![Leith.] THE OLD TOLBCTOTH. 229
During the persecution under the Duke of
Lauderdale, Mr. John Gregg, who had been
formerly minister at Skirling, in Peeblesshire, was
apprehended and imprisoned in the Tolbooth for
house of his
that he died, was sentenced to be scourged on her
bare back from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh to the
Nether Bow, and from the Tolbooth of Leith to
the door of Isabel Lesly, and from there to the
brother-in-law
at Leith Mills.
Bass, to be detained
there
among many
other sufferers
for conscience
the Bass for “ abusing and railing ’I at Mr. Thomas
Wilkie, minister of North Leith, but in the May
of the same year he was brought back to Leith,
and thrust into the Tolbooth, where he lay for
quired for service in Leith. In 1763, a thief, who
was discovered in a peculiar manner, became, till
tried, an inmate of this old prison,
A Scottish sailor, who had served on board the
In 1678, Fi
:Ill c- - Hector Allan, -
a Quaker seaman
in Leith, TOLBOOTH wy
TABLET OF THsee.
In April, 1713, a prisoner named Jean Ramsay,
who had dragged a weak and infirm man from his
bed in the house of Isabel Lesly in Leith, near
the South Church, and used him with such severity
the water, and he found it to be his own.
The subsequent inquiry did not prove pleasant
to the half-drowned thief, who was forthwith taken
into custody, and committed to the Tolbooth.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p048.gif "Volume 6 Page 229")
... Leith .] THE OLD TOLBCTOTH. 229
During the persecution under the Duke of
Lauderdale, Mr. John Gregg, who had ...
Vol. 6 p. 229 (Rel. 1)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
chapel of St. Jamey at Newhaven, belonged to
the preceptory at Leith ; and also ...
Vol. 6 p. 216 (Rel. 0.97)
![OLD LEITH STACF.. Leith Walk.]
VIEWS IN PORTOBELLO.
I, Ramsag h e ; n, The Established Church ; & High Street, looking eart; + Town Hall ; 5 Episcopalisn Church.
116](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p164.gif "Volume 5 Page 153")
... LEITH STACF.. Leith Walk.]
VIEWS IN PORTOBELLO.
I, Ramsag h e ; n, The Established Church ; & High ...
Vol. 5 p. 153 (Rel. 0.97)
... from their proud
hill into the more fruitful plains (of Leith ?) to be
filled with the fa.tness and fulness ...
Vol. 5 p. 188 (Rel. 0.89)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
tyde to be a forewarning of some evil to
come.”
In 1644 the Leith timber ...
Vol. 6 p. 232 (Rel. 0.88)
![Leith.] CORNWALLIS’S REGIMENT. ‘93
“Are you uneasy about that fishing-party ? ” ‘‘ No,”
she replied, “I had no thought of it.” After she
had been asleep about an hour, she again exclaimed,
in a dreadful fright : ‘‘ I see the boat-it is going
down ! ” Again the major awoke her, on which she
said the second dream must have been suggested
Chambers conceives that, unlike many anecdotes
of this kind, Lady Clerk‘s dream-story can be traced
to an actual occurrence, which he quotes from the
CaZcdoniaiz Mercury of I 734, and that the old lady
had mistaken the precise year.
In 1740-for the first time, probably, since the
THE OLD TOLBOOTH, 1820. (&?er Slorcr.)
by the first. But no rest n-as to be obtained by
her, for again the dream returned, and she exclaimed,
in extreme agony : “They are gone !-the boat is
sunk ! Then she added : “ Mr. Dacre must not
go, for I feel that, should he go, I should be miserable
till his return.” In short, on the strength of
her treble dream, she induced their nephew to send
a note of apology to his companions, who left Leith,
but were caught in a storm, in which all perished.
121
days of Cromwell--we find regular troops quartered
in Leith, when General Guest, commanding in Scotland,
required the magistrates to find billets in
North and South Leith for certain companies of
Brigadier Cornwallis’s regiment, latterly the I I th
Foot.
Previous to 1745, the only place where troops
could be accommodated in a body at Leith was in the
old Tolbooth About that time, Robert Douglas,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p012.gif "Volume 6 Page 193")
... Leith .] CORNWALLIS’S REGIMENT. ‘93
“Are you uneasy about that fishing-party ? ” ‘‘ No,”
she 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](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p163.gif "Volume 5 Page 152")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, [ Leith Walk,
In I 748 the thoroughfare is described as “a very
handsome gravel ...
Vol. 5 p. 152 (Rel. 0.82)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
and cleaning the channel of the river at Leith .
(Burgh Records.)
In 1510, on ...
Vol. 5 p. 168 (Rel. 0.8)
... I64 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
*
LElTH WALK, FROM GAYFIELD SQUARE, LOOKING SOUTH.
CHAPTER XVII.
LEITH ...
Vol. 5 p. 164 (Rel. 0.79)
... says Robertson, prominent
in the maritime records of Leith , doubtless descendants
of the respective ...
Vol. 6 p. 276 (Rel. 0.7)
... Leith .: PAUL
pinnaces were hourly expected ; but, thanks to the
west wind, Leith was saved.
“ We continued ...
Vol. 6 p. 197 (Rel. 0.7)
![Leith] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, were ordered to make up lists of all
the dwellers in these districts, while nightly lists of
all lodgers were to be furnished by the bailies to
the captain of the City Guard.
was a profane, cruel wretch, and used them barbarously,
stowing them up between decks, where
they could not get up their heads except to sit or
lean, and robbing them of many things their friends
sent for their relief. They never were in such
~ ~
OLD HOUSE IN WATER’S CLOSE, 1879. (Aftw U Sketch hy /. RomiZh Allnr.)
The November of the same year saw those poor
victims of a dire system of misrule, the Covenanters,
who had been for months penned up like wild
animals in the Greyfnars’ Churchyard, Edinburgh,
marched through Leith. To the number of 257,
who had refused the bond, they were on the 15th
shipped on board an English vessel for transportation
to Barbadoes, there to be sold as slaves !
The captain, says the Rev. Mr. Blackadder,
strait and peril, particularly through drought, as
they were allowed little or no drink, and pent up
together till many of them fainted and were almost
suffocated.” This was in Leith Roads, and in
sight of the green hills of Fife and Lothian, on
which they were looking their last.
Their ship was cast away among the Orkneys ;
the hatches were battened down ; zoo perished
with her, while the captain and seamen made their](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p198.gif "Volume 5 Page 187")
... Leith ] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, ...
Vol. 5 p. 187 (Rel. 0.7)
![Leith] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, were ordered to make up lists of all
the dwellers in these districts, while nightly lists of
all lodgers were to be furnished by the bailies to
the captain of the City Guard.
was a profane, cruel wretch, and used them barbarously,
stowing them up between decks, where
they could not get up their heads except to sit or
lean, and robbing them of many things their friends
sent for their relief. They never were in such
~ ~
OLD HOUSE IN WATER’S CLOSE, 1879. (Aftw U Sketch hy /. RomiZh Allnr.)
The November of the same year saw those poor
victims of a dire system of misrule, the Covenanters,
who had been for months penned up like wild
animals in the Greyfnars’ Churchyard, Edinburgh,
marched through Leith. To the number of 257,
who had refused the bond, they were on the 15th
shipped on board an English vessel for transportation
to Barbadoes, there to be sold as slaves !
The captain, says the Rev. Mr. Blackadder,
strait and peril, particularly through drought, as
they were allowed little or no drink, and pent up
together till many of them fainted and were almost
suffocated.” This was in Leith Roads, and in
sight of the green hills of Fife and Lothian, on
which they were looking their last.
Their ship was cast away among the Orkneys ;
the hatches were battened down ; zoo perished
with her, while the captain and seamen made their](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p200.gif "Volume 5 Page 189")
... Leith ] SHIPPING OF COVENANTERS FOK BARBADOES. I80
of Edinburgh,” by order of the Privy Council and
magistrates, ...
Vol. 5 p. 189 (Rel. 0.7)
... is no proof that the shallow waters of the
Leith , as they debouched upon the sands of what
must have been ...
Vol. 5 p. 165 (Rel. 0.69)
... -
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH -CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF ...
Vol. 6 p. 396 (Rel. 0.68)
![Leith.] AN ANCIENT BEACH. 2 49
and here, too, stands South Leith Poor-house, with
the parochial offices facing Junction Road.
When the foundations of the hospital here were
dug in 1850, indications were discovered of how
of the ocean, at some time posterior to Noah,
ebbed and flowed over the ground on which
these buildings are at present erected.” As the
place was in the line of the fortifications, relics
ANCIENT PARLIAMENT HOUSE, PARLIAMENT SQUARE.
purpura, buccinum, ostrea, myths, and balanus,
were found (Robertson). These were seen in
extensive layers under marine sand, twelve and
fifteen feet below the surface, and twenty-five
above high water. “Being marine shells of existing
species, the great mass not edible, and so densely
compacted in layers from the hospital to the
Junction Road-nearly an acre of land-it may
rationally be concluded that the green waters
12 8
as a forty-eight pound ball of a cannon-royale,
some antique harness, a large fore!ock, and
the wheelcap or stock-point of a piece of artillery.
To the Humane Society we have referred, in its
cradle at the Burgess Wynd. It would appear that
soon after its formation a complete set of apparatus
for recovering the drowned was presented to it, and
, to the town of Leith, by the Humane Society of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p068.gif "Volume 6 Page 249")
... Leith .] AN ANCIENT BEACH. 2 49
and here, too, stands South Leith Poor-house, with
the parochial offices facing ...
Vol. 6 p. 249 (Rel. 0.68)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
prisoners, who were praying intently, when Sir
Adolphus Oughton stepped ...
Vol. 6 p. 196 (Rel. 0.67)
... Leith the additional accommodation required by
its shipping and commercial interests, including the
provision of ...
Vol. 6 p. 284 (Rel. 0.64)
... ’ OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
remainder of the structure cannot be earlier than
the close of the sixteenth ...
Vol. 6 p. 252 (Rel. 0.64)
... insurrection,
and, marching with all his adherents to
Leith , offered battle between that town and Edinburgh
to ...
Vol. 5 p. 169 (Rel. 0.63)
... by the
hands of him, namely, who is called Hood of Leith ,
from me and my heirs for ever, as freely, ...
Vol. 5 p. 132 (Rel. 0.63)
![Leith.] WITCHCRAFT IN LEITH; I81
-
dated 15th March, 1603, among many enumerations,
all in favour of Edinburgh, power is again
given the magistrates to enlarge and extend the
port towards the sea, with bulwarks on both sides
of theaiver; and to build, strengthen, and fortify the
Andrew Sadler, through the agency, in the former
case, of a little bag of black plaiding, wherein she
put some grains of wheat, worsted threads of divers
colours, hair, and nails of “ mennis fingeris ;” and
I in the latter case by a shirt dipped in a certain
GRANT’S SQUARE, 1851.~ (A&r a Dmwiw by W. Chanring.)
same in a substantial and durable manner for the
safety of shipping.
As the sixteenth century was drawing to its close,
the criminal records give many instances of the
dark and gross superstition that had spread over
the land even after the days of Knox. Thus, in
1597, Janet Stewart, in the Canongate, and Christian
Livingstone, in Leith, were accused of witchcraft
and casting spells upon Thomas Guthry and
well ; for which alleged crimes they were sentenced
to die on the Castle Hill, “ thair bodies to be
Grant’s Square has entirely disappeared. “It was,“ writes Dr.
Robtrt Paterson, “the square in which existed the old Parliament
Houu, once occupied in Mary’s time. The m m in which the Par-
L i e n t met must have been a spacious one, as when I remember it it
was divided into numerous smaller rooms for poor tenants, but yet tkc
carved oak panelling and the richly-decorated mof told of former
magnificence. All has, however, now been cleared away, and replaced
by a granary.”](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p192.gif "Volume 5 Page 181")
... Leith .] WITCHCRAFT IN LEITH ; I81
-
dated 15th March, 1603, among many enumerations,
all in favour of Edinburgh, ...
Vol. 5 p. 181 (Rel. 0.63)
![A ,
k i t h Walk.] JOHNNIE WILKES”
himself in her bedroom, “with the intention of
carrying off a sum of money after she fell asleep.
But the noise of opening her desk awoke her; he,
for fear of detection, seized a knife which by accident
lay there, and mangled her throat so dreadfully
that she died next day. He then leaped from
a window of the second storey, but fractured one of
his legs so much in the fall that he was unable to
walk, and sustained himself for several days, eating
peas and turnips, until his hiding-place was discovered
He afterwards graced the gibbet in Leith
Walk, where his body hung for many a long year.”
In more than one instance on the King‘s birth-
BRWNSTME HOUSE.
day the effigy of Johnnie Wilkes,” that noted
demagogue, Lord Mayor of London and English
M.P., who made himself so obnoxious to the Scots,
figured at the Gallow Lee. The custom, still prevalent
in many parts of the country, and so dear to
the Scottish schoolboy, of destroying his effigy
with every indignity on the royal birthday, is first
mentioned, we believe, in ‘‘ Annals of the Reign of
George 111.f 1770.
But when only fields and green coppice lay between
the city and the seaport, the gibbet at the Gallow
Lee, with its ghastlyadditions,must have formed
a gloomy object amid the smiling urban landscape.
IN the beginning of the present century fields
and nursery grounds chiefly bordered Leith Walk,
CHAPTER XVI.
LEITH WALK (concZdd).
respectively Trotteis, Jollie’s, Ronaldson’s, and
King‘s Buildings-had been erected, with long open](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p168.gif "Volume 5 Page 157")
... was discovered
He afterwards graced the gibbet in Leith
Walk, where his body hung for many a long ...
Vol. 5 p. 157 (Rel. 0.62)
![The Water of Leith.] CEMETERY.
VIEWS IN THE DEAN CEMETERY. (Secjuof-note,p. 70.)](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p080.gif "Volume 5 Page 69")
... Water of Leith .] CEMETERY.
VIEWS IN THE DEAN CEMETERY. (Secjuof-note,p. ...
Vol. 5 p. 69 (Rel. 0.62)
![Leith.] OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209
CHAPTER XXII.
LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded).
Leith and Edinburgh Peopk in the First Years of the Nineteenth Century-Gorge 1V. Pmkied-His Landing at Leith-Temtory Of the
Town defined-Landing of Mons Meg-Leith during the Old War--The Smacks.
UNLESS it be among the seafaring class, no difference
is perceptible now between the inhabitants of
Edinburgh and Leith ; but it was not so once, when
the towns were more apart, and intercourse less frequent
; differences and distinctions were known
even in the early years of the present century.
A clever and observant writer in 1824 says that,
as refinements and dissimilarities existed then between
the Old and New Town, so did they exist
in the appearance, habits, and characteristics of the
Leith and Edinburgh people.
‘‘ Not such,” he continues, as accidentally
take up their residence there for a sea prospect and
a sea-breeze, but those whose air is Leith air from
their cradles, and who are fixtures in the placemerchants,
traders, and seafaring persons : the
latter class has a peculiarity similar in most maritime
towns; but it is the rich merchants and
traders, together with their wives and daughters,
who are now before us.” (“ The Hermit in Edin.?”
The man of fortune and pleasure in Edinburgh,
he remarks, views his Leith neighbours as a mere
Cit, though in point of fact he is much less so than
the former. “The inan of fashion residing in
Edinburgh for a time, for economy or convenience,
and the Scottish nobleman dividing his time betwixt
London, Edinburgh, and his estates, sets
down the Leith merchant as a homespun article.
Again, the would-be dandy of the New Town eyes
him with self-preference, and considers him as his
inferior in point of taste, dress, living, and knowledge
of the beau monde-one who, if young, copies
his dress, aspires at his introduction into the higher
circle, and borrows his fashions ; the former, however,
being always ready to borrow his name or
cash; the first looking respectable on a bill, and
the second not being over plenty with the men of
dress and of idle life in Edinburgh. Both sexes
follow the last London modes, and give an idea
that they are used to town life, high company,
luxuries, late hours, and the manner of living in
polished France.”
All this difference is a thing of the past, and
the observer would be a shrewd one indeed who
detected any difference between the denizen of the
capital and of its seaport.
But the Leith people of the date referred to
Vol. 11.)
.
were, like their predecessors, more of the old
school, and, with their second-class new fashions,
and customs were some time in passing into desuetude,
old habits dying hard there as elsewhere. The
paterfamilias of Leith then despised the extremes
of dress, though his son might affect them, and hn
was more plodding and business-like in bearing
than his Edinburgh neighbour; was alleged to
always keep his hands in his pockets, with an expression
of independence in his face ; while, continues
this writer, in those “of the Edinburgh
merchants may be read cunning and deep discernment.
Moreover, the number of Leith traders is
limited, and each is known by headmark, whilst
thpse employed in commerce and trade in the
northern capital may be mistaken, and mixed up
with the men of pleasure, the professors, lawyers,
students, and strangers j but an observing eye will
easily mark the difference and the strong characteristic
of each-barring always the man of pleasure,
who is changeful, and often insipid within
and without.”
In 1820 the Edinburgh and Leith Seamen’s
Friendly Society was instituted.
In the same year, when some workmen were
employed in levelling the ground at the south end
of the bridge, then recently placed across the river
at Leith Mills (for the purpose of opening up a
communication between the West Docks and the
foot of Leith Walk), five feet from the surface they
came upon many human skeletons, all of rather unusual
stature, which, from the size of the roots of
the trees above them, must have lain there a very
long time, and no doubt were the remains of some
of those soldiers who had perished in the great
siege during the Regency of Mary of Lorraine.
The proclamation of George IV. as king, after
having been performed at Edinburgh with great
ceremony, was repeated at -the pier and Shore
of Leith on February grd, 1820, by the Sheriff
Clerk and magistrates, accompanied by the heralds,
pursuivants and trumpeters, the style and titles 01
His Majesty being given at great length. At one
o’clock the ship of the Admiral and other vessels
in the Roads, the flags of which had been halF
hoisted, mastheaded them at one p.m, and fired
forty-one guns. They were then half-hoisted till
the funeral of George 111. was over.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p026.gif "Volume 6 Page 207")
... Leith .] OLD LEITH MEN AND MANNERS. 209
CHAPTER XXII.
LEITH HISTORICAL SURVEY (concluded).
Leith and Edinburgh ...
Vol. 6 p. 207 (Rel. 0.61)
... Scotland was the long stretch of bare
sand at Leith ,
LEITH LINKS.
informer for the double thereof, ...
Vol. 6 p. 268 (Rel. 0.61)
... mentioned, contains the offices of the
Leith Chamber of Commerce, instituted in 1840,
and ...
Vol. 6 p. 245 (Rel. 0.61)
... THE LEITH RACE WEEK. 269
afterwards James VII., during the time he was
Royal Commissioner at Holyrood. ‘‘ ...
Vol. 6 p. 269 (Rel. 0.61)
... years ago Mr. Macfie was a well-known
sugar refiner in Leith . His establishment stood
in Elbe Street, South ...
Vol. 6 p. 236 (Rel. 0.6)
... it.
The castle was afterwards demolished by order of
LEITH HARBOUR ABOUT 1700. (Fronr am Oil Paint ng in fhe ...
Vol. 5 p. 173 (Rel. 0.6)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
sion opposite to the church of St. Ninian, but is
now rebuilt into a modern ...
Vol. 6 p. 256 (Rel. 0.58)
![Leith.1 THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 259
EASTWARD of Leith lie those open downs called
the Links, once of much greater extent than we
find them, and doubtless at one time connected
ground to the westward of the pier, when it was
blowing fresh, with a heavy sea, and before any
assistance could be given she was driven upon
the beach, near the citadel, having beaten off her
rudder and otherwise considerably damaged herself
[sic]. They are employed in taking out the
cargo, and if the weather continues moderate, it
is expected she will be got off.”
The waves of the sea are now distant nearly two
thousand feet north from the spot where the wreck
took place.
Three of the bastions, and two of the gates of
the citadel, were standing when the old “Statistical
Account ” was published, in 1793.
Before quitting this quarter of North Leith we
may quote the following rather melancholy account
given of the latter in 1779, in a work entitled “The
Modem British Traveller,” folio, and now probably
out of print.
About a mile from the city is Leith, which may
be called the warehouse of Edinburgh. It is
divided into two parts by a small rivulet, over
which is a neat bridge of three arches. That part
called South Leith is both large and populous ; it
has an exceeding handsome church, a jail, a
custom-house [the old one in the Tolbooth Wynd],
but the streets are irregular, nor do any of the
buildings merit particular attention. It was
formerly fortified, but the works were destroyed
by the English in 1559 [?I, and not any remains
are now to be seen. That part called North
Leith is a very poor place, without any publick
building, except an old Gothic church ; there is a
small dock, but it is only capable of admitting
ships of a hundred and fifty tons. The harbour is
generally crowded with vessels from different parts;
and from here to Kinghorn, in Fifeshire, the
passage-boat crosses every tide, except on Sundays. . . . Great numbers of the citizens of Edin-
’burgh resort to Leith on parties of pleasure, and
to regale themselves with the sea air and oysters,
which are caught here in great abundance. . . .
with the wide, open, and sandy waste that extended
beyond the Figgate Burn to Magdalene
Bridge,
The town is under the jurisdiction of a bailiff CT],
but it may be called a part of, and is subject to the
jurisdiction of, Edinburgh, in virtue of a charter
granted by King Robert the Eruce.”
The Manners’ Church, a rather handsome building,
with two smail spires facing the east, is built
upon a portion of the site of the citadel, and
schools are attached to it. The church was designed
by John Henderson of Edinburgh, and
was erected in 1840.
In this quarter Sand Port Street, which led to the
then beach, with a few old houses neax the citadel,
and the old church of St. Ninian, comprised the.
whole of North Leith at the time of the Union.
There the oldest graving-dock was constructed in
1720, and it yet remains, behind a house not far
from the bridge, dated-according to Parker
Lawson-162 2.
The present custom-house of Leith was built in
1812, on the site where H.M. ship Fu~y was built
in I 780 ; and an old native of Leith, who saw her
launched, had the circumstance impressed upon
his memory, as he related to Robertson (whose
“Antiquities ” were published in 185 I), “by a carpenter
having been killed by the falling of the
shores.”
The edifice cost A12,617, is handsome, and in
the Grecian style, adorned in front with pillars and
pediment It stands at the North Leith end of the
lower drawbridge.
The officials here consist of a collector, twb
chief clerks, three first and seven second-class
clerks, with one extra ; eight writers, two surveyors,
eighteen examining officers, and a principal coast
officer for Fisherrow. The long room is handsome,
and very different from its predecessor in the Tolbooth
Wynd, which was simply divided by long
poles, through which entries were passed.
In May, 1882, the building at Dock Place (in
this quarter) known as the Sailors’ Home, was
converted into the Mercantile Marine Department
and Government Navigation School.
C H A P T E R XXIX.
LEITH -THE LINKS.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p078.gif "Volume 6 Page 259")
... Leith .1 THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 259
EASTWARD of Leith lie those open downs called
the Links, once of much greater extent ...
Vol. 6 p. 259 (Rel. 0.58)
... OLD AKD NEW EDINBURGH, [ Leith .
1596-7. In 1578 an Act of Parliament was passed
to prevent “ the taking away ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
to extinguish the flames. On the same daya grand
assault was to be made.
By ...
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![kith.] THE CITADEL 2S7
General Monk no doubt used all the stones of
the two edifices in the erection of his citadel, which
is thus described by John Ray, in his Itinerary,
when he visited Scotland in the year 1661 :-
“ At Leith we saw one of those citadels built by
and stores. There is also a good capacious chapel,
the piazza, or void space within, as large as Trinity
College (Cambridge) great court.”
This important stronghold, which must have
measured at least 400 feet one way, by 250 the
NORTH LEITH CHURCH.
the Protector, one of the best fortifications we ever
beheld, passing fair and sumptuous. There are
three forts (bastions?) advanced above the rest,
and two platfomis ; the works round about are
faced with freestone towards the ditch, and are
almost as high as the highest buildings therein, and
withal, thick and substantial. Below are very pleasant,
convenient, and well-built houses, for the
governor, officers, and soldiers, and for magazines
other (and been in some manner adapted to the
acute angle of the old fortifications there), costing,
says Wilson, “upwards of LIOO,OOO sterling, fell a
sacrifice, soon after the Restoration, to the cupidity
of the monarch and the narrow-minded jealousy
of the Town Council of Edinburgh.”
All that remains of the citadel now are some old
buildings, called, perhaps traditionally, ‘‘ Cromwell’s
Barracks”-near which was found an old](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p076.gif "Volume 6 Page 257")
... he visited Scotland in the year 1661 :-
“ At Leith we saw one of those citadels built by
and stores. ...
Vol. 6 p. 257 (Rel. 0.57)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
cost of .&3oo, and has two ornamental fronts;
respectively with Ionic ...
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... Bridge-Rrunstane House . . . . . . . . . . . . I43
CHAPTER XV.
LEITH WALK.
A Pathway in the 15th ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
beneath it “ The Triumph of Bacchus,” beautifully
executed in ...
Vol. 5 p. 72 (Rel. 0.56)
... of the building were ornamented
ST. MARK’S (SOUTH LEITH ) CHURCH, 1882.
by buttresses finished with ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
One of the greatest events of its time in Leith
was the landing there of George ...
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... FIRST THOROUGHFARE. Leith 1
THE KIRKGATE.
CHAPTER XXIII.
LEITH - THE KIRKGATE.
The Kirkgate-Eastside-Tavern ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH .
~
PACE
Leith Roads. 1824 . . . . . . . 276
Tlu East and West Piers. Leith . . To ...
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![Leith.] THE KING'S WARK. 237
~
Arnot adds. It was to keep one of the cellars in
the King's Wark in repair, for holding wines and
other provisions for the king's use.
This Bernard Lindsay it was whom Taylor
mentions in his '' Penniless Pilgrimage " as having
Moreover, the King's Wark was placed most
advantageously at the mouth of the harbour, to
serve as -a defence against any enemy who might
approach it from the seaward. It thus partook
somewhat of the character of a citadel; and this
BERNARD STREET.
given him so warm a welcome at Leith in
1618.
That some funds were derivable from the King's
Wark to the Crown is proved by the frequent
payments with which it was burdened by several
of our monarchs. Thus, in the year 1477 James
111. granted out of it a perpetual annuity of twelve
marks Scots, for support of a chaplain to officiate
at the altar of c'the upper chapel in the collegiate
church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at
Restalrig."
seems to have been implied by the infeftment
granted by Queen Mary in 1564 to John Chisho!ia,
Master or Comptroller of the Royal Artillery,
who would appear to have repaired the buildings
which, no doubt, shared in the general conflagrations
that signalised the English invasions of 1544
and 1547. and the queen, on the completion
of his work, thus confirms her grant to the
comptroller :-
U Efter Her Heinis lauchful age, and revocation
made in parIiament, hir majestie sett in feu farme](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p056.gif "Volume 6 Page 237")
... Leith .] THE KING'S WARK. 237
~
Arnot adds. It was to keep one of the cellars in
the King's Wark in repair, for ...
Vol. 6 p. 237 (Rel. 0.54)
... the word is
spelt Linchs and Linkkes.
The whole of Leith Links must, at one time,
have been covered by the ...
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... “ upon the twentieth
day, the principal block-house of Leith , called St.
Anthony’s Kirk, was battered down.” ...
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... “ upon the twentieth
day, the principal block-house of Leith , called St.
Anthony’s Kirk, was battered down.” ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
.but the3ittle .warlike episode connected with Inchkeith
forms a part of ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
C H A P T E R X X X I I I .
LEITH -TIIE DOCKS.
New Docks proposed-Apathy of ...
