68pSutherland‘s Efforts to Improve the Gardcn-Professor Hope.
ABOUT IOO feet east of the bridge, and the same
distance south of the theatre which Whitefield
to his dismay saw built in the park of the Orphan
Hospital, stood the latter edifice, the slender,
pointed spire of which was a conspicuous object in
this quarter of the city.
A hospital for the maintenance and education
of orphan children was originally designed by Mr.
Andrew Gardiner, merchant, and some other
citizens, in 1732. The suggestion met with the
approval of the Society for the Propagation of
Christian Knowledge, then located in what was
anciently named Bassandyne’s Close ; and it was
moreover assisted by liberal subscriptions and
collections at the church doors. At first a house
was hired, and thirty orphans placed in it. According
to Maitland, in November, 1733, the
hospital was founded; it stood 340 feet northwest
of the Trinity College Church, and in its
formation a part of the burial ground attached to
the latter was used.
In 1738 the Town Council granted the hospital
a seal of cause, and in 1742 they obtained royal
letters patent creating it a corporation, by which
most of the Scottish officers of State, and the heads
of different societies in Edinburgh, are constituent
members. This chanty is so extensive in its
benevolence, that children from any part of the
British Empire have the right of admission, SO far
as the funds will admit-indigence, and the
number of children in a poor family being the
None, however, are admitted under the age of
seven, or retained after they are past fourteen, as
at that time of life the managers are seldom at a
loss to dispose of them, “the young folks,” says
Arnot, “ choosing to follow trades, and the public
entertaining so good an opinion of the manner in
which they have been brought up, that manufacturers
and others are very ready to take them into
their employment. There are about,” he adds, in
1779, “one hundred orpham maintained in this
hospital.”
This number was increased in 1781, when Mr.
Thomas Tod, merchant in Edinburgh, became
treasurer. It was then greatly enlarged for the
better accommodation of the children, ‘‘ and to
enable them to perform a variety of work, from the
. best title to it.
produce of which the expenses of their education
and maintenance were lessened, and healthy and
cheerful exercise furnished, suitable to their years.”
It is remarkable,” says Kincaid, “ that from
January, 1784, to January, 1787, out of from 130 to
140 young children not one has died. A particular
account of the rise, progress, present state,
and intended enlargement of this hospital was
publisted by the treasurer (Mr. Tod), wherein is a
print of the elevation, with two wings,.which the
managers intend to build so soon as the funds will
permit, when there will be room for zoo orphans.”
In its slender spire hung two bells, and therein
also stood the ancient clock of the Netherbow
Port, now in use at the Dean.
The revenues were inconsiderable, and it was
chiefly supported by benefactions and collections
made at the churches in the city. Howard, the
philanthropist, who visited it more than once, and
made himself acquainted with the constitution and
management of this hospital, Acknowledged it to be
one of the best and most useful charities in Europe.
A portrait of him hangs in the new Orphan Hospital
at the Dean, the old building we have described
having been removed in 1845 by the operations
of the North British Railway, and consequently
being now a thing of the past, like the chapel of
Lady Glenorchy, which shared the same fate at the
same time.
This edifice stood in the low ground, between
the Orphan Hospital and the Trinity College
Church, about 300 feet eastward of the north arch
of the Bridge.
Wilhelmina Maxwell, Viscountess Dowaget of
John Viscount Glenorchy, who was a kind of
Scottish Countess of Huntingdon in her day, was
the foundress of this chapel, which was a plain,
lofty stone building, but neatly fitted up- within
with two great galleries, that ran round the sides
of the edifice, and was long a conspicuous object
to all who crossed the Bridge. It was seated for
2,000 persons, and the middle was appropriated to
the poor, who sat there gratis to the number of
some hundreds. ‘‘ Whether,” says Arnot, “before
Lady Glenorchy founded this institution there were
churches sufficient for accommodating the inhabitants
we shall not pretend to determine. Such,
indeed, is the demand for seats, and so little arg](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p179.gif "Volume 2 Page 359")
... Old Orphan Hospital-Its Foundation. Object, and Removal- Lady Glenorchy ’s Chapel-Her Disputes with the ...
