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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 ... Leith .] THE OLD TOLBCTOTH. 229 During the persecution under the Duke of Lauderdale, Mr. John Gregg, who had ...

Vol. 6  p. 229 (Rel. 1)

216 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
chapel of St. Jamey at Newhaven, belonged to
the preceptory at Leith; and also the little chapel
be payit as follows-namely, best of the third of
the Preceptone of Sanct Antonis LIO, and the
passed in 1587 the preceptory
of St. Anthony
and the chapel of St.
James at Newhaven were,
with other benefices, annexed
to the Crown.
Maitland observes that
the vestry of Leith, after
the Reformation, ’ having
purchased the lands and
properties of divers religious
houses there and in Newhaven,
King James VI.
granted and confirmed the
same by charter in 1614
for the use of the poor.
The Session elected the
Baron Bailie of St. Anthony,
who exercised jurisdiction
in Leith and Newhaven, holding his court at
uil! and giving sentence without appeal, thus :-
‘‘At Leith, 9th February, 1683.‘ On Monday
last St. Anthonis Court was holden in this place,
and is to be keepit att Newheavin at ye first conveniencie.”
The last Baron Bailie was Thomas
THE ARMORIAL BEARINGS OF MARIA DE LORRAINE, 1560.
... 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 ... LEITH STACF.. Leith Walk.] VIEWS IN PORTOBELLO. I, Ramsag h e ; n, The Established Church ; & High ...

Vol. 5  p. 153 (Rel. 0.97)

ing goods. He accused Edinburgh of an unreasonable
jealousy of its seaport, and invited the inhabitants
of that city “to descend from their proud
hill into the more fruitful plains (of Leith?) to be
filled with the fa.tness and fulness thereof.”
at the same time the Trained Bands of Leith mustered
in arms to attend the great military funeral of
the Marquis of Montrose.
In 1667 the Englishfleet ofsir Jeremiah Smythe,
a brave admiral who afterwards defeated the Dutch,
to find-if Mr. Tucker’s report be a true one-that
all the shipping in “ the principal port of Scotland”
consisted only of some twelve or fourteen vessels,
‘‘ two or three whereof are of only two or three
hundred tons apiece, the rest small vessels for
carrying salt.”
At the Restoration orders were given to destroy
the citadel ; but these were not put in force, and
Scottish flag. The guns of the Castle, Leith, and
Burntisland, responded. The admiral was in search
of the Dutch fleet under Van Ghendt, which had
been in the Firth a few days before, menacing Edinburgh
and Leith.
In March, 1679, the constables of South and
North Leith, in common with those of the city and
Canongate, “ and who11 suburbs of the good town ... 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)

232 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
tyde to be a forewarning of some evil to
come.”
In 1644 the Leith timber trade was 90 greatly
increased, that the magistrates of Edinburgh ordered
the area of the Bourse to be enclosed by a strong
1573. “One may have some idea of the pettiness
of the external trade carried on by Edinburgh in
the early part of the sixteenth century from what
we know of the condition of Leith at that time,”
says Robert Chambers, in one of his “ Edinburgh
QUEEN STREET.
wall, from which time it became more permanent
and important.
A little way north of Queen Street, the Burgess
Close opens eastward at a right angle from the
shore, and extends to Water Lane.
Here one of the earliest dates that could be
found on any of the buildings in Leith was noted
by TVilson on a house, the lintel inscribed in
Roman letters, NISI DNS FRUSTRA, with the date
Papers.” “ It was but a village, without quay or
pier, and with no approach to the harbour except
by an alley-the still existing Burgess Closewhich
in some parts is not above four feet wide.
We must imagine any merchandise then brought
to Leith as carried in vessels of the size of small
yachts, and borne off to the Edinburgh warehouse,
slung on horseback, through the narrow defiles of
the Burgess Close.” ... 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, ... Leith .] CORNWALLIS’S REGIMENT. ‘93 “Are you uneasy about that fishing-party ? ” ‘‘ No,” she replied, “I had no ...

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 ... 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)

168 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
and cleaning the channel of the river at Leith.
(Burgh Records.)
In 1510, on the 9th March, James IV. granted
to the city of Edinburgh the port denominated the
New Haven, which he had lately formed on the seacoast,
with the lands thereunto belonging, lying
between the chapel of St. Nicholas at North Leith
and the lands of Wardie Brae, with certain faculties
and privileges ; and by another charter of the same
date he confinned that by Logan of Restalrig,
formerly mentioned.
ship laden with timber laid her cargo on the shore,.
as sold to the Provost and bailies; then came
Robert Bartoun, of Overbarton, called the Controller,
with a multitude of the men of Leith, and
‘‘ masterfullie tuik the said tymmyr ” from the
treasurer and a bailie, which caused the Lords of
Council to issue a decree as to the privileges of the
city and the seaport, and that none but freemen .
were at liberty to buy from or sell to strangers at
the said port in time to come.
Fresh disputes about similar affairs seem to have 1
HALFWAY HOUSE, LEITH WALK.
In the followeing year eight mn, whose names
are recorded, were sworn on the holy evangels as
pioneers, to labour and serve the merchants at the
port and haven of Leith, and to keep “ the shore
clear of middings, fulzie, and sic stufe.”
In 1514 the tapsters and wine dealers in Leith
were summoned before the magistrates of Edinburgh
for injuring the privileges thereof by the sale
of wine within the sea-port.
Three years after this we find the Laird of Restalrig
entering a protest with regard to an arrestment
made on the shore of Leith, and maintaining
that it should not prejudice his rights as Baron of
Restalrig. It would seem that in 1517 a Dutch
occurred between the same parties in 1522-3,
and we find George, abbot of Holyrood, entering a
protest that whatever took place between them it
should not be to the prejudice of the Holyrood.
(Burgh Records.)
In 1528 a vessel belonging to the town, called
the Portuguese barque-most probably a prize
captured by the famous fighting Bartons of Leith
-was ordered to be sold to “ thaise that will gif the
maist penny thairfore”-i.e., to the highest bidder.
Two years afterwards Leith was afflicted by
a pestilence, and all intercourse between it and the
city was strictly forbidden, under pain of banishment
from the latter for ever. ... 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-HISTORICAI, SURVEY.
Origih of the Nme‘-Boundariee of South and North Leith-Links of Nor& Leith-The Tom first mentioned in History-King Robert’e Charter
-Superiority of the Logam and Magistrates of Ediuburgh-Abbot Ballantyne’s Bridge and Chapel-Newhaven given to Edinburgh by
Jarnes 1V.-The Port of I53c-The Town Burned by the English.
LEITH, the sea-port of Edinburgh, lies between it
and the Firth of Forth, but, though for Parliamentary
purposes separate from it, it is to all intents an
integral portion of the capital city. Of old the
name was variously written, Leyt, Let, Inverleith,
and the mouth of the Leith, and it is said to have
been derived from the family of the first recorded
proprietors or superiors, the Leiths, who in the reign
of Alexander 111. owned Restalrig and many extensive
possessions in Midlothian, till the superiority
passed by the marriage of the last of the
Leiths into the family of the Logans. However,
‘it seems much more probable that the family took
their name from the river, which has its rise in the
parish of Cume, at Kinleith, where three springs
receive various additions in their progress, particularly
at the village of Balerno, where they are joined
hy the Bavelaw Bum.
This stream, when its waters were pure, abounded
in fish-trout, loche or groundling, and the nine
eyed-eel Or river lamprey; and it must have contained
salmon too, as in the Edinburgh HeraZd for
August, 1797, we read of a soldier in the Caledonian
Regiment being drowned in the Salmon
Pool, in the Water of Leith, by going beyond his
depth when bathing there.
In his “ Historical Inquiries,” Sir Robert Sibbald
suggests that a Roman station of some kind existed
where Leith now stands ; but it has been deemed
more probable, as the author of CaZedonia Rqnana
supposes, that from the main Roman road that went
to Caer-almon (or Cramond) a path diverged by
the outlying camp at Sheriff Hall to Leith, where
Chalmers (“ Caledonia,” Vol., I.), records that “the
remains of a Roman way were discovered, when
one of the piers was being repaired ; I’ and this is
further supported by the fact that some Roman
remains were found near the citadel in 1825, Still, ... I64 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith . * LElTH WALK, FROM GAYFIELD SQUARE, LOOKING SOUTH. CHAPTER XVII. LEITH ...

Vol. 5  p. 164 (Rel. 0.79)

OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith. ... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith ...

Vol. 6  p. 272 (Rel. 0.72)

The Water of Leith. ... Water of Leith ...

Vol. 5  p. 80 (Rel. 0.72)

Leith. THE BURGESS CLOSE. 
... Leith . THE BURGESS CLOSE. ...