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... to a cartel
ship, commanded by Captain Robertson, in Leith
Roads.
defended Mr. Fitzsimmons, who was ...
Vol. 4 p. 248 (Rel. 0.53)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. Leith .
or ripple or burnished face of water, the very
aspect of which is luxury in a ...
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![Leith.] TRADE OF THE PORT. 289
Even in times of undoubted depression the
docks at Leith have always retained an appearance
of bustle and business, through the many large sailing
ships laden with guano and West Indian sugar
lying at the quays; but guano having been partly
superseded by chemical manures, and West Indian
by Continental sugar, the comparatively few vessels
that now arrive are discharged with the greatest
expedition. In the close of 1881 one came to
port with the largest cargo of sugar ever delivered
at Leith, the whole of which was for the Bonnington
Refinery.
As a source of revenue to the Dock Commission,
steamers which can make ten voyages for one performed
by a sailing vessel are, of course, very much
preferred ; and, as showing the extent of the Continental
sugar trade, it may be mentioned that quite
recently 184,233 bags were imported in a single
month. Most of this sugar is taken direct from the
docks to the refiners at Greenock.
A very important element in the trade of Leith
is the importation of esparto grass, both by sailing
vessels and steamers. This grass is closely pressed
by steam power into huge square bales, and these
are discharged with such celerity by the use of
donkey-engines and other appliances, that it is a
common thing to unload 150 tons in a single day.
The facilities for discharging vessels at Leith
with extreme rapidity are so admirable that few
ports can match it-the meters, the weighers, and
the stevedore firms who manage the matter, having
every interest in getting the work performed with
the utmost expedition.
As a wine port Leith ranks second in the British
Isles, and it possesses a very extensive timber trade;
and though not immediately connected with ship
ping, the wool trade is an important branch of
industry there, the establishments of Messrs. Macgregor
and Pringle, and of Messrs. Adams, Sons, and
Co., being among the most extensive in Scotland.
The largest fleet of Continental trading steamers
sailing from Leith is that of Messrs. James Cume
and Co. In 18Sr this firm had twenty-two
steamers, with a capacity of 17,000 tons. Messrs.
Gibson and Co. have many fine steamers, which
are. constantly engaged, while the Baltic is open
and free of ice, in making trading voyages to Riga,
Cronstadt, and other Russian ports
A trade with Iceland has of late years been
rapidly developed, the importation consisting of
ponies, sheep, wild fowl, and dried fish ; while in
the home trade, the London and Edinburgh Ship
ping Company do a very active and lucrative business,
having usually two, and sometimes three large
steamers plying per week between Leith and Loo-
133
don ; and in 1880, important additions were mad&
to tht lines .of trading steamers by several large
vessels owned by the Arrow Line being put on
the berth, to ply between Leith and New York ;
while the North of Scotland Steam Shipping
Company transferred their business to the port
from Granton.
So steadily has the trade with New York developed
itself, that from three to four steamers per
month now arrive at Leith, bringing cargoes of
grain, butter, oilcakes, linseed meal, tinned meats,
grass seeds, etc. Over 200,ooo sacks of flour Came
to Leith in one year from New York, and in one
month alone 33,312 sacks were imported.
Some of the Leith steamers sail direct to NewYork
with mixed cargoes; others load with coal, and proceed
there, vid the Mediterranean, after exchanging
their cargo for fruit. Then Messrs. Blaik and
Co., of Constitution Street, have large steamers of
3,650 tons burden each, built specially for this
trade. The passage from New York, “north
about,” i.e., through the Pentland Firth, usually
occupied sixteen days, but now it is being reduced
to twelve
Prior to the opening of the Edinburgh Dock a
difficulty was found in berthing some of the great
ocean-going steamers, and many that used to bring
live stock from New York had to land them on the
Thames or Tyne, the regulations of the Privy
Council flot permitting these animals to be landed
at Leith.
‘( Permission was first asked by the Commission,”
says a local print in 1881, “to enable the animals
to be taken to the Leith slaughter-house, which is
on the south side of the new docks, and only a few
yards from one of the entrances. The Privy
Council having refused this request, the Dock
Commission, with a desire to foster the trade, then
made arrangements with the Leith Town Council,
by which they could build a slaughter-house within
the docks. Asite was proposed and plans prepared;
but being objected to again by the Privy
Council, the subject was allowed to lie over.”
We have mentioned the transference of the
North of Scotland steamers from Granton to
Leith, and this change has proved monetarily
advantageous, not only to the Cornmission, but to
the majority of the shippers and passengers, and a
special berth was assigned at the entrance of the
Prince of M‘ales’s Dock for the Aberdeen steamers,
so that they sail even after high water. Besides
the usual consignments of sheep, cattle, and ponies,
vast quantities of herrings, in barrel, are brought to
Leith, generally for re-shipment to the Continent of
Europe.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p108.gif "Volume 6 Page 289")
... Leith .] TRADE OF THE PORT. 289
Even in times of undoubted depression the
docks at Leith have always retained an ...
Vol. 6 p. 289 (Rel. 0.53)
![Leith] ST. NINIAN’S CHAPEL 251
the eighty-seventh year of his age, and was able
to transact business until a very short time before
his death. He was succeeded in the baronetcy
by his eldest son, Sir Thomas Gladstone, of Fasque
and Balfour, M.P. for Queenborough and other
places successively in England.
Gladstone Place, near the Links, has been
so named in honour of this family.
From the top of the Sheriff Brae and Mill Lane,
Great Junction Street, a broad and spacious
thoroughfare, extends eastward for the distance of
two thousand feet to the foot of Leith Walk.
Here, on the south side, are the United Presbyterian
church, the neat Methodist chapel, and a
large and handsome edifice erected in 1839 as a
school, and liberally endowed by Dr. Bell, founder
of the Madras system of education, at a cost of
f;IO,OOO.
C H A P T E R X X V I I I ,
NORTH LEITH.
The Chapel and Church of St. NiniaPParish Created-Its Records-Rev. George Wishart-Rev. John Knox-Rev. Dr. Johnston-The Burial-
Ground-New North Leith ChurchlFree Church-Old Grammar SchoolXobourg Street-St. Nicholas Church-The Citadel-Its
Remains-Houses within k--Beach and Sands of North Leith-New Custom How-Shipping Inwards and Outwards.
ON crossing the river we find ourselves in North
Leith, which is thus described by Kincaid in
‘787 :-
“ With regard to North Leith, very little alteration
has taken place here for a century past. It consists
of one street running north-east from the bridge,
six hundred feet long, and about forty in breadth
where broadest. On each side are many narrow
lanesand closes, those on the south side leading
down to the carpenters’ yards by the side of the
river, and those on the north to the gardens belonging
to the inhabitants. From the bridge a
road leads to the citadel, in length 520 feet ; then
IOO feet west, and we enter the remains of the old
fortification, on the top of which a dwelling-house
is now erected. The buiIdings in this place are in
general very mean in their appearance, and inhabited
by peopIe who let rooms during the summer
season to persons who bathe in the salt water.”
One of the leading features of North Leith, when
viewed from any point of view, is the quaint spire
of its.old church, on the west bank of the river,
near the end of the upper drawbridge, abandoned
now to secular purposes, separated from its ancient
burying-ground (which still remains, With its many
tombstones, half sunk amid the long rank grass
of ages), and lifting its withered and storm-worn
outline, as if in deprecation of the squalor by which
it is surrounded, and the neglect and contumely
heaped on its venerable history.
North Leith, which contains the first, or original
docks, and anciently comprehended the citadel
and the chief seat of traffic, was long a congeries
of low, quaint-looking old houses, huddled
into groups or irregular lines, and straddling their
way amid nuisances in back and front, very much
the style of a Spanish or Portuguese town of the
present day; but since 1818 it has undergone great
and renovating changes, and, besides being disenambered
of the citadel and masses of crumbling
houses, it has some streets that may vie with the
second or third thoroughfares of Edinburgh.
As stated in our general history of Leith, Robert
Ballantyne, Abbot of Holyrood, towards the close
of the fifteenth century, built a handsome bridge
of three stone arches over the Water of Leith, to
connect the southern with the northern quarter of
the rising seaport, and so011 after its completion he
erected and endowed near its northern end a chapel,
dedicated to the honour of God, the Virgin Mary,
and St. Ninian, the apostle of Galloway, Having
considerable possessions in Leith, €he abbot a p
pointed two. chaplains to officiate in this chapel,
who were ta receive all the profits accruing from a
house which he had built at the southern end of
this bridge, with A4 yearly out of other tenements
he possessed in South Leith.
In addition to the offerings made in the chapel,
the tolls or duties accruing from this new bridge
were to be employed in its repair and that of the
chapel, but all surplus the charitable abbot ordained
was to be given to the poor; and this charter of
foundation was confirmed by James IV., of gallant
memory, on the 1st of January, 1493. (Maitland.)
This chapel was built with the full consent of
the Chapter of Holyrood, and with the approbation
of William, Archbishop of St Andrews ; and-as a.
dependency of the church of the Holy Crossthe
land whereon it stood is termed the Rudest&
in a charter of Queen Mary, dated 1569.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p070.gif "Volume 6 Page 251")
... Leith ] ST. NINIAN’S CHAPEL 251
the eighty-seventh year of his age, and was able
to transact business until a very ...
Vol. 6 p. 251 (Rel. 0.53)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
This marriage is also referred to by Nisbet in
his Heraldry,” Vol. I., so ...
Vol. 6 p. 248 (Rel. 0.53)
... OLD AND NEW EDINEURGH. [ Leith .
The ballast of the war ships ((was cannon-shot of
iron of which we found in ...
Vol. 5 p. 170 (Rel. 0.52)
![280 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
number of wounded men on his hands, bore awa]
to Barbadoes to re-fit.
In the spring of the following year, a Leitl
sloop, coming from Strichen, laden with wheat anc
cheese, was taken off St. Abb’s Head by two Frenct
privateers of twelve and sixteen guns-the latter was
Le MarichaZ Duc de NoaiZZes, painted quite black.
When the sloop struck a tremendous sea was run.
ning ; Laverock, the master, ransomed her for IOC
guineas, and reported at Leith that if these twc
great privateers were not taken soon, they wopld
ruin the east coast trade of Scotland.
Soon after another ship of Leith was taken by
them into Bergen, and ransonied for 500 guineas,
though a few days before the privateer had been
severely handled by the EZiza6efh, merchant ship,
Captain Grant, who had also to strike to her, afteI
a most severe combat.
In 1794, the Haith, of Leith, was captured by a
squadron of French ships on the zIst August,
together with the Dundee, whaler, of Dundee. The
latter was re-taken, and brought into Leith by H.M.
brig Fisher, which reported that, previous to re-capture,
the Dundee had picked up a boat, having on
board eight Frenchmen, part of a prize crew of
sixteen put on board the Raifir to take her to
Bergen ; but the mate and another Scottish seaman
had daringly re-taken her, and had sailed none
knew whither. Soon after a letter reached the
owners in Leith from Lyons, the mate, dated from
Lerwick, briefly stating that when fifteen miles
west of Bergen, “1 retook her from the French,
sending nine of the Frenchmen away in one of the
boats, ancl put the rest in confinement.” Eventually
these two brave fellows brought the ship to
Leith, from whence their prisoners were sent to
the Castle.
In those days the Glass House Company had
their own armed ships, and one of these, the
Phemk, Cornelius Neilson, master, had the reputation
of being one of the swiftest sailers in Leith,
and was always advertised to sail with or without
convoy, as she fought her own way.
In 1797, the BreadaZbane Letter of Marque, of
Leith, captured a large Spanish brig off the coast
of South America, and sent her into Leith Roads
for sale, under the convoy of the RoyaZ ChrZoffe,
Captain Elder.
During the latter end of the eighteenth century
Leith possessed two frigate-built ships of remarkable
beauty, the RoseUe, a Letter of Marque, and
the MoreZan/E, her sister ship, which usually fought
their own way; and the former was so like a man-ofwar
in her size and appearance, that she frequently
gave chase for a time to laige foreign privateers.
In the NeraZd for 1798 we read that on her appeacance
off Peterhead, in March, she created such consternation
that the captain of the RoJert, a Greenlandman,
on a gun being fired from her, ran his
ship ashore, according to one account, and, according
to another, made his escape, with the assistance
of his crew, from the supposed enemy. The
MoreZand and the Lady Fwbes,,” of Leith, another
armed ship, seem always to have sailed in company,
for protection, to and from the West Indies.
After many escapes and adventures, the beautiful
RoseZZe, which carried fourteen guns of large calibre,
was captured at last by a Spanish line-of-battle ship,
which, report said, barbarously sank her, with all
on board, by a broadside.
On the 6th December, 1798, theBefsy, of Leith,
Captain Mackie, having the Angus regiment of
volunteers on board, from Shetland, in company
with an armed cutter, was attacked off Rattray
Head by two heavily-armed French privateers. A
severe engagement ensued, in which the volunteers
made good use of their small arms; the
privateers were crippled and beaten off by the
Befsy, which ran next day into Banff, and the
roops were put on shore.
In the same month The Generous Triends, sailing
from Leith to Hull, when a few miles off the
mouth of the Humber, in a heavy gale of wind,
was overtaken by a large black privateer, having a
?oop and fiddle-head painted red and white. The
ieavy sea prevented her from being boarded, and
:he appearance of the Baltic fleet compelling the
:nemy to sheer off, she bore up with the latter, and
yeturned to Leith Roads; but such little excitenents
were of constant occurrence in those stirring
imes
The Nancy, of Leith, Captain Grindley, was
:aken, in July, I 799, off Dungeness, by the Ado&h,
ugger, of eighteen guns and fifty men, who used
iim and his crew with great severity prior to their
Jeing cast into the horrible prison at Valenciennes.
“The behaviour of the Frenchmen to us, when
aken, was most shameful,” he wrote to his owners
n Leith. 6‘ When they got upon our deck, they
Kept firing their pistols, cutting with swords for some
ime, and dragging those who were below out of
Heir beds; they cut and mangled in a cruel manner
me of our men, William Macleod, who was then
it the helm, and afterwards threw him overhoard.
rhis obliged the rest of the crew to leave the
leck and go below. In a short time we were
It is interesting to remark that the original painting, after which the
rawing of Plate 32 ( ‘ I Leith Pier and Harbour, 1798 ”) was made, ws
iainted for Caprain Gourley, who was part owner of the Lady Fades,
The Editor is obliged
o bir. R. F. Todd, owner of the painting in question, for this information.
Letter of Marque that carried 14 mnada.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p099.gif "Volume 6 Page 280")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
number of wounded men on his hands, bore awa]
to Barbadoes to re-fit.
In the ...
Vol. 6 p. 280 (Rel. 0.52)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
bestowed by the piety of private donors on the
hospital of St. Anthony, and ...
Vol. 6 p. 218 (Rel. 0.51)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
choice of the inhabitants whether they will make
their dwelling where they do ...
Vol. 5 p. 186 (Rel. 0.51)
... 10th June, 1560.
Fresh forces were now envkoning Leith . Sir
James Balfour states that there were among ...
Vol. 5 p. 178 (Rel. 0.51)
![kith.] THE OLD SMACKS AND FERRY-BOATS. e11
smacks in their southward voyage merely touching
at Berwick for their cargoes of salmon.
In ISOZ the merchants of Leith established a
line for themselves, ‘‘ The Edinburgh and Leith
Shipping Company,” which commenced with six
armed smacks, the crews of which were protected
from the impress.
On the 23rd of October, 1804, one of these
smacks, the Brifunnia, Captain Brown, and another
named the Sprz$fO, Captain Taylor, off Cromer,
fell in with a large French privateer, which bore
down on them both, firing heavily, particularly with
musketry; but the Leith smacks’ men stood to
their guns, engaged her briskly, and so damaged her
sails and rigging that she sheered off and dropped
astern. The smacks had many shots through their
canvas, but none of their men were killed.
On the 9th January, 1805, another, the SwaZZm,
Captain White, was attacked off Flamborough
Head by a heavy French privateer, carrying fourteen
guns, and very full of men. Passing through a
fleet of Newcastle colliers, she came within pistolshot
of the Swallow, and poured in a broadside,
accompanied by volleys of musketry.
Captain White replied with his carronades and
small arms. The round shot of the former told so
well that the privateer was fairly beaten off, while
neither the smack nor her crew sustained much
injury. “In these two actions,” says the Scots
Magazine, “ both seamen and passengers showed a
becoming spirit.” But such encounters were of
very common occurrence in those days.
In 1809 the new company had ten of these
smacks ; eventually, there were no fewer than four
companies trading between Leith and London ;
but in 182 I one was formed under the name of the
London and Edinburgh Steam Packet Company,
With three large steamers-the City of Eninbuqh,
theJnmes Watt, and the Solo.
So great was their success that in 1831 the London,
Leith, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Shipping
Company superseded their fine smacks by the
introduction of powerful steamers, with beautiful
cabin accommodation, the WiZliam, Addaide, and
Victoria. In 1836 the London and Edinburgh
Steam Packet Company became merged in the
General Steam Navigation Company, sailing from
Granton to London. The old smacks were retained
by only two of the companies ; but having
been found expensive to build and to maintain,
from the number of men required to handle their
unwieldy canvas-particularly their great boom
main-sail-they were in 1844 superseded by clipper
schooners ; so these once celebrated craft, the old
Leith smacks, have entirely disappeared from the
harbour with which they were so long and exclusively
identified.
Before quitting the subject of passenger traffic,
we may glance at the ancient ferries of Leith.
By an Act of James I., in 1425, it was ordained
that all femes where horses were conveyed, should
“have for jlk boate a treene brig,” or wooden gangway,
under the pain of ‘‘ 40 shillings of ilk boate ;”
and again, by an Act of James III., 1467, the
ferries at Leith, Kinghorn, and Queensferry are
ordained to have “brigges of buuds,” under penalty
of the “ tinsel ” or forfeitursof their boats. In 1475
the charge for a passenger was twopence, and for
a horse sixpence; at Queensferry one penny for
a man, and twopence for a horse. (Scots Acts,
Glendoick.)
Nicoll records that in 1650 the ferrymen at Leith
and Burntisland (taking advantage probably of the
confusion of affairs) became so exorbitant in their
charges that complaints were made to the Deputy
Governor of Leith, who ordered that the fare for a
man and horse should be only one shilling sterling,
and for a single person one groat, “quhairas it
wqs tripled of beioir.”
In July, 1633, a boat at the ferry between
Burntisland and Leith foundered in a fair summer’s
day, according to Spalding, and with it perished
thirty-five domestic servants of Charles I., with his
silver plate and household stuff, “but it foretokened
great troubles to fall out betwixt the king
and his subjects, as after does appear.” Balfour
states that there was a great stoi-m, that the king
crossed “in grate jeopardy of his lyffe,” and that
only eight servants perished.
In the early part of the present century the ferry
traffic between Leith, Kinghorn, and Burntisland
was carried on by means of stout sloops of forty oc
fifty tons, without topmasts, and manned generally
by only four men, and always known as “the
Kinghorn Boats,” although Pettycur was adopted
as the more modern harbour.
Generally there were two crossings between
Leith and Fife every tide, though subsequently,
as traffic increased, the number of runs was increased
by having a boat anchored outside the
harbour when there was not sufficient water for it
to enter. Small pinnaces were used for the voyage
in dead calms. The old ferrymen were strong,
rough, and quaint fellows, and Leith still abounds
with anecdotes of their brusque ways and jovial
humour.
A recent writer mentions that if a passenger
had a dog whose acquaintance he was disposed
to ignore, in order to escape paying its fare, he
would be sure to be accosted by a blue-bonneted](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p030.gif "Volume 6 Page 211")
... for their cargoes of salmon.
In ISOZ the merchants of Leith established a
line for themselves, ‘‘ The ...
Vol. 6 p. 211 (Rel. 0.51)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
named themselves the “ Friends of the People,”
were alarming the authorities by ...
Vol. 6 p. 278 (Rel. 0.51)
... from being a merchant skipper of North
Leith , he became an opulent and enterprising
trader by ...
Vol. 6 p. 200 (Rel. 0.51)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Wynd.
broad and spacious thoroughfare, named St. Mary’s
Street, presenting on ...
Vol. 2 p. 300 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith] THE GLASS WORKS. 2 3 9
fashion that the hamlet near Craigmillar was namec
“Little France” from the French servants o
Mary.
U In a small garden attached to one of the house:
in Little London,” says a writer, whose anecdote
we give for what it is worth, “ there was a flowerplot
which was tended with peculiar care long
after its original possessors had gone the way 01
all flesh, and it was believed that the body of a
young and beautiful female who committed suicide
was interred here. The peculiar circumstances
attending her death, and the locality made choice
of for her interment, combined to throw romantic
interest over her fate and fortunes, and
her story was handed-down from one generation
to another.”
In Bernard Street, a spacious and well-edificed
thoroughfare, was built, in 1806, the office of the
Leith Bank, a neat but small edifice, consisting of
two floors ; a handsome dome rises from the north
front, and a projection ornamented with four Ionic
columns, and having thin pilasters of the same.
decorates the building. It is now the National
Bank of Scotland Branch.
Since then, many other banking offices have been
established in the same street, including that of
the Union Bank, built in 1871 after designs by
James Simpson, having a three-storeyed front in the
Italian style, with a handsome cornice and balustrade,
and a telling-room measuring 34 feet by 32 ;
the National Bank of Scotland ; the Clydesdale
and British Linen Company’s Banks; many insurance
offices; and in No. 37 is the house of the
Leith Merchants’ Club.
Bernard Street joins Baltic Street, at the southeast
corner of which is the spacious and stately
Corn Exchange, which is so ample in extent as to
be frequently used as a drill-hall by the entire
battalion of Leith Rifle Volunteers.
North of Baltic Street are the old Glass Works
The Bottle House Company, as it was named,
began to manufacture glass vessels in North Leith
in 1746, but their establishment was burnt down
during the first year of the partnership. Thus, in
1747 the new brick houses were built on the sands
of South Leith, near the present Salamander Street,
and as ~e demand for bottles increased, they
built an additional one in 1764, though, according
to Bremner, glass was manufactured in Leith so
early as 1682.
Seven cones, or furnaces, were built, but in later
years only two have been in operation. In the
year 1777 CO less -than 15,8834 cwts. were made
here in Leith, the Government duty on which
amounted to A2,779 odd ; but as there are now
many other bottle manufactories in Scotland, thetrade
is no longer confined to the old houses that.
adjoin Baltic and Salamander Streets.
A writer in the Bet, an old extinct &dinburgh,
periodical, writing in 1792, says that about thirty
years before there was only one glass company in.
Scotland, the hands working one-half the year in
Glasgow, and the other half at Leith, and adds :-
“NOW there are six glass-houses in Leith alone,.
besides many others in different parts of the
tountry. At the time I mention nothing else
than bottles of coarse green glass were made there,
and to that article the Glass House Company in
Leith confined their efforts, till about a dozen yearsagoI
when they began to make fine glass for phials.
and other articles of that nature. About four yearsago
they introduced the manufacture of crown
glass for windows, which they now make in great
perfection, and in considerable quantities. After
they began to manufacture white glass, they fzll
into the way of cutting it for ornament and engraving
upon it. In this last department they havereached
a higher degree of perfection than it hasperhaps
anywhere else ever attained. A young
man who was bred to that business, having discovered
a taste in designing, and an elegance of
execution that was very uncommon, the proprietors
of the works were at pains to give him every aid in
the art of drawing that this place can afford, and
he has exhibited some specimens of his powers in
that line that are believed to be unrivalled. It is.
but yesterday that this Glass House Company (who
are in a very flourishing state), encouraged by their
success in other respects, introduced the art of
preparing glass in imitation of gems, and of cutting
it in facets, and working it into elegant fomis for
chandeliers and other ornamental kinds of furniture.
In this department their first attempts have
been highly successful, and they have now executed
some pieces of work that they need not be ashamed
to compare with the best that can be procured
elsewhere.”
The works of the Glass House Company at
Leith were advertised as for sale in the Courani
of 1813, which stated that they were valued at
~40,000, with a valuable steam-engine of sixteen
horse power, valued at E2 1,000.
Quality Street, and the fine long thoroughfare
named Constitution Street, open into Bernard
Street. Robertson gives us a drawing of an old and
richly-moulded doorway of a tenement, in the
rorrner street, having on its lintel the initials P. P.,
E. G., and the date 1710. At the corner of Quality
Street stands St. John’s Free Church, which was
built in 1870-1, at a cost of about A7,500, and](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p058.gif "Volume 6 Page 239")
... Leith ] THE GLASS WORKS. 2 3 9
fashion that the hamlet near Craigmillar was namec
“Little France” from the French ...
Vol. 6 p. 239 (Rel. 0.5)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
under distinguished patronage has in no way
altered.
In 1763, on the 28th ...
Vol. 6 p. 270 (Rel. 0.5)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
sterling, for a yeir‘s rent of a vault under the said
Trinitie House, imployed ...
Vol. 6 p. 224 (Rel. 0.5)
... .OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
But this ancient alley is the earliest thoroughhre
in the seaport of which we ...
Vol. 6 p. 234 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith.] HOME-COMING OF MONS MEG. 209
by the foot o the Calton Hill towards the Palace
of Holyrood.
As a souvenir of this event, on the first anniversary
of it a massive plate was inserted on the
Shore, in the exact spot on which the king first
placed his foot, and there it remains to this day,
with a suitable inscription commemorative of the
event.
In 1829, Mons Meg, which, among other ord
nance deemed unserviceable, had been transmitted
by the ignorance of an officer to London, and retained
there in the Tower, was, by the patriotic
efforts of Sir Walter Scott, sent home to Scotland.
This famous old cannon, deemed a kind of Palladium
by the Scots, after an absence of seventy-five
years, was landed from the Happy Janet, and after
lying for a time in the Naval Yard, till arrangements
were made, the gun was conveyed to the Castle by
a team of ten horses decked with laurels, preceded
by two led horses, mounted by boys clad in tartans
with broadswords. The escort was formed by a
123
grooms and esquires; Sir Patrick Walker, as
Usher of the White Rod; a long alternation of
cavalry and infantry, city dignitaries, and Highlanders,
followed.
At the end of the vista, preceded by ten royal
footmen, two and two, sixteen yeomen of the
Scottish Guard, escorted by the Royal Archers,
came the king, followed by the head-quarter staff,
three clans of Highlanders, two squadrons of Lothian
yeomanry, three of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, Scots
Greys, and the Grenadiers of the 77th regiment;
and after some delay in going through the ceremony
of receiving the city keys-which no monarch
had touched since the days of Charles I.-the
magnificent train moved through the living masses
Lochend to the latter on the east, tA-e middle of
Leith Walk on the south, and Wardie Bum on the
west.
Adam White was the first Provost of Leith after
the passing of the Burgh Reform Bill in 1833;
and it is now governed by a chief magistrate, four
bailies, ten councillors, a treasurer, town clerk, and
two joint assessors.
Powers have since then been conferred upon the
Provost of Leith as admiral, and the bailies as
admirals-depute. There are in the town four
principal corporations - the Shipmasters, the
Traffickers, the Malt-men, and the Trades. The
Traffickers, or Merchant Company, have lost their
charter, and are merely a benefit society, without
the power of compelling entries ; and the Ship
masters, ordinarily called the Trinity House, vi11
be noticed in connection with that institution.
The Trades Corporation is multifarious, and
independently of it there is a body called “ The
Convenery,” consisting of members delegated from
troop of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and detachments
of the Koyal Artillery and Highlanders. In the
evening the Celtic Society, all kilted, IOO strong,
dined together in honour of the event, Sir Walter
Scott in the chair; and on this occasion the old
saying was not forgotten, that Scotland would
never be Scotland till Mons Meg cam hame.”