Vol. 2 p. 359 (Rel. 2.54)
... for so
many feet square in the inside of a church."
- Lady Glenorchy , whom Kincaid describes as '' ...
Vol. 2 p. 360 (Rel. 2.39)
... studies under the famous Harvey in
’ connected with Lady Glenorchy ’s chapel, enter- I London, after which he ...
Vol. 2 p. 362 (Rel. 2.04)
... House, Fleshmarket Clo~-Mylne's Squue-Lord Alva's How-The Countess of
Sutherland and Lady Glenorchy ...
Vol. 2 p. 388 (Rel. 1.8)
![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")
... couple were laid, on the 9th of August,
1766.
Lady Glenorchy , a woman remarkable for the
piety of her ...
Vol. 2 p. 238 (Rel. 1.56)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Sheet
There was then in Edinburgn a merchant, named
Charles Jackson, to whom ...
Vol. 4 p. 335 (Rel. 1.51)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Nicolson Sheet
There was then in Edinburgn a merchant, named
Charles Jackson, to whom ...
Vol. 4 p. 334 (Rel. 1.51)
![Kirk-of- Field.] THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST DARNLEY. 5
IZ. our lady kirk of field
13. ye kirk of field kirk y i '
I+ ye potterraw .. .. .. The Pot:er Row.
15. ye caich ill gait . . . . The Catchpole Gate.
. . Our Lady Kirk-of-Field. . . The Kirk-of-Field kirk y d .
EXPLANATION OF THE ORIGINAL I
I. ye blak freiris . . . . .. The Black Friars.
a. ye priestis chameris . . . . The priest's chambers.
3. ye well .. .. . . .. The well.
4. ye mylk row . . .. . . The Milk Row.
5. our lady stapis . . Our Lady's steos.
6. ye Dukis gaitt ofchattiiieraur
7. ye lu+ att ye king was keipit
8. ye place of ye murthqr . . . . The lace of the murder.
9. ye provost place ..
The Duke of Chatelherault's gate.
The lodging at which the King
eftir his murthur . . . , was kept after his murder,
. . .. The Frovast's place.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p016.gif "Volume 5 Page 5")
... Field.] THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST DARNLEY. 5
IZ. our lady kirk of field
13. ye kirk of field kirk y i '
I+ ...
Vol. 5 p. 5 (Rel. 1.31)
![Rcstalrig.] THE NISBETS OF CRAIGANTINNIE. ‘37
receiving and returning their visits as such.
After a four-days’ debate, the Lords of Session
pronounced for the defender, with expenses. The
son John, as sixth baronet; but not without a
contest, as fourteen years afterwards a Mr. John
Edgar raised in the Court of Session an action
of reduction of his service, as nearest lawful heir
of the late baronet, on the plea that the latter had
never been legally married to his wife.
It was alleged that he had gone to France, and
there had formed a connection with a lady whose
social position was inferior to his own, but who
accompanied him to Britain, where she bore him
The question was, whether from the whole circumstances,
Sir John and this lady were to be
considered as married persons? In evidence it
appeared that they had never doubted that they were
so, though Sir John, in dread of his proud relations,
had sedulously kept the fact a secret while in
Scotland, where, it was alleged for the pursuer,
Sir John had ventured to pay his addresses to a
lady of rank.
On the other side there was the evidence of an
Locn END.
two sons. After selling out of the army, in 1775,
Sir John went to Carolina, to settle upon an estate
he possessed there, taking with him this lady and
his two sons, and the process stated that after
their arrival in America, in 1775, or the beginning
of 1776, Sir John and his lady were shipwrecked
and drowned. From this awful catastrophe their
two sons were preserved, having been left at school
in the Jerseys. Some time afterwards the boys
were sent over to this country, and the eldest of
them-the defender in this action-on the 15th
August, 1781, was served heir to his father. From
the time of his father and mother’s death, till
1790, when this action was raised, he had been in
the uninterrupted possession of his fatheis estates.”