Vol. 6  p. 233 (Rel. 0.71)

.
sterling. The largest ship was only 150 tons, and
the highest valued was 8,000 pounds Scots, or
A666 13s. 4d. sterling. In the list of masters’
names appear Brown, Barr, and Bartain (the old
historic Barton), names, says Robertson, prominent
in the maritime records of Leith, doubtless descendants
of the respective families.
In 1692 the shore dues were only A466 13s. 4d.
Scots, equivalent to A38 17s. gid. of the money
of the present day.
LEITH ROADS, 1824. (Aftera DruwiBg by/. Gul&?tCtry.)
times,” says h o t , “we mustreflect that the prices
paid formerly were simply the rates at which commodities
could be furnished, almost without any
duty to Government; whereas now, in many instances,
the taxes levied by Government exceed
the value of the articles upon which they are im
posed.”
Tea was imported about the end of the seventeenth
century, and there is still preserved a
receipt from the East India Company to an Edin-
Yet generally the connection of Scotland as regards
trade was far from inconsiderable at that period
with Denmark, the Baltic, Holland, and France.
Her ships frequently made voyages from Leith to
Tangiers and other ports on the Mediterranean ;
and from Leith were exported wool, woollen-cloth,
druggets, and stuffs of all kinds, and, to a large
extent, both linen and corn.
The imports to Leith were linen and fine woollen
manufactures, wood in the form of logs and staves,
wines of various kinds, and small quantities of
sugar and miscellaneous articles of every-day use,
from Rotterdam and Amsterdam. ‘‘ In comparing
the prices of a gallon of wine or ale, a pound of
candles, or a pair of shoes in ancient and modem
burgh merchant for a chest of Bohea at 15s. per
pound, which came to the value of A225 15s.
In 1705 green tea was 16s. per pound, and
Bohea had risen to 30s.
In 1740 the shipping of Leith amounted to fortyseven
sail, with a total of 2,628 tonnage. The
names of these vessels were quaint-the Charming
Befty, Pair Susanna, and .Ha@y Janet, may be
given as samples.
In the following year, Walter Scott, Bailie of
Leith, issued a proclamation on the 8th August to
this effect :-
“Whereas the separate commanders of the five
East India ships, lying in the Roads of Leith,
have signified that the said ships are to sail early ... says Robertson, prominent in the maritime records of Leith , doubtless descendants of the respective ...

Vol. 6  p. 276 (Rel. 0.7)

253 Leith.] ST. NINIAN’S CHURCH. ... Leith .] ST. NINIAN’S ...

Vol. 6  p. 253 (Rel. 0.7)

Leith.] MONSON'S SUGGESTIONS. 185
12 0 ... Leith .] MONSON'S SUGGESTIONS. 185 12 ...

Vol. 5  p. 185 (Rel. 0.7)

Leith.: PAUL
pinnaces were hourly expected ; but, thanks to the
west wind, Leith was saved.
“ We continued working to windward of the
Firth,” says Jones, in his narrative, “ without being
able to reach the Roads of Leith till the morning
of the 17th, when being almost within cannon shot
of the town, and having everything in readiness for
the descent, a very severe gale of wind came on,
and obliged us to bear away after having endeavoured
for some time to withstand its violence.
The gale was so severe that one of the prizes taken
on the 14th (the Rn>ndsh!ip of Kirkcaldy) was sunk
to the bottom, the crew being with difficulty saved.
AS the clamour by this time reached Leith by
JONES. 197
It was evident that the age of miracles was not
past at that time, as it was openly asserted that Mr.
Sheriff, the secession minister of Kirkcaldy, by his
prayers, “ assisted, with God’s help, in raising the
wind ’’ (” Life of Paul Jones,” by the Registrar of
the U. S. Navy, &c., &c.).
Attention having thus been drawn to the defenceless
state of the town, a battery-now rendered
utterly useless by encroaching houses and dockswas
built to the eastward of Bathfield. Originally
it was only a rampart armed with nine guns facing
the water, as a protection during the American
War; but in later years the works were added
to: spacious artillery barracks were built, with a
with the aid of handspikes, were conveyed across
the old bridge to North Leith and posted on a
portion of the citadel, forming a battery that might
have proved exceedingly perilous to those who
worked it. A few brass field pieces, manned by
artillerymen, were posted farther westward, and
arms were supplied to the incorporated trades from
Edinburgh. All eyes were now turned on the
enemy’s ships, from which the manned boats and
means of a cutter that had watched our m6tions
that morning, and as the wind continued contrary
(though more moderate in the evening), I thought
it impossible to pursue the enterprise with a good
prospect of success, especially as Edinburgh, where
there is always a number of troops, is only a mile
distant from Leith, therefore I gave up my project”
He bore away, and soon after fought his victorious
battlc off Flaniborough Head.
--U
PAUL JONES. ... 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 ... 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 ... Leith ] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80 of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and magistrates, ...

Vol. 5  p. 189 (Rel. 0.7)

Leith.] JAMES IV. AND THE SCOTTISH NAVY. 205 ... Leith .] JAMES IV. AND THE SCOTTISH NAVY. ...

Vol. 6  p. 205 (Rel. 0.69)

diere is no proof that the shallow waters of the
Leith, as they debouched upon the sands of what
must have been on both sides an uncultured waste
of links or moorland, ever formed a shelter for the
galleys of Rome ; and it is strange to think that
there must have been a time when its banks were
covered by furze and the bells of the golden broom,
and when the elk, the red deer, and the white bull
of Drumsheugh, drank of its current amid a voiceless
solitude.
GAYFIELD HOUSE.
the gorge of the Low Calton, and descends Leith
Walk till nearly opposite the old manor house of
Pilrig; it then runs westward to the Water of
Leith, and follows the latter downward to the Firth.
The parish thus includes, besides its landward
district, the Calton Hill, parts of Calton and the
Canongate, Abbey Hill, Norton Place, Jock‘s
Lodge, Restalrig, and the whole of South Leith.
“ Except on the Calton Hill,” says a statistical
writer, “the soil not occupied by buildings is all
The actual limits of Leith as a town, prior to
their definition in 1827, are uncertain.
South Leith is bounded on the north-east by the
Firth of Forth, on the south by Duddingston and
the Canongate, on the west by the parishes of the
Royalty of Edinburgh, by St. Cuthbert’s and North
Leith. It is nearly triangular in form, and has an
area of 2,265 acres, The boundary is traced for
some way with Duddingston, by the Fishwives’
Causeway, or old Roman Road; then it passes
nearly along the highway between the city and
Portobello till past Jock‘s Lodge, making a projecting
sweep so as to include Parson’s Green ; and
after skirting the royal parks, it runs along the
north back of the Canongate, debouches through
susceptible of high cultivation, and has had imposed
on it dresses of utility and ornament in keep
ing with its close vicinity to the metropolis. Imgated
and very fertile meadows, green and beautiful
esplanades laid out as promenading grounds, neat,
tidy, and extensive nurseries, elegant fruit, flower,
and vegetable gardens, and the little sheet of
Lochend, with a profusion of odoriferous encb
sures, and a rich sprinkling of villas with their
attendant flower-plots, render the open or unedificed
area eminently attractive. The beach, all the
way from South Leith to the eastern boundary is
not a little attractive to sea-bathers ; a fine, clean
sandy bottom, an inclination or slope quite gentle
enough to assure the most timid, and a limpid roll ... 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)

Regent Bridge, Waterloo Place, From Leith Wynd. ... Bridge, Waterloo Place, From Leith ...

Vol. 4  p. 188 (Rel. 0.69)

vi1
.-
CONTENTS. -
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH-CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF BRAE.
PAGE
Constitution Street-Pirates Executed-St. James's Episcopal Church-Town Hall-St. John's Church-Exchange Buildings-Headquarters
of the Leith Rifle V o l u n t e e d l d Signal-Tower-The Shore-Old and New Ship Taverns-The Markets-The Coal Hill-
Ancient Council House-The Peat Neuk-Shirra Brae-Tibbie Fowler of the Glen-St. Thomas's Church and Asylum-The
Gladstone Family-Great Junction Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
CHAPTER XXVIII.
NORTH LEITH.
The Chapel and Church of St. Ninian-Parish Created-Its Records-Rev. Gorge Wishart-Rev. John Knox-Rev. Dr. Johnston-The
Burial-Ground-New North Leith Church-Free Churchald Grammar Schoolxobourg Street-St. Nicholas' Church-The
Citadel-Its Remains-Houses within it-Beach and Sands of North Leith-New Custom House-Shipping Inwards and Outwards . . 25 I
1
CHAPTEK XXIX.
LEITH-THE LINKS.
Links-Gdfers t h e 4 h a d e s I.-Montrose-Sir James Foulii and others-The Gn .lit-A Duel in 1729-Two Soldiers $hot-
Hamilton's Dragoons-A Volunteer Review in rTgT-Residents of Rank-The Grammar School-Watt's Hospital-New Streets-
Seafield. Baths-First Bathing Machine in Scotland-A Duel in 1789 . . . . . . . . . . . . . * 259
CHAPTER XXX.
LEITH-THE SANDS.
The Sands of Leith-Pirates Executed there-The Kuit oflyme-Captain Potts of the Dmdrrought-A Duel in 1667-Horse-racing-
"The Bell"-kith Races in 1661--"Going Down with the Purse"-Races in 1763 and ,771, etc. . . . . . . . . 267
CHAPTER XXXI.
LEITH-THE HARBOUR.
The Admiral and Bailie Courts-The Leith Science (Navigation) School-The Harbour of Leith-The BaF-The Wooden Piers-Early Im.
provements of the Harbour-Erection of Beacons-The Custom House Quay-The Bridge-Rennie's Report on the required
Docks-The Mortons' Building-yard-The Present Piers-The Martello Tower . . . . . . . . . . . 270
CHAPTER XXXII.
MEMORABILIA OF THE SHIPPING OF LEITH AND ITS MARITIME AFF.\'RS.
Old Shipping 1st-Early Whale Fishing-kttei; of Marque against Hamburg--Captures of English Ships, 1650-1-First recorded
Tonnage of Leith-Imports-Amrt of Captain Augh Palliser-Shore Dues, 1763-Sailon' Strike, 17g~--Tonnage in 188r-Passenpr
Traffic, etc.-Letters of Marque-Exploits of some4lance a t Shipbuilding . . . - . . . . . . . . 27)
CHAPTER xxx~ I r.
L E I T H - T H E DOCKS.
New Docks proposed-Apathy of the Government-First Graving Dock, 1716Two more Docks constructed-Shellycoat's Rock-
The Contract-The Dock of rhr-The King's Bastion-The Queen's Dock-New Pierx-The Victoria I)ock-TXe Albert
Dock-The Edinburgh Dock-Its Extent-Ceremony of Opening-A Glance at the Trade of Leith . . . . . . . 282 ... - CHAPTER XXVII. LEITH -CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF ...