The gun was then on the same ancient carriage
on which it had been taken away.
It was not until 1827 that the precise limits of
Leith as a town were defined, and a territory given
to it which, if filled, would almost enable it to vie
with the metropolis in extent, More extensive
boundaries were afterwards assigned, and these
are the Firth of Forth on the north, a line from
SIGNAL TOWER, LEITH PIER, 1775. (ABw Ckrk ofEUin.)](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p028.gif "Volume 6 Page 209")
... Leith .] HOME-COMING OF MONS MEG. 209
by the foot o the Calton Hill towards the Palace
of Holyrood.
As a souvenir ...
Vol. 6 p. 209 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above places, as, at the Cross there are always
in waiting, running stationels, otherwise CUU‘Z~, that will conduct
them to any place wanted. for a small charge.”
In style and accommodation the “Elack Bull”
was one of those old-fashioned inns which were
the precursors of the modern hotel, and preserved
their style and features unchanged amid the encroachnients
of private speculation and the rage
for public improvement. Now the space on which
it stood is covered with shops and dwelling-houses.
In this street lived Margarot, one of the “ Friends
of the People,” who was arrested by Provost Elder,
Until recent years the old “Black Bull” was
long established here, and an arch on the west side
gave access to the stables. In a species of advertisement
appended to Kincaid’s “ View of Edinburgh,”
in 1794~ is the following :-
“English Travellers, on business, are to be found commonly,
at Paterson’s, Foot of the Pleasance ; McFarlane’s,
Head of the Cowgate ; Kamsay’s Lodging’s, Milne Square ;
. McKay’s, Grassmarket; Lee’s, Black Bull, Head of Leith
good order and police. A great crowd assembled
at his lodgings in Leith Street about ten o’clock,
and he was conducted, with a wreath, or arch, held
over him, with inscriptions of Reason, Liberty, &c.
About the middle of the North Bridge, however,
the cavalcade was met by the Lord Provost, sheriff,
constable, peace-officers, Src., and immediately dispersed,
the arch was demolished, and its supporters
taken into custody. A press-gang attended to
assist the peace-officers. Mr. Margarot then walked
to the court, escorted by the Lord Provost, &c.:
and no disturbance ensued.”
Subsequently we read, that on the 10th of Feb
and tried for his, life on charges of treason, with
Hunter, Muir, and others. He conducted his own
case, and the court sentenced him to fourteen
years’ transportation beyond the seas. “In consequence
of the proceedings on the 9th instant,”
says the Annual Register for 1794, “while Mr.
hfargarot went to the Justiciary Court, every precaution
was taken this day by the Lord Provost,
magistrates, and sheriff, to prevent any breach of
THE ALBEBT MEMORIAL, CHARLOTTE SQUARE.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p188.gif "Volume 3 Page 176")
... Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above ...
Vol. 3 p. 176 (Rel. 0.5)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
home. He not only took a deep interest in thes
matters, but he studied them ...
Vol. 6 p. 206 (Rel. 0.5)
![Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above places, as, at the Cross there are always
in waiting, running stationels, otherwise CUU‘Z~, that will conduct
them to any place wanted. for a small charge.”
In style and accommodation the “Elack Bull”
was one of those old-fashioned inns which were
the precursors of the modern hotel, and preserved
their style and features unchanged amid the encroachnients
of private speculation and the rage
for public improvement. Now the space on which
it stood is covered with shops and dwelling-houses.
In this street lived Margarot, one of the “ Friends
of the People,” who was arrested by Provost Elder,
Until recent years the old “Black Bull” was
long established here, and an arch on the west side
gave access to the stables. In a species of advertisement
appended to Kincaid’s “ View of Edinburgh,”
in 1794~ is the following :-
“English Travellers, on business, are to be found commonly,
at Paterson’s, Foot of the Pleasance ; McFarlane’s,
Head of the Cowgate ; Kamsay’s Lodging’s, Milne Square ;
. McKay’s, Grassmarket; Lee’s, Black Bull, Head of Leith
good order and police. A great crowd assembled
at his lodgings in Leith Street about ten o’clock,
and he was conducted, with a wreath, or arch, held
over him, with inscriptions of Reason, Liberty, &c.
About the middle of the North Bridge, however,
the cavalcade was met by the Lord Provost, sheriff,
constable, peace-officers, Src., and immediately dispersed,
the arch was demolished, and its supporters
taken into custody. A press-gang attended to
assist the peace-officers. Mr. Margarot then walked
to the court, escorted by the Lord Provost, &c.:
and no disturbance ensued.”
Subsequently we read, that on the 10th of Feb
and tried for his, life on charges of treason, with
Hunter, Muir, and others. He conducted his own
case, and the court sentenced him to fourteen
years’ transportation beyond the seas. “In consequence
of the proceedings on the 9th instant,”
says the Annual Register for 1794, “while Mr.
hfargarot went to the Justiciary Court, every precaution
was taken this day by the Lord Provost,
magistrates, and sheriff, to prevent any breach of
THE ALBEBT MEMORIAL, CHARLOTTE SQUARE.
statue
STATUES](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p189.gif "Volume 3 Page 177")
... Leith Street.] MARGAROT. I77
Walk. N.B.--Strang:ers can tlever be at a loss for a guide
to any of the above ...
Vol. 3 p. 177 (Rel. 0.49)
... this
new seaport might prove prejudicial to theirs at
Leith , purchased the whole place from the king,
whose ...
Vol. 6 p. 297 (Rel. 0.49)
![Leith] CAPTAIN PALLISER’S CONTUMACY. 277
to-morrow ; the sailors belonging to the said ships
are to repair on board, under penalty of loss of
wages and imprisonment as deserters. Thir presents
to be published by tuck of drumme through
Leith, that none may pretend ignorance. (‘ WALTER SCOTTE, B.”
In 1752 the vessels of Leith amounted to sixtyeight,
with a tonnage of 6,935; and two years subsequently
we find an attempt upon the part of a
captain in the royal navy there to defy the Scottish
Court of Admiralty in the roads and harbour.
Captain (aflerwards Sir Hugh) Palliser, when
captain of H.M.S. Seahorse, in consequence of a
petition presented to the Judge of the High Court
of Admiralty, 20th March, 1754, by Thomas ROSS,
master, and Murdoch Campbell, owner of the
Scottish ship CumberZand, of Thurso, was served
with a notice to deliver up James Cormick, apprentice
to the former, whom he had taken on board
as a seaman.
Accordingly, by order of the judge, the macers
of court, messengers-at-arms, and other officials,
repaired on board the Seahorse, at the anchorage in
Leith, to bring off James Cormick; “and the said
Captain Hugh Palliser, and the other officers and
sailors on board the said shipof-war Seahorre,” ran
the warrant, “are hereby ordered to be assisting”
in putting it into execution, at their highest peril.
(‘ All others, shipmasters, sailors, and others his
Majesty’s .subjects,” were ordered to assist also, at
their utmost peril.
James Lindsay, Admiralty macer, served this
notice upon Captain Palliser, who foolishly and
haughtily replied that he was subject to the laws
of England only, and would not send Cormick
ashore. (‘ Upon which,” as the execution given
into court bears, ‘( I (James Lindsay) declared he
had contemned the law, was guilty of a deforcement,
and that he should be liable accordingly, having
my blazon on my breast, and broke my wand of
peace.’’
On this, a warrant was issued to apprehend the
commander of the Seahorse, and commit him to
the next sure prison (i.e. the Tolbooth of Leith), but
the captain having gone to Edinburgh, on the 26th
of March he was seized and placed in the Heart of
Midlothian, and brought before the High Court of
Admiralt), next day.
‘ There he denied that its jurisdiction extended
over a king’s ship, or over himself personally, or any
man in the Seahorse, especially an enlisted sailor ;
and maintained that the court, by attempting to do
so, assumed a right competent to the Lords of the
Admiralty alone ; ‘( and by your imprisoning me,”
he added, (( for not delivering up one of the king‘s
sailors, you have suspended my commission from
the Lord High Admiral, and disabled me from
executing the orders with which I am charged as
commander of one of the king’s ships.”
This only led to the re-commitment of the contumacious
captain, till he (‘found caution to obtemper
(sic) the Judge Admiral’s warrant, in case it should
be found by the Lords that he ought to do so.”
He was imprisoned for six weeks, until the apprentice
was put on shore. On this matter, Lord
Hardwicke, who was then Lord Chancellor, remarked
that the Scottiah Admiralty judge was a
bold one, “but that what he had done was
right.”
Captain Palliser, on his return to England,
threatened to make the frauds on the revenue a
matter for Parliamentary investigation, if not attended
to, And the ministry then enftrced the duties
upon claret, which, before this time, had been
drunk commonly even by Scottish artisans.
This officer afterwards behaved with great bravery
at Newfoundland, in 1764 ; and on attaining the
rank of Admiral of the White, was created a
baronet, and died governor of Greenwich Hospital
in 1796.
In 1763 the shore dues at Leith had increased to
A580. The Scots’ Magazine for December, 1769,
states that, “take one year with another, about
1,700 vessels are cleared out and in yearly at Leith.
Some days ago an acute merchant took a serious
view of the shipping in the harbour of Leith, and
reckoned upon a calculation that there would be
between 30,000 and 35,000 tonnage at one and the
same time mooring there.” This seems barely
probable.
In 17 7 I we meet with an indication of free trade,
when the Court of Session, upon the application
of the merchants of Edinburgh, ordered the port
of Leith, and all other Scottish ports, to be open
for the free importation of grain of all kinds.
Arnot states that in the year ending January
sth, 1778, there were, in Leith, 52 foreign ships,
6,800 tons, and 428 men ; 44 coasting and fishing
ships, 3,346 tons, and 281 men. Five years sub.
sequently, the shore dues were f;4,ooo; but in
that year there was only one vessel trading with
St. Petersburg. She made but one voyage yearly,
and never carried tallow if any other freight could
be obtained Now the sailing vessels make three
voyages to the same port annually.
In 1791 there was a proposal to form a jointstock
company, to cut a canal from Leith to the
middle ward of Lanarkshire.
The tonnage in 1792 had increased to 18,468.
In the same year, when those Radicals who](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p096.gif "Volume 6 Page 277")
... Leith ] CAPTAIN PALLISER’S CONTUMACY. 277
to-morrow ; the sailors belonging to the said ships
are to repair on ...
Vol. 6 p. 277 (Rel. 0.49)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
of May. As history records, Gordon and Arran
could not resist doing a little ...
Vol. 6 p. 204 (Rel. 0.49)
... OLD .4ND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
park and ample stabling; and there are always
two batteries, with guns and ...
Vol. 6 p. 198 (Rel. 0.49)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. r Leith .
but by bringing ordonnance from the Castell to the
shoare, to dins at them so ...
Vol. 5 p. 184 (Rel. 0.49)
![Leith.] SIR ANDREW WOOD. 199
CHAPTER XXI.
LEITH-HISTORICAL SURVEY (ronfinaed).
A Scottish Navy-Old Fighting Mariners of Leith-Sir Andrew Woodand the YdZm CaravrZ-J.~es 111. skin-James IV. and Su-
Andrew-Double Defeat of the English Ships-John, Kobert, and Andrew Barton-Their Letten of Marque against the Portugu-
Jarnes IV. and his Sailors-A Naval Review.
AND now, before giving the history of more
modern Leith, we must refer to some of her brave
old fighting merchant mariners, who made her
famous in other years.
“As the subject of the Scottish navy,” says
Pinkerton, “ forms a subject but little known, any
anecdotes concerning it become interesting ;1’ and,
fortunately for our purpose, most of these have
some reference to the zncient port of Leith.
Though the foymation of a Scottish navy was
among the last thoughts of the great king Robert
Bruce, when, worn with war and years, he lay dying
in the castle of Cardross, it was not until the reigns
of James 111. and IV. that Scotland possessed any
ships for purely warlike purposes. Nevertheless,
she was rich in hardy mariners and enterprising
merchants ; and an Act of Parliament during the
reign of the latter monarch refers to “ the great
and innumerable riches yat is tint in fault of shippis
and busses,” or boats to be employed in the
fisheries.
In 1497 an enactment was made that vessels of
twenty tons and upwards should be built in all the
seaports of the kingdom, while the magistrates were
directed to compel all stout vagrants who frequented
such places to learn the trade of mariners, and
labour for their own living.
Among the merchants and the private traders
James IV. found many men of ability, bravery,
and experience, such as Sir Andrew Wood of Largo,
the two Bartons (John and Robert), Sir Alexander
Mathieson, William Meremonth, all merchants of
Leith; and Sir David Falconer, of Borrowstounness.
Williarn Brownhill, who never saw an English
ship, either in peace or war, without attacking and
taking her if he was able, and various other naval adventurers
of less note were sought out by James 111.
and treated with peculiar favour and distinction.
But it was in the reign of his father that Sir Andrew
Wood, who has been called the “ Scottish Nelson ”
of his day, made his name in history, and to him
we shall first refer.
Under that unfortunate monarch Scotland’s commerce
was beginning to flourish, notwithstanding
the restraint so curiously laid upon maritime enterprise
by the Act that restricted sailing from St Jude’s
Day till Candlemas, under a penalty; and in 1476
R’e read of the ‘‘ great ship ” of James Kennedy,
which Buchanan states “ to have been the largest
that ever sailed the ocean,” but was wrecked upon.
the coast of England and destroyed by the people.
During the reign of James III., the fighting merchant
of Leith, Sir Andrew Wood, bore the terror
of his name through English, Dutch, and Flemish
waters, and in two pitched battles defeated the
superior power of England at sea. As he was the
first of his race whose name obtained eminence,
nothing is known of his family, and even much of
his personal history is buried in obscurity. Dr.
Abercrombie, in his “ Martial Achievements,” supposes
him to have been a cadet of the Bonnington
family in Angus, and he is generally stated to have
been born about the middle of the fifteenth century
at the old Kirktoun of Largo, situated on the
beautiful bay of the same name.
Wood appears to have been during the early
part of the reign of James 111. a wealthy merchant
in Leith, where at first he possessed and commanded
two armed vessels of some 300 tons each, the-
YeZZow CaraveZ and FZlmer, good and strong ships,
superior in equipment to any that had been seen in*
Scotland before, so excellent were his mariners,
their arms, cannon, and armour. According to
a foot-note in Scott of Scotstarvit’s work, “he had
been first a skipper at the north side of the bridge
of Leith, and being pursued, mortified his house
to Paul’s Work (in Leith Wynd) as the register
beats.”
It would appear that the vessel called the YelZow
CuraveZ was formerly commanded by his friend!
John Barton (of whom more elsewhere), as in the
accounts of the Lord High Treasurer the following
note occurs by the editor :-
‘( In March 1473-4 the accounts contain a notice
of a ship which a cancelled entry enables us to
identify with the King‘s Yellow Carad, afterwards
rendered famous under the command of Sir Andrews
Wood in naval engagements with the English.”
The editor a!so states that in the ‘‘ Account of the
Chamberlain of Fife” he had found another entry
concerning 3 delivery to John Barton, master of
the King’s CurnveZ, under date 1475. “ This last
entry,” says an annotator, ‘‘ being deleted, however
shows that there must have been some mistake as
to whom the corn was delivered, John Barton being
probably sailing one of his own ships. During](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p018.gif "Volume 6 Page 199")
... Leith .] SIR ANDREW WOOD. 199
CHAPTER XXI.
LEITH -HISTORICAL SURVEY (ronfinaed).
A Scottish Navy-Old Fighting ...
Vol. 6 p. 199 (Rel. 0.49)
![Restalrig.] DRURY’S TREACHERY. x3.z
on it now. Here it probably was that the powerful
Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Douglas, Lord
of Bothwell, Galloway, and Annandale, Duke of
Touraine aud Marshal of France, resided in 1440,
in which year he died at Restalrig, of a malignant
fever.
In 1444 Sir John Logan of Restalrig was sheriff
of Edinburgh ; and in 1508 James Logan, of the
same place, was Sheriff-deputy.
Twenty-one years before the latter date an
calsay lyand, and the town desolate.” In the
following year, Holinshed records that “ the Lord
Grey, Lieutenant of the Inglis’ armie,” during the
siege of Leith, “ludged in the town of Lestalrike,
in the Dean’s house, and part of the Demi-lances
and other horsemen lay in the same towne.”
A little way north-westward of Restalrig, midway
between the place named Hawkhill and the upper
Quarry Holes, near the Easter Road, there occurred
on the 16th of June, 1571, a disastrous skirmish, de-
~
RESTALRIG CHURCH IN THE PRESENT DAYEnglish
army had encamped at Restalrig, under the
Duke of Gloucester, who spared the city at the
request of the Duke of Albany and on receiving
many rich presents fiom the citizens, while James
III., in the hand of rebel peers, was a species of
captive in the castle of Edinburgh.
In 1559 the then secluded village was the scene
of one of the many skirmishes that took place between
the troops of the Queen Regent and those
of the Lords of the Congregation, in which the
latter were baffled, “driven through the myre at
Restalrig-worried at the Craigingate ” (i.e., the
Calton), and on the 6th of November,’ “ at even
in the nycht,” they departed ‘‘ furth of Edinburgh
to Lynlithgow, and left their artailzerie on the
signated the BZack Saturday, or Drury’s peace,”
as it was sometimes named, through the alleged
treachery of the English ambassador.
Provoked by a bravado on the part of the Earl
of Morton, who held Leith, and who came forth
with horse and foot to the Hawkhill, the Earl of
Huntly, at the head of a body of Queen Mary‘s
followers, with a train of guns, issued out of Edinburgh,
and halted at the Quarry Holes, where he
was visited by Sir William Drury, the ambassador
of Queen Elizabeth, who had been with Morton in
Leith during the preceding night. His proposed
object was an amicable adjustment of differences,
to the end that no loss of life should ensue between
those who were countrymen, and, in too](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p144.gif "Volume 5 Page 133")
... Lieutenant of the Inglis’ armie,” during the
siege of Leith , “ludged in the town of Lestalrike,
in the Dean’s ...
Vol. 5 p. 133 (Rel. 0.49)
![Leith] THE SUGAR HOUSE COMPANY. 235
In addition to the imperatively required sanitary
reform which this sqheme will effect in a few years,
the new thoroughfare will be of great commercial
utility, and present an easy gradient from the shore
to Leith Walk.
The area scheduled contains about 3,500 inhabitants,
but when the works are completed
nearly double that number will be accommodated.
The sum to be borrowed from the Public Works
Loan Commissioners was fixed at ~GIOO,OOO,
payable in thirty years, about 1911 ; but in 1881
the Home Secretary intimated his intention of
recommending a loan of cf70,000, which, in the
meantime, was deemed suiticient.
The ancient street named Water Lane, with
all its adjacent alleys, is not included in this scheme
of removal and improvement. It runs tortuously,
at an angle, from the foot of the Kirkgate to
Bemard Street, and is about seven hundred yards
in length. This thoroughfare was anciently called
the Rotten ROW ; and in the map given by Robertson
in his ‘‘ Antiquities,’’ that name is borne by an
alley ne+r the foot of it, running parallel with
Chapel Lane.
In the inventory of ‘( Pious Donations ” made to
the Brethren Predicators in Edinburgh, under date
14th May, 1473, is one by “John Sudgine, of
30s. 4d. out of his tenement of Leith on the south
side of the water thereof, between Alan Nepar’s
land on the east, and Rotten Row on the west.”
Alan Napier’s land, “on the east side of the
common vennel called the Ratounrow,” is referred
to in King James 111.’~ charter to the Black Friars,
under the same date. (“Burgh Charters,” No.
43.) It was so named from being built of houses
of mitim, or rough timber.
On Mary of Guise and Lorraine choosing Leith
as an occasional residence, she is stated by Maitland
to have erected a dwelling-house in the Rotten
Row, near the corner of the present Quality Street,
and that the royal arms of Scotland, which were
in front thereof, were, when it was taken down,
rebuilt into the wall of a mansion opposite, ‘‘ and
the said Mary, for the convenience of holding
councils, erected a spacious and handsome edifice
for her privy council to meet in.”
This is supposed to refer to a stately house on
the Coal Hill (facing the river), and to be treated
of when we come to that quarter of Leith.
The beautifully sculptured stone which bears
the arms of Scotland impaled with those of Guise,
surmounted by an imperial crown and the boldlycut
legend,
MARIA. DE. LORRAINE.
REGINA. SCOTIA. 1560,
and surrounded by the richest scroll-work, still
exists in Leith. It was long preserved in the
north wall of the old Tolbooth; and on the
demolition of the latter, after undergoing various
adventures, has now “been rebuilt,” says Dr,
Robertson, ‘‘ into the original window of St. Mary,
which has been erected in Albany Street,NorthLeith.”
This is the last relic of that house in which
Mary, the queen-regent (prior to her death in the
castle), spent the last year of her sorrowful life,
embittered by the strife of hostile factions and the
din of civil war-“an ominous preparation for her
unfortunate daughter’s assumption of the sceptre
which was then wielded in her name.”
Another ancient house in the same street bore a
legend similar to one already given :-
“THEY ARE WELCOME HERE
QHA THE LORD DO FEIR, 1574.”
It was demolished in I 83 2.
In this street was the establishment of the old
Leith Sugar House Company. The circumstances
that Leith was acentral port for carrying on West
Indian trade, where vessels could then be fitted
out more easily than on the Clyde, and at a lower
rate than at London-besides the savings on freight
and charges-eneouraged the West Indian planter
‘to make it a place for his consignments. Thus a
house for baking sugars was set up in Edinburgh
in 1751, and the manufacture was still carried on
in 1779 by the company that instituted it.
That of Leith was begun in 1757 by a company,
consisting chiefly of Edinburgh bankers ; but by
1762 their capital was totally lost, and for some
time the Sugar House remained unoccupied, till
some speculative Englishmen took a lease of it,
and revived the manufacture.
As these men were altogether without capital,
and had to fall back upon ruinous schemes to
support their false credit, they were soon involved
in complete failure, but were succeeded by the
Messrs. Parkers, who kept up the manufacture for
about five years.
‘‘ The house,” says h o t , ‘‘ was then purchased
by a set of merchants in Leith, who, as they began
with sufficient capital, as they have employed in
the work the best refiners of sugar that could be
procured in London, and as they pay attention
to the business, promise to conduct it with every
prospect of success.”
But be that as it may, in B e Advertiser for
1783, “the whole houses and subjects belonging
to and employed by the Leith Sugar House Company,
together with the coppers, coolers, and
whole utensils used in the trade,” are announced](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p054.gif "Volume 6 Page 235")
... Leith ] THE SUGAR HOUSE COMPANY. 235
In addition to the imperatively required sanitary
reform which this sqheme ...
Vol. 6 p. 235 (Rel. 0.48)
... Leith .) THE BOURSE. 231
U Throughout these troublesome days, a little episcopal
congregation was kept together in ...
Vol. 6 p. 231 (Rel. 0.48)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
is in the Gothic style, with a tower 130 feet high,
surmounted by an open ...
Vol. 6 p. 240 (Rel. 0.48)
![Leith.] THE FIRST BRIDGE. 167
Kirk aark, and to be-deprived of- the freedom (of
the city) for ane zeare.” 1
.of the harbour, for the erection of quays and wharfs
and for the loading of goods, with the liberty to
have shops and granaries, and to make all necessary
roads thereto ; but this grasping feudal baron
afterwards sorely teased and perplexed the town
council with points of litigation, till eventually he
roused them to adopt a strong measure for satiating
.at once his avarice and their own ambition.
Bought over by them with alarge sum of nionfy
.drawn from the city treasury, Sir Robert Logan on
;the 27th of February, 1413, granted them an extraordinary
charter, which has been characterised as
an exclusive, ruinous, and enslaving bond,” restraining
the luckless inhabitants of Leith from
.carrying on trade cE any sort, from possessing warehouses
or shops, from keeping inns for strangers,
“ so that nothing should be built or constructed on
the said land (in Leith) in future, to the prejudice
and impediment of the said community.” The
witnesses to this grant are George Lauder the Pro-
Test, and the Bailies, William Touris of Cramond,
William of Edmondston, James Cant, Dean of
Guild, John Clark of Lanark, Andrew Learmouth,
and William of the Wood.
In 1428 King James I. granted a charter under
.his great seal, with consent of the community of
Edinburgh, ordaining “ that in augmentation of the
fabrik and reparation of the port and harbour of
Leith, there should be uplifted a certain tax or toll
upon all ships and boats entering therein,” This
is dated from the Palace of Dunfermline, 31st
December. (Burgh Records.)
In 1439 Patrick, abbot of Holyrood, granted to
Sir Robert Logan and his heirs the office of bailie
aver the abbey lands of St. Leonards, “lyande in
the town of Leicht, within the barony of Restalrig,
on the south halfe the water, from the end of the
gret volut of William Logane on the east part to
the common gate that passes to the ford over the
water of Leicht, beside the waste land near the
house of John of Turing,” etc. (Burgh Charters.)
Not content with the power already given them
over their vassals in Leith, the magistrates of Edinburgh,
after letting the petty customs and haven
siller” of Leith for the sum of one hkdred and
ten merks in 1485, passed a remarkable order in
council :-“ That no merchant of Edinburgh presume
to take into partnership any indweller of the
town of Leith, under pain of forty pounds to the
he proceeded to Leith tb hold his water courts,
such an escort being deemed necessary for the
In 1497 the civic despots of Edinburgh obtained,
on writ from the Privy Council, that “ all manner
of persons, quhilk are infectit, or has been infectit
and uncurrit of the contageouse plage, callit
the grand gore, devoid red and pass furth of
this towne, and compeir on the sandis of Leith,
at ten hours before noon, and thair shall have
boats reddie in the Haven, ordainit to thame be
the officears, reddie furnished with victualles, to
have them to the inche, there to remain quhi!l
God provide for thair health.” (Town Council
Records.)
As regards Leith, a much more important event
is recorded four years before this, when Robert
Ballantyne, abbot of Holyrood, “ with the consent
of his chapter and the approbation of William,
Archbishop of St. Andrews,” first spanned the
river by a solid stone bridge, thus connecting South
and North Leith, holding the right of levying a toll
therefor. It was a bridge of three arches; of
which Lord Eldin made a sketch in 1779, and part
of one of the piers of which still remains. Abbot
Ballantyne also built a chapel thereby, and in his
charter it is expressly stated, after enumerating the
tithes and tolls of the bridge, “that the stipend of
each of the two incumbents is to be limited to
fifteen merks, and after the repairs of the said
bridge and chapel, and lighting the same, the surplus
is to be given to the poor.”
This chapel was dedicated to St. Ninian the
apostle of Galloway, and the abbot’s charter was
confirmed by King James IV. on the 1st June,
1493. He also established a range of buildings
on the south side of the river, a portion of which,
says Robertson, writing in 1851, still exists in
the form of a gable and large oven, at the locality
generally designated ‘ the Old Bridge End.’ ”
The part in Leith whereon, it is said, the first
houses were built in the twelfth century, is bounded ,
on the south by the Tolbooth Wynd, on the west
by the shore or quay, on the north by the Broad
Wynd, and on the east by the Rotten Row, now
called Water Lane. One of the broadest alleys in
this ancient quarter is the Burgess Close,’ ten feet
in width, and was the first road granted to the
citizens of Edinburgh by Logan of Kestalng.
In the year 1501, all freemen of the city, to the
number of twenty or so, were directed by the
magistrates to accompany the water bailie when](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p178.gif "Volume 5 Page 167")
... Leith .] THE FIRST BRIDGE. 167
Kirk aark, and to be-deprived of- the freedom (of
the city) for ane zeare.” 1
.of ...