114](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p148.gif "Volume 5 Page 137")
... THE NISBETS OF CRAIGANTINNIE. ‘37
receiving and returning their visits as such.
After a four-days’ ...
Vol. 5 p. 137 (Rel. 1.16)
... new front on an old house,
pierced with the entrance to Lady Glenorchy ’s Free
Church, which stands immediately ...
Vol. 5 p. 158 (Rel. 1.15)
![Hih Street.] THE CROCHALLAN CLUB. 235
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE HIGH STREET (rontinurd).
The Anchor Close-Dawney Douglas’s Tavern-The ‘‘ Crown Room”-The Cmchallan Club-Members-Burns among the Crochallan Fencibles
-Smellie’s Printing Office-Dundas’s House, Fleshmarket Close-Mylne’s Square-Lord Alva’s House-The Conntes of Sutherland and
Lady Glenorchy-Birthplace of Fergusson-Halkerston’s Wynd Port-Kinloch’s Close-Carmbbeh Close-’fie Episcopal Chapel-Clam
Shell Land-Capt. Matthew Henderson-Allan Ramsay’s Theatre-Its later Tenants-The Tailor‘s Hall-Bailie Fyfe’s Close-“ Heave awa,’
lads, I’m no deid yet ”-Chalmers’ Close-Hope’s House-Sandiknd‘s Close-Bishop Kennedy’s House-Grant’s C l o s e - h n Grant’s H o e .
ONE of the most interesting of the many old alleys
of the High Street (continuing still on the north
side thereof) is the Anchor Close.
A few yards down this dark and narrow thoroughfare
bring us to the entrance of a scale-stair,
having the legend, The Lord is 0714~ my svjwt;
adjoining it is another and older door, inscribed
0. Lm’. in . tk . is. a(. my. traist; while an
architrave bears a line‘ from a psalm, Be mmczjX
to me, under which we enter what was of old the
famous festive and hospitable tavern of Daniel, or,
as he was familiarly named by the Hays, Erskines,
Pleydells, and Crosbies, who were his customers,
Dawney Douglas, an establishment second. to none
in its time for convivial meetings, and noted for
suppers of tripe, mince collops, rizzared haddocks,
and fragrant hashes, that never cost more than sixpence
a-head ; yet on charges so moderate Dawney
Douglas and hisgudewife contrived to grow extremely
rich before they died. Who caused the three holy
legends to be carved, as in many other instances,
no man knows, nor can one tell who resided here of
old, except that it was in the seventeenth century
the house of a senator entitled Lord Forglen.
“ The frequenter of Douglas’s,’’ we are told, ‘‘ after
ascending a few steps, found himself in a pretty
large kitchen, through which numerous ineffable
ministers of flame were continually flying about,
while beside the door sat the landlady, a large, fat
woman, in a towering head-dress and large-flowered
silk gown, who bowed to every one passing. Most
likely, on emerging from this igneous region, the
party would fall into the hands of Dawney himself,
and be conducted to an apartment.”
He was a little, thin, weak, quiet, and submissive
man ; in all things a contrast to his wife.
Here met the famous club called the Crochallan
Fencibles, which Bums has celebrated both in
prose and verse, and to which he was introduced
in 1787 by William Smellie, when in the city
superintending the printing of his poems, and
when, according to custom, one of the club was
pitted against him in a contest of wit and humour.
Burns bore the assault with perfect equanimity, and
entered fully into the spirit of the meeting.