Vol. 6  p. 396 (Rel. 0.68)

[Leith DOCK ACCOMMODATION. 285

VIEWS IN LIETH DOCKS. ... Leith DOCK ACCOMMODATION. 285 VIEWS IN LIETH ...

Vol. 6  p. 285 (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 ... 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)

196 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
prisoners, who were praying intently, when Sir
Adolphus Oughton stepped forward, and, displaying
pardons, exclaimed, c( Recover arms.”
‘‘ Soldiers,” he added, ‘‘ in consequence of the
distinguished valour of the Royal Highlanders, to
which two of these unfortunates belong, his Majesty
has been graciously pleased to forgive them all.”
So solemn and affecting was the scene that the
prisoners were incapable of speech. Reverently
lifting their bonnets, they endeavoured to express
engaged in commercial speculations by which he
realised a considerable sum of money, and adopting
the cause of the revolted colonists in America, was
appointed first lieutenant of the Ayred, on board
of which, to use his own words, “he had the
honour to hoist with his own hands the flag of
freedom, the first time it was displayed in the
Delaware.” After much fighting in many waters,
he obtained from the French Government command
of the Dztras, a 42-gun ship, which he named
ST. NINIAN’S CHURCH.
their gratitude, but their voices failed them, and,
overcome by weakness and the revulsion of feeling,
the soldier of the 7 1st sank prostrate on the ground.
More than forty of their comrades who were shot,
or had died of mortal wounds, were interred in the
old churchyard of St. Mary’s at Leith, and a huge
grassy mound long marked the place of their last
repose.
The next source of consternation in Leith was
the appearance of the noted Paul Jones, with his
squadron, in the Firth in the September of the
same year.
This adventurer, whose real name was John Paul,
son of a gardener in Kirkcudbright, became a seaman.
about 1760, and as master and supercargo
lk Ban Honime Rich~d, and leaving St. Croix
with a squadron of seven sail (four of which deserted
him on the way), he appeared off Leith with
three, including the Pallas and the Vengeance. It
was on the 16th of September that they were seen
working up the Firth by long tacks, against astormy
westerly breeze, but fully expecting, as he states,
“to raise a contribution of ~zoo,ooo sterling on
Leith, where there was no battery of cannon to
oppose our landing.”
Terror and confusion reigned supreme in Leith,
yet, true to their old instincts, the people made
some attempt to defend themselves. Three ancient
pieces of cannon, which had long been in
what was called the Naval Yard, drawn by sailors ... 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 a low-water pier.”
These engineers, after a careful survey, failed to
agree in opinion, and recommended three different
plans-Mr. Walker two, and Mr. Cubbitt one. The
details of only that to which the Lords of the
Treasury gave preference, and which was one of
Mr. Walker‘s, need not be stated, as they were
never fully carried out, and in 1847 a Government
THE EDINBURGH DOCK, LEITH.
The Victoria Dock was formally opened by the
steamer RoyaZ Yiciorid (which traded between
Leith and London), which carried the royal standard
of Scotland at her mainmast head, but there
was no public demonstration,
In 1860 the Harbour and Docks Bill passed the
House of Lords on the 19th of July. This Act
cancelled the debt of about ~230,000 due to the
Treasury for a present payment of ~50,000, The
passing of this measure, and its commercial imgrant
of L135,ooo was obtained for a new dock
by the new Commissioners, under whose care the
entire property continued to prosper, while trade
continued to increase steadily; thus the accommodation
for shipping was further enlarged by the
opening in 185 2 of the Victoria Dock (parallel with
the old dock), having an area of about five acres,
with an average depth of twenty-two feet of water.
Here berthage has constantly been provided for
the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company’s
fleet,-.and for most of Currie and Co.’s Contineatal
trading steamers. It was contracted for
by Mr. 3 9 , of Scarborough, who finished the
piers about the same time as the dock; but the
Victoria Jetty was not constructed till 1855.
portance to Leith, was celebrated there by displays
of fireworks and the ringing of the church bells.
In the lapse of a few years after the opening of
the Victoria Dock, the trade of the port had
increased to such an extent that the construction
of a still larger and better dock than any it yet
possessed became necessary. Thus the Commissioners
feIt justified in making the necessary
arrangements with that view.
Consequently, in 1862, Mr. Rendell, C.E,
London, and Mr. Robertson, C.E., Leith, in
accordance with instructions given to them, submitted
a plan, by which it was proposed to reclaim
no less than eighty-four acres of the East Sands
(the site of the races of old) by means of a gxeaf ... Leith the additional accommodation required by its shipping and commercial interests, including the provision of ...

Vol. 6  p. 284 (Rel. 0.64)

$52 ’ OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
remainder of the structure cannot be earlier than
the close of the sixteenth century, and the date
on the steeple, which closely resembles that of the
old Tron church, destroyed in the great fire of 1824,
4‘St. Ninian’s chapel still occupies its ancient
site on the bank of the Water of Leith, but very
little of the original structure of the good abbot
remains : probably no more than a small portion
of the basement wall on the north side, where a
small doorway appears with an elliptical arch, now
built up and .partly sunk in the ground. The
There is a more modem addition to the new
church, erected apparently in the reign of Queen
Anne, and into it has beeeuilt a sculptured lintel,
bearing in large Roman letters the legend :-
present edifice on the old one, erected a parsonage,
and in i 606 obtained an Act of Parliament erecting
the district into a parish, named North Leith, which,
even after the Reformation was achieved, had nu
pastor in place of the old chaplain till 1599, when
a Mr. James Muirhead was appointed to the
ministry.
is 1675.’’
After the Reformation, when the chaplain’s
house, the tithes, and other pertinents of the chaDei,
- -
“BISSSED. AR. THEY. YAT. HEIR. YE. VORD. OF. GOD,
AND. KEEP. 1600.
were ‘acquired by purchase- from John Bothieli
the Protestant commendator of Holyrood, the new
proprietors immediately rebuilt, or engrafted, the
When erected into a parish Ehurch, it was endowed
with sundry grants, including the neighbouring
chapel and hospital of St. Nicholas. ... ’ OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith . remainder of the structure cannot be earlier than the close of the sixteenth ...

Vol. 6  p. 252 (Rel. 0.64)

~~
In 1543, when the traitorous Scottish nobles of
what was named the English faction, leagued with
Henry VIII. to achieve a marriage between his son
Edward, a child five years of age, and the infant
Queen of Scotland, the Earl of Lennox, who was
at the head of the movement, attempted an insurrection,
and, marching with all his adherents to
Leith, offered battle between that town and Edinburgh
to the Regent and Cardinal Beaton, who were
at the head of the Scottish loyalists. Aware that
PILRIG FREE CHURCH AND LEITH WALK, LOOKING NORTH.
After taking soundings at Granton Craigs, the
infantry were landed there by pinnaces, though the
water was so deep “ that a galley or two laid their
snowttis (i.e. bows) to the craigs,” at ten in the
morning of Sunday, the 4th of May. Between 12
and I o’clock they marched into Leith, “and fnnd
the tables covered, the dinnaris prepared, such
abundance of wyne and victuallis besydes the other
substances, that the lyck ritches were not to be
found either in Scotland nor in England.” (Knox.)
the forces of Lennox were superior in number to
their own, they amused him with a pretended
treaty till his troops began to weary, and dispersed
to their homes; and Henry of England, enraged
at the opposition to his avarice and ambition, resolved
to invade Scotland in 1544.
In May the Earl of Hertford, with an army
variously estimated at from ten to twenty thousand,
on board of two hundred vessels, commanded by
Dudley, Lord Lisle, suddenly entered the Firth of
Forth, while 4,000 mounted men-at-arms came to
Leith by land.
So suddenly was this expedition undertaken, that
the Regent Arran and the Cardinal were totally unprepared
to resist, and retired westward from the city.
Leith was pillaged, the surrounding countqravaged
with savage and merciless ferocity. Craigmillar
was captured, with many articles of vahie
deposited there by the citizens, and Sir Simon
Preston, after being taken prisoner, was-as a
degradation-compelled to march on foot to London.
How Hertford was baffled in his attempts
on Edinburgh Castle and compelled to retreat we
have narrated in its place. He fell back on Leith,
where he destroyed the pier, which was of wood,
pillaged and left the town in flames. After which
he embarked all his troops, and sailed, taking with
him the &Znrnander and Unicorn, two large Scottish
ships of war, and all the small craft lying in the
harbour. ... insurrection, and, marching with all his adherents to Leith , offered battle between that town and Edinburgh to ...