Vol. 5 p. 167 (Rel. 0.48)
... friends contrived to acquaint
him that in the Roads of Leith there lay a small
vessel laden with Gascon wine, ...
Vol. 1 p. 33 (Rel. 0.48)
... EDINBURGH. -
CHAPTER VI.
THE VALLEY OF THE WATER OF LEITH .
PAGE
Lady Sinclair of Dunbeath-Bell's ...
Vol. 6 p. 394 (Rel. 0.48)
![Leith Walk.] . REPULSE OF CROMWELL. 1.5 I
direction of Leith Walk, as by charter under thc
Great Seal, dated at Edinburgh, 13thAugust, 1456
King James 11. granted, “preposito, baZZiuis et corn
munitati nosh‘ de Rdinlbuv-gh,” the valley or loa
ground between the well called Craigangilt, on thc
east side (i.e., the Calton Hill), “ and the commor
way and road towards the town of Leith, on tht
west side,” etc.
. But the origin of Leith Loan-or Leith Walk, a:
.we now call it-was purely accidental, and tht
result of the contingencies of war.
In 1650, to repel Cromwell’s attack upon thc
city, Sir Alexander Leslie had the whole Scottish
army skilfully entrenched in rear of a strong breastwork
of earth that lay from north to south between
Edinburgh and Leith. Its right flank was de.
fended by redoubts armed with guns on the green
slope of the Calton Hill ; its left by others on the
eastern portions of Leith and St. ilnthony’s Port,
which enfiladed the line and swept all the open
ground towards Restalrig. In addition to all this,
the walls of the city were everywhere armed with
cannon, and the banners of the trades were displayed
above its gates.
Along the line of this entrenchment Charles II.,
after landing at Leith from Stirling, proceeded on
horseback to the city. His appearance created the
greatest enthusiasm, all the more so that Cromwell’s
arms were seen glittering in the distance. Around
Charles was his Life Guard of Horse, led by the Earl
of Eglinton, magnificently armed and mounted, and
having on their embroidered standards the crown,
sword, and sceptre, with the mottoes Nobis hczc inviita
misemnt, and Pro Religione, Rege, et Patrid.
On Monday, the 24th of July, Cromwell furiously
attacked the entrenchment, as he had been exasperated
by the result of a sortie made by Major
General Montgomery, who at the head of 2,000
Scottish dragoons, had repulsed an advanced
column, and ‘( killed five Colonells and Lieutenant-
Colonells, mortally wounded Lieut.-Gen. Lambert
and five hundred soldiers.” (Balfour.) As the
English advanced, the rising sun shone full upon
the long lines of Scottish helmets glittering above
the rough earthwork, where many a pike was
gleaming and inany a standard waving. Clearing
the rocks and house of Restalrig, they advanced
over the plain westward from Lochend, when the
field batteries atthe Quarry Holes, the guns on Leith
and theCalton,openedon them simultaneously, while
a rolling and incessant fire of musketry ran along
the whole Scottish line from flank to flank, and was
poured in closely and securely from the summit of
the breastwork. They were speedily thrown into
confusion, and fled in considerable disorder, leaving
behind them some pieces of cannon and the ground
strewn with dead and wounded.
Cromwell’s vigorous attack on the southern part
of the city was equally well repulsed, and he then
drew off from it till after his victory at Dunbar.
At this time General Leslie’s head-quarters were
in the village of Broughton, from whence many of
his despatches were dated ; and when the war was
shifted to other quarters, his famous breastwork
became the established footway between the capital
and its seaport.
Midway between these long stood an edifice, of
which no vestige remains-the Rood Chapel, repairs
upon which were paid for by the city in
1554-5. It stood in the vicinity of the Gallow
Lee, a place memorable for a desperate conflict
between the Kingsmen and Queensmen in 1571,
when the motto of “God shaw the Richt,” was
conferred on Captain Crawford, of Jordan Hill, by
the Regent Morton, and whose tombstone is yet
to be seen in the churchyard of Kilbirnie. On
nearly the same ground in 1G04 James Hardie, of
Bounmylnerig, with others, in the month of April,
between nine and ten in the evening, assailed
Jacques de la Berge, a Fleming, forced him to quit
his saddle, and thereafter rypeit him” of gold
and silver, for which Hardie was hanged at the
Cross and his goods forfeited.
Though in 1610 Henrie Anderson, a native of
Stralsund, in Pomerania, obtained a royal patent
for coaches to run between Edinburgh and Leith
at the rate of zd. per passenger, we have no record
of how his speculation succeeded ; nor was it until
1660 that William Woodcock obtained a license
“to fitt and set up ane haickney coatch for the
service of his Majesty’s lieges, betwix Leith and
Edinburgh,” at the rate of 12s. (Scots) per passenger,
if the latter decided to travel alone, but if
three went with him, the charge was to be no more
than 12s. ; and all who came upward to Edinburgh
were to alight at the foot of Leith Wynd, “for the
staynes yr of.”
From that time we hear no more of Leith stages
till 1678, as mentioned in our first volume; but in
1702 a person named Robert Miller obtained permission
to keep four vehicles to ply between the
two towns for nine years. Individual enterprise
having failed to make stages here remunerative,
the magistrates in 1722 granted to a company the
cxclusive right to run coaches on Leith Walk for a
period of twenty-one years, each to hold six passengers,
the fare to be gd. in summer and 4d. in
winter; but this speculation did not seem to pay,
md in 1727 the company raised the fares to 4d.
md 6d. respectively.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p162.gif "Volume 5 Page 151")
... Leith Walk.] . REPULSE OF CROMWELL. 1.5 I
direction of Leith Walk, as by charter under thc
Great Seal, dated at ...
Vol. 5 p. 151 (Rel. 0.48)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
each trade, all deacons and treasurers, and constituting,
or deemed to be; a ...
Vol. 6 p. 210 (Rel. 0.47)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
The Old and New Ship are good examples of
what these old taverns were, as they ...
Vol. 6 p. 246 (Rel. 0.47)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
of Brockhouse, contracted with the corporation to
provide accommodation for ...
Vol. 6 p. 194 (Rel. 0.47)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
helmet, now preserved in the Antiquarian Museum
-and the entrance gate or ...
Vol. 6 p. 258 (Rel. 0.46)
![Leith.] THE TOLBOOTH WYND. 1 0
marrow alley adjoining the latter, a house bearing
the date 1688 has the two legends, “Feir the
Lord,” and “The feir of the Lord is the beginning
of a1 wisdome.”
This part of the town-about the foot of St.
Andrew’s Street-is said to have borne anciently
the name of St. Leonard’s. There the Street
diverges into two alleys : one narrow and gloomy,
which bears the imposing title of Parliament Court ;
and the other called Sheephead Wynd, in which
there remains a very ancient edifice, the ground
floor of which is formed of arches constructed like
those of the old house described in the Kirkgate,
and bearing the date 1579, with the initials D. W.,
M. W. Though small and greatly dilapidated, it
is ornamented with string-courses and mouldings ;
and it was not without some traces of old importance
and grandeur amid its decay and degradation,
until it was entirely altered in 1859.
This house is said to have received the local
name of the Gun Stone, from the circumstance of
a stone cannon ball of considerable size having
been fired into it during some invasion by an
English ship of war. Local tradition avers that
for many years this bullet formed an ornament on
the summit of the square projecting staircase of
the house.
Near Cable’s Wynd, which adjoins this alley, and
between it and King Street, at a spot called
Meeting-house Green, are the relics of a building
formerly used as a place of worship, and although
it does not date farther back than the Revolution
.of 1688, it is oddly enough called “John Knox’s
Church.”
The records of South Leith parish bear that in
1692, ‘‘ the magistrates of Edinburgh, and members
of the Presbytery there, with a confused company
of the people, entered the church by breaking open
the locks of the doors and putting on new ones,
and so caused guard the church doors with halberts,
rang the bells, and possessed Mr. Wishart of
the church, against which all irregular proceedings
public protests were taken.”
Previous to this he would seem to have officiated
in a kind of chapel-of-ease established near Cable’s
Wynd, by permission of James VII. in 1687.
Soon after the forcible induction recorded, he
came to the church with a guard of halberdiers,
accompanied by the magistrates of Leith, and took
possession of the Session House, compelling the
“ prelatick Session ” to hold their meeting in the
adjacent Kantore. More unseemly matters followed,
for in December of the year 1692, when a
meeting was held in South Leith Church to hear
any objections that might be niade against the legal
induction of the Rev. Mr. Wishart, an adherent of
Mr. Kay, ‘‘ one of the prelatick incumbents,” protested
loudly against the whole proceedings.
Upon this, “Mr. Livingstone, a brewer at the
Craigend (or Calton), rose up, and, in presence of
the Presbytery, did most violently fall upon the
commissioner, and buffeted him and nipped his
cheeks, and had many base expressions to him.”
Others now fell on the luckless commissioner,
who was ultimately thrust into the Tolbooth of
Leith by a magistrate, for daring to do that which
the Presbytery had suggested. Mr. Kay’s session
were next driven out of the Kantore, on the door
of which another lock was placed.
It has been supposed that the ousted episcopal
incumbent formed his adherents into a small congregation,
as he remained long iu Leith, and died
at his house in the Yardheads there so lately as
November, 1719, in the seventieth year of his age.
His successor, tile Rev. Robert Forbes, was minister
of an episcopal chapel in Leith, according to an
anonymous writer, ‘‘ very shortly after Mr: Kay’s
death, and records a baptism as having been performed
‘ in my room in ye Yardheads.’ ”
The history of the Meeting-house near Cable’s
Wynd is rather obscure, but it seems to have been
generally used as a place of worship. The last
occasion was during a visit of John Wesley, the
great founder of Methodism. He was announced
to preach in it; but so grcat a concourse of people
assembled, that the edifice was incapable of accommodating
them, so he addressed the multitude
on the Meeting-house Green. LI house near it,
says The Srofsinan in 1879, is pointed out as “the
Manse.”
The Tolbooth TVynd is about five hundred an&
fifty feet in length, from where the old signal-tower
stood, at the foot of the Kirkgate, to the site of a
now removed building called Old Babylon, which
stood upon the Shore.
The second old thoroughfare of Leith was undoubtedly
the picturesque Tolbooth Wynd, as the
principal approach to the harbour, after it superseded
the more ancient Burgess Close.
It was down this street that, in the age when
Leith was noted for its dark superstitions and eccentric
inhabitants, the denizens therein, regularly
on stormy nights or those preceding a storm,
heard with horror, at midnight, the thundering
noise of “the twelve o‘clock coach,” a great oatafalque-
looking vehicle, driven by a tall, gaunt figure
without a head, drawn by black horses, also headless,
and supposed to be occupied by a mysterious
female.
Near the eastern end of the wynd there stood
,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p046.gif "Volume 6 Page 227")
... Leith .] THE TOLBOOTH WYND. 1 0
marrow alley adjoining the latter, a house bearing
the date 1688 has the two ...
Vol. 6 p. 227 (Rel. 0.46)
... Leith .! HARBOUR AND PIER 271
Hence all attempts, therefore, to obtain a good
or workable harbour at Leith have ...
Vol. 6 p. 271 (Rel. 0.46)
![Xigh Street.] EXCISE OFFICE. 217
not only to inspire his enthusiasm, but improve his
seamanship ; and there was something prophetic
in the poem, as the frigate Azlroru, in which he
served, perished at sea in 1769.
Eastward of Knox’s manse is an old timberfronted
land, bearing the royal arms of Scotland
on its first floor, and entered by a stone turnpike,
the door of which has the legend Beus Benedictat,
and long pointed out as the excise office of early
times. “ The situation,” says Wilson, “ was peculiarly
convenient for guarding the principal gate of
das’s splendid mansion in St. Andrew’s Square,
now occupied by the Royal Bank. This may be
considered its culminating point It descended
thereafter to Bellevue House, in Drummond Place,
built by General Scott, the father-in-law of Mr.
Canning, which house was demolished in 1846 in
completing the tunnel of the Edinburgh and Leith
Railway; and now we believe the exciseman no
longer possesses a local habitation ’ within the
Scottish capital.”
The interesting locality of the Nether Bow takes
the city, and the direct avenue (Leith Wynd) to
the neighbouring seaport. . . . . . Since
George 11.’~ reign the excise office had as many
rapid vicissitudes as might mark the ?areer of a
profligate spendthrift. In its earlier days, when a
floor of the old land in the Nether Bow sufficed
for its accommodation, it was regarded as foremost
among the detested fruits of the Union. From
thence it removed to more commodious chambers
in the Cowgate, since demolished to make way for
the southern piers of George IV. bridge. Its next
resting place was the large tenement on the south
side of Chessel’s Court in the Canongate, the scene
of the notorious Deacon Brodie’s last robbery.
From thence it was removed to Sir Lawrence Dun-
28
its name from the city gate, known as the Nether
Bow Port, in contradistinction to the Upper Bow
Port, which stood near the west end of the Eigh
Street. This barrier united the city wall from St.
Mary’s Wynd on the south to the steep street known
as Leith Wynd on the north, at a time when, perhaps,
only open fields lay eastward of the gate,
stretching from the township to the abbey of Holyrood.
The last gate was built in the time of Tames
VI. ; what was the character of its predecessor
we have no means of ascertaining; but to repair it,
in 1538, as the city cash had run low, the magistrates
were compelled to mortgage its northern
vault for IOO rnerks Scots; and this was the gate
which the English, under Lord Hertford, blew open](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p037.gif "Volume 2 Page 217")
... in 1846 in
completing the tunnel of the Edinburgh and Leith
Railway; and now we believe the exciseman ...
Vol. 2 p. 217 (Rel. 0.46)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
.%dim, or ‘‘ Miscellaneous Papers relating tc
Scottish Affairs ’’ (1535-1781)~ ...
Vol. 6 p. 262 (Rel. 0.45)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBVRGH. [ Leith .
London, at the request of Lord Balgonie, afterwards
Earl of Leven.
People of ...
Vol. 6 p. 250 (Rel. 0.45)
![Leith.] EXECUTION OF PIRATES. “67
C H A P T E R XXX.
LEITH-THE SANDS.
The Sands of Leith-Piates Executed there-The Kaif ofLyane--Captain Potts of the Dreaa31uu~M-A Duel in 1€67-Horse-lacing-“The
Bell”-Leith Races in 1661-“Going Down with the Purse’-Races in 1763 and 1771, etc.
THE Sands of Leith, like other districts we have
described, have a notabilia peculiarly their own,
as the grim scene of executions for piracy, and of
the horse-races, which were long celebrated there
amid a jollity unknown now at the other locality to
which they have been transferred-the Links of
Musselburgh.
All pirates, and those who committed crimes or
misdemeanours upon the high seas, were, down to
1822, hanged within the flood-mark; but there does
not seem to have been any permanent erection, or
even a fixed locality, for this purpose, and thus any
part of the then great expanse of open sand must
have been deemed suitable for the last offices of
the law, and even the Pier and Shore were sometimes
used.
On the 6th of May, 1551, John Davidson was
convicted by an assize of piratically attacking a ship
of Bordeaux, and sentenced to be hanged in irons
on the Sands; and this, Pitcairn observes, is the
earliest notice in Scotland of the body of a criminal
being exposed in chains, to be consumed piecemeal
by the elements.
In 1555, Hilbert Stalfurde and the crew of the
Kait of Lynne, an English ship, were tried for piracy
and oppression, ‘( in reiving and spoiling furth of a
hulk of the toun of Stateyne (Stettin), then lying in
the harbour of Leith,” a cable of ninety fathoms,
three or four pistolettes,and other property,for which
theywere all hanged as pirates within the flood-mark.
Pitcairn gives this case in full, and it may not be
uninteresting to note what constituted piracy in the
sixteenth century.
In the ‘( Talbot Papers,” published by the Maitland
Club, there is a letter, dated 4th July, 1555,
from Lord Conyers to the Earl of Shrewsbury,
After stating that some ships had been captured,
very much to the annoyance of the Queen-Regent
Mary of Lorraine, she sent a Scottish ship of war to
search for the said ship of Lynne; and, as the
former passed herself on the seas as a merchantman,
the crew of the Kait “schott a piece of ordnance,
and the Scottis shippe schott off but a slinge, as
though she had been a merchant, and vailed her
bonnet,” or dipped her ensign
The crew of the Kait then hailed, and asked
what she was laden with, and the reply was, “ With
victualles; and then they desired them to borde, and
let them have a ton of bacon for their money.”
The Scots answered that they should do so, on
which there swarmed on board the Kaif a hundred
or eighty men, “well appoyntit in armoure and
stoutlie set,” on the English ship, which they
brought, with all her crew, into the haven of Leith ;
“and by that I can learn,” adds Lord Conyers,
“there is at least iij. or iiij. of the cheefest of the
Englismenne like to suffer death. Other news I have
none to certifie yr Lordschippe, and so I committ
the same unto the tuicion and governmente of
Almichtie God.”-Berwick, 4th July, 1555.
The seamen of those days were not very particular
when on the high seas, for in 1505 we find
the King’s Admiral, Sir Andrew Wood, obtaining a
remission under the Great Seal for (<ye ri>f an
anchor and cabyell” taken from John of Bonkle
on the sea, as he required these probably for the
king’s service ; and some fifty years later an admiral
of England piratically seized the ship coming from
France with the horses of Queen Mary on board.
In 1610 nine pirates were sentenced by the
mouth of James Lockhart of Lee, chancellor, to be
hanged upon “the sandis of Leyth, within the
floddis-mark;” and in the same year Pitcairn records
the trial of thirty more pirates for the affair
at Long Island, in Ireland, already related.
In 16 I 2 two more were hanged in the same place
for piracy.
Executions here of seamen were of constant occurrence
in the olden times, but after that of Wilson
Potts, captain of the Dreadnoughf privateer of Newcastle,
on the 13th of February, 1782, none took
place till the execution of Heaman and Gautiez, at
the foct of Constitution Street, in 1822.
Potts was convicted before the Admiralty Court
of having plundered the White Swaiz, of Copenhagen,
of four bags of dollars. He was recommended
to mercy by a majority of the jury, because
it was in proof that he had committed the crime
while in a state of intoxication, and had, on coming
to his senses, taken the first opportunity of restoring
the money to its owners; but the recommendation
was made in vain.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p086.gif "Volume 6 Page 267")
... Leith .] EXECUTION OF PIRATES. “67
C H A P T E R XXX.
LEITH -THE SANDS.
The Sands of Leith -Piates Executed ...
Vol. 6 p. 267 (Rel. 0.45)
![238 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
-to hir lovite suitore, Johne Chisholme, his airis and
. assignais, all and hailk hir lands callit the King’s
Werk in Leith, within the boundis specifit in the
infeftment maid to him thairupon, quhilkis than
-war alluterlie decayit, and sensyne are reparit and
re-edifit, he the said Johne Chisholnie, to the policy
.and great decoration of this realme, in that office,
place, and sight of all strangeris and utheris re-
- sortand to the Schore of Leith.”
In 1575 it had been converted into a hospital
- for the plague-stricken ; but when granted to Bernard
Lindsay in 1613, he was empowered to keep
four taverns in the buildings, together with the
tennis-court, for the then favourite pastime of
‘catchpel. It continued to be used for that purpose
till the year 1649, when it was taken pos-
2 session of by the magistrates of Edinburgh, and
. converted into a weigh-house.
“ In what part of the building Bemard Lindsay
commenced tavern-keeping we are unable to say,”
observes Campbell, in his “ History of Leith,” “ but
.are more than half disposed to believe it was that
old house which projects into Bernard Street, and
is situated nearly opposife the British Linen Com-
,pany’s Bank.” ‘‘ The house alluded to,” adds
Robertson on this, “has a carved stone in front,
representing a rainbow rising from the clouds, with
a date 165-, the last figure being obliterated, and
-can hatre no reference to Bernard Lindsay.”
The tennis-court of the latter would seem to have
been frequently patronised by the great Marquis of
Montrose in his youth, as in his ‘‘ Household Accounts,”
under date 1627, are the following entries
.(Mait. Club Edit.) :-
‘‘ Item to the poor, my Lord taking coch . . qs.
Item, carrying the graith to Leth . . . . 8s.
Item, to some poor there . . . . . . 3s
Item, to my Lord Nepar’s cochman . .
Item, for balls in the Tinnes Court of Leth..
. . 6s. Sd.
16s.”
The first memorial of Bernard Lindsay is in
the Parish Records ” of South Leith, and is dated
17th July, 1589 :-“ The quhilk days comperit
up Bemard Lindsay and Barbara Logan, and gave
their names to be proclamit and mareit, within
this date and Michaelmas.-JoHN LOGANE, Cautioper.”
Another record, 2nnd September, I 633, bears
that the Session “ allowis burial to Barbara Logane,
-.elict of Bernard Lindsaye, besyde her husbande in
the kirk-yeard, in contentation yairof, 100 merks to
be given to the poor.”
From Bernard Lindsay, the name of the present
Bernard Street is derived. Bernard’s Nook has
long been known. ‘‘ In the ‘ Council Records’ of
Edinburgh, 1647,” says Robertson, “is the following
entry :-‘ To the purchase of the Kingis Werk,
in Leith, 4,500 lib. Scot.’ A previous entry, 1627,
refers to dealing with the sons of Bernard Lindsay,
‘for their house in Leith to be a custom-house. . . .’
We have no record that any buildings existed beyond
the bounds of the walls or the present
Bernard Street at this time, the earliest dates on
the seaward part of the Shore being 1674-1681.”
The old Weigh-house, or Tron of Leith, stood
within Bernard’s Nook, on the west side of the
street ; but local, though unsupported, tradition
asserts that the original signal-tower and lighthouse
of Leith stood in the Broad Wynd.
Wilson thus refers to the relic of the Wark
already mentioned :-‘‘ A large stone panel, which
bore the date 1650-the year immediately succeeding
the appropriation of the King‘s Wark to
civic purposes-appeared in the north gable of the
old weigh-house, which till recently occupied its
site, with the curious device of a rainbow carved
in bold relief springing at either end from a bank
of clouds.”
“ So,” says Arnot, ‘‘ this fabric, which was reared
for the sports and recreations of a Court, was
speedily to be the scene of the ignoble labours of
carmen and porters, engaged in the drudgery of
weighing hemp and of iron.”
Eastward of the King’s Wark, between Bernard‘s
Street and chapel, lies the locality once so curiously
designated Little London, and which, according to
Kincaid, measured ninety feet from east to west,
by seventy-five broad over the walls. “ How it
acquired the name of Little London is now
unknown,” says Camphell, in his “ History ” ;
“but it was so-called in the year 1674, We do
not see, however,” he absurdly remarks, “that it
could have obtained this appellation from any
other circumstauce than its having had some
real or supposed resemblance to the [English]
metropolis.”
As the views preserved of Little London show it
to have consisted of only four houses or so, and
these of two storeys high, connected by a dead
wall with one doorway, facing Bemard Street in
1800, Campbell’s theory is untenable. It is much
more probable that it derived its name from being
the quarters or cantonments of those 1,500 English
soldiers who, under Sir Williani Drury, Marshal of
Berwick, came from England in April, 1573, to
assist the Regent Morton’s Scottish Companies in
the reduction of Edinburgh Castle. These men
departed from Leith on the 16th of the following
June, and it has been supposed that a few of them
may have been induced to remain, and the locality
thus won the name of Little London, in the same](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p057.gif "Volume 6 Page 238")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
-to hir lovite suitore, Johne Chisholme, his airis and
. assignais, all and ...
Vol. 6 p. 238 (Rel. 0.45)
![Leith.] SHIPBUILDING. 281
put on board the privateer and landed at Calais,
from whence we were ten days marching to Valenciennes
; were lodged in the most horrid jails by
the way, and were allowed nothing but bread and
water.”
In the May of the following year, the brig
CaZedonia, of Leith, and the Mary, of Kirkwall,
were both captured, not far from Aberdeen, by a
French privateer ; but when within three miles of
the coast of France, they escaped to Yarmouth, on
the appearance of the Ludy Anne, an armed lugger,
commanded by Lieutenant Wright, R.N.
On the 6th March, 1800, the Pox, Letter of
Marque, of Leith, fought a sharp battle, which
her captain, James Ogilvy, thus details in the
report to his owners there :-
“Last night, at 11 p.m., Dungeness, NNW,
three leagues, I observed a lugger lying on my
lee-bow ; the moment he saw me he made sail and
ran ahead to windward, and hove-to until I came
up. I observed his motions, hoisted a light on my
maintop, and hailed the Juno, of KirkcaIdy, Mr.
James Condy, who came from Leith Roads along
with me, and kept company all the way, to keep
close by me, as he was under my convoy; which
he immediately did-also two colliers. All my
hands lay on deck, and were prepared to receive
him (the enemy), being well loaded with round and
grape shot from my small battery. He, with his
great, or lug maimail, bore down on my quarter
within pistol-shot. I immediately gave him our
broadside, which, from the confusion and mourning
cries, gave me every reason to suppose he must
have had a number killed and wounded, and he
lay-to, with all his sails shaking in the wind, as long
as I could see him. I am truly happy that the
Fox’s small force has been the means of saving herself,
as well as thelunu and the two colliers, from a
desperate set of thieves that so much infest this
channeL We have fortunately arrived here (Ports
mouth) safe today, with thejunu, in time to join
the convoy for Gibraltar. Have got instructions
fiom the Champion frigate, and sail to-morrow
morning ” (Heralic and Chroa, 1800).
Captain Ogilvy was presented by the underwriters
with a handsome present for his valour and
good conduct in saving and defending four ships.
In the autumn of 1801, the whole of the ship
carpenters, rope-makers, joiners, and block.makers,
to the number of 250 men, employed in the little
Government naval yard at Leith, ‘‘ voluntarily
offered to be trained to the use of the great guns
and of pikes, in defence of the town and port 01
Leith,” refusing all pay. The enthusiasm spread at
the same time to the fishermen of the Firth of
132
Forth, who, to the number of 1,243, made through
Captain Clements an offer of their services in any
way his Majesty might require, to defend the
country from foreign invasion.
To return briefly to the arts of peace, we may
state that both at Leith and Newhaven an extensive
trade in shipbuilding has been camed on
at various periods; but for some generations past
no ships have been launched at the latter place,
yet within the recollection of many still alive shipbuilding
was one of the most important branches of
industry carried on at Leith.
In 1840, two steamers, larger than any then
afloat, were contracted for, and successfully launched
from the building-yard of the Messrs. Menzies ;
and much about the same time other ships of such
a size were built, that many persons began fondly
to suppose that the Port of Leith would keep the
lead in this great branch of industry; but, contrary
to expectation, the trade gradually declined, while
the fame and well-known character of the celebrated
Clyde-built ships and Aberdeen clippers
drew it to the west and north of Scotland. Some
amount of fresh impetus was given to it, however,
by the establishment of several yards for the construction
of iron ships, from which have been
launched a number of first-class vessels, and also
magnificent steam yachts for the Duke of Norfolk,
the Earl of Eglinton, and others.
But though the construction of new ships is not
carried on to the extent it was formerly, a considerable
number of shipcarpenters are employed in the
port repairing vessels, some afloat and others in dry
docks. In the winter and spring artisans of this
class are most in demand, re-classing and overhauling
vessels laid up during these seasons, after
arriving from long voyages.
It has more than once been observed that by
fiu the worst circumstance which in modern times
has damaged the port, and at one time seriously
menaced its trade with ruin, was its predicament
with regard to steam vessels. Some of the latter,
built to ply from it, have been so constructed as,
with a sacrifice of their speed and sailing powers,
not to suffer much injury when seeking harbourage ;
but others, such as are most serviceable and
valuable to a great port, can barely enter it.