Dawney Douglas knew a sweet old Gaelic song,
called Cro Chalien,” or, Colin’s cattle, which he
was wont to sing to his customers, and this led to
.
the establishment of the club, which, with jocular
reference to the many Scottish corps then raising,
was named the Crochallan Fencibles, composed
entirely of men of original character and talent.
Each member took some military title or ludicrous
office. Amongst them was Smellie, the famous
printer, and author of the “ Philosophy of Natural
History.” Individuals committing an alleged fault
were subjected to mock trials, in which those
members who were advocates could display their
wit; and as one member was the depute hngman
cf the club, a little horse-play, with much mirth, at
times prevailed.
The song of “ Cro Chalien” had a legend connected
therewith. Colin’s wife died very young,
but some months after he had buried her she was
occasionally seen in the gloaming, when spirits are
supposed to appear, milking her cows as usual, and
singing the plaintive song to which Bums must often
have listened amid the orgies in the Anchor Close.
In Dawney’s tavern the chief room was rather
elegant and well-sized, having an access by the
second of the doors described, iind was reserved
for large companies or important guests. Pm
exceZZeme, it was named the “ Crown Room,” and
was thus distinguished to guests on their bill tops,
from some foolish and unwarrantable tradition that
Queen Mary had once been there, when the crown
was deposited in a niche in the wall. It was
handsomely panelled, with a decorated fireplace
and two lofty windows that opened to the dose ;
but all this has disappeared now, and new buildings
erected in 1869 have replaced the old.
Here, then, was Bums introduced to the jovial
Crochallans, among whom were such men as
Erskine, Lords Newton and Gillies, by Smellie the
philosopher and printer who contested with Dr.
Walker the chair of natural history in the University;
and of one member, William Dunbar, W.S.,
“ Colonel of the club, a predominant wit, he has
left us a characteristic picture :-
Oh, he held to the fair,
And buy some other ware ;
The saut tear blin’t his ee ;
Ye’re welcome hame to me I
.
“ Oh, rattlin’ roarin’ Willie,
An’ for to sell his fiddle,
But parting wi’ his fiddle,
And rattlin’, roarin’ Willie,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p055.gif "Volume 2 Page 235")
... Square-Lord Alva’s House-The Conntes of Sutherland and
Lady Glenorchy -Birthplace of Fergusson-Halkerston’s Wynd ...
Vol. 2 p. 235 (Rel. 0.97)
![Parliament House.] THE COURT
It has been said-with what truth it is impossible
to tell-that, when Cromwell appointed.
eleven Commissioners (three of whom were Eng-
4ishmen) for the administration of justice at Edinburgh,
their decisions were most impartial ; and,
on hearing them lauded after the Restoration had
-replaced the old lords on the Bench, the Presi-
.dent, Gilmour of Craigmillar, said, angrily, ‘‘ Deil
thank them-a wheen Kinless loons ! The grave
=of one of these Englishmen, George Smith, was
-
long pointed out in the abbey church, where
he was buried by torchlight in 1657. (Lamont’s
So far down as 1737 traces of bribery and in-
‘fluence in the Court are to be found, and proof
,of this is given in the curious and rare book
named the ‘‘ Court of Session Garland.”
In a lawsuit, pending 23rd November, 1735,
‘Thomas Gibson of Dune, agent for Foulis of
‘Woodhall, writes to his employer thus :-“ I have
spoken to Strachan, and several of the lords, who
are all surprised Sir F. (Francis Kinloch, Bart., of
Gilmerton) should stand that plea. By Lord St.
Clair‘s advice, Mrs. Kinloch is to wait on Lady
Caunie to-morrow, to cause her to ask the favour
Diary).
OF SESSION. 169
of Lady St. Clair to solicit Lady Betty Elphingston
(Elizabeth Primrose of Carrington) and Lady
Dun. My lord proniises to back his lady, and
to ply both their lords ; also Leven and his cousin
Murkle (a Lord of Session in 1733). He is your
good friend, and wishes success; he is jealous
Mrs. Mackie will side with her cousin Beattie. St.