Vol. 5  p. 169 (Rel. 0.63)

132 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig.
oxen, and other things belonging to a field, by the
hands of him, namely, who is called Hood of Leith,
from me and my heirs for ever, as freely, quietly,
and honourably free from all service and secular
exactions as any other gifts more freely and quietly
given, are possessed in the Kingdom of Scotland.
And that this gift may continue, I have set my
seal to this writing.”
Among those who witnessed this document were
the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, Hugh de Sigillo,
In May, 1398, Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig
granted to the citizens of Edinburgh, by charter,
full liberty to carry away earth and gravel, lying
upon the bank of the river, to enlarge their port of
Leith, to place a bridge over the said river, to
moor ships in any part of his lands, without the
said port, with the right of road and passage,
through all his lands of Restalrig. “All which
grants and concessions be warranted absolutely,
under penalty of A200 sterling to be uptaken
RESTALRIG CHURCH, 1817. (A / t e r m Etckirrg8y3amcr Skene of Rdislaw.)
Bishop of Dunkeld (called the “Poor Man’s
Bishop lJ) ; Walter, Abbot of Holyrood, previously
Prior of Inchcolm, who died in 1217 ; W. de
Edinham, Archdeacon of Dunkeld ; Master R. de
Raplaw ; and Robert Hood, of Leith.
In 1366, under David II., Robert Multerer
(Moutray?) received a charter of lands, within the
barony of Restalrig, before pertaining to John Colti ;
and some three years afterwards, John of Lestalrick
(sic) holds a charter of the mill of Instrother, in
Fifeshire, granted by King David at Perth.
Towards the latter part of the fourteenth century
the barony had passed into the possession of the
Logans, a powerful family, whose name is insepsrably
mingled with the history of Leith.
by the said burgesses and community in the name
of damages and expenses, and LIOO sterling to
the fabric of the church of St. Andrews before
the commencement of any plea.” (Burgh Charters.)
In 1413-4 another of his charters grants to the
city, “that the’piece of ground in Leith between
the gate of John Petindrich and a wall newly built
on the shore of the water of Leith, should be free
to the said community for placing their goods and
merchandise thereon, and carrying the same to and
from the sea, in all time coming.”
Westward of the village church, and on the
summit of a rock overhanging Loch End, are the
massive walls of the fortalice in which the barons of
Restalrig resided ; but a modem house is engrafted ... 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.” ... Leith .] WITCHCRAFT IN LEITH ; I81 - dated 15th March, 1603, among many enumerations, all in favour of Edinburgh, ...

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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 ... 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.) ... 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. ... Leith .] OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209 CHAPTER XXII. LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded). Leith and Edinburgh ...

Vol. 6  p. 207 (Rel. 0.61)

In 1667 the Sands were the scene of that
desperate duel with swords between William Douglas
younger, of M'hittingham, and Sir John Home, of
Eccles, attended by the Master of Ramsay and
Douglas of Spott, who all engaged together. Sir
James was slain, a d William Douglas had his
head stricken from his body at the Cross three
days after.
For many generations the chief place for horseracing
in Scotland was the long stretch of bare
sand at Leith,
LEITH LINKS.
informer for the double thereof, half to him and
half to the poor '' (Glendoick).
In 1620 there were horse-races at Paisley, the
details of which are given in the MaitZand MisceZZany,
in which the temporary prize of the bell
figures prominently; and after the Restoration there
were horse-races every Saturday at Leith, which
are regularly detailed in the little print called the
Mermrills Caledoniu. In the March of 1661 it
states :-" Our accustomed recreations on the
Sands of Leith was (sic) much injured because of
As a popular amusement horse-racing was practised
at an early period in Scotland. In 1552
there was a race annually at Haddhgton, the prize
being a bell, and hence the phrase to "bear away
the bell ; * and during the reign of James VI. races
were held at Peebles and Dumfries-at the latter
place in 1575, between Scots and'English, when
the Regent Morton held his court there; but as
such meetings led to conflicts with deadly weapons,
they were interdicted by the Privy Council in 1608 ;
and by an Act of James VI., passed in his twentythiid
Parliament, any sum won upon a horse-race
above a hundred marks was to be given to the
poot. Magistrates were empowered to pursue '' for
the said surplus gain, or else declared liable to the
a furious storm of wind, accompanied with a thick
snow ; yet we had some noble gamesters that were
so constant in their sport as would not forbear a
designed horse-match. It was a providence the
wind was from the sea, otherwise they had run a
hazard either of drowning or splitting upon Inchkeith.
This tempest was nothing inferior to that
which was lately in Caithness, when a bark of fifty
tons was blown five furlongs into the land, and
would have gone farther if it had not been arrested
by the steepness of a large promontory."
The old races at Leith seem to have been
conducted with all the spirit of the modem Jockey
Club, and a great impetus was given to them by
the occasional presence of the Duke of Albany, ... Scotland was the long stretch of bare sand at Leith , LEITH LINKS. informer for the double thereof, ...

Vol. 6  p. 268 (Rel. 0.61)

it, sixty feet wide, bordering the Albert and
other docks, and, in addition to the edifices
specially mentioned, contains the offices of the
Leith Chamber of Commerce, instituted in 1840,
and incorporated in 1852, having a chairman,
deputy-chairman, six directors, and other officials ;
the sheriff-clerk's office; that of the Leith Burghs
PiZoi, and the offices of many steamship companies.
At the north-east angle of Tower Street stands
the lofty circular signal-tower (which appears in
THE EXCHANGE BUILDINGS.
son has a view of the door and staircase window of
No, 10, which bears the date 1678, with the initials
R.M. within a chaplet.
In No. 28 is the well-known Old Ship Hotel,
above the massive entrance of which is carved, in
bold relief, an ancient ship ; and No. 20 is the
equally well-known New Ship Tavern, or hotel, the
lower flat of which is shown, precisely as we find it
now, in the Rotterdam view of I 700, with its heavily
moulded doorway, above which can be traced,
several of our engravings), so long a leading
feature in all the seaward views of Leith, and the
base of which, so lately as 1830, was washed by
the waves at the back of the old pier. It was
originally a windmill for making rape-oil, as described
by Maitland, and it is distinctly delineated
in a view (seep. 173) of Leith Harbour about 1700,
now in the Trinity House, to which it was brought
by one of the incorporation, who discovered it at
Rotterdam in 1716. Part of the King's Wark is
also shown in it.
What is called the Shore, or quay, extends from
the tower southward to the foot of the Tolbooth
Wynd, and is edificed by many quaint old buildings,
with gables, dormers, and crowsteps. Robertthrough
many obliterations of time and paint, a
Latin motto from Psalm cxxvi, most ingeniously
adapted, by the alteration of a word, to the calling
of the house-"Ne dormitet custos tuus. Ecce
non dormitat neque dormit custos domus" (Israelis
in the original), which is thus translated-"He
that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he
that keepeth the house (Israel) shall neither slumber
nor sleep."
The taverns of Leith have always.held a high
repute for their good cheer, and were always the
resort of Edinburgh lawyers on Saturdays. The
host of the '' Old Ship I' is very prominently mentioned
by Robert Fergusson in his poem, entitled
'' Good Eating." ... mentioned, contains the offices of the Leith Chamber of Commerce, instituted in 1840, and ...