This consideration will lead us naturally to the
description of the several docks that have been
built from time to time with a view to meet the
growing requirements both as to traffic and increased
size of vessels. One of these docks, the
Prince of Wales’s Graving Dock, is capable of
receiving the largest ship in the merchant service,
except the Great Eastern.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p100.gif "Volume 6 Page 281")
... Leith .] SHIPBUILDING. 281
put on board the privateer and landed at Calais,
from whence we were ten days marching ...
Vol. 6 p. 281 (Rel. 0.45)
... that,prior to 1801,
all vessels leaving the Firth from Leith and above
it, must have taken the other channel, ...
Vol. 6 p. 292 (Rel. 0.45)
... Leith ! THE REV. JOHN LOGAN.
The first Protestant minister of Leith , at the
settlement of the Reformation in 1560, ...
Vol. 6 p. 219 (Rel. 0.44)
![Leith.] FIGHT IN THE HARBOUR. ‘33
of war, which had been at anchor for six weeks
in the Roads, and apparently with all her guns
shotted,
About noon on the 10th December, 1613, an
Englishman, who was in a “mad humour,” says
Calderwood, when the captain and most of the
officers were on shore, laid trains of powder throughout
the vessel, notwithstanding that his own son
was on board, and blew her up. Balfour states
that she was a 48-gun ship, commanded by a
Captain Wood, that sixty men were lost in her,
and sixty-three who escaped were sent to London.
Calderwood reduces the number who perished to
twenty-four, and adds that the fire made all her
ordnance go off, so that none dared go near her to
render assistance.
In 1618 Leith was visited by Taylor, the Water
Poet, and was there welcomed by Master Bernard
Lindsay, one of the grooms of his Majesty’s bedchamber;
and his notice of the commerce of the
port presents a curious contrast to the Leith of the
present day :-cc I was credibly informed that within
the compass of one year there was shipped away
from that only port of Leith fourscore thousand
boles of wheat, oats, and barley, into Spain, France,
and other foreign parts, and every bole contains a
measure of four English bushels; so that from
Leith only hath been transported 320,000 bushels
of corn, besides some hath been shipped away
from St. Andrews, Dundee, Aberdeen, &c., and
other portable towns, which makes me wonder that
a kingdom so populous as it is, should nevertheless
sell so much bread corn beyond the seas, and yet
have more than sufficient for themselves.”
In parochial and other records of those days
many instances are noted of the capture of Scottish
mariners by the pirates of Algiers, and of collections
being made in the several parishes for their
redemption from slavery. In the Register of the
Privy Council, under date January, r636, we find
that a ship called the Jdn, of Leith, commanded
by John Brown, when sailing from London to
La Rochelle, on the coast of France, fell in with
three Turkish men-of-war, which, after giving him
chase from sunrise to sunset, captured the vessel,
took possession of the cargo and crew, and then
scuttled her.
Poor Brown and his mariners were all taken to
Salee, and there sold in the public market as
slaves. Each bore iron chains to the weight of
eighty pounds, and all were daily employed in
grinding at a mill, while receiving nothing to eat
but a little dusty bread. In the night they were
confined in holes twenty feet deep aniong rats and
mice, and because they were too poor-being only
mariners-to redeem themselves, they trusted to the
benevolence of his Majesty‘s subjects. By order
of the Council, a contribution was levied in the
Lothians and elsewhere, but with what result we
are not told.
In 1622 the usual excitements of the times were
varied by a sea-fight in the heart of Leith harbour.
On the 6th of June, in that year, the constable of
Edinburgh Castle received orders from the Lords
of Council to have his cannon and cannoniers in
instant readiness, as certain foreign ships were engaged
in close battle within gunshot of Leith
A frigate belonging to Philip IV. of Spain, cbmmanded
by Don Pedro de Vanvornz, had been
lying for some time at anchor within the harbour
there, taking on board provisions and stores, her
soldiers and crew coming on shore freely whenever
they chose; but it happened that one night two
vessels of war, belonging to their bitter enemies,
the Dutch, commanded by Mynheer de Hautain,
the Admiral of Zealand, came into the same anchorage,
and-as the Earl of Melrose reported to
James VI.-cast anchor close by Don Pedro.
The moment daylight broke the startled Spaniards
ran up their ensign, cleared away for action, and a
desperate fight ensued, nearly muzzle to muzzle.
For two hours without intermission, the tiers of
brass cannon from the decks of the three ships
poured forth a destructive fire, and the Spaniards,
repulsed by sword and partisan, made more than
one attempt to carry their lofty bulwarks by
boarding. The smoke of their culverins, matchlocks,
and pistolettes enveloped their rigging and
all the harbour of Leith, through the streets and
along the pier of which bullets of all sorts and
sizes went skipping and whizzing, to the terror and
confusion of the inhabitants.
As this state of things was intolerable, the burgesses
of the city and seaport rushed to arms and
armour, at the disposal of the Lords of Council,
who despatched a herald with the water bailie to
command both parties to forbear hostilities in Scottish
waters ; but neither the herald‘s tabard nor the
bailie’s authority prevailed, and the fight continued
with unabated fury till midday. The Spanish
captain finding himself sorely pressed by his two
antagonists, obtained permission to warp his ship
farther within the harbour ; but still the unrelenting
Dutchmen poured their broadsides upon his
shattered hull.
The Privy Council now ordered the Admiral
Depute to muster the mariners of Leith, and assail
the Admiral of Zealand in aid of the Dunkerpuer;
but the depute reported that they were altogether
vnable, and he saw no way to enforce obedience](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p194.gif "Volume 5 Page 183")
... Leith .] FIGHT IN THE HARBOUR. ‘33
of war, which had been at anchor for six weeks
in the Roads, and apparently ...
Vol. 5 p. 183 (Rel. 0.44)
... re-capture of Inchkeith during the French
occupation of Leith has already been related; but
the garrison there ...
Vol. 6 p. 291 (Rel. 0.44)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
for many generations an ancient and lofty signaltower,
the summit of which was ...
Vol. 6 p. 228 (Rel. 0.44)
![Le:th.] LANDING OF QUEEN MARY. 179
Thus the whole line of fortifications facing the
city were levelled, but those on the east remained
long entire; and considerable traces of them were
only removed about the beginning of the eighteenth
century.
On the 20th of August, 1560, Queen Mary
landed at the town to take possession of the throne
of her ancestors. The time was about eight in the
morning, and Leith must have presented a different
aspect than in the preceding year, when the cannon
of the besiegers thundered against its walls. No
vestige now remains of the pier which received her,
though it must have been constructed subsequent
to the destruction of the older one by the savage
Earl of Hertford-the pier at which Magdalene of
France, the queen of twenty summer days, had
landed so joyously in the May of 1537.
The keys of St. Anthony’s Port were delivered to
Mary, who was accompanied by her three uncles-
Claude of Lorraine, Duc d’Aumale, who was killed
at the siege of Rochelle thirteen years after; Francis,
Grand Prior of Malta, general of the galleys of
France, who died of fatigue after the battle of
Dreux; and Rend, Marquisd’Elbeuff, who succeeded
Francis as general of the galleys. She was attended
also by her ‘‘ four Maries,” whose names, as given by
Bishop Leslie, were Fleming, Beaton, Livingstone,
and Seaton, who had been all along with her in
France. Buchanan in 1565 mentions five Maries,
and the treasurer’s account at the same date mentions
si;., including two whose names were Simparten
and Wardlaw.
The cheers of the people mingled with the boom
of cannon, and, says Buchansn, “the dangers she
had undergone, the excellence of her mien, the
delicacy of her beauty, the vigour of her blooming
years, and the elegance of her wit, all joined in her
recommendation.”
As the genial Ettrick Shepherd wrote :-
‘‘ After a youth by woes o’ercast,
After a thousand sorrows past,
The lovely Mary once again
Set foot upon her native plain ;
Kneeled on the pier with modest grace,
And turned to heaven her beauteous face . . . I .
There rode the lords of France and Spain,
Of England, Flanders, and Lorraine ;
While semed thousands round them stood,
From shore of Leith to Holyrood.”
But Knox’s thunder was growling in the distance,
as he records that ‘‘ the very face of heaven did
manifestlie speak what comfort was brought to this
country with hir-to wit, sorrow, dolour, darkness,
and all impiety; for in the memory of man never
was seyn a more dolorous face of the heaven than
was at her arryvall . . . . . the myst was so thick
that skairse mycht onie man espy another ; .and the
sun was not seyn to shyne two days befoir nor two
days after !IJ
Four years after this the poor young queen,
among other shifts to raise money in her difficulties,
mortgaged the superiority of Leith to the city
of Edinburgh, redeemable for 1,000 merks ; and in
1566 she requested the Town Council by a letter
to delay the assumption of that superiority ; but
she could only obtain a short indulgence to prevent
the consequence of her hasty act falling on the
devoted seaport.
In 1567, taking advantage of the general confusion
of the queen’s affairs, on the 4th of July the
Provost, bailies, deacons, and the whole craftsmen
of the city, armed and equipped in warlike array,
with pikes, swords, and arquebuses, marched to
Leith, and went through some evolutions, meant to
represent or constitute the capture and conquest of
the town, and formally trampled its independence
in the dust. From the Links the magistrates
finally marched to the Tolbooth, in the wynd
which still bears its name, and on the stair thereof
held a court, creating bailies, sergeants, clerks, and
deemsters, in virtue of the infeftment made to
them by the queen ; and the superiority thus established
was maintained, too often with despotic
rigour, till Leith attained its independence after the
passing of the Reform Bill in 1832.
During the contention between Morton and the
queen’s party, when the former was compelled with
his followers to take shelter in Leith, where thq
Regent Mar had established his headquarters on
the 12th of January, 1571, a convention, usually
but erroneously called a General Assembly of the
Kirk, was convened there, and sat till the 1st of
February, and in it David Lindsay, minister of
Leith, took a prominent part. The opening sermon
on this occasion was lately reprinted by Principal
Lee. It is now extremely scarce, and is entitled
“ Ane sermon preichit befoir the Regent and
nobilitie, in the Kirk of Leith, 1571, by David
Fergussone, minister of the Evangell at Dunfermlyne.
The sermon approvit by John Knox, with
my dead hand but glaid heart, praising God that of
His mercy He lenis such light to His Kirk in this
desolation.”
M‘Crie says that the last public service of Knox
was the examination and approval of this sermon.
During the minority of James VI. Leith figured
in many transactions which belong strictly to the
general history of the realm ; thus from November,
1571, till the August of the following year, it was
the seat of the Court of Justiciary, and again in
thus :-](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p190.gif "Volume 5 Page 179")
... ancestors. The time was about eight in the
morning, and Leith must have presented a different
aspect than in the ...
Vol. 5 p. 179 (Rel. 0.43)
... Leith ; LETTERS OF MARQUE. 219
to Hull, Newcastle, Thurso, Orkney, and Shetland,
to Inverness, Fort George, and ...
Vol. 6 p. 279 (Rel. 0.43)
... D.D., who was for fifty-nine
years minister of North Leith , is erected by a few
private friends in ...
Vol. 6 p. 255 (Rel. 0.43)
... OLD AND PEW EDINBUKGH. [ Leith .
on the coast of East Lothian, from whence the way
to England was open and ...
Vol. 5 p. 192 (Rel. 0.43)
![Leith.] THE HIGHLAND MUTINEERS ON THE SHORE. 195 - .
the battery guns facing the city-which was filled
with consternation-while a rather helpless force of
cavalry took possession of the Castle HilL The
crisis was, indeed, a perilous one, as the vaults of
the fortress were full of French and Spanish prisoners
of war, while a French squadron was cruising off the
mouth of the Forth, and had already captured some
vessels. Next day the company capitulated, all
save one, who, with his claymore, assailed an officer
of the Ioth, who struck him down and had him
made a prisoner.
The cavalry occupied the fortress until the arrival
of Lord Lennox’s regiment, the 26th or Cameronians,
when‘a court-martial was held. One Highlander
was sentenced to be shot, and another to
receive a thousand lashes ; but both were forgiven
on condition of serving beyond the seas in a battalion
of the line.
Another mutiny occurred in the April of the
following year.
Seventy Highlanders enlisted for the 42nd and
71st (then known as the Master of Lovat’s
Regiment) when marched to Leith, refused to
embark, a mischievous report having been spread
that they were to be draughted into a Lowland
corps, and thus deprived of the kilt; and so much
did they resent this, that they resolved to resist to
death. On the evening they reached Leith the
following despatch was delivered at Edinburgh
Castle by a mounted dragoon :-
(‘ To Governor Wemyss, or the Commanding
Officer of the South Fencible Regiment. 7
“ Headquarters, Apri!, I 7 79.
“ SrR,-The draughts of the 71st Regiment
having refused to embark, you will order 200 men
of the South Fencibles to march immediately to
Leith to seize these mutineers and march them
prisoners to the castle of Edinburgh, to be detained
there until further orders.-I am, &c.,
“ JA. AmLPnus OUGHTON.”
In obedience to this order from the General
Commanding, three captains, six subalterns, and
zoo of the Fencibles under Major Sir James
Johnstone, Bart., of Westerhall, marched to Leith
on this most unpleasant duty, and found the
seventy Highlanders on the Shore, drawn up in
line with their backs to the houses, their bayoiiets
fixed, and muskets loaded. Sir James drew up his
detachment in such a manner as to render escape
impossible, and then stated the positive orders he
would be compelled to obey.
His words were translated into Gaelic by Sergeant
Ross, who acted as interpreter, and who,
after some expostulation, turned to Sir James,
saying that all was over-his countrymen would
neither surrender nor lay down their arms. On
this Johnston‘e gave the order to prepare for firing
-but added, “Recover ams.”
A Bighlander at that moment attempted to
escape, but was seized by a sergeant, who was
instantly bayoneted, while another, coming to the
rescue with his pike, was shot. The blood of the
Fencibles was roused now, and they poured in
more than one volley upon the Highlanders, of
whom twelve were shot dead, and many mortally
wounded. The fire was returned promptly enough,
but with feeble effect, as the Highlanders had only
a few charges given to them by a Leith porter;
thus only two Fencibles were killed and one
wounded ; but Captain James Mansfield (formerly
of the 7th or Queen’s Dragoons), while attempting
to save the latter, was bayoneted by a furious
Celt, whose charge he vainly sought to parry with
his sword. A corporal shot the mutineer through
the head: the Fencibles-while a vast crowd of
Leith people looked on: appalled by a scene so unusual-
now closed up with charged bayonets, disarmed
the whole, and leaving the Shore strewn
with dead and dying, returned to the Castle with
twenty-five prisoners, and the body of Captain
Mansfield, who left a widow with six children, and
was interred in the Greyfriars churchyard.
The scene of this tragedy was in front of the
old Ship Tavern and the tenement known as the
Britannia Inn.
After a court-martial was held, on the 29th ot
May, the garrison, consisting of the South and West
Fencibles and the cavalry, paraded on the Castle
Hill, in three sides of a hollow square, facing inwards.
With a band playing the dead march, and
the drums muffled and craped, three of these Highland
recruits, who had been sentenced to death,
each stepping slowly behind his open coffin, were
brought by an escort down the winding pathway,
under the great wall of the Half-moon Battery,
and placed in the open face of the square by the
Provost-marshal. They were then desired to kneel,
while their sentence was read to them-Privates
Williamson and MacIvor of the Black Watch, and
Budge of the 7 1st-to be shof fo death f
The summer morning was bright and beautiful ;
but a dark cloud rested on every face while the
poor prisoners remained on their knees, each man
in his coffin, and a Highland officer interpreted the
sentence in Gaelic. They were pale and composed,
save Budge, who was suffering severely from wounds
received at Leith, and looked emaciated and
ghastly. Their eyes were now bound up, and the
firing party were in the act of taking aim at the
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p014.gif "Volume 6 Page 195")
... Leith .] THE HIGHLAND MUTINEERS ON THE SHORE. 195 - .
the battery guns facing the city-which was filled
with ...
Vol. 6 p. 195 (Rel. 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
Dgeme, and YaZiant; while in the POTt line were
the Lord War&rt, the ...
Vol. 6 p. 288 (Rel. 0.43)
![Leith.] GROWTH OF THE PORT. 27.5
the sirpleth of woll and skin, because sho is fraughtit
in and furth, and the better chaip inwart becaus
sho fraucht swa deir furthwart; and this frauchtbg
is maid in the form of the statutes of the Toune
and Act ,of Parliament, the port oppin and the
nychtbouris firs seruit”
In 1519 the Provost and Council ordained the
water bailie of Leith to await the entry of all ships
at the port, and to see that no wine, timber, 01
other portions of the cargo be sold till duly entered
and paid for, the king‘s grace and the city
first served ; and if any goods were sold or tapped,
they should be arrested.
The numerous rules and laws which were enacted
in those days with reference to shipping,
navigation, and foreign commerce, evince that the
attention of the Scottish legislature was particularly
directed to maritime affairs. There was an
enactment which ordained that ships and fishingboats
of not less than twenty tons should be built
and equipped with appropriate nets and tackling
by all burghs and seaport towns.
By an Act passed in the second Parliament of
James III., in 1466, no ship from Leith or any
other port could be freighted without a charterparty,
whereof the points were: “ What the master
of the ship shall furnish to the merchant, that in
case of debate betwixt them, they underly the law
of the burgh whereto the ship ,is fraughted. That
the goods be not spilt by ill-stalling ; that no goods
be shown or stricken up ; that the master have no
goods in his over-loft, or if he do, these goods pay
no fraught. That every ship exceeding five lasts
of goods pay to the chaplain of the nation a sack
fraught, and if within five lasts, the half of it, under
pain of five pounds; and that no drink-silver be
taken by the master and his doers, under the same
pain. And homeward, a tun fraught to the kirkwork
of the town they are fraughted to.’’
In 1488 it was ordained that all ships, Scottish
or foreign, should arrive only at free burghs, and
the prohibition of navigation between All Saints
Day and Candlemas was renewed; and in -1535
it was ordered that ships should be ‘freighted to
Flanders only twice yearly, to the Easter market,
and that held on the 3rd of May. The exportation
of all tallow was strictly forbidden, as the
realm only furnished a sufficient quantity for home
consumption.
By an Act of James VI., no ship could sail without
the king’s consent, under pain of being arrested
by the conservator.
In March, 1567, there was a frightful tempest of
wind, which, says Birrel, “blew a very grate shippe
out of the Rode of Leith.” He records that in
.-
1596, between July and August, sixty-six ships
arrived in the harbour laden with victual
In 1616 the same monarch grauted a patent of
the whale fishery for thirty-five years to Sir George
Hay and Mr. Thomas Murray, who fitted out two
ships for that purpose. Nicol mentions that, in
1652 “there canie into the very Brig of Leith”
a whale, which rendered much profit to the English
garrison there.
In September, 1641, a Bill was brought before
the Parliament at Edinburgh by John, Earl of
Rothes, Sir George Hamilton of Blackburn,
Andrew Eusley, and George h o t , merchants, to
enforce restitution from the Hamburgers to the
value of 300,000 merks, taken from them in shipping
and goods, and to grant Letters of Marque against
the said Hamburgers; and in the ensuing November
Letters of Reprisal by sea and land were
granted under the Great Seal.
In 1651 an English ship, bound for Leith was
captured by the captain of the Bass, and her
crew made prisoners, some being placed on the
isle and others sent to Tantallon, She had on
board 10,000 pairs of shoes, 6,000 pairs of boots,
5,000 saddles and sets of horse furniture, ten tons
of London beeire and als muche bisquett as should
have served Cromwell for a month,” says Sir James
Balfour. Her cargo was handed over to Sir John
Smith, Commissary-General of the Scottish army.
In the May of the same year Captain Murray,
commander of a Scottish frigate, took another English
ship, laden with provisions, which he handed
over to the army, but retained the vessel as the prize
of himself and crew.
In 1656 Leith possessed only three vessels of
250 tons, and eleven of 20 tons each.
In 1661 the Scottish Parliament passed an Act
for the encouragement of shipping and navigation,
ordaining that all goods be transported in Scottish ‘
ships “from the original places, whence they are
in use first to be transported.” That all Scottish
ships should be navigated by a Scottish master,
and that at least three-parts of his crew should be
Scotsmen. The Act contains an order for verifying
a ship to be Scottish, and getting a certificate
thereof; and that no customer “allow the benefit
of a Scot’s skipper to any ship until the same be
so verified, under pain of deprivation.” This Act
was not to extend to imports from Asia, Africa,
America, Muscovy, or Italy.
The Iirst return of tonnage for Leith, preserved
in the “Archives of the Royal Burghs,” is dated
1692, when the port could only boast of twentynine
ships, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,702
tons, the estimated value of which was ;G7,1oo](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p094.gif "Volume 6 Page 275")
... Leith .] GROWTH OF THE PORT. 27.5
the sirpleth of woll and skin, because sho is fraughtit
in and furth, and the ...
Vol. 6 p. 275 (Rel. 0.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
brunt in assis, and all thair moveable guidis to be
escheat.”
On the 6th of ...
Vol. 5 p. 182 (Rel. 0.43)
![Leith] SH EKIFF BRAE. 247
Leith by the rebels of Mary Queen of Scots, the
Earl of Lennox opened his council in the chambers
of the old tenement referred to, on the Coal Hill,
and it is, says Robertson, decorated with a rosethe
emblem of his connectian with Henry VIII. of
England-and the thistle for Scotland. Then
followed that war to which Morton’s ferocity imparted
a character so savage that ere long quarter
was neither given nor taken. And amidst it, in
connection with some private feud, some of the
followers of Sir William Kirkaldy, although they
had been ordered merely to use their batons, slew
Henry Setoun on the Shore of Leith, while his feet
were tripped up by an anchor. In escaping to
Edinburgh, one of them was taken and lodged in
the Tolbooth there ; but Kirkaldy came down from
the Castle with a party of his garrison, beat in the
doors, and rescued him, after which he seized ‘‘ the
victualls brought into Leith from the merchants,
and (did} provide all necessarie furniture to endure
a long siege, till supplie was sent from forrane
nations.” (Calderwood.)
On the death of Lennox, John, Earl of Mar, was
made Regent, and fixed his head-quarters in the
same old tenement at the Coal Hill, Morton being
again chief lieutenant.
From the presence of these peers here, it is
probable that the adjacent gloomy, and now filthy,
court, so grotesquely called Parliament Square, obtained
its name, which seems to have been formerly
the Peat Neuk. The old Council House has been
doomed to perish by the new improvement scheme.
In December, 1797, it was ordered by the Lord
Provost, Magistrates, and Council of Edinburgh,
through the deputy shore-master at Leith, that every
vessel coming into the port with coals for public
sale, was to have a berth immediately on her arrival
off the Coal Hill, and that all other vessels were to
unmoor for that purpose, while no shore duties
were to be charged for coal vessels. (HeyaZd and
ChyonicZe, No. 1,215.)
The adjacent Peat Neuk, for years during the
last century and the beginning of the present,
afforded a shelter to those reckless and abandoned
characters who abound in every seaport ; while in
that portion of the town between the Coal Hill and
the foot of the Tolbooth Wynd were a number of
ancient and ruinous houses, the abode of wandering
outcasts, from whom no rent was ever derived
or expected. It was further alleged, in the early
part of the nineteenth century, to be the favourite
haunt of disembodied spirits, whose crimes or
sufferings in life compelled them to wander ; so,
every way, the Coal Hill seems to have been an
unpleasant, as it is still an unsavoury, locality.
From thence, another quarter known as the
Sheriff, or Shirra Brae, extends in a south-westerly
direction, still abounding in ancient houses. Here,
facing the Coal Hill, there stood, till 1840, a very
fine old edifice, described as having been the residence
of a Logan of Restalrig. The dormer
windows, which rose high above the eaves, were
elaborately sculptured with many dates and quaint
devices. Some of these have been preserved in
the north wall of the manse of St. Thomas’s Church.
One of them displays a shield charged with a heart,
surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, with the initials 1.L
and the date 1636 ; another has the initials I.L.,
M.C., with the date 24 Dec., 1636; a third has
the initials M.C., with a shield; while a fourth
gablet has the initials D.D., M.C., and the comparatively
recent date I 734
The supposed grandsoq of the luckless Logan
of the Gowrie conspiracy married Isabel Fowler,
daughter of Ludovic Fowler of Burncastle (says
Robertson), the famous “ Tibbie Fowler ” of
Scottish song, and here she is said to have resided ;
but her husband has been otherwise said to have
been a collateral of the ancient house of Restalrig,
as it is recorded, under date 12th June, 1572-
Majestro Joanne Logan de Shireff Braye,” who
poitpones the case of Christian Gudsonne, wife of
Andrew Burne in Leith, “dilatit of the mutilation
of Willkm Burne, burgess of Edinburgh, of his
foremost finger be byting thereof.”
In the chartulary, says Robertson, we have also
John Logane of the Coatfield (Kirkgate), and George
Logane of Bonnington Mills is repeatedly alluded
to; ‘‘ and we believe,” he adds, that these branches
“existed as early as the charter of King David.”
The old house at Bmnington still shows a curious
doorway, surmounted by a carefully sculptured
tablet bearing a shield, with a chevron and three
fleurs-de-lis; crest, a ship with sails furled. The
motto and date are obliterated.
. Another writer supposes that if the old house on
the Sheriff Brae was really the residence of George
Logan, it may have been acquired by marriage,
“ seeing that the forfeiture of the family possessions
occurred so shortly before ; and this in itself affords
some colour to the tradition that he was the successhl
wooer of Tibbie Fowler.”
In support of this, the historian of Leith says :-
‘f We think it not improbable that it was Tibbie’s
tocher that enabled Logan, who was ruined by the
attainder of 1609, to build the elegant mansion on
the Sheriff Brae. The marriage contract between
Logan and Isabella Fowler (supposed to be the
Tibbie of the song) is now in possession of a
gentleman in Leith.”](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p066.gif "Volume 6 Page 247")
... Leith ] SH EKIFF BRAE. 247
Leith by the rebels of Mary Queen of Scots, the
Earl of Lennox opened his council in ...
Vol. 6 p. 247 (Rel. 0.43)
![The Water of Leith.] WALTER ROSS, W.S. 73
now at Abbotsford, where Sir Walter Scott took
them in 1824. This tower was divided into two
apartments, an upper and a lower ; the entrance to
the former was by an outside stair, and was used
as a summer-house. On the roof was a wellpainted
subject from the heathen mythology, and
the whole details of the apartment were very handsome.
On the 11th of March, 1789, Mr. ROSS, who
was Registrar of Distillery Licences in Scotland,
of St. Bernard’s. The bower is on the spot where
two lovers were killed by the falling of a sand-bank
upon them.”
For several years after his death the upper part
of the tower was occupied by the person who
acted as night-watchman in this quarter, while the
lower was used as a stable, In 1818, with reference
to future building operations, the remains of
Mr. Ross were taken up, and re-interred in the
West Church burying-ground. The extension of
THE WATER OF LEITH, 1825. (A/%-? Edank.)
and was a man distinguished for talent, humour,
and suavity of manner, dropped down in a fit,
and suddenly expired. He would seem to have
had some prevision of such a fate, as by his
particular request his body was kept eight days,
and was interred near his tower with the coffin-lid
open.
‘‘ Yesterday, at one o’clock,’’ says the Edinburgh
Advertiser for March zoth, 1789, “ the remains of
the late Mr. Walter Ross were, agreeable to his
own desire, interred in a bower laid out by himself
for that purpose, and encircled with myrtle, near
the beautiful and romantic tower which he had
been at so much trouble and expense in getting
erected, on the most elevated part of his grounds
106
Anne Street, in 1825, caused the removal of his.
tower to be necessary. It was accordingly demolished,
and most of the sculptures were carted
away as rubbish.