Clair says Leven has only once gone wrong upon
his Rand since he was a Lord of Session. Mrs.
Kinloch has been with Miss Pringle, NewhalL
Young Dr. Pringle is a good agent there, and
discourses Lord Newhall strongCy an the law of
Lord Newhall was Sir Walter Pnngle, Knight,
son of the Laird of Stitchill, Lord of Session in
1718. But such would seem to have been the
influences that were used to obtain decisions in
the olden time; and, before quitting the subject of
the Parliament House we may recall a few of the
most notable senators, the memory of whose names
still lingers there.
The most distinguished lawyer of the seventeenth
century was undoubtedly Sir John Lauder,
Lord Fountainhall, son of a bailie of Edinburgh.
He was born there in 1646 ; and, after being at
nature.” b
PLAN OF THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE AND LAW COURTS.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p181.gif "Volume 1 Page 169")
... House.] THE COURT
It has been said-with what truth it is impossible
to tell-that, when Cromwell ...
Vol. 1 p. 169 (Rel. 0.94)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Cowgate.
farlane sent for the magistrates, who secured the
house and servants. -4 ...
Vol. 4 p. 244 (Rel. 0.91)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Great Stuart Street.
shire, and of Amelia, daughter of Alexander Graham,
of Duntrune, ...
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... Castle Hill.
solid, and her camage winning and affable to her
inferiors.” One of the most ardent of her ...
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... STAIR. 105 Lady Stair’s closol
House of Lords and Court of Session. In support
of what he stated, ...
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![The Cowgate.] LADY GALLOWAY. Z S 7
Although the name of this wynd is as old as
the middle of the seventeeth century, none of the
buildings in it latterly were older than the middle of
the eighteenth. They had all been removed by
those who were anxious for the benefit of such fine
air as its surroundings afforded, for in the map of
1647 the Yicus Epuorzrm is shown as having to
the westward gardens in plenitude, divided by four
long hedgerows, and closed on the south by the
became remarkable for piety, mingled with great
stateliness and pride; and she is thus referred to
in the Ridotto of Holyrood, partly written by her
sister-in-law, Lady Bruce of Kinloss :--
“And there was Bob Murray, though married, alas !
Yet still rivalling Johnstone in beauty and grace.
And there was my lady, well known by her airs,
Who ne’er goes to revel but after her prayers.”
The Bob herein referred to was Sir Robert
crenelated wall of the city, and it terminated by a
bend eastward at the Potterrow Port.
Respectable members of the bar were always
glad to have a flat in some of the tall edifices on
the east side of the wynd. About the middle of it,
on the west side, was a distinct mansion called
Galloway House, having a large Fcdiment, and
ornamented on the top by stone vases. This
residence was built by Alexander, sixth Earl of
Galloway, one of the Lords of Police, who died in
1773. His countess Catharine, daughter of John
Earl of Dundonald, colonel of the Scottish Horse
Guards, was mother of Captain George Stewart, who
fell at Ticonderoga. She had been a beauty in her
youth, and formed the subject of one of Hamilton
of Bangour’s poetical tributes, and in her old age
81
Murray of Clermont. Among all the precise
granddames of her time in Edinburgh, Lady
Galloway was noted for her pre-eminent pomp and
formality, and would order out her coach with six
horses, if but to pay a visit to a friend at the corner
of the wpd, or to Lord hfinto, whose house was a few
yards westward of it. “ It was alleged that when
the countess made calls, the leaders were sometimes
at the door she was going to when she was stepping
into the camage at her own door. This may be
called a tour de force illustration of the nearness of
friends to each other in Old Edinburgh.”
New College Wynd, which strikes from the
eastern part of Chambers Street, runs first IIO feet
northward, then 180 feet westward, and then northward
again in the line of the Iower part of the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p077.gif "Volume 4 Page 257")
... Cowgate.] LADY GALLOWAY. Z S 7
Although the name of this wynd is as old as
the middle of the seventeeth ...