Vol. 6  p. 245 (Rel. 0.61)

Ldth.1 THE LEITH RACE WEEK. 269
afterwards James VII., during the time he was
Royal Commissioner at Holyrood. ‘‘ They have
been rehearsed in verse by Robert Ferguson,” says
Robertson in 1851, ‘‘ and still form a topic of converse
with the elder part of our citizens, as one of
the prominent features of the glorious days of
old.”
The earliest records of them have all been lost,
he adds. They took place on the east side of the
harbour, where now the great new docks are
formed. The Leith race week was a species of
carnival to the citizens of Edinburgh, and in
many instances caused a partial suspension of
must have seen it many times, ‘‘ that long before
the procession could reach Leith the functionaries
had disappeared, and nothing was visible amid
the moving myriads but the purse on the top of
the pole.”
The scene at Leith races, as described by those
who have been present, was of a very striking
description. Vast lines of tents and booths, covered
with canvas or blankets, stretched along the level
shore ; recruiting-sergeants with their drummers
beating, sailors ashore for a holiday, mechanics
accompanied by their wives or sweethearts, servant
girls, and most motley groups, were constantly pass-
THE YARTELLO TOWER, FROM LEITH PIER.
work and business. They were under the direct
patronage of the magistrates of the city, and it
was usual for one of the town officers, in his
livery, to walk in procession every morning from
the Council Chambers to Leith, bearing aloft on a
pole or halberd, profusely decorated with ribbons
and streamers, the ‘‘ City Purse,” accompanied by
a file of the City Guard, with their bayonets fixed
and in full uniform, accompanied by a drummer,
beating that peculiar cadence on his drum
which is believed to have been the old U Scottish
March.”
This procession gathered in strength and interest
as it moved along Leith Walk, as hundreds were
on the outlook for the appearance of this accredited
civic body, and who preferred “gaun doon wi‘ the
Purse,” as the phrase was, to any other mode of
proceeding thither. Such a dense mass of boys
and girls finally surrounded the town officers, the
‘drummer, and the old veterans,” wrote one wha
ing in and out of the drinking places ; the whole
varied by shows, roley-poleys, hobby-horses, wheelsof-
fortune, and many of those strange characters
which were once familiar in the streets of Edmburgh,
and of whom, “Jamie, the Showman,” A
veteran of the Glengarry Fencibles, a native of the
Canongate, who figures in 66Hone’s Year Book,’?
was perhaps the last.
Saturday, which was the last day of the races,
was the most joyous and outrageous of this seashore
carnival. On that day was the “subscription“
for the horses beaten during the week, and these
unfortunate nags contended for the negative honour
of not being the worst on the course. Then, when
night closed in, there was invariably a general
brawl, a promiscuous free fight being maintained
by the returning crowds along the entire length of
Leith Walk.
A few quotations from entries will serve to show
that, in the progression of all things, racing ... THE LEITH RACE WEEK. 269 afterwards James VII., during the time he was Royal Commissioner at Holyrood. ‘‘ ...

Vol. 6  p. 269 (Rel. 0.61)

as for sale, “together with those new subjects
lying in Water Lane, adjoining Messrs. Elder and
Archibald‘s vaults.”
Many years ago Mr. Macfie was a well-known
sugar refiner in Leith. His establishment stood
in Elbe Street, South Leith, when it was destroyed
by fire; and about 1865 there was started the
extensive and thriving Bonnington Sugar Refining
Company in Breadalbane Street, I.eith, which was
described in a preceding chapter.
THE BANK OF LEITH, 1820. (AferStowr.)
of the incidental allusions to it. It is, however,
supposed to have included a royal arsenal, with
warehouses and dwellings for resident officials,
and according to Robertson’s map seems to have
measured about a hundred feet square.
‘( The remains of this building,” says Amot,
writing in 1779, “with a garden and piece of
waste land that surrounded it, was erected into a
free barony by James VI., and bestowed upon
Bernard Lindsay of Lochill, Groom of the Chamber
The Broad Wynd opens westward off Water
Lane to the shore. The first number of n e Leith
and Edinburgh TeZegrajh and General Adveriiser,
published 26th July, 1808, by William Oliphant,
and continued until September, 1811, appeared,
and was published by a new proprietor, William
Reid, in the Broad Wynd, where it was continued
till its abandonment, 9th March, 1813,
comprising in all 483 numbers. It was succeeded
by me fiith Commercid List. An extensive
building, of which frequent mention is made by
early historians as the King‘s Wark, seems to have
occupied the whole ground between this and the
present Bernard Street, but the exact purpose for
which it was maintained is not made clear in any
(or Chamber CheiZd, as he was called) to that prince.
This Lindsay repaired or rebuilt the King’s Wark,
and there is special mention of his having put its
anci‘enf imer in full repair. He also built there
a new tenniscourt, which is mentioned with
singular marks of approbation in the royal charter
‘ as being built for the recreation of His Majesty,
and of foreigners of rank resorting to the kingdom,
to whom it afforded great satisfaction and delight j
and as advancing the politeness and contributing
to the ornament of the country, to which, by its
happy situation on the Shore of Leith, where there
was so great a concourse of strangers and foreigners,
it was peculiarly adapted.’”
The reddendo in this charter was uncommon, ... 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)

anderwent at sea, yet he adds, “our numbers
amounted to 700, and with the loss of three we
made ourselves masters of the island, defended by
800 English trained to war and accustomed to
slaughter.” The Queen Regent and Monluc, the
Bishop of Valence, visited the island after its recapture,
and, according to the French account, were
rather regaled by the sight of 300 English corpses
strewn about it.
The castle was afterwards demolished by order of
LEITH HARBOUR ABOUT 1700. (Fronr am Oil Paint ng in fhe Tn‘ni2y trousu, Lcifh.)
The French troops in Leith, being all trained
veterans, inured to military service in the wars of
Francis I. and Henry II., gave infinite trouble to
the raw levies of the Lords of the Congregation,
who began to blockade the town in October,
1559. Long ere this Mary, Queen of Scots, had
become the bride of Francis of France ; and her
mother, who had upheld the Catholic cause so
vigorously, was on her deathbed in the castle of
Edinburgh.
the Scottish Parliament as useless, and nothing
remains of it now but a stone, bearing the royal
arms, built into the lighthouse ; but the French
troops in Leith conceived such high ideas of the excellent
properties of the grass there, that all their
horses were pastured upon it, and for ten years
*hey always termed it “ L’isZe des Chvaux.”
So pleased was Mary of Lorraine with the presence
of her French soldiers in Leith, that-
:according to Maitland-she erected for herself “ a
‘house at the corner of Quality Wynd in the Rotten
Row ;” but Robertson states that “a general impression
has existed that Queen Street was the site
of the residence of the Queen Dowager.” Above
ithe door of it were the arms of Scotland and Guise.
The Lords of Congregation, before proceeding to
extremities with the French, sent a summons,in
the names of “their sovereign lord and lady,
Francis and Mary, King and Queen of Scotland
and France, demanding that all Scots and Frenchmen,
of whatever estate or degree, depart out of the
town of Leith within the space of twelve hours.”
To this no answer was returned, so the Scottish
troops prepared for an assault by escalade; but
when they applied their ladders to the wall they
were found to be too short, and the heaiy fire of
the French arquebusiers repelled the assailants
with loss, These unlucky scaling-ladders had been
made in St. Giles’s Church, a circumstance which,
curiously enough, is said to have irritated the ... 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)

256 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
sion opposite to the church of St. Ninian, but is
now rebuilt into a modern edifice in Cobourg Street.
In Robertson’s map, depicting Leith with its
fortifications, 1560 (partly based upon Greenville
Collins’s, which we have reproduced on p. 176),
the church of Nicholas is shown between the sixth
and seventh bastions, as a cruciform edifice, with
choir, nave, and transepts, measuring about 150 feet
in length, by 80 feet across the latter, and distant
only IOO feet from the Short Sand, or old sea margin.
the patron of seamen,” says Robertson, “we may
infer that Leith at a very early period was a sea
St. Nicholas, the confessor, was a native of Lycia,
who died in the year 342, according to the Bollandists.
He was assumedas the patron of Venice
and many other seaports, and is usually represented
with an anchor at his side and a ship in the background,
and, in some instances, as the patron of
commerce, In Mrs. Jameson’s “Sacred and
port town.”
ST. NINIAN’S CHURCHYARD.
The church, or chapel, with the hospital of
St. Nicholas, is supposed to have been founded
at some date later than the chapel of Abbot Balhntyne,
as the reasons assigned by him for building
it seemed to imply that the inhabitants were
without any accessible place of worship ; but when
or by whom it was founded, the destruction of
neatly all ecclesiastical records, at the Reformation,
renders it even vain to surmise.
Nothing nom can be known of their origin, and
the last vestiges of them were swept away when
Monk built his citadel.
They were, of course, ruined by Hertford in his
first invasion, “and from the circumstance of the
church in the citadel being dedicated to St. Nicholas,
Legendary Art,” she mentions two : ‘‘ a seaport
with ships in the distance ; St. Nicholas in his episcopal
robes (as Archbishop of Myra), stands by
as directing the whole;” and a storm at sea, in
which “St. Nicholas appears as a vision above ; in
one hand he holds a lighted taper ; with the other
he appears to direct the course of the vessel.’’
To this apostle of ancient manners had the
old edifice in North Leith been dedicated, when
the site whereon it stood was an open and sandy
eminence, overlooking a waste of links to the northward,
and afterwards encroached on by the sea ;
and its memory is still commemorated in a narrow
and obscure alley, called St. Nicholas Wynd,
according to Fullarton’s ‘‘ Gazetteer,” in 1851. ... 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. ... Leith .1 THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 259 EASTWARD of Leith lie those open downs called the Links, once of much greater extent ...