In the ‘‘ Traditions of Edinburgh,” we are told
that after he had finished his pleasure-grounds,
Mr. Ross was much enraged by nightly trespassers,
and advertised spring-guns and man-traps without
avail. At last he conceived the idea of procuring
a human leg from the Royal Infirmary, and
dressing it up with a stocking, shoe, and .buckle,
sent it through the town, borne aloft by the crier,
proclaiming that “ it had been found last night in
Mr. Walter Ross’s policy at Stockbridge, and
offering to restore it to the disconsolate owner.’’](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p084.gif "Volume 5 Page 73")
... Water of Leith .] WALTER ROSS, W.S. 73
now at Abbotsford, where Sir Walter Scott took
them in 1824. This tower ...
Vol. 5 p. 73 (Rel. 0.42)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. ’ [ Leith .
preachers, who though profound unbelievers in any
kind of consecration, ‘‘ ...
Vol. 5 p. 174 (Rel. 0.42)
![Leith Walk.] MCCULLOCH OF ARDWELL.
~ _ _ _
ofArdwell, a commissioner of the Scottish Customs,
and a man famous in his time for hospitality, pleasantry,
and wit, and known as a spouter of halfinjury
to the new and’splendid one at Inverleith
Row.
Shrub Hill, the villa on a little eminence north.
ward of the Botanical Gardens, in 1800 was the
property of the dowager Lady Maxwell, and appears
as such in the map of 1804. She was Lady Maxwell
of Monreith, whose husband died in 1771, and
whose second daughter Jane became Duchess of
Gordon in 1767,
The Leith Directory for 1811 gives Lady Nairn
a residence in Pilrig Street, but she must have
held this title through Scottish courtesy, as the
attainted peerage was not restored by Act of Parliament
till 17th June, 1824. She must have been
Brabazon Wheeler, widow of Lieut.-Colonel John
Nairn, who but for the attainder would have succeeded
as fourth Lord Nairn.
Pilrig Free Church, at the north corner of this
street and Leith Walk, was built in 1861-2, and
is in the early Decorated Gothic style, with a double
transept, and has a handsome steeple 150 feet in
height.
The fine old but unused avenue of stately trees,
that opened westward from the Walk to the old
Manor House of Pilrig, has now given place to a
street of workmen’s houses, named after the pro.
prietor, Balfour Street, and lower down, near the
bottom of the Walk, is Springfield Street, named ,
he may he is no mean hand at an epigram.’
Ardwell came forward to apologise for his fun.
“My dear sir,” said Foote, “no apology is nechaise
with four horses from the Kh$s Arms Inn,
at the same time that two strangers did so in another
vehicle, and with difficulty amid the drifted
snow they all reached the summit of Erickstane
Brae, a lofty hill at the head of Clydesdale, along
the side of which, above a most perilous declivity,
the public road passes.
,Further progress being impossible, a consultation
was held, and they all resolved to return to Moffat ;
but, as wheeling the carriage round proved a dangerous
operation, “ Wee Davie ” was wrapped up
and laid on the snow till that was accomplished,
and after reaching the inn Ardwell discovered that
his two companions were Samuel Foote the cele.
brated player and another favourite son of Thalia.
On reaching the inn, Foote entered it in no good
humour-as he walked with difficulty, having lost a
leg-and ordered breakfast, while his luggage was
taken off the chaise; and after this was done, he
€ound a written paper affixed to the panel. In
some anger he demanded, “What rascal has been
placarding this ribaldry on my carriage I” Then
pausing, however, he read the following lines :-
“ While Boreas his flaky storm did guide,
Deep covering every hill o’er Tweed and Clyde,
The North-wind god spied travellers seeking way,
Sternly he cried : ‘ Retun your steps, I say ;
Let not OIK hot, ’tis my behest, urofane
time.”
It would appear that in the winter of 1774-5
Mr. McCulloch visited his country mansion of
Ardwell (near Gatehouse in Kirkcudbright), which
is still possessed by his descendants, in order to be
present at an election, together with a friend named
Mouat. After a week or two they set out on their
return to Edinburgh, Mr. McCulloch bringing with
him his infant son, familiarly known as “Wee
Davie,” and the trio, after quitting Dumfries, were
compelled by a snowstorm to tarry at Moffat for
the nighr Early next morning they departed in a
occasion when afterwards at the Theatre Royal, he
set apart a night or two for a social meeting with
I McCulloch of Ardwell, at Springfield, on Leith
Walk. “In the parlour, on the right hand side in
entering the house, the largest of the row,” says
Chambers in 1869, “ Foote, the celebrated wit of
the day, has frequently been associated with many
Edinburgh and Leith worthies, when and where he
was wont to keep the table in a roar.”
McCulloch of Ardwell died in 1794 in his fiftythird
year. “ Wee Davie” died thirty years afterwards
at Cheltenham.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p174.gif "Volume 5 Page 163")
... Leith Walk.] MCCULLOCH OF ARDWELL.
~ _ _ _
ofArdwell, a commissioner of the Scottish Customs,
and a man famous ...
Vol. 5 p. 163 (Rel. 0.42)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
It was built accordingly, and is for the reception
and maintenance of men and ...
Vol. 6 p. 266 (Rel. 0.42)
![Leith.] ST. JAMES’S CHAPEL. 243
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH-CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF BRAE.
Constitution Street-Pirates Executed-St. James’s Episcopal Church-Town H a l l S t . John’s Church-Exchange Buildings-Head-quarten of
the Leith Rifle Volunteen4ld Signal-Tower-The Shore-Old and New Ship Taverns--The Markets-The Coal Hill-Ancient Council
House-The Peat Ne&-Shim Bme-Tibbie Fowler of the Glen-St. Thomas’s Church and Asylum-The Gladstone Family-Creat
Junction Road.
CONSTITUTION STREET, which lies parallel to, and
eastward of the Kirkgate, nearly in a line with the
eastern face of the ancient fortifications, is about
2,500 feet in lehgth, and soon after its formation
was the scene of the last execution within what is
termed (‘ flood-mark.” The doomed prisoners were
two foreign seamen, whose crime and sentence
excited much interest at the time.
Peter Heaman and Francois Gautiez were accused
of piracy and murder in seizing the briglane
of Gibraltar, on her voyage from that place to
the Brazils, freighted with a valuable cargo, including
38,180 Spanish dollars, and in barbarously
killing Johnson the master, and Paterson a seaman,
and confining Smith and Sinclair, two other
seamen, in the forecastle, where they tried to suffocate
them with smoke, but eventually compelled
them to assist in navigating the vessel, which they
. afterwards sank off the coast of Ross-shire. They
landed the specie in eight barrels on the Isle of
Lewis, where they were apprehended.
This was in thesummer of 1822, and they were,
after a trial before the Court of Justiciary, sentenced
by the Judge-Admiral to be executed on the 9th of
’ the subsequent January, “on the sands of Leith,
within the flood-mark, and their bodies to be afterwards
given to Dr. Munro for dissection.”
On the day named they were conveyed from the
Calton gaol, under a strong escort of the dragoon
.guards, accompanied by the magistrates of the city,
who had white rods projecting from the windows of
the carriages in which they sat, to a gibbet erected
‘ at the foot of Constitution Street-oi raiher, the
. northern continuation thereof-and there hanged.
Heaman was a native of Carlscrona, in Sweden ;
Gautiez wa8 a Frenchman. The bodies were put
4 in coffins, and conveyed by a corporal’s escort of
’ dragoons to the rooms of the professor of anatomy.
During the execution the great bell of South Leith
church was ttilled with minute strokes, and the
papers of the day state that “ the crowd of spectators
was immense, particularly cn the sands, being little
short of from forty to fifty thousand; but, owing to
the excellent manner in which everything was
In 1823 the same thoroughfare witnessed another
legal punishment, when Thomas Hay, who had
- arranged, not the slightest accident happened.”
been tried and convicted of an attempt at assassination,
was flogged through the town by the common
executioner, and banished for fourteen years.
Between Constitution Street and the Links stands
St. James’s Episcopalian church, an ornate edifice
in the Gothic style, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott,
having a fine steeple, containing a chime of bells,
It was built in 1862-3, succeeding a previous chapel
of 1805 (erectedatthe cost ofx1,6ro)on an adjacent
site (of which a view is given on p. 240), and to which
attention was frequently drawn from the literary
celebrity of its minister, Dr. Michael Russell, the
author of a continuation o€ Prideaux’s Connection
of Sacred and Profane History,” and other works.
According to h o t , the congregation had an origin
that was not uncommon in the eighteenth century,
when the persecution
was set on foot against those of the Episcopal
communion in Scotland who did not take the
oaths required by law, the meeting-house in Leith
was shut up by the sheriff of the county. Persons
of this persuasion being thus deprived of the form
of worship their principles approved, brought from
the neighbouring country Mr. John Paul, an English
clergyman, who opened this chapel on the 23rd
June, 1749. It is called St. James’s chapel. Till
of late the congregation only rented it, but within
these few years they purchased it for Azoo. The
clergyman has about L60 a year salary, and the
organist ten guineas. These are paid out of the
seat rents, collections, and voluntary contributions
among the hearers. It is, perhaps, needless to add
that there are one or more meeting-houses for
sectaries in this place (Leith), for in Scotland there
are few towns, whether of importance! or insighificant,
whether populous or otherwise, where there
are not congregations of sectaries.”
The congregation of St. James’s chapel received,
in about the year 1810, the accession of a nonjuring
congregation of an earlier date, says a writer
in 1851, referring, doubtless, to that formed in the
time of the Rev. Mr. Paul.
The Leith Post Office is at the corner of Mitchell
and Constitution Streets; it was built in 1876, is
very small, and in a rather meagre Italian style.
The Town Hall, which is at the corner of Constitution
and Charlotte Streets, was built in 1827, at a
After the battle of Culloden,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p062.gif "Volume 6 Page 243")
... Leith .] ST. JAMES’S CHAPEL. 243
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH -CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF ...
Vol. 6 p. 243 (Rel. 0.42)
... they pulled their
windows down.
Summoned from
Leith , the 14th Dragoons
came spurring
up the street, ...
Vol. 2 p. 324 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
belonged to different vehicles. It is standing opposite
the Tron Kirk. ...
Vol. 5 p. 154 (Rel. 0.41)
... NISBET$ OF DEAN. 65 The Water of Leith .1
Embosomed among venerable trees, the old
house of a baronial family, ...
Vol. 5 p. 65 (Rel. 0.41)
... which was always spoken of as
simply a new way to Leith .
The first stone was deposited on’ the 1st ...
Vol. 2 p. 336 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
The first volume of the ‘‘ Parochial Records ”
begins in January, 1605, a year ...
Vol. 6 p. 254 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Wynd.
In 1650 it was used as a hospital for the wounded
soldiers of General ...
Vol. 2 p. 302 (Rel. 0.41)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. r Leith
He adds that the most striking feature is the
curiously decorated doorway, an ...
Vol. 6 p. 221 (Rel. 0.41)
... building was designed by Mr. Wemyss,
architect, Leith , in the Pointed Gothic style, for
350 ...
Vol. 5 p. 88 (Rel. 0.4)
![Leith.] REPULSE OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTS. I77
Cornelle, Shelly, Littleton, Southworthe, and nine
other officers, with 2,240 men.
To keep the. field (i.~., the Reserve), Captain
Somerset, and eight other captains, with 2,400
men.
“Item ; it is ordered that the Vyce Admyralle
of the Queen’s Majesty’s schippes shall, when a
token is given, send Vc. (500) men out of the
Navye into the haven of Leythe, to give an assaulte
on the side of the towne, at the same instant when
the assaulte shal be gevene on the breche.”
Captain Vaughan was ordered to assault the
town near Mount Pelham, and the Scots on the
westward and seaward.
The assault was not made until the 7th of May,
when it was delivered at seven in the morning on
dead they could find, and suspended the corpses
along the sloping faces of the ramparts, where they
remained for several days. The failure of the
attempted storm did not very materially affect the
blockade. On the contrary, the besiegers still continued
to harass the town by incessant cannonading
from the mounds already formed and others they
erected One of the former, Mount Falcon, must
have been particularly destructive, as its guns swept
the most crowded part of Leith called the Shore,
along which none could pass but at the greatest
hazard of death. Moreover, the English were
barbarously and uselessly cruel. Before burning
Leith mills they murdered in cold blood every
individual found therein.
The close siege had now lasted about two months,
PROSPECT OF LEITH, 1693. (Reduced Facainrilc aftw Grernvillr Coil us.)
four quarters, but, for some reason not given, the
fleet failed to act, and by some change in the plans
Sir James Crofts was ordered, with what was deemed
a sufficient force, to assail the town on the north
side, at the place latterly called the Sand Port,
where at low water an entrance was deemed easy.
For some reason best known to himself Sir James
thought proper to remain aloof during the whole
uproar of the assault, the ladders provided for
which proved too short by half a pike’s length;
thus he was loudly accused of treachery-a charge
which was deemed sufficiently proved when it was
discovered that a few days before he had been seen
in conversation with the Queen Regent, who addressed
him from the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
The whole affair turned out a complete failure,
English and Scots were alike repulse2 r%Ah slaughter,
“and singular as it may appear,” says a writer,
“ the success of the garrison was not a little aided
by the exertionsof certain ladies, whom the French,
with their usual gallantry to the fair sex, entertained
in their quarters.” To these fair ones Knox
applies some pretty rough epithets.
The French now made a sally, stripped all the
110
without any prospect of a termination, though
Elizabeth continued to send more men and more
ships ; but the garrison were reduced to such dire
extremities that for food they were compelled to
shoot and eat all the horses of the. officers and
gens Zurmes. Yet they endured their privations
with true French sung froid, vowing never to surrender
while a horse was left, <‘their officers exhibiting
that politeness in the science of gastronomy
which is recorded of the Margchal Strozzi, whose
maifre de cuisine maintained his master‘s table with
twelve covers every day, although he had nothing
better to set upon it now and then except the
quarter of a carrion horse, dressed with the grass
and weeds that grew upon the ramparts.”
The discovery, a few years ago, of an ancient
well filled to its brim with cart-loads of horses’
heads, near the head of the Links, was a singular
but expressive monument of the resolution with
which the town was defended
The unfortunate Queen Regent did not live to
see the end of these affairs. She was sinking
fast. She had contemplated retiring to France,
and had a commission executed at Blois by Francis](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p188.gif "Volume 5 Page 177")
... Leith .] REPULSE OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTS. I77
Cornelle, Shelly, Littleton, Southworthe, and nine
other officers, ...
Vol. 5 p. 177 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD -4ND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
on the verge of destitution ; and DIsraeli writes of
him thus in his “ ...
Vol. 5 p. 160 (Rel. 0.4)
![Leith.] THE FORTIFICATIONS. 17r
then at peace. A small force under Monsieur de
la Chapelle Biron had already preceded this main
body, which consisted of between six and seven
thousand well-trained soldiers, all led by officers of
high rank and approved valour.
Andre de Montelambert, Sieur &Esse, commanded
the whole ; 2,000 of these men were of the
regular infantry of France, and were commanded
by Coligny, the Seigneur d’Andelot, who for his
bravery at the siege of Calais, afterwards was presented
with the house of the last English governor,
Lord Dunford. His father, Gaspard de Coligny,
was a marshal of France in 1516. Gaspare di
Strozzi, Prior of Capua, a Florentine cavalier (exiled
by Alessandro I., Grand Duke of Tuscany), was
colonel of the Italians ; the Rhinegrave led 3,000
Germans ; Octavian, an old cavalier of Milan, led
1,000 arquebussiers on horseback ; Dunois was
captain of the Compagrries d’Oru’omance ; Brissac
D’Etanges was colonel of the horse. Another
noble armament, which was to follow under the
Marquis d‘Elbeuff, was cast away on the coast of
Holland, and only 900 of its soldiers reached
Scotland, under the Count de Martigues.
In the following year D’Esse was superseded in
the command by Paul de la Barthe, Seigneur de
Termes, a knight of St, Michael, who brought with
him IOO cuirassiers, zoo horse, and 1,000 infantry.
He was appointed marshal of France in 1555.
Prior to the arrival of these auxiliaries, Leith
seems to have been completely an open town ; but
Andre de Montelambert, as a basis for future operations,
at once saw the importance of fortifying it,
dependent as he was almost entirely upon support
from the Continent, and having a necessity for a
place to retreat into in case of reverse; so he at
once proceeded to enclose the seaport with strong
and regular works, carried out on the scientific principles
of the time.
As not a vestige of these works now remain, it is
useless to speculate on the probable height or composition
of the ramparts, which were most probably
massive earthworks, in many places faced
with stone, and must have been furnished with a
ferre-plene all round, to enable the gamson to pass
. and re-pass ; and no doubt the work would be efficiently
done, as the French have ever evinced the
highest talent for military engineering.
The works erected then were of a very irregular
kind, partaking generally of a somewhat triangular
form, the smallest base of which presented to
Leith Links on the eastward a frontage of about
2,000 feet from point to point of the flankers or
bastions.
In the centre of this was one great projecting
bastion, 600 feet in length, in the h e of the present
Constitution Street
Ramsay’s Fort, usually called the first bastion,
adjoined the river in the line of BernarC‘s Street
with a curtain nearly 500 feet long, the second
bastion terminating the frontage described as to the
Links. The present line of Leith Walk would seem
to have entered the town by St. Anthony’s Port,
between the third and fourth bastion.
A gate in the walls is indicated by Maitland as
being at the foot of the Bonnington Road, near the
fifth bastion, from whence the works extended to
the riveq which was crossed by a wooden bridge
near the sixth bastion. Port St. Nicholas-so called
from the then adjacent church-entered at the
seventh bastion, which was flanked far out at a very
acute angle, evidently to enclose the church and
burying-ground ; and from thence the fortifications,
with a sea front of 1,200 feet, extended to the eighth
bastion, which adjoined the Sand Port, near where
the Custom House standsnow. The two bastions
at the harbour mouth would no doubt be built
wholly of stone, and heavily armed with guns to
defend the entrance.
Kincaid states that in his time some vestiges of
a ditch and bastion existed westward of the citadel.
Where the Exchange Buildings now stand there
long remained a narrow mound of earth a hundred
yards long and of considerable height, which in the
last century was much frequented by the belles of
Leith as a lofty and airy promenade, to which there
was an ascent by steps. It was called the “ Ladies’
Walk,” and was, no doubt, the remains of the
work adjoining the second bastion of AndI;e de
Montelambert.
The wall near the third bastion, when it became
reduced to a mere mound of earth, formed for a
time a portion of South Leith burying-ground.
“ An unfortunate and unthinking wight of a seacaptain,”
sayscampbell, in his “History,)) “tempted,
we presume, by the devil, once took it in his head
to ballast his ship with this sacred earth. The consequence,
tradition has it, of this sacrilegious act
was, that neither the wicked captain nor his ship,
after putting to sea, was ever heard of again.”
Montelambert D’Esse could barely have had his
fortifications completed when, as already noted, he
was superseded in the command by a senior officer,
Paul de la Barthe, the Seigneur de Termes, one of
whose first measures was to drive the English out
of Inchkeith, where a detachment of them had been
occupying the old castle. The general operations
of the French army at Haddington and elsewhere,
after being joined by 5,000 Scottish troops under
the Governor, lie apart from the history of Leith;](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p182.gif "Volume 5 Page 171")
... Leith .] THE FORTIFICATIONS. 17r
then at peace. A small force under Monsieur de
la Chapelle Biron had already ...
Vol. 5 p. 171 (Rel. 0.4)
... that fell between the wreck and
the shore.
In I 692 Leith possessed twenty-nine ships, having
a tonnage of ...
Vol. 5 p. 190 (Rel. 0.4)
... in
1544, and from there they began their march on
Leith , was exactly where Granton pier is now. In
an ...
Vol. 6 p. 308 (Rel. 0.4)
![Canongate.] MONTROSE.
OF all the wonderful and startling spectacles witnessed
amid the lapse of ages from the windows
of the Canongate, none was perhaps more startling
and pitiful than the humiliating procession which
conducted the great Marquis of Montrose to his
terrible doom.
On the 18th of May, 1650, he was brought across
the Forth to Leith, after his defeat and capture by
:he Covenanters at the battle of Invercarron, where
he had displayed the royal standard; and it is
THE GOLFERS’ LAND.
impossible now to convey an adequate idea of the
sensation excited in the city, when the people became
aware that the Graham, the victor in so
many battles, and the slayer of so many thousands
of the best troops of the Covenant, was almost at
their gates.
Placed on a cart-horse, he was brought in by the
eastern barrier of the city, as it was resolved, by
the influence of his rival and enemy, Argyle, to
protract the spectacle of his humiliation as long as
CHAPTER 11.
THE CANONGATE (continpud).](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p025.gif "Volume 3 Page 13")
... 18th of May, 1650, he was brought across
the Forth to Leith , after his defeat and capture by
:he Covenanters ...
Vol. 3 p. 13 (Rel. 0.4)
![The Water of Leith.] THE’HOLE I’ THE WA’. 77
appointed Limner for Scutland. He always resided
in the old house at St. Bernard‘s. The
last pictures on which he was engaged were two
portraits of Sir Walter Scott, one for himself and
the other for Lord Montague. He died, after a
short illness, from a general decay of the system,
on the 8th of July, 1823, at St. Bernard‘s, little
more than a stone’s throw from where he was born.
His loss, said Sir Thomas Lawrence, had left a
blank in the Royal Academy, as well as Scotland,
which could not be filled up, By his wife, who
:survived him ten years, he had two sons : Peter,
who died in his nineteenth year ; and Henry, who,
with his wife and family, lived under the same roof
with his father, and to whose children the latter
,of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Imperial
Academy of Florence, of the Royal Academy of
London, and other Societies. The number of
-portraits he painted is immense, and he was still
hale and vigorous, spending his time between his
studio, his gardens, and the pleasures of domestic
3ociety, when George IV. came to Edinburgh in the
year 1822, and knighted him at Hopetoun House.
The sword used by the king was that of Sir
Alexander Hope. In the following May he was
century it was occupied by Count Leslie. Mrs
Ann Inglis, Sir Henry Raeburn’s stepdaughter,
conthued to occupy the house, together with her
sons. In this house was born, it is said, Admiral
Deans Dundas, commander of the British fleet in
the Black Sea during the Crimean war. Latterly
it was the residence of working people, every room
being occupied by a separate family.
In Dean Street there long stood a little cottage
known as the Hole r” the Wu’, a great resort of
school-boys for apples, pears, and gooseberries,
retailed there by old ‘‘ Lucky Hazlewood,” who
lived to be ninety years of age. It was overshadowed
by birch-trees of great size and
beauty.
left the bulk of his fortune, consisting of groundrents
on his property at St. Bernard’s, which, in his
later years, had occupied much of his leisure time
by planning it out in streets and villas.
Old Deanhaugh House, which was pulled down
in 1880, to make room for the extension of Leslie
Place, was the most venerable mansion in the
locality, standing back a little way from the Water
of Leith j a short avenue branching off from that of i St. Bernard’s led to it. About the middle of this](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p088.gif "Volume 5 Page 77")
... Water of Leith .] THE’HOLE I’ THE WA’. 77
appointed Limner for Scutland. He always resided
in the old house at ...
Vol. 5 p. 77 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith
by the enterprising firm, but was conducted by
them in conjunction with other ...
Vol. 6 p. 274 (Rel. 0.4)
... Inchkeith.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
INCHKJZITH.
The Defences of Leith -Inchkeith Forts-St. Serf-The Pest-stricken in ...
Vol. 6 p. 290 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
boatman, with “DO you belang to that dug,
Sir?”
On a certain stormyday, when ...
Vol. 6 p. 212 (Rel. 0.4)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
teers and the Royal Midlothian Artillery, with two
field-pieces ; the Royal ...
Vol. 6 p. 264 (Rel. 0.39)
![Calton HiF.1 THE FAIRY BOY. I01
and it is rendered by Gordon of R othiemay in his
view, in 1647, by its Latin equivalent, Nzkelli Rzlpes.
“In a titledeed of the eighteenth century,” says
Wilson, “the tenement of land in Calton, called
the Sclate Land, is described as bounded on the
east by McNeill’s Craigs, possibly a travesty of
Gordon’s Nigelli Rupes.”
Concerning an execution there in September,
Ij.54, we have the following items in the City
Accounts :-
midnight on the bare and desolate scalp of the
Calton Hill.
The Lords Balmerino were superiors of the hill,
until the Common Council purchased the superiority
from the last lord of that loyal and noble
family, who presented the old Calton buryingground
to his vassals as a place of sepulchre, and
it is said, offered them the whole hill for A40.
At the extreme eastern end of the hill were the
Quarry Holes, some places where stone had been
WEST PRINCES STREET GARDENS, 1875.
“ Item, the . . day of . . . 1554, for taking of
ane gret gibet furth of the Nether Tolbooth, and
beiring it to the hecht of the Dow Craig to haif
hangit hommill [beardless] Jok on, and bringing it
again to Sanct Paullis Wark, xijd.”
“Item, for cords to bynd and hang him with,
viijd.“
Again, in the Diurnal of Occurrents, under date
1571, we read of a battery erected on “the Dow
Craig above Trinitie College, to ding and siege the
north-east quarter of the burgh ” during the contest
against the Queen’s-men.
Among many old superstitions peculiar to Leith
was one of the Fairy Boy, who acted as drummer
to certain elves that held a weekly rendezvous at
excavated. This lonely spot was famous as a
rendezvous for those who fought duels and private
rencontres, and there it was, that during the wars
of the Reformation, in 1557, a solemn interview
took place between the Earls of Arran and Huntly
and certain leaders of the Congregation, including
the Earls of Argyll and Glencairn, and the Lord
James Stewart, with reference to the proceedings
of the Queen Regent.
At the western side of the hill stood the Carmelite
monastery of Greenside, the name of which
is still preserved in a street there, and which must
have been derived from the verdant and turfy slope
1 that overhung the path to Leith. Though these
~ White Friars were introduced into Scotland in the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p113.gif "Volume 3 Page 101")
... Queen’s-men.
Among many old superstitions peculiar to Leith
was one of the Fairy Boy, who acted as drummer
to ...
Vol. 3 p. 101 (Rel. 0.39)
... d
master of a fishing-boat, on his way from Musselburgh
to Leith , was attacked by footpads at the
Figgate ...
Vol. 5 p. 144 (Rel. 0.39)
... Curdon of Rothiemas Map.)
57, Halkerston’s Wynd ; 58, Leith Wynd ; 6. St. Ringan’s Suburbs, or the Beggar Row ; ...
Vol. 2 p. 312 (Rel. 0.39)
... commenced a bleach-field somewhere
near the Water of Leith , and soon exhibited to the
village were wont to ...
Vol. 5 p. 64 (Rel. 0.39)
... and still one of the roads leading to it from
Leith is named the Lochsterrock Road
The existence of a ...
Vol. 5 p. 130 (Rel. 0.39)
![The Water of Leith.] EDINBURGH ACADEMY, 85
son Row. This useful and charitable institution
was established in 1810, but the present house
was founded on the 22nd of May, 1823, the stone
being laid by one of the senior pupils, in presence of
his voiceless companions, “ whose looks,” says the
Edinburgh Advertiser, cc bespoke the feelings of
their minds, and which would have been a sufficient
recompense to the contributors for the building,
had they been witnesses of the scene.”
Children whose parents or guardians reside
’
county, the Dean of Guild, and certain councillors.
The committee of management of this institution is
entirely composed of ladies.
When digging the foundations of this edifice, in
April, 1823, several rude earthen urns, containing
human bones, were found at various depths under
the surface. There were likewise discovered some
vaults or cavities, formed of unhewn stone, which
also contained human bones, but there were no
inscriptions, carving, or accessory object, to indi-
CANONMILLS LOCH AND HOUSE, 1830. C mm OII Oil ~.i~tiq&/. Kir;i)
in Edinburgh or Leith are admissible as day
scholars, and are taught the same branches of
instruction as the other children, but on the
payment of such fees as the directors may determine.