Vol. 4 p. 257 (Rel. 0.86)
![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")
... CORNWALLIS’S REGIMENT. ‘93
“Are you uneasy about that fishing-party ? ” ‘‘ No,”
she replied, “I had no ...
Vol. 6 p. 193 (Rel. 0.85)
... 235, 236. Mylne's
Square, 2 3 d z 3 8 : ~orld AI='s
house, 237; thecountess ofSutherland
and lady ...
Vol. 6 p. 378 (Rel. 0.84)
... where she was wont to say her prayers-such
private oratories being common in most of the
Edinburgh houses of ...
Vol. 1 p. 104 (Rel. 0.84)
![Greyfriars Church.] PERSECUTION OF THE COVENANTERS. 371
guards, and a few, driven almost mad, achieved their
escape, but many died. All this, at the hands of their
own countrymen, these poor people had to endurethe
stubborn Scottish peasant, with his pride and
rectitude of heart, his tender, it might be weak and
ailing wife, with his infants and his aged parents.
to administer to the wants of the prisoners there
was one lady who was wont to come attended by
a young daughter possessed of considerable personal
attractions. Periodically they came to the iron gate
with food and raiment, collected among the charitable,
and between the young lady and one of the
A ROYAL EDINBURGH VOLUNTEER. (p?W7?J a Print Of tk Psriod.)
Some who signed a bond never to take up arms
against the Government were released ; others
found rest amid the graves on which they lay;
the remainder, to the number of two hundred and
fifty-seven, were sent to be sold as slaves in Barbadoes,
Jamaica, and New Jersey, but many were
drowned at sea
“ From the gloom of this sad story there is shed
one ray of romance,” says Chambers, in his ‘‘ Traditions.”
Among the sympathising people who dared
B6
younger captives an attachment sprang up.
Doubtless she loved him for the dangers he had
dared, and he loved her because she pitied them.
In happier days, long after, when their constancy
had been well tried by an exile which he suffered
in the plantations, this pair were married and settled
in Edinburgh, where they had sons and daughters.
A respectable elderly citizen,” adds Chambers,
‘‘ tells me he is descended from them”
After the Duke of Albany and York came, as](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v4p197.gif "Volume 4 Page 377")
... Church.] PERSECUTION OF THE COVENANTERS. 371
guards, and a few, driven almost mad, achieved ...
Vol. 4 p. 377 (Rel. 0.81)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Canongate.
the kingdom to teach the making of cloths of
various kinds, a colony of them ...
Vol. 3 p. 4 (Rel. 0.8)
![Merchiston.] THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, Bart.
In 1870 the original use to which the foundation
was put underwent a change, and the hospital
became a great public school for boys and girls.
At the western extremity of what was the Burghmuir,
near where lately was an old village of that
name (at the point where the Colinton road diverges
from that which leads to Biggar), there stands, yet
unchanged amid all its new surroundings, the
ancient castle of Merchiston, the whilom seat of a
race second to none in Scotland for rank and talent
-the Napiers, now Lords Napier and Ettrick. It
is a lofty square tower, surmounted by corbelled
battlements, a ape-house, and tall chimneys. It
was once surrounded by a moat, and had a secret
avenue or means of escape into the fields to the
north. As to when it was built, or by whom, no
record now remains.
In the missing rolls of Robert I., the lands of
Merchiston and Dalry, in the county of Edinburgh,
belonged in his reign to William Bisset, and under
David II., the former belonged to William de
Sancto Claro, on the resignation of Williani Bisset,
according to Robertson’s “Index,” in which we find
a royal charter, “datum est apud Dundee,” 14th
August, 1367, to John of Cragyof the lands of
Merchiston, which John of Creigchton had resigned.