Vol. 6  p. 259 (Rel. 0.58)

180 OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH, [Leith.
1596-7. In 1578 an Act of Parliament was passed
to prevent “ the taking away of great quantities of
victual and flesh from Leith, under the pretence of
victualling ships.”. In the same year a reconciliation
having been effected between the Earl of
Morton and the nobles opposed to him, the Earls
of Argyle, Montrose, Athole, and Buchan, Lord
Boyd, and many other persons of distinction, dined
with him jovially at an hostelry in Leith, kept by
William Cant.
There was considerable alarm excited in Edinburgh,
Leith, and along the east coast generally, by
a plague which, as Moyes records, was brought
from Dantzig by John Downy’s ship, the WiZZiam of
~ 5 t h . By command of the Privy Council, the ship
was ordered, with her ailing
and dead, to anchor off
Inchcolm, to which place
all afflicted by the plague
were to confine themselves.
The crew consisted of
forty men, of whom the
majority died. Proclamation
had been made at the
market-cross of every east
coast town against permitting
this fated crew to
land. By petitions before
the Council it appeared that
William Downie, skipper
in Leith, left a widow and
eleven children; Scott, a
mariner, seven. The survivors
were afterwards re-
Trades of Leith were declared independent of
those of Edinburgh by a decree of the Court of
Session.
In October, 1589, James VI. embarked at Leith
for Norway, impatient to meet his bride, Anne of
Denmark, to whom he had been married by proxy.
She had embarked in August, but her fleet had
been detained by westerly gales, and there seemed
little prospect of her reaching Scotland before the
following spring. Though in that age a voyage to
the Baltic was a serious matter in the fall of the
year, James, undaunted, put to sea, and met his
queen in Norway, where the marriage ceremony was
performed again by the Rev. David Lindsay, of
Leith, in the cathedral of St. Halvard at Christiania,
and not at Upsala.
THE ARMS
moved to Inchkeith and the Castle of Inchgarvie,
and the ship, which by leaks seemed likely to sink
at her anchors, was emptied of her goods, which
were stored in the VOW~S,” or vaults, of St. Colm.
In 1584 Leith was appointed the principal
market for herrings and other fish in the Firth of
Forth.
Five years subsequent to this we find that the
despotic magistrates of Edinburgh summoned nearly
one half of their Leith vassals to hear themselves
prohibited from the exercise of their various trades
and from choosing their deacons in all time coming.
They had previously thrust two unfortunate shoemakers
into prison, one forprefending that he was
elected deacon of the Leith Incorporation of the
craft, and the other for acting as his officer; and
we are told that, notwithstanding the remon-
*strances of the operatives, no attention was paid to
their statements, and “ they were proceeded against
as a parcel of insolent and contumacious rascals ;”
and it was not until 1734 that the Incorporated
OF LEIlH.
- ,
as some assert. After remaining
for some months
in Denmark, the royal pair
on the 6th of May, landed
at the pier of Leith (where
the King’s Work had been
prepared for their reception),
amid the booming
of cannon, and the discharge
of a mighty Latin
oration from Mr. James
Elphinstone.
It is remarkable that
James, whose squadron
came to anchor in the roads
on the 1st of May, did
not land at once, as he
had been sorely beset by
the incantations of witches during his voyage ;
and it is alleged that the latter had declared “ he
would never have come safely from the sea had not
his faith prevailed over their cantrips.” They were
more successful, however, with a large boat coming
from Burntisland to Leith, containing a number of
gifts for the young queen, and which they contrived
to sink amid a storm, raised by the remarkable
agency of a chrisfened cat, when all on board
perished.
In 1595 James wrote a letter at Holyrood, addressed
to “ the Bailyies of Lethe,” at the instance
of William Henryson, Constable Depute of Scotland,
interdicting them from holding courts to
consider actions of slaughter, mulctation, drawing
blood, or turbulence. (Spald. Club Miscell.) In
the following year, by a letter of gift under the
Privy Seal, .he empowered the Corporation of Edinburgh
to levy a certain tax during a certain period
towards supporting and repairing the bulwark pier
and port of Leith ; and in a charter of Niladamus, ... OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH, [ Leith . 1596-7. In 1578 an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent “ the taking away ...

Vol. 5  p. 180 (Rel. 0.58)

176 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
to extinguish the flames. On the same daya grand
assault was to be made.
By this time the batteries against the town were
all in full play. Mount Pelham was distant 1,200 feet
from the eastern curtain ; Mount Somerset was distant
only 600 feet ; a third mound, Mount Falcon,
near the river, and southeast of St. Nicholas’s
called the Schole of Warre,” which is full of curious
details, and was published at London in 1565.
The detailed orders issued by Lord Grey for
the assault on the 4th of May are very curious;
they are preserved among the Talbot Papers, and.
contain the names of some of the earliest ofticers.
in the English army, and old Bands of Berwick,
PLAN OF LEITH, SHOWING THE EASTERN FORTIFICATIONS.
(XacsimiZe ufter GrrmwiZk CoZZid “ GrEat Britaids Coaating Pilot,” London, 1693.)
church, was 300 feet distant from the fifth bastion,
near where King Street is now.
After several days’ cannonade from eight guns
on Mount Somerset (now familiar to the children
of Leith as the Giant‘s Brae), the steeple of St.
Anthony, with its cannon and defenders, fell with a
mighty crash, to the great exultation of the English,
who contemplated the effects of their skill with
silent wonder ; and meanwhile Admiral Winter,
having crept close in-shore, bombarded the town,
by which many of the luckless inhabitants perished
with the defenders. Thomas Churchyard, who
accompanied the English in this expedition, wrote
a poem called “ The Siege of Leith, more often
“May 4th, 1560, vppone Saturday in themornyng,
at thri of the clock, God willinge, we shal be in
readyness to give the assalte, in order as followithe,
if other ympedyinent than we knowe not of hyndre
us not.”
For the first assault (i.e., column of stormers),
Captain Rede, with 300 men ; Captains Markham,
Taxley, Sutton, Fairfax, Mallorye, the Provost
Marshall, Captains Astone, Conway, Drury (afterwards
Sir Tlrilliam and Marshal of Berwick), Berkley,
and Fitzwilliams, each with zoo men, and 500
arquebusiers, to be furnished by the Scots.
Thus 3,000 men fornied the first column.
For the second were Captains Wade, Dackare, ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith . to extinguish the flames. On the same daya grand assault was to be made. By ...

Vol. 5  p. 176 (Rel. 0.57)

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 ... 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)

244 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
cost of .&3oo, and has two ornamental fronts;
respectively with Ionic pillars and a Doric porch.
St. John’s Established Church adjoins it. It was
originally a chapel of ease, but became a Free Church
from the Disruption in 1843 till 1867, when, by
adjudication, it reverted to the Establishment.
Designed by David Rhind, it has an imposing
front in the Early Pointed style, surmounted by a
lofty octagonal tower, terminating in numerous
pinnacles, and not in a tall slender spire, accord-
On the west side of Constitution Street, the way,
for nearly 300 feet, is bounded by the wall enclos
ing the burying-ground of St. Mary‘s Church, to
which access is here given by a large iron gate,
after passing the Congregational chapel at the
intersection of Laurie Street.
In No. 132 have long been established the headquarters
and orderly-room of the Leith Volunteer
Corps, numbered as the 1st Midlothian Rifles.
Originally clad in grey (like the city volunteers),
THE TOWN HALL AND ST. JOHN’S ESTABLISHED cnuRcH.
ing to the original intention of the talented
architect.
The Exchange Buildings at the foot of Constitution
Street, opposite Bernard Street, were
erected, at a cost of A16,000, in a Grecian style
of architecture, and are ornamented in front
by an Ionic portico of four columns. They
are three storeys in height, and include public
reading and assembly rooms ; but of late years
assemblies have seldom been held in Leith, though
they were usual enough in the last century. In the
Week& Magazine for I 7 76 we read of a handsome
subscription being sent by “the subscribers to a
dancing assembly in Leith,” through Sir William
Forbes, for the relief of our troops at Boston.
this regiment now wears scarlet, faced unrneanhgly
with black, and their badge is the arms of Leiththe
Virgin and Holy Child seated in the middle of
a galley, with the motto, 4‘ Persevere.” The corps
was raised when the volunteer movement began:
under Colonel Henry Amaud, a veteran officer of
the East India Company’s Service, who, in turn,
was succeeded by D. R. Macgregor, Esq., the late
popular M.P. for the Leith Burghs.
On the same side of the street stands the Catholic
Church of “Our Lady, Star of the Sea,” built in
1853. It is a high-roofed cruciform edifice, in a
coarse style of Early Gothic.
Constitution Street is continued north to the
intersection of Tower Street and the road beyond ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith cost of .&3oo, and has two ornamental fronts; respectively with Ionic ...