The annual public examination of these deaf
and dumb pupils takes place in summer, when
visitors are invited to question them, by means of
the manual alphabet, upon their knowledge of
Scripture history and religion, English composition,
geography, history, and arithmetic. There have
also been Government examinations in drawing.
A little way westward of this edifice stands the
Dean Bank Institution, for the religious, moral,
and industrial trainingof young girls, under the
directorship of the Lord Provost, the sheriff of the
cate the age to which these relics of pre-historic
Edinburgh belonged.
That great educational institution, the Edinburgh
Academy, in Henderson Row, some two hundred
and sixty yards north of St. Stephen’s Church, was
founded on the 30th June, 1823, in a park feued by
the directors from the governors of Heriot’s Hospital.
In the stone were deposited a copper plate,
with a long Latin inscription, and the names of the
directors, with three bottles, containing a list of the
contributors, maps of the city, and other objects.
It was designed by Mr. William Burn, and is
a somewhat low and plain-looking edifice, in
the Grecian style, with a pillared portico, and is
constructed with reference more to internal accom](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p096.gif "Volume 5 Page 85")
... Water of Leith .] EDINBURGH ACADEMY, 85
son Row. This useful and charitable institution
was established in ...
Vol. 5 p. 85 (Rel. 0.38)
![Leith.] RENNIE’S REPORT ON THE HARBOUR EXTENSION. “I2
In 1753 an Act was passed, in the reign of
George II., for enlarging and deepening the harbour
of Leith, but less was achieved than had been done
in the reign of King James II., three hundred years
before. As there were no adequate means provided
by the statute for defiaying the expense, says
h o t , “nothing was done in consequence.”
Yet soon after we find that a curious scheme
mras formed for enlarging it on a greater scale, by
making a canal from it eastward ‘through Bernard’s
Nook to the old Glass House, and from thence
into a basin. To carry this project into execution
a Bill was framed by which an additional duty, from
a penny to sixpence per ton, was to be laid upon
the tonnage of all shipping in the harbour ; but in
consequence of the poverty and lethargy entailed
by the Union, and some opposition also, the scheme
was rapidly dropped.
These suggestions, however, led ultimately to the
formation by the Town Council of Edinburgh of a
short pier in 1777 on the west side of the harbour,
afterwards known as the Custom House Quay;
and the harbourwas at the same time widened and
deepened.
In 1785 a miserable apology for a naval yard
(as it was pompously named) was established in
Leith as a depBt for supplying such material as
might be wanted by His Majesty‘s ships coming
into the Forth.
Five bridges now connect North and South
Leith, the latest of which is the Victoria swing
bridge.
One of the drawbridges at the foot of the Tolbooth
Wynd (superseding that of Abbot Ballantyne)
was erected in 1788-9, by authority of an Act of
Parliament. The second drawbridge, opposite the
foot of Bernard Street, was erected in 1800; and
a thud bridge, finished about 1820, connected the
new streets at Hill House Field and the Docks
with Leith Walk.
Notwithstanding the erection of the Custom
House Quay, the accommodation for shipping remained
insufficient and unendurable, the common
quays being the chief landing-places, where the
vessels lay four and five abreast, discharging their
cargoes across each other’s decks, amid confusion,
dirt, and much ill-temper on the part of seamen and
porters. Besides, the channel of the river, at the
recess of the tides, offered only an expanse of uncovered
and offensive mud and ooze, till, as the
kade of the port increased towards the close of the
kentury, demands were loud and long for an ameli.
Oration and enlargement of the then accommodation.
In 1789, the light that had first been placed a1
the pier-end was replaced by a new and improved
131
one, with reflectors, as the Edinburgh Advertiser
specially mentions, adding that “its effect at sea
is surprising, and the expense of maintaining it
does not exceed that of the former one.”
In 1799, John Rennie, the celebrated engineer,
was employed to examine the entire harbour, and
to form designs for docks and extended piers, on a
scale somewhat proportioned to the necessities of
the advancing age.
The gravamen of his report was that no permanent
and uniform depth of water along the
mouth of the harbour of Leith could ever be obtained,
and that no achievement of science could
destroy or prevent the formation of the shifting
bar, unless by carrying a pier, or weir, on the east
side of the channel, and quite across the sands
into low water, and that, by this means, three, or
possibly four, feet of additional depth of water
might be obtained; but though the soundness of
his principle has been fully vindicated by the result
of subsequent operations which were carried out by
its guidance, little or nothing was done at his suggestion,
nor for many years afterwards, with regard to
the piers or entrance.
The crowded state of the harbour was the cause
of many a fatal accident, and of constant confusion.
Thus we read that, between nine and ten in the
morning of the 13th of August, 1810, as a foreign
vessel, after passing the beacon, was about to enter
the harbour, with two pilots on board, a shot was
suddenly fired into her from a boat. This, the
pilots imagined, was from a Greenland whaler, and
they did not bring to. A few minutes after a second
musket-shot was fired, which mortally wounded
the mate in the right breast, and he expired in
fifteen minutes. The boat belonged to H.M. gunbrig
GaZZanf, of fourteen guns, commanded by
Lieutenant William Crow, which was at that time
what is technically called “rowing guard.” The
fatal shot had been fired by a rash young midshipman,
named Henry Lloyd, whose hail had
been unheard or unnoticed; and for this he was
lodged in the prison of Edinburgh. As too often
is the case in such calamities, the prints of the
time announce that ‘‘ the sufferer has left a widow
and three young children, for whose relief a subscription
has been opened.”
In 1818 Messrs. J. and H. Morton invented
their patent slip, and the first one was laid down
by themse1ves.h the upper part of the old harbour
-an invention of more than European reputation.
The firm began to build iron ships, but after completing
a few steamers, a sailing-ship, and some large
dredges, the trade came to a temporary stand ; yet
the business of ship-building was not abandoned
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p092.gif "Volume 6 Page 273")
... Leith .] RENNIE’S REPORT ON THE HARBOUR EXTENSION. “I2
In 1753 an Act was passed, in the reign of
George II., for ...
Vol. 6 p. 273 (Rel. 0.38)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
up against the dark green of the stately trees
around and behind ...
Vol. 5 p. 68 (Rel. 0.38)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Walk.
Roman, and which spans the bum where it flows
through a wooded and sylvan ...
Vol. 5 p. 150 (Rel. 0.38)
![Leith.] SCENES UN THE LINKS. 263
a teacher of fencing and cock-fighting in Edinburgh,
published an “ Essay on the Innocent and Royal
Recreation and Art of Cocking,” from which it
may be learned that he it was who introduced it
intQ the metropolis of Scotland, and entered into
it con amot-e.
“I am not ashamed to declare to the world,”
he wrote, “that I have a specialveneration and
esteem for those gentlemen, without and about this
city; who have entered in society for propagating
and establishing the royal recreation of cocking, in
order to which they have already erected a cockpit
in the Links of Leith; and I earnestly wish
that their generous and laudable example may be
imitated in that degree that, in cock-war, village
may be engaged against village, city against city,
kingdom against kingdom-nay, father against son
-until all the wars in Europe, where so much
Christian blood is spilt, may be turned into the
innocent pastime of cocking.”
This barbarous amusement was long a fancy of
the Scottish people, and the slain buds and fugies
(or cravens) became a perquisite of the village
schoolmaster.
On the 23rd of December, 1729, the Hon. Alexander,
Elphinstone (before mentioned), who was
leading a life of idleness and pleasure in Leith,
while his brother was in exile, met a Lieutenant
Swift, of Lord Cadogan’s regiment (latterly the 4th
or King‘s Own), at the house of Mr. Michael
Watson, in Leitk
Some hot words had arisen between them, and
Elphinstone rose haughtily to depart ; but before he
went he touched Swift on the shoulder with the
point of his sword, and intimated that he expected
to receive satisfaction next morning on the Links.
Accordingly the two met at eleven in the forenoon,
and in this comparatively public place (as it
appears now) fought a duel with their swords.
Swift received a mortal wound in the breast, and
expired.
For this, Alexander Elphinstone was indicted
before the High Court of Justiciary, but the case
never came on for trial, and he died without
molestation at his father’s house in Coatfield Lane,
three years after. Referring to his peaceful sport
with Captain Porteous, the author of the “ Domestic
Annals ” says “ that no one could have imagined,
as that cheerful game was going on, that both the
players were not many years after to have blood
upon their hands, one of them to take on the murderer‘
s mark upon this very field.”
Several military executions have taken placethere,
and among them we may note two.
The first recorded is that of a drummer, who was
shot there on the 23rd of February, 1686, by sentence
of a court-martial, for having, it was alleged,
said that he ‘‘ had it in his heart to run his sword
through any Papist,” on the occasion when the Foot
Guards and other troops, under General Dalzell and
the Earl of Linlithgow, were under arms to quell the
famous “Anti-Popish Riot,” made by the students
of the university.
One of the last instances was in 1754.
On the 4th of November in that year, John
Ramsbottom and James Burgess, deserters from
General the Hon. James Stuart’s regiment (latterly
the 37th Foot), were escorted from Edinburgh
Cast19 to Leith Links to be shot. The former
suffered, but the latter was pardoned.
His reprieve from death was only intimated to
him when he had been ordered to kneel, and the
firing’ party were drawn up with their arms m
readiness. The shock so affected him that he
fainted, and lay on the grass for some time
motionless ; but the temble lesson would seem to
have been given to him in vain, as in the Scots
Magazine for the same year and month it is announced
that “James Burgess, the deserter so
lately pardoned when on his knees to be shot, was
so far from being reformed by such a near view of
death, that immediately after he was guilty of theft,
for which he received a thousand lashes on the
parade in the Castle of Edinburgh, on November
zznd, and was drummed out of the regiment with
a rope round his neck.”
During the great plague of 1645 the ailing were
hutted in hundreds on the Links, and under its
turf their bones lie in numbers, as they were interred
where they died, with their blankets as
shrouds. Balfour, in his “ Annales,” records that
in the same year the people of Leith petitioned
Parliament, in consequence of this fearful pest, to
have 500 bolls of meal for their poor out of the
public magazines, which were accordingly given,
and a subscription was opened for them in certain
shires.
A hundred years afterwards saw the same ground
studded with the tents of a cavalry camp, when,
prior to the total rout of the king’s troops at
Prestonpans, Hamilton’s Dragoons (now the 14th
Hussars) occupied the Links, from whence theymarched,
by the way of Seafield and the Figgate
Muir, to join Sir John Cope.
During the old war with France the Links were
frequently adopted as a kind of Campus Marrius
for the many volunteer corps :hen enrolled in the
vicinity.
On the 4th of June, 1797, they had an unusual
display in honour of the king’s birthday and the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p082.gif "Volume 6 Page 263")
... Leith .] SCENES UN THE LINKS. 263
a teacher of fencing and cock-fighting in Edinburgh,
published an “ Essay on the ...
Vol. 6 p. 263 (Rel. 0.38)
... Lothians, were
compelled to keep within the ramparts of Leith ,
times impatient of restraint. Thus fierce ...
Vol. 1 p. 44 (Rel. 0.38)
![Leith.] DEATH OF JAMES 111. 201
1488-he embarked in one of Sir Andrew’s ships
then anchored in the Roads of Leith, and landed
from it in Fifeshire. As the Admiral had been lying
there for some time, intending to sail to Flanders,
the Barons, now in arms against the Crown, spread
a report that James had fled, surprised the castle
of Dunbar, furnished themselves with arms and
ammunition out of the royal arsenal, “ and,” says
Abercrombie, “ overran the three Lothians and
the Merse, rifling and plundering all honest men.”
In April, 1488, the king re-crossed the Forth in
the admiral’s ship, and, marching past Stirling,
pitched his standard near Blackness, where his
army mustered thirty thousand, and some say
forty thousand, strong, but was disbanded after an
indecisive skirmish. Fresh intrigues ensued that
belong to general history; two other armies, in
all amounting to nearly seventy thousand men,
took the field James 111. had no alternative but
to take flight in the ships of Wood, then cruising
in the Forth, or to resort to the sword on the 11th
June, 1488.
His army took up a position near the Bum of
Sauchie, while ‘‘ Sir Andrew Wood, attending to
the fortune of war, sailed up the silver winding of
the beautiful river with the FZmw and YelZow
CaraveZ, and continued during the whole of that
cloudless day to cruise between dusky Alloa and
the rich Carse of Stirling, then clothed im all the
glory of summer.” On the right bank of the river
he kept several boats ready to receive the king if
defeat-as it eventually did-fell upon him, and
he often landed, with his brothers John and Robert
and a body of men, to yield any assistance in his
power.
While attempting to reach the ships James was
barbarously slain, and was lying dead in a mill
that still stands by the wayside, when rumour went
that he had reached the YeZZow Caravd Thus
Wood received a message in the name of the Duke
of Rothesay (afterwards James IV.), as to the truth
of this story; but Sir Andrew declared that the
king was not with him, and refilsed to go on shore,
when invited, without hostages for his own safety.
The Lords Fleming and Seaton came on board
in this capacity, and landing at Leith the admiral
was conducted to the presence of the Prince, who
was then a captive and tool in the hands of the
rebels, and only in his sixteenth year. Wood was
arrayed in handsome armour, and so dignified was
he in aspect, and so much did he resemble the
king his master, that the Prince, who had seen little
of the latter, shed tears, and said, timidly-
‘‘ Sir, are you my father? ”
. Then this true old Scottish mariner, heedless of
123
the titled crowd which regarded him with bitter
hostility, and touched to the heart by the question,
also burst into tears, and said-
“ I am not your father, but his faithful servant,
and the enemy of all who have occasioned his
downfall ! ”
“ Where is the king, and who are those you took
on board after the battle?” demanded several of
the rebel lords.
‘‘ As for the king, I know nothing of him. Finding
our efforts to fight for or to save him vain, my
brother and I returned to our ships.” He added,
says Buchanan, “that if the king were alive he
would obey none but him; ,and that if slain, he
would revenge him ! ”
He then went off to the ships, but just in time
to save the hostages, whom his impatient brothers
were about to hang at the yard-arm. The lords
now wanted the mariners of Leith to arm their
ships, and attack Wood; but, to a man, they
declined.
In the early part of 1489 Henry of England, to
make profit out of the still disturbed state of Scotland,
sent five of his largest ships to waste and burn
the sea-coast villages of Fife and the Lothians ; and
the young James IV., in wrath at these proceedings,
requested Sir Andrew Wood to appear before the
Privy Council and take measures to curb the outrages
of the English.
He at once undertook to attack them ; but James,
as they outnumbered him by three, advised him to
equip more vessels.
‘‘ No: he replied,” ‘‘ I shall only take my own
two-the FZower and the Jl‘ellow Carard.”
Accordingly, .with the first fair wind on a day in
February, he dropped down the Firth, and found
the plunder-laden English vessels hovering off
Dunbar, and which Tytler surmises to have been
pirates, as they came in time of truce. Wood at
once engaged them, and after an obstinate conflict,
of which no details are preserved, he brought them
all prizes into Leith. He presented their captains
to the young king, who now further rewarded him on
the 11th March, 1490, with the lands of Balbegnoth,
the superiority of Inchkeith, the lands of
Dron and Newbyrn ; and by a charter under the
Great Seal, 18th May, 1491, he granted to Sir
Andrew Wood “ license to build a castfe at Largo
with gates of iron as a reward for the great services
done and losses sustained by the said Andrew, and
for those services which there was no doubt he
would yet render.” This castle, fragments of which
yet remain, he appears to have built, with some
adjacent houses, by the hands of English pirates
whom he had captured at sea; and the coat](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p020.gif "Volume 6 Page 201")
... Leith .] DEATH OF JAMES 111. 201
1488-he embarked in one of Sir Andrew’s ships
then anchored in the Roads of Leith ...
Vol. 6 p. 201 (Rel. 0.38)
![202 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
.armorial he adopted was argent, a tree or, with two
ships under sail.
It was still time of truce when Henry, mortified
by the defeat of his five ships, exhorted his most
.able seamen “ to purge away this stain cast on the
English name,” and offered the then noble pension
of &I,OOO per annum to any man who could
accomplish Wood’s death or capture ; and the task
was taken in hand by Sir Stephen Bull (originally
a merchant of London), who, with three of Henry’s
largest ships manned by picked crews, and having
on board companies of crossbowmen, pikemen, and
many volunteers of valour and good birth, sailed
from the Thames in July, 1490, and entering the
Firth of Forth, came to anchor under the lee of
the Isle of May, there to await the return of Wood
from Sluys, and for whose approach he kept boats
scouting to seaward.
On the morning of the 18th of August the two
ships of Wood hove in sight, and were greeted with
exultant cheers by the crews of Bull, who set
some inlets of wine abroach, and gave the orders
to unmoor and clear away for battle.
Wood recognised the foe, and donninghis armour,
gave orders to clear away too ; and his brief ha-
Iangue, modernised, is thus given by Lindesay of
Pitscottie and others :-
“ My lads, these are the foes who would convey
us in bonds to the foot of an English king, but by
your courage and the help of God they shall fail !
Repair every man to his station-charge home,
gunners-cross-bowmen to the tops-two-handed
swords to the fore-rooms-lime-pots and fire-balls in
the tops ! Be stout, men, and true for the honour
of Scotland and your own sakes. Hurrah!”
Shouts followed, and stoups of wine went round.
His second in command was Sir David Falconer,
who was afterwards slain at Tantallon. The result
of the battle that ensued is well known. It was
continued for two days and a night, during which
the ships were all grappled together, and drifted
into the Firth of Tay, where the English were all
taken, and carried as prizes into the harbour of
Dundee. Wood presented Sir Stephen Bull and
his surviving officers to Jarnes IV., who dismissed
them unransomed, with their ships, “ because they
fought not for gain, but glory,” and Henry dissemkled
his rage by returning thanks.
For this victory Wood obtained the sea town as
well as the nether town of Largo, and soon afteI
his skilful eye recommended the Bay of Gourock ta
James as a capable harbour. In 1503 he led a
fleet against the insurgent chiefs of the Isles. Hi$
many brilliant services lie apart from the immediate
history of Leith. Suffice it to say that he was pre.
I
sent at the battle of Linlithgow in 1526, and
wrapped the dead body of Lennox in his own
scarlet mantle. Age was coming on him after this,
and he retired to his castle of Largo, where he
seems to have lived somewhat like old Commodore
Trunnion, for there is still shown the track of a
canal formed by his order, on which he was rowed
to mass daily in Largo church in a barge by his
old crew, who were all located around him, He is
supposed to have died abodt 1540, and was buried
in Largo church. One of his sons was a senator
of the College of Justice in 1562 ; and Sir Andrew
Wood, third of the House of Largo, was Comptroller
of Scotland in 1585.
Like himself, the Bartons, the shipmates and
friends of Sir -4ndrew, all attained high honour
and fame, though their origin was more distinguished
than his, and they were long remembered
among the fighting captains of Leith.
John Barton, a merchant of Leith in the time of
James III., had three sons : Sir Andrew, the hero
of the famous nautical ballad, who was slain in the
Downs in 151 I, but whose descendants still exist ;
Sir Robert of Overbarnton in 1508, Comptroller
of the Household to James V. in 1520; John, an
eminent naval commander under James 111. and
James IV., who died in t 5 13,and was buried at Kirkcudbright.
The Comptroller’s son Robert married
the heiress of Sir John Mowbray of Barnbougle, who
died in 151 y ; and his descendants became extinct
in the person of Sir Robert of Overbarnton, Barnbougle,
and Inverkeithing. Our authorities for these
and a few other memoranda concerning this old
Leith family are a “Memoir of the Familyof Barton,
&c.,” by J. Stedman, Esq., of Bath (which is scarce,
only twelve copies having been printed), Tytler,
Pinkerton, and others.
For three generations the Bartons of Leith seem
to have had a kind of family war with the Portuguese,
and their quarrel began in the year 1476,
when John Barton, senior, on putting to sea froin
Sluys, in Flanders, in a king’s ship, the ]iZiai’nnn,
laden with a valuable cargo, was unexpectedly
attacked by two armed Portuguese caravels, commanded
respectively by Juan Velasquez and Juan
Pret. The JiZiana was taken ; many of her crew
were slain or captured, the rest were thrust into a
boat and cut adrift. Among the latter was old John
Barton, who proceeded to Lisbon to seek indemnity,
but in vain; and he is said by one account to
have been assassinated by Pret or Velasquez to put
an end to the affair. By another he is stated to have
been alive in 1507, and in command of a ship
called the Liun, which was seized at Campvere, in
Zealand-unless it can be that the John referred to](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p021.gif "Volume 6 Page 202")
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
.armorial he adopted was argent, a tree or, with two
ships under sail.
It was ...
Vol. 6 p. 202 (Rel. 0.37)
... in the
Exchequer Records as a creek within the port of
Leith . It possesses generally only a few boats,
but in ...
Vol. 6 p. 315 (Rel. 0.37)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
up to the full average of poets, yet his vanity was
of a very inoffensive ...
Vol. 6 p. 242 (Rel. 0.37)
![Leith] MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, had been absent unusually
long, and the rumours regarding her fate were
very much akin to the confessions of the crew of
the Worcester.
A report of these circumstances having reached
the Privy Council, the arrest was ordered of Captain
Green and thirteen of his crew on charges of
piracy and murder. The evidence produced against
them would scarcely be held sufficient by a jury of
the present day to warrant a conviction; but the
Scots, in their justly inflamed and insulted spirit,
viewed the matter otherwise, and a sentence of
death was passed. This judgment rendered many
uneasy, as it might be an insuperable bar to the
union, and even lead to open strife, as the relations
in which the two countries stood to each other were
always precarious ; and even Macaulay admits “that
the two kingdoms could not possibly have continued
another year on the terms on which they had been
during the preceding century.” The Privy Council
were thus reluctant to put the sentence into execution,
and respited the fourteen Englishmen ; but
there arose from the people a cry for vengeance
which it was impossible to resist. On the day appointed
for the execution, the 11th of April, the
populace gathered h vast numbers at the. Cross
and in the Parliament Square ; they menaced the
Lords‘of the Council, from which the Lord Chancellor
chanced to pass in his coach. Some one
cried aloud that “ the prisoners had been reprieved.”
On this the fury of the people became boundless ;
they stopped at the Tron church the coach of the
Chancellor-the pitiful Far1 of Seafield-and
dragged him out of it, and had he not been rescued
and conveyed into Mylne Square by some friends,
would have slain him ; so, continues Arnot, it became
absolutely necessary to appease the enraged
multitude by the blood of the criminals. This was
but the fruit of the affairs of Darien and Glencoe.
Now the people for miles around were pouring
into the city, and it was known that beyond doubt
the luckless Englishmen would be tom from the
Tolbooth and put to a sudden death.
Thus the Council was compelled to yield, and
did so only in time, as thousands who had gathered
at Leith to see the execution were now adding to
those who filled the streets of the city, and at
eleven in the forenoon word came forth that three
would be hanged-namely, Captain Green, the first
mate Madder, and Simpson, the gunner.
According to Analecfu Scofica they were brought
forth into the seething masses, amid shouts and
execrations, under an escort of the Town Guard,
and marched on foot through the Canongate to the
Water Port of Leith, where a battalion of the Foot
Guards and a body of the Horse Guards were
drawn up. “ There was the greatest confluence of
people there that I ever saw in my life,” says
Wodrow; “for they cared not how far they were
off so be it they saw.”
The three were hanged upon a gibbet erected
within high-water mark, and the rest of the crew,
after being detained in prison till autumn, were set
at liberty; and it is said that there were afterwards
good reasons to believe that Captain Drummond,
whom they were accused of slaying on the high seas,
was alive in India after the fate of Green and his
two brother officers had been sealed. (Burton’s
‘’ Crim. Trials.”)
On the site of the present Custom House was
built the Fury (a line-of-battle ship, according tb
Lawson‘s “Gazetteer”) and the first of that rate
built in Scotland after the Union.
In I 7 I 2 the first census of Edinburgh and Leith
was taken, and both towns contained only about
48,000 souls.
The insurrection of 1715, under the Earl of
Mar, made Leith the arena of some exciting scenes.
The Earl declined to leave the vicinity of Perth
with his army, and could not co-operate with the
petty insurrection under Forster in the north of
England, as a fleet under Sir John Jennings, Admiral
of the White, including the RqaC Anm, Pew4
Phnix, Dover Custk, and other frigates, held the
Firth of Forth, and the King‘s troops under Argyle
were gathering in the southern Lowlands. But, as
it was essential that a detachment from Mar‘s army
should join General Forster, it was arranged that
2,500 Highlanders, under old Brigadier Mackintosh
of Borlum-one of the most gallant and resolute
spirits of the age-should attempt to elude the fleet
and reach the Lothians.
The brigadier took possession of all the boats
belonging to the numerous fisher villages on the
Fife coast, and as the gathering of such a fleet as
these, with the bustle of mooring and provisioning
them, was sure to reveal the object in view, a
clever trick was adopted to put all scouts on a false
scent.
All the boats not required by the brigadier he
sent to the neighbourhood of Burntisland, as if he
only waited to cross the Firth there, on which the
fleet left its anchorage and rather wantonly began
to cannonade the fort and craft in the harbour.
While the ships were thus fully occupied, Mackintosh,
dividing his troops in two columns, crossed the
water from Elie, Pittenweem, and Crail, twenty miles
eastward, on the nights of the 12th and 13thOctober,
without the loss of a single boat, and lwded](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p202.gif "Volume 5 Page 191")
... Leith ] MACKINTOSH OF BORLUM. 191
the further strengthened by the fact that the Speedy
Return, a Scottish ship, ...
Vol. 5 p. 191 (Rel. 0.36)
![Bell’s Mills.] LADY SINCLAIR. 63
portray. She was born Margaret Learmouth, at
~ 6 , St John Street, in the Canongate, in January)
1794, while that street and much of the neighbour.
hood around it were still the centre of the literaq
and fashionable society of the then secluded
capital of Scotland.
Thus she was old enough to have seen and
known many who were “ QUt with the Prince ” b
1745, and reminiscences of these people and 01
their days were ever a favourite theme with hei
when she had a sympathetic listener. “Old
maiden ladies,” she was wont to say, with a sort 01
sad pitifulness in her tone, “were the last lea1
Jacobites in Edinburgh ; spinsterhood in its loneli.
ness remained then ever true to Prince Charlit
and the vanished dreams of youth.” Lady Sinclaii
used to relate how in the old Episcopal Chapel in
the Cowgate, now St. Patrick‘s Church, the last
solitary representative of these Jacobite ladies nevei
failed to close her prayer-book and stand erect, in
d e n t protest, when the prayer for King George 111.
‘( and the reigning family ” was read in the Church
Service. Early in her girlhood her family removed
from St. John Street to Picardy Place, and the
following adventure, which she used to relate,
curiously evinces the difference between the social
customs of the early years of this century and those
of the present day.
“ Once, when she was returning from a ball, the
bearers of her sedan-chair had their bonnets carried
off by the wind, while the street oil-lamps were
blown out, and the ‘ Donalds ’ departed in pursuit
of their head-gear. It was customary in those
times for gentlemen to escort the sedan-chairs
that held their fair partners of the evening, and
the two gentlemen who were with her-the Duke
af Argyle and Sir John Clerk of Penicuickseized
hold of the spokes and carried her home.