So the estate would seem to have had several
proprietors before it came into the hands of
Alexander Napier, who was Provost of Edinburgh
in 1438, and by this acquisition Merchiston became
the chief title of his family.
His son, Sir Alexander, who was Comptroller of
Scotland under James 11. in 1450, and went on a
pilgrimage to St. Thomas of Canterbury in the
following year-for which he had safe-conduct from
the King of England-was Provost of Edinburgh
between 1469 and 1471- He was ambassador to
the Court of the Golden Fleece in 1473, and was
no stranger to Charles the Bold ; the tenor of his
instructions to whom from James II., shows that he
visited Bruges a d the court of Burgundy before
that year, in 1468, when he was present at the
Tournament of the Golden Fleece, and selected a
suit of brilliant armour for his sovereign.
Sir Alexander, fifth of Merchiston, fell at Flodden
with James IV.
John Napier of Merchiston was Provost 17th
of May, 1484, and his son and successor, Sir Archibald,
founded a chaplaincy and altar in honour of St.
Salvator in St. Giles’s Church in November, 1493.
His grandson, Sir Archibald Napier, who married
a daughter of Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, was
slain at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547.
Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston and Edinbellie,
who was latterly Master of the Mint to
James VI., was father of John Napier the
celebrated inventor of the Logarithms, who was
born in Merchiston Castle in 1550, fgur years after
the birth of Tycho Brahe, and fourteen before that
of Galileo, at a time when the Reformation in
Scotland was just commencing, as in the preceding‘
year John Knox had been released from the
French galleys, and was then enjoying royal
patronage in England. His mother was Janet,
only daughter of Sir Francis Bothwell, and sister
of Adam, Bishop of Orkney. At the time of his
birth his father was only sixteen years of age. He
was educated at St. Salvator’s College, St. Andrews,
where he matriculated 1562-3, and afterwards spent
several years in France, the Low Countries, and
Italy; he applied himself closely to the study of
mathematics, and it is conjectured that he gained
a taste for that branch of learning during his residence
abroad, especially in Itily, where at that
time were many mathematicians of high repute.
While abroad young Napier escaped some perils
that existed at home. In 150s a dreadful pest
broke out in Edinburgh, and his father and family
were exposed to the contagion, “ by the vicinity,”
says Mark Napier, ‘‘ of his mansion to the Burghmuir,
upon which waste the infected were driven
out to grovel and die, under the very walls of
Merchiston.”
In his earlier years his studies took a deep theological
turn, the fruits of which appeared in his
“ Plain Discovery of the Revelation of St John,”
which he published at Edinburgh in 1593, and
dedicated to James VI. But some twenty years
before that time his studies must have been sorely
interrupted, as his old ancestral fortalice lay in the
very centre of the field of strife, when Kirkaldy
held out the castle for Queen Mary, and the savage
Douglas wars surged wildly round its walls.
On the 2nd April, 1572, John Napier, then in his
twenty-second year, was betrothed to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir ; but as he
had incurred the displeasure of the queen’s party
by taking no active share in her interests, on the
18th of July he was arrested by the Laid of Minto,
and sent a prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh,
then governed by Sir TVilliam Kirkaldy, who in the
preceding year had bombarded Merchiston with
his iron guns because certain soldiers of the king’s
party occupied it, and cut off provisions coming
north for the use of his garrison. The solitary
tower formed the key of the southern approach
to the city ; thus, whoever triumphed, it became the
object of the opponent’s enmity.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p046.gif "Volume 5 Page 35")
... THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, ...
Vol. 5 p. 35 (Rel. 0.79)
... OLD -AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Calton Hill.
It was finished in 1832, and is a beautiful restoration,
with some ...
Vol. 3 p. 110 (Rel. 0.78)
... . - High Street.; LADY LOVAT.
She was received by Lord Lovat with an extravagant
affectation of welcome, and ...
Vol. 2 p. 257 (Rel. 0.77)
![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")