Vol. 6  p. 244 (Rel. 0.57)

CON TENTS. V
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DISTRICT OF RESTALRIG.
PAGE
Abbey Hill-Baron Norton-Alex. Campbell and 'I Albjm's Anthology "--Comely Gardens-Easter Road-St. Margaret's Wellxhurch
and Legend of St. Tnduana-Made Collegiate bv James 111.-The Mausoleum-Old Barons of Restalrig-The Logans, &c-
Conflict of Black Saturday-Residents of Note-First Balloon in Britain-Rector Adams-The Nisbeb of Craigantinnie and Dean
-The Millers-The Craixantinnie Tomb and Marbles-The Marionville Tragedy-The Hamlet of Jock's Lodge-Mail-bag Robberies
in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries-Piemhill House and Barracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . I 27
CHAPTER XIV.
PORTOBELLO.
Portobell~The Site before the Houses-The Figgate Muir--ctone Coffiqs-A Meeting with Cramwell-A Curious Race-Portobello Hut-
Robbers-William Jamieson's Feuing-Sir W. Scott and "The Lay "-Portobello Tower-Review of Yeomanry and Highlanders-
Hugh Miller-David Lamg-Joppa-Magdalene Bridge-Rrunstane House . . . . . . . . . . . . I43
CHAPTER XV.
LEITH WALK.
A Pathway in the 15th Century probable-Genera1 Leslie's Trenches-Repulse of Cramwell-The Rood Chapel-Old Leith Stazes-Propsal
for Lighting the Walk-The Gallow Lea-Executions there-The Minister of Spott- Five Witches-Five Covenanters-The Story of
their Skulls-The Murder of Lady Baillie-The Effigies of "Johnnie Wilkes" . . . . . . . . , . . 150
CHAPTER XVI.
LEITH WALK (conchfed).
East Side-Captain Haldane of the Tabernacle-New Road to Haddington -Windsor Street-Mrs H. Siddons -Lovers' Loan-Greenside
House-Andrew Macdonald. the Author of" Vimonda "-West Side-Sir J. Whiteford of that Ilk-Gayfield House-Colonel Crichton
--Prince Leopold-Lady Maxwell-Lady Nairne-SFr;ngfield-McCulloch of Ardwell and Samuel Foote . . . . . ' 157
CHAPTER XVII.
LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY.
Origin of the Name-Boundaries of South and North Leith-Links of North Leith-The Town frrst mentioned in History--King Robert's
Charter-Superiority of the Logans and Magistrates of Edinburgh-Abbot Ballantyne's Bridge and Chapel-Newhaven given to
Edinburgh by Jam- 1V.-The Port of 153c-The Town Burned by the English . . . . , . . . . . - . 164
CHAPTER XVIII.
LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY (continued).
The Great Siege-Arrival of the French-The Fortifications-Re-capture of Inchkeith-The Town Invested-Arrival of the English Fleet
and Army-Skirmishes-Opening of the BatteriesFailure of the Great Assault-Queen Regent's Death-Treaty of Peace-Relics of
thesiege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .r7o
CHAPTER XIX.
LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY (catinued).
rhc Fortifications demolished-Landing of Queen Mary-Leith Mortgaged-Edinburgh takes Military Pasession of it-A Convention-A
Plague-James VI. Departs and Returns -Witches-Cowrie Con%pkacy-The Union Jack-Pirates-Taylor the Water Poet-
A Fight in the Harbour-Death of Jamer VI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , 178 ... Bridge-Rrunstane House . . . . . . . . . . . . I43 CHAPTER XV. LEITH WALK. A Pathway in the 15th ...

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72 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith.
beneath it “ The Triumph of Bacchus,” beautifully
executed in white marble. Here, too, was the
door-lintel of Alexander Clark, referred to in our
account of Niddry‘s Wynd. The entrance to the
house was latterly where Dean Terrace now begins,
at the north end of the old bridge, and from that
point up to the height now covered by Anne Street
the grounds were tastefully laid out The site
of Danube Street was the orchard; the gardens
and hot-houses were where St. Bemard’s Crescent
“Oliver Cromwell,” till November, I 788, when Mr,
Ross had it removed, and erected, with no smalL
difficulty, on the ground where Anne Street is now.
“ The block,” says Wilson, ‘‘ was about eight feet
high, intended apparently for the upper half of’
the figure.
“The workmen of the quarry had prepared it.
for the chisel of the statuary, by giving it with
the hammer the shape of a monstrous mummy-
And there stood the Protector, like a giant in his;
THE WATER OF LEITH VILLAGE.
now stands. On the lawn was the monument to
a favourite dog, now removed, but preserved elsewhere.
In the grounds was set up a curious stone,
described in Campbell’s “Journey from Edinburgh”
as a huge freestone block, partly cut in the form
of a man.
It would seem that it had been ordered by
the magistrates of Edinburgh in 1659, to form a
colossal statue of Oliver Cromwell, to be erected
in the Parliament Close, but news came of the
Protector’s death just as it was landed at Leith, and
the pliant provost and bailies,, finding it wiser to
forget their intentions, erected soon after the present
statue of Charles 11. The rejected block
lay on the sands of Leith, under the cognomen of
shroud, frowning upon the city, until the death of
Mr. ROSS, when it was cast down, and lay neglected
for many years. About 1825 it was again
erected upon a pedestal, near the place where it
formerly stood; but it was again cast down, and
broken up for building purposes.”
Close by the site of the house No. 10 Anne
Street Mr. Ross built a square tower, about forty
feet high by twenty feet, in the shape of a Border
Peel which forthwith obtained the name or
“ROSS’S Folly.” Into the walls of this he built
all the curious old stones that he could collect.
Among them was a beautiful font from the Chapel
of St. Ninian, near the Calton, and the four heads
which adorned the cross of Edinburgh, and are ... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith . beneath it “ The Triumph of Bacchus,” beautifully executed in ...

Vol. 5  p. 72 (Rel. 0.56)

was restored, but in somewhat doubtful taste, by
Thomas Hamilton, architect, and a new square
tower, terminating in a richly cusped open Gothic
balustrade, was erected at its north-western corner,
while the angles of the building were ornamented
ST. MARK’S (SOUTH LEITH) CHURCH, 1882.
by buttresses finished with crocketed finials,
scarcely in accordance with the severe simplicity
of the old time-worn and war-worn church of St.
Mary, the beautiful eastern window of which was
preserved in form.
FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY feet north-westward of
St. Mary’s church, and on the same side of the
Kirkgate, opens the ancient alley named Coatfield
Lane, which, after a turn to the south in Charlotte
Lane, led originally to the Links. Dr. Robertson
gives a quotation from the I‘ Parish Records ” of
South Leith, under date 25th May, 1592, as
showing the origin ” of Coatfield Lane : “the
quhilk day, the Provost, Johnne Amottis, shepherd,
was acted that for every sheep he beit in ye Kirkyeard
suld pay ix merks, and everie nyt yat carried
(kept) thame betwix the Coatfield and ye. Kirk
style he should pay v. merk.”
But the name is older than the date given, as
Patrick Logan of Coatfield was Bailie of Leith
10th September, 1470, and Robert Logan of the
same place was Provost of the city in 1520-I, as
the “Burgh Records show ; and when ruin began
to overtake the wily and powerful Baron of Restalrig,
his lands of Mount Lothian and Nether Gogar
were purchased from him by Andrew Logan of
Coatfield in 1596, as stated in the old ‘‘ Douglas
Peerage.”
At the corner of Coatfield Lane, in the Kirkgate,
there stands a great mansion, having a handsome
front to ‘the east, exhibiting some curious exampIes ... of the building were ornamented ST. MARK’S (SOUTH LEITH ) CHURCH, 1882. by buttresses finished with ...

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208 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
One of the greatest events of its time in Leith
was the landing there of George IV., on the 15th
of August, 1822.
The king was on board the Royal George, which
was towed into the Roads by two steam-packets,
followed by the escorting frigates, which fired
salutes that were answered by the flagship and
Forte frigate; and a salute from the battery announced
that all had come to anchor. Among the
first to go off to the royal yacht was Sir Walter
Scott, to present the king with a famous silver star,
the gift of the ladies of Edinburgh. Sir Walter
on Scottish ground, save the exiled Charles of
France.
The cannon of the ships and battery pealed forth
their salutes, and the combined cheers of the
mighty multitude filled up the pauses. An immense
fleet of private boats followed the royal barge,
forming an aquatic procession such as Leith had
never seen before, and a band of pipers on the
pier struck up as it rounded the head of the latter.
As the king approached the landing stage three
distinct and well-timed cheers came from the
manned yards of the shipping, while the magis-
LEITH PIER, FROM THE WEST, 1775. (Afler Clerk ofEldif.1
remained in conversation with the king an hour, in
the exuberance of his loyalty pocketing as a relic a
glass from which His Majesty had drunk wine;
but soon after the author of ‘r Waverley,” in forgetfulness,
sat down on it and crushed it in pieces.
Leith was crowded beyond all description on the
day of the landing ; every window was filled with
faces, if a view could be commanded ; the ships’
yards were manned, their rigging swarmed with
human figures; and the very roofs of the houses
were covered. Guarded by the Royal Archers and
Scots Greys, a floating platform was at the foot of
Bernard Street, covered with cloth and strewn with
flowers; and when a single gun from the royal
yacht announced that the king had stepped into his
barge, the acclamations of the enthusiastic people,
all unused to the presence of royalty, then seemed
to rend heaven.
Since the time of Charles 11. no king had been
trates, deacons, and trades, advanced, the latter
with all their standards lowered. So hearty and
prolonged were the glad shouts of the people that
even George 1V.-the most heartless king that
ever wore a crown-was visibly affected.
He was clad in the uniform of an admiral, and
was received by the magistrates of Leith and Edinburgh
and the usual high officials, civil and military
; but the Highland chief Glengarry, bursting
through the throng, exclaimed, bonnet in hand,
“ Your Majesty is welcome to Scotland ! ’‘
The procession preceding the royal carriage now
set out, “the Earl of Kinnoul, as Lord Lyon,
on a horse capnoling in front of a cloud of
heralds and cavaliers-his golden coronet, crimson
mantle flowing to the ground, his embroidered
boots, and golden spurs, would have been irresistible
in the eyes of a dame of the twelfth century.” Sir
Alexander Keith, as Knight-Marischal, with his ... 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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THE FIRST THOROUGHFARE. Leith1
THE KIRKGATE.
CHAPTER XXIII.
LEITH - THE KIRKGATE.
The Kirkgate-Eastside-Tavern Tragedy, 1691-Robed Watson-The Preceptmy of St. Anthony-Its Seal-King James's Hospital--%
Mary's Church-Destruction of the Choir-First Protestant Miniister--Cromwell's Troops-The Rev. John Logan, Miniiter.
ONE of the oldest and principal streets of Leith is
the Kirkgate, a somewhat stately thoroughfare as
compared with those off it, measuring eleven hundred
feet in length from the foot of the Walk to
the Water Reservoir (called of old The Pipes) at
the head of Water Lane, by an average breadth of
fifty feet. " Time and modern taste," says Wilson,
" have slowly, but very effectually, modified its antique
features. No timber-fronted gable now
thrusts its picturesque fapde with careless grace
beyond the line of more staid and formal-looking
ashlar fronts. Even the crowstepped gables of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are becoming
the exception ; it is only by the irregularity which
still pertains to it, aided by the few really picturesque
tenements which remain unaltered, that it
now attracts the notice of the curious visitor as the
genuine remains of the ancient High Street of the
burgh. Some of these relics of former times are
well worthy the notice of the antiquary, while ... FIRST THOROUGHFARE. Leith 1 THE KIRKGATE. CHAPTER XXIII. LEITH - THE KIRKGATE. The Kirkgate-Eastside-Tavern ...

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xii OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH .
~
PACE
Leith Roads. 1824 . . . . . . . 276
Tlu East and West Piers. Leith . . To facc pup 283
The Edinburgh Dock. Leith . . . . . . . 284
Views in Leith Docks: General Entrance to the
Docks ; Albert Dock. looking north ; Queen’s
Dock ; Albert Dock. looking east ; Victoria Dock 285 . . . . . . . . Inchkeith 293
Newhaven. from the Pier . . . . . . 296
Remaim of St . James’s Chapel. Newhaven . . 297
Main Street. Newhaven . . . . . . 300
Sculptured Stone. Newhaven . . . . . 301
Rev . Dr . Fairbairn . . . . . . . 304
Newhaven Fishwives . . . . . . . 305
Map of Granton and Neighbourhood . . . . 308
Caroliiie Park ; Ruins of Granton Castle ; East Pilton 309
Old Entrance to Royston (now Caroline Park). 1851 . 312
Granton Harbour and Pier . . . . . 313
Cramond . . . . . . Tofacepage 315
The “Twa Brigs. ”Cramond . . . . . 315
O!d Cramond Brig . . . . . . . 316
View below CramondBrig . . . . . . 317
Old Saughton Bridge ; Old Saughton House ; Earnton
House; Cramond Church . . . . . 320
Coliiiton . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Dreghorn Castle . . . . . . . 324
MapoC the Environs of Edinburgh . . . . 325
PAGE
The Battle or Camus Stone. Comiston . . . 326
Liberton . . . . . . To!are$o:e 327
finally Tawer . . . . . . . . 328
Liberton Tower . . . . . . . . 329
Niddrie House . . . . . . . . 332
LennaxTower . . . . . . . 3 533
Currie . . . . . . . . . 336
RullionGreen . . . . . . . 7 337
Inch House . . . . . . . . 340
Knight Teniplar’s Tomb. Currie Churchyard . . 331
Ednionstone House . . . .
Gilmerton . . . . . .
Drum House . . . . .
Roslin Castle and Glen . + .
Roslin Chapel : North Front . .
Roslin Chapel : The Chancel i
Roslin Chapel : The ‘“Prentice Pillar ‘ I
Rcslin Chapel : View h n i the Chancel
Lasswade . . . . . . .
Roslin Chapel : Interior . . .
Hawthornden. 1773 . . . . .
Melville Castle. 1776. . . . .
Hawthornden, 188j . i 8
Lasswadechurch. 1773 . s .
Melville Castle. 1883 . . . .
New Hailes House . . 4 .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
To face p a p
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
> . .
341
344
345
348
349
3.52
353
356
357
357
358
360
361
363
364
365 ... 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 ... Leith .] THE KING'S WARK. 237 ~ Arnot adds. It was to keep one of the cellars in the King's Wark in repair, for ...

Vol. 6  p. 237 (Rel. 0.54)

The etymology of the word Links has been a
puzzle to Scottish antiquaries. By some it has
been supposed, that fiom the position generally
occupied by links, in the vicinity of the sea or
great rivers, the word is a corruption of Innis,
or Inches, signifying islands ; and it is said that in
some of the old records of Aberdeen the word is
spelt Linchs and Linkkes.
The whole of Leith Links must, at one time,
have been covered by the sea, and above their
level there stand distinctly up the great grassy
mounds (one named by children the Giant’s Brae)
from which the guns of Somerset and Pelham
bombarded the eastern wall of Leith during the
siege in 1560.
During the seventeenth
and eighteenth
centuries, the Links of
Leith were the chief
resort of the aristocracy
resident in Edinburgh
as .the best
place for playing golf;
nobles of the highest
rank and the most
eminent legal and political
officials taking
part with the humblest
players-if skilful-in
the game.
In 1619 a curious
anecdote is recorded,
connected with golfing
on Leith Links, by
Row, in his “History of
the Kirk of Scotland.”
no such thing,’ he was silent, went home trembling,
took to bed instantly, and died.”
The (( Household Book ” of the great Montrose
shows that in 1627 hewas in the habit ofgolfing here.
March 10. Item: for balls in the Tennis Court
Item : for two goffe balls, my Lord
of Leith.. ............................... 16sh.
going to the goffe ther .............. 10 sh.
in Leith that nicht in come and
Item : to the servant woman in the
Item : for carrying the graith to the
9- ‘I. Itern : for my horse standing
straw 7 sh. 8d. ....................................
house .................................... 12 sh.
(Bumtisland) boat .................. 3 sh.
SCULPTURED SSONE, COBOURG STREET.
William Cowper, Bishop of Galloway, ((a very
holy and good man, if he had not been corrupted
with superior powers and worldly cares of a
bishopric and other things ” (according to Johnston),
became involved in various polemical controversies,
among others, with ((the wives of Edinburgh
;” and one went so far as to charge him with
apostasy, and summoned him to prepare an answer
shortly to the Judge of all the world, at a time
when it would appear that the health of the bishop
was indifferent. ((Within a day or two after,”
says Row, ((being at his pastime (golf) on the
Links of Leith, he was terrified with a vision or
an apprehension; for he said to his playfellows,
after he had in an affrighted and commoved way
cast away his playinstruments (i.e., clubs) : ‘I vow
to be about with these two men who have come
upon me with drawn swords !’ When his play
fellows replied, ‘ My Lord, it is a dream : we saw
Charles I., who was
passionately fond of
golf, was engaged in
the game on the Links
of Leith when news of
the Irish rebellion
reached him in 1642,
and the circumstance
is thus detailed in
Wodrow’s amusing
“Analecta,” on the
authority of William,
Lord Ross of Hawkhead,
who died at a
great age in 1738, and
to whom it had been
related, when in England,
by Sir Robert
Pye :-
The latter was then
an old man of eighty
years, “and he told
him that when a young man, he came down
(1642) with King Charles the First to Edinburgh.
That the king and court received frequent
expresses from the queen ; that one day the
king desired those about him to find somebody
who could ride post, for he had a matter
of great importance to despatch to the queen,
and he would give a handsome reward to any
young fellow whom he could trust. Sir Robert
was standing by, and he undertook it. The king
gave him a packet, and commanded him to deliver
it out of his own hand to the queen. Sir Robert
made his journey in less than three days, and
when he got access to the queen, delivered the
packet. She retired a little and opened it, and
pretty soon came out, and calling for the person
that brought the letters, seemed in a transport of
joy; and when he told her what he was, and his
diligence to bring them to her Majesty, she offered ... the word is spelt Linchs and Linkkes. The whole of Leith Links must, at one time, have been covered by the ...

Vol. 6  p. 260 (Rel. 0.54)