‘Gentlemen were gentlemen in those days,’ she was
wont to add, ‘and Edinburgh was the proper
residence of the Scottish aristocracy-not an inn
.or a half-way house between London and the
Highland muirs.’ ”
In 1821 she was married to Mr. Sinclair, afterwards
Sir John Sinclair, Bart., of Dunbeath, and
for fifty years afterwards her home was at the
House of Barock, in Caithness, where her influence
among the poor was ever felt and gratefully
acknowledged. She was a staunch and
amusingly active Liberal, and, with faculties clear
and unimpaired in the last week of her long life,
noted and commented on Mr. Gladstone’s famous
“ hlidlothian speeches,” and rejoiced over his
success. She was always scrupulously dressed,
and in the drawing-room down to the day of
her death. She saw all her children die before
her, in early or middle life; her eldest, Colonel
Sinclair, dying in India in his forty-fifth year. After
Sir John’s death she settled in Edinburgh.
“I am the last leaf on the outmost bough,”
she was wont to say, “and want to fall where I
was born.” And so she passed away.
When she was interred within the Chapel Royal
at Holyrood, it was supposed that she would be one
of the last to whom that privilege would be accorded.
It was not so ; for the remains of James,
Earl of Caithness, who died in America, were laid
there in April, 1881.
The Dean, or Den, seems to have been the old
general name for the rocky hollow now spanned
by the stately bridge of Telford.
Bell’s Mills, a hamlet deep down in a grassy
glen, with an old bridge, aver which for ages lay
the only road to the Queensferry, and now overshadowed
by fashionable terraces and crescents, is
described by Kincaid in 1787 as a village, “one and
three-quarter niiles north-west of Edinburgh, on the
north bank of the Water of Leith, and .a quarter
of a mile west of West Leith village.” * It received
its name from an old proprietor of the
flour-mills, which are still grinding there, and have
been long in existence. ‘‘ On Thursday night
last,” says the Zdinburgh Advertseer of 3rd January:
1764, “ the high wall at Bells Brae, near the
Water of Leith Bridge, fell down, by which accident
the footpath and part of the turnpike road are
carried away, which makes it hazardous for carriages.
This notice may be of use to those who have
occasion to pass that road.”
At the head of the road here, near the Dean
Bridge, is a Free Church, built soon after the
Disruption-a little edifice in the Saxon style, with
a square tower ; and a quaint little ancient crowstepped
building, once a toll-house, has built into
it some of the old sculpture from the Dean House.
At the foot of the road, adjoining Bell’s Mills
Bridge, are old Sunbury distillery and house, in a
lelta formed by the Leith, which sweeps under a
steep and well-wooded bank which is the boundary
3f the Dean Cemetery.
The Water of Leith village, which bears marks of
peat antiquity, is fast disappearing amid the enxoachments
of modern streets, and yet all that renains
of it, deep down in the rocky hollow, where
:he stream, flowing under its quaint old bridge,
3etween ancient mills, pours in a foaming sheet
wer a high, broad weir, is wonderfully striking
ind picturesque. Dates, inscriptions, crowstepped
:ables, and other features of the seventeenth
:entury, abound here in profusion.
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p074.gif "Volume 5 Page 63")
... of Edinburgh, on the
north bank of the Water of Leith , and .a quarter
of a mile west of West Leith ...
Vol. 5 p. 63 (Rel. 0.36)
... British Linen Company Bank, a
residenter in the town of Leith , where that bank was
the first to establish a ...
Vol. 2 p. 280 (Rel. 0.36)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
embankment, 3,480 feet in length, The engineers
fixed upon this site because ...
Vol. 6 p. 286 (Rel. 0.36)
![Leith Walk.] ANDREW MACDONALD. J 59
in whose favour, so long as she exercised her profession,
she continued to hold the first place in
spite of their temporary enthusiasm for the great
London stars, who visited them at stated seasons.
‘ Our Mrs. Siddons’ I frequently heard her called
in Edinburgh, not at all with the idea of comparing
her with the celebrated mother-in-law j but rather
as expressing the kindly personal goodwill with
which she was regarded by her own townsfolk who
were proud and fond of her.”
She was not a great actress, according to this
writer, for she lacked versatility, or power of assumption
in any part that was opposed to her nature
or out of her power, and she was destitute
of physical strength and weight for Shaksperian
heroines generally; yet Rosalind, Viola, Imogen,
and Label, had no sweeter exponents ; and in all
pieces that turned on the tender, soft, and faithful
Mary Stuart,“she gave an unrivalled impersonation.”
On leaving Edinburgh, after 1830, she carried
with her the good wishes of the entire people, “ for
they had recognised in her not merely the accomplished
actress, but the good mother, the refined
lady, and the irreproachable member of society.”
Northward of Windsor Street, in what was once
a narrow, pleasant, and secluded path between
thick hedgerows, called the Lovers’ Loan, was
built, in 1876, at a short distance from the railway
station, the Leith Walk public school, at a cost of
L9,ooo; it is in the Decorated Collegiate style,
calculated to accommodate about 840 scholars, and
is a good specimen of the Edinburgh Board schools.
In the Lovers’ Loan Greenside House was long
the property and the summer residence of James
Marshal, W.S., whose town residence was in Milne
Square, so limited were the ideas of locomotion
and exaggerated those of distance in the last century.
He was born in 1731, says Kay’s Editor,
and though an acute man of business, was one of
the most profound swearers of his day, so much so
that few could compete with him.” He died in the
then sequestered house of Greenside in 1807.
In the year 1802 the ground here was occupied
by Barker’s “ famous panorama,” from Leicester
Square, London, wherein were exhibited views of
Dover, the Downs, and the coast of France, with
the embarkation of troops, horse and foot, from ten
till dusk, at one shilling a head, opposite the
Botanical Garden.
Lower down, where we now find Albert, Falshaw,
and Buchanan Streets, the ground for more
than twenty years was a garden nursery, long the
feu of Messrs. Eagle and Henderson, some of whose
advertisements as seedsfnen go back to nearly the
middle of the last century.
At the foot of the Walk there was born, in 1755,
Andrew Macdonald, an ingenious but unfortunate
dramatic and miscellaneous writer, whose father,
George Donald, was a market-gardener there. He
received the rudiments of his education in the
Leith High School, and early indicated such literary
talents, that his friends had sanguine hopes
of his future eminence, and with a view to his
becoming a minister of the Scottish Episcopal
communion he studied at the University of Edinburgh,
where he remained till the year 1775, when
he was put into deacon’s orders by Bishop Forbes
of Leith. On this account, at the suggestion of the
latter, he prefixed the syllable Mac to his name.
As there was no living for him vacant, he left his
father’s cottage in Leith Walk to become a tutor
in the family of Oliphant of Gask, after which he
became pastor of an Episcopal congregation in
Glasgow, and in 1772 published “Velina, a Poetical
Fragment,” which is said to have contained
much genuine poetry, and was in the Spenserian
stanza.
His next essay was ‘‘ The Independent,” which
won him neither profit nor reputation ; but having
written “Vimonda, a Tragedy,” with a prologue
by Henry Mackenzie, he came to Edinburgh, where
it was put upon the boards, and where he vainly
hoped to make’ a living by his pen. It was received
with great applause, but won him no advantage,
as his literary friends now deserted him.
Before leaving Glasgow he had taken a step which
they deemed alike imprudent and degrading.
“This was his marrying the maid-servant of the
house in which he lodged. His reception, therefore,
on his return to Edinburgh from these friends
and those of his acquaintances who participated in
their feelings, had in it much to annoy and distress
him, although no charge could be brought against
the humble partner of his fortunes but the meanness
of her condition.” Thus his literary prospects,
so far as regarded Edinburgh, ended in total disappointment
; so, accompanied by his wife, he betook
him to the greater centre of London.
There the fame of “Vimonda” had preceded
him, and Colman brought it out with splendour to
crowded houses in the years 1787 and 1788; and
now poor Macdonald’s mind became radiant with
hope of affluence and fame, and he had a pretty
little residence at Brompton, then a sequestered
place.
He next engaged with much ardour upon an
opera, but made his subsistence chiefly by writing
satirical papers and poems for the newspapers,
under the signature of “Mathew Bramble.” At
last this resource failed him, and he found himself
*](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p170.gif "Volume 5 Page 159")
... Leith Walk.] ANDREW MACDONALD. J 59
in whose favour, so long as she exercised her profession,
she continued to ...
Vol. 5 p. 159 (Rel. 0.36)
... was master
skipper. The ship lay still in the Roads of Leith ,
the King every day taking pleasure to pass her, ...
Vol. 6 p. 298 (Rel. 0.35)
![Restalrig.] THE CHURCHYARD. 131
That the church was not utterly destroyed is
proved by the fact that the choir walls of this
monument of idolatry ” were roofed over in 1837,
as has been stated.
An ancient crypt, or mausoleum, of large diniensions
and octangular in form, stands on the south
side of the church. Internally it is constructed with
a good groined roof, and some venerable yews cast
their shadow over the soil that has accumulated
above it, and in which they have taken root. It is
believed to have been erected by Sir Robert Logan,
knight, of Restalrig, who died in 1439, according
to the obituary of the Preceptory of St. Anthony at
Leith, and it has been used as a last resting-place
for several of his successors. Some antiquaries,
however, have supposed that it was undoubtedly
attached to the college, perhaps as a chapter-house,
or as a chapel of St. Triduana, but constructed on
the model of St. Margaret’s Well. Among others
buried here is “LADY JANEr KER, LADY RESTALRIG,
QUHA DEPARTED THIS LIFE 17th MAY, 1526.”
Wilson, in his ‘‘ Reminiscences,” mentions that
‘‘ Restalrig kirkyard was the favourite cemetery of
the Nonjuring Scottish Episcopalians of the last
century, when the use of the burial service was
proscribed in the city burial-grounds ; ” and a strong
division of dead cavalry have been interred there
from the adjacent barracks. From Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe he quotes a story of a quarrel carried
beyond the grave, which may be read upon a flat
stone near that old crypt.
Of the latter wrote Sharpe, “I believe it belongs
to Lord Bute, and that application was made to him
to allow Miss Hay-whom I well knew-daughter
of Hay of Restalrig, Prince Charles’s forfeited
secretary, to be buried in the vault. This was
refused, and she lies outside the door. May the
earth lie light on her, old lady kind and vener.
able !”
In 1609 the legal rights of the church and parish
of Restalrig, with all their revenues and pertinents,
were formally conferred upon the church of South
Leith.
In 1492, John Fraser, dean of Restalrig, wa?
appointed Lord Clerk Register; and in 154C
another dean, John Sinclair, was made Lord 01
Session, and was afterwards Bishop of Brechin and
Lord President of the Court of Session. He it war
who performed the marriage ceremony for Queen
* Mary and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. In 1592
the deanery was dissolved by Act of Parliament,
and divided between “ the parsonage of Leswadc
and parsonage of Dalkeith, maid by Mr. Georgt
Ramsay, dean of Restalrig.”
After the Logans-of whom elsewhere-tht
Lords Balmerino held the lands of Restalrig till
their forfeiture in I 746, and during the whole period
of their possession, appropriated the vaults of the
forsaken and dilapidated church as the burial-place
of themselves and their immediate relations. From
them it passed to the Earls of Bute, with whose
family it still remains.
In the burying-ground here, amid a host of
ancient tombs, are some of modem date, marking
where lie the father of Lord Brougham ; Louis
Cauvin, who founded the hospital which bears his
name at Duddingston ; the eccentric doctor known
as Lang Sandy Wood,” and his kindred, including
the late Lord Wood ; and Lieutenant-Colonel
William Rickson, of the I 9th Foot, a brave and distinguished
soldier, the comrade and attached friend
of Wolfe, the hero of Quebec. His death is thus
recorded in the Scots Magazine for 1770 :-cr At
his house in Broughton, Lieutenant-Colonel William
Rickson, Quartermaster-General and Superintendent
of Roads in North Britain.” His widow died
so lately as 1811, as her tomb at Restalrig bears,
‘‘ in the fortieth year of her widowhood”
Here, too, was interred, in 1720, the Rev. Alexander
Rose, the last titular bishop of Edinburgh.
In tracing out the ancient barons of Restalrig,
among the earliest known is Thomas of Restalrig,
nxa 1210, whose name appears in the Regktruum
de DunferrnZine as Sheriff of Edinburgh.
In the Macfarlane MSS. in the Advocates’
Library, there is a charter of his to the Priory of
Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth, circa 1217, very
interesting from the localities therein referred to,
and the tenor of which runs thus in English :-
“To all seeing or hearing these writings,
Thomas of Lestalrig wishes health. Know ye,
that for the good of my soul, and the souls of all
my predecessors and successors, and the soul of
my wife, I have given and conceded, and by this
my charter have confirmed, to God and the canons
of the church of St. Columba on the Isle, and the
canons of the same serving God, and that may yet
serve Him forever, that whole land which Baldwin
Comyn was wont to hold from me in the town of
Leith, namely, that land which is next and adjoining
on the south to that land which belonged to
Ernauld of Leith, and to twenty-four acres and a
half of arable land in my estate of Lestalrig in that
field which is called Horstanes, on the west part of
the same field, and on the north part of the high
road between Edinburgh and Leith (it., the Easter
Road) in pure and perpetual gift to be held by
them, with all its pertinents and easements, and
with common pasture belocging to such land, and
with free ingress and egress, with carriage, team,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p142.gif "Volume 5 Page 131")
... the obituary of the Preceptory of St. Anthony at
Leith , and it has been used as a last resting-place
for ...
Vol. 5 p. 131 (Rel. 0.35)
![Leith.] THE EDINBURGH DOCK. 287
This embankment was finished in February, 1877,
and thereafter the excavation of the dock was proceeded
with by a force of about five hundred men,
who worked daily at it. Two " steam nawies," each
of which filled a railway waggon in three minutes,
were used. .
Thus, in a'day of ten hours one of these excavated,
on an average, 400 .cubic yards, representing
550 tons of material, equal to the work of forty
able-bodied men ; and several other approved a p
pliances were employed by the contractors to
economise manual labour. In the progress of excavation
no remarkable difficulties, in an engineering
point of view, were encountered, the ground
being what is technically termed " dry."
Water, of course, gathered in the works, but was
led to a tank on the north side, and pumped into
a sewer-pipe running under the north embankment.
The walls are constructed of stone from Craigmillar
quarry, and the lime came froin the kilns at Lyme
Regis, and was crushed by machinery erected on
the Leith side of the dock. From the bottom of
the latter the walls are thirty-five feet in height, and
at high tide the depth of water is twenty-seven
feet. The entire amount of masonry about the
west dock is IOO,OOO cubic yards, and the quayage
accommodation amounts to 6,775 feet.
The total -length of the parallel walls on the
north and south sides is 1,500 feet, and the extreme
breadth of the dock 750. From the eastern end,
a jetty, 250 feet in width by 1,000 in length, runs
up the centre of the dock, which is thus formed
into two basins. This, of course, greatly increases
the quay accommodation. The western end
forms an open basin, 500 feet in length by the
entire breadth of the dock. In the centre of this
noble jetty a graving dock has been constructed,
350 feet long, forty-eight feet wide at the bottom,
and seventy at the top. Its gates are at the western
end of the jetty, and have twenty feet of water on
the sill, and are opened and closed by means of
four crab hand-winches.
The pumping machinery is placed in an edifice,
built of fire-clay brick, near the gates. The entrance
tothe Edinburgh Dock is through the Albert Dock,
the channel being 270 feet long by 65 broad;
and across it, for the accommodation of traffic, is an
iron swing bridge, worked by hydraulic machinery.
The space round the dock for the accommodation of
shipping traffic extends to about thirty acres ; and in
addition to this, the Caledonian and North British
Railways have each acquired twenty-seven acres
of the reclaimed ground from the Dock Commissioners,
which at their own expense they filled up
to the level of the quays.
On the south side of this truly noble dock has
been built a line of goods sheds, each 80 feet wide
by 196 feet long. On the north side a powerful
hydraulic coal-hoist has been erected specially for
the coal traffic
The designs included a promenade and drive
along the sea-wall, thus giving a magnificent outlook
on the Forth. The whole works, including
the railway undertakings, cost about ~400,000.
Mr. Clark, C.E, the engineer of Scott's Trustees,
and Mr. J. R Allan, C.E., representing Messrs.
Rendell and Robertson, the engineers of the Commission,
carried them out.
By the 15th of June, 1881, preparations were
made for letting in the water of the ocean, and
for that purpose gangs of workmen had been busy
night and day for some time previous. A wooden
platform 'was erected underneath a large pipe,
which had been built into the sea-wall for the purpose
of breaking the fall of the water in admitting
it into the dock. That pipe, 3 feet 6 inches in
diameter, was part of the old Edinburgh and
Leith main outfall sewer, which had been diverted
round the end of the dock. It extended from the
north side Qf the reclamation wall to the inside of
the quay, under the water-line, and a piling-ram of
more than a ton weight had to be used in breaking
it off flush with the face of the masonry.
At four p.m. on the day mentioned, the valve in
the pipe was partly lifted to admit the outer tide
into the vast basin, the water being turned on by
Mr. Torry, W.S., Clerk to the Leith Dock Commissioners.
The water then rushed furiously and
steadily in, but, owing to the extent of the dock,
several days elapsed before it was filled.
The wall between the Albert Dock and the new
one had to be removed before vessels could be
admitted, and to accomplish this a number of holes
were bored in it and cRarged with dynamite to blow
it up, and seven divers were brought from London
to assist in clearing away the wreckage.
As the reserve squadron of the ironclad fleet
was expected in the Firth of Forth in July, 1881,
under the command of H. R H. the Duke of Edinburgh,
the latter was invited by the local authorities
to open and to name the dock, alike after
the city and himself-an event which passed of€
with the greatest lclaf.
The opening took place on the 26th of July.
The reserve squadron was moored in the Roads
in two lines, and could be seen from the shore
looming large through a somewhat vapouxy atmosphere.
The Hercules, with the duke's flag flying
at her mizen, was the last of the line nearest to the
Leith Shore. Ahead of her were the Wan-wp;](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p106.gif "Volume 6 Page 287")
... Leith .] THE EDINBURGH DOCK. 287
This embankment was finished in February, 1877,
and thereafter the excavation of ...
Vol. 6 p. 287 (Rel. 0.35)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
Tolbooth had become decayed and ruinous, and
soon after the demolition af the ...
Vol. 6 p. 230 (Rel. 0.34)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Water of Leith
name doesnot appear in the Baronage) was Sheriff and
Provost of ...
Vol. 5 p. 62 (Rel. 0.34)
![SKIRMISH AT HAWKHILL. ’75 Leith.]
defend the town “to the last of their blood and
breath.”
At their head was Pictro Strozzi, Lord of Epernay,
a Florentine, who had been made a marshal
of France five years before, and whose two brothers
served in these Scottish wars-Gaspare, who was
killed at Inchkeith, and Leon, who was prior of
Capua and general of the galleys of France at the
capture of St. Andrews.
Under Mardchal Strozzi were Monsieur Octavius,
brother of the Marquis d’Elbceuff, a peer of the
house of Lorraine, who led into Scotland some of
,the old Bandes Franpises, or Free Companies ; the
IConite de Martigues (aftenvards Duc d‘Estampes), a
young noble of the house of Luxembourg ; Captain
the Sieur Jacques de la Brosse, one of the hundred
knights of St. Michael ; General d’Oisel, a d many
ather French officers of high family and the highest
spirit.
In those days the use of fire-arnis had led to a
great many alterations in military equipment ; breastplates
were made thicker, in order to be bullet
proof, and the tassettes attached to these were
.of one plate each; and many of the morions
worn by the French and Italians were beautifully
embossed; and carbines, petronels, and dragons
(hence dragoons) are frequently mentioned as
among the fire-arms in use at this time ; while the
pike was still considered the (( queen of weapons ”
for horse and foot.
Mardchal Strozzi ordered the tower of St. Anthony’s
Preceptory? near the Kirkgate, to be armed ;
cannon were accordingly swayed up to its summit.
Holinshed says the English raised a mound, which
they naged Mount Pelham, on the south-east
side of the town, and armed it with a battery of
guns. Another to the south of this was named
Mount Somerset, and both of them remain till
the present day; and when the young grass is
sprouting in spring, the zig-zags that led therefrom
to the walls can often be distinctly traced in the
Links.
Before Lord Grey got his men comfortably encamped
at Restalrig, ‘( in halls, huts, and pavilions,”
Strozzi had despatched go0 arquebusiers against
him to check his advance.
Marching across the Links, this force took possession
of the wooded eminence named Hawkhill,
and a sharp conflict at once ensued with the
English. For several hours the French fought
gallantly, but were compelled, after severe loss,
to fall back upon Leith, while the English took
possession of Hawkhill, planted guns upon it, and
advancing with caution and care under a cannonade,
occupied all the rising ground mending to Hermitage
Hill, which completely commands town and
Links on the east.
After this repulse, and before the siege formally
commenced, the French resorted to a little treachery
by sending a special messenger to Lord
Grey requesting a brief truce, which he readily
granted. On this, great numbers of them, previously
instructed, issued from Leith, and thronged
about the English camp at Restalrig, the Hawkhill,
and elsewhere, as if merely actuated by curiosity.
Ere long they became offensive in manner, and
began to pick quarrels with English sentinels, who
were not slow in retorting, and Lord Grey eventually
ordered them instantly to retire. On this,
they demanded whence came his right to order
them off the ground of their mistress the Queen
Regent of Scotlznd. They were told that if the
truce had not been granted at their own request
they would have been compelled to keep at a
distance.
On this the French fired their carbines and
petronels into the faces of those nearest them;
volleys of oaths and outcries followed, and several
Frenchmen who had been in concealment came to
aid the pretended loungers in the m 2 , and soldiers
were seen rushing to arms in all directions, without
comprehending what the uproar was about ; at last
the French were again driven in, but with the loss
of one hundred and forty men killed and seventeen
taken prisoners. The loss of the English is not
stated ; but it was probably greater than that of the
French, as they were taken by surprise.
The next event was a sally made by the Comte
de Martigues on the English trenches, when, according
to Keith, he spiked three pieces of cannon,
put 600 men to the sword, and took Sir Maurice
Berkeley prisoner.
Frequent and sanguinary sallies were thus made
by the French to scour the trenches and retard
their progress, till the English, instead of waiting
patiently within them to repel such assaults, now
resolved to become the aggressors, and whenever the
French were seen to issue from the town, an equal
force met them with sword and pike on the Links ;
and the bitterness and fury of these encounters
were increased by the knowledge of those engaged
that they were overlooked on either side by their
respective comrades and commanders
Elizzbeth having despatched reinforcements to
the allied camp-for such it was-before Leith,
Lord Grey determined to press the siege with
greater vigour, the more so as the town was already
beginning to suffer from famine. On the 4th of
May he set fire to the water-mills, and destroyed
them, notwithstanding all the efforts of the French](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p186.gif "Volume 5 Page 175")
... AT HAWKHILL. ’75 Leith .]
defend the town “to the last of their blood and
breath.”
At their head was ...
Vol. 5 p. 175 (Rel. 0.34)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
After this, no one attempted to break into his
grounds.
No. 29, ...
Vol. 5 p. 74 (Rel. 0.34)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Water of Leith .
of Badajoz is extolled by Napier, and who died
fort major of ...
Vol. 5 p. 70 (Rel. 0.34)
... Cliff and Dean Bridge . Tofacepage
The Water of Leith Village . : . . .
The Water of Leith . 1825 . . . . ...
Vol. 6 p. 401 (Rel. 0.34)
... when the Society has its annual procession
through Leith , Edinburgh, Granton, and Trinity.
This body is ...
Vol. 6 p. 302 (Rel. 0.33)
![Leith.] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole kingdom.
Not content with the by no means inconsiderable
amount of zeal they displayed, they also had the
assistance of a dignitary styled the Bailie of St.
Anthony, whose special duty it was to ferret out
~~
the last of whom was abolished by the Reform
Bill.
In those clays we are told that to cut a cabbage,
to boil a kett!e, or to wander in the streets during
the hoursof sermon,rendered a person liable to arrest
by a military patro1,and incarceration in the Kantore.
TOLBOOTH WYND.
transgressors against ecclesiastical authority, and
have them brought before him for trial.”
That the Session considered him their own
special official is made evident from the circumstance
that when the sheriff of the county, in the
year 1688, ventured to dispute his authority aiid
question his decisions, the Session passed a vote
commanding their ‘treasurer to disburse what money
was necessary to defend the rights of this official,
126
In the centre of the edifice was an archway, and
above it was a chamber, which, by order of the
Session in 1632, was repaired for the use of ‘‘ the
doctor (teacher) of the Grammar School.” In 1692
the same chamber was used as a Session House,
during a dispute about the incumbency of the
parish. In later times the lower chambers were
used as a receptacle for the gravedigger‘s tools and
the dkbris of the churchyard, in which latter, in the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p044.gif "Volume 6 Page 225")
... Leith .] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole ...
Vol. 6 p. 225 (Rel. 0.33)
![Leith.] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole kingdom.
Not content with the by no means inconsiderable
amount of zeal they displayed, they also had the
assistance of a dignitary styled the Bailie of St.
Anthony, whose special duty it was to ferret out
~~
the last of whom was abolished by the Reform
Bill.
In those clays we are told that to cut a cabbage,
to boil a kett!e, or to wander in the streets during
the hoursof sermon,rendered a person liable to arrest
by a military patro1,and incarceration in the Kantore.
TOLBOOTH WYND.
transgressors against ecclesiastical authority, and
have them brought before him for trial.”
That the Session considered him their own
special official is made evident from the circumstance
that when the sheriff of the county, in the
year 1688, ventured to dispute his authority aiid
question his decisions, the Session passed a vote
commanding their ‘treasurer to disburse what money
was necessary to defend the rights of this official,
126
In the centre of the edifice was an archway, and
above it was a chamber, which, by order of the
Session in 1632, was repaired for the use of ‘‘ the
doctor (teacher) of the Grammar School.” In 1692
the same chamber was used as a Session House,
during a dispute about the incumbency of the
parish. In later times the lower chambers were
used as a receptacle for the gravedigger‘s tools and
the dkbris of the churchyard, in which latter, in the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p045.gif "Volume 6 Page 226")
... Leith .] THE KANTORE. 22s
Session must have been determined to make it
a sort of pattern parish for the whole ...
Vol. 6 p. 226 (Rel. 0.33)
![I34 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalng.
many instances, relatives and friends. With all
the affected zeal of a peacemaker, this gentleman
(whose house stood in Drury Lane, off the Strand
in London), proposed terms which Huntly deemed
satisfactory ; but the next point to be considered
was, which party should first march off the field.
On this, both parties were absurdly obstinate.
Huntly maintained that Morton, by an aggressive
display, had drawn the Queen’s troops out of the
city ; while Morton, on the other hand, charged the
Highland Earl with various acts of hostility and
insult. Dnuy eventually got both parties to promise
to quit the ground at a given signal, “and
that signal,” he arranged, “shall be the throwing
up of my hat.”
This was agreed to, and before Drury was halfway
between the Hawkhill and the ancient quarries,
up went his plumed hat, and away wheeled
Huntly’s forces, marching for the city by the road
that led to the Canongate, without the least suspicion
of the treachery of Drury, or Morton, whose
soldiers had never left their ground, and who cow,
rushing across the open fields with shouts charged
with the utmost fury the queen’s men, ‘‘ who were
retiring with all the imprudent irregularity and confusion
which an imaginary security and exultation
at having escaped a sanguinary conflict were calculated
to produce.”
Thus treacherously attacked, they were put to
flight, and were pursued with cruel and rancorous
slaughter to the very gates of the city. The
whole road was covered with dead and wounded
men, while Lord Home, several gentlemen of high
position, and seventy-two private soldiers, a pair
of colours, several horses, and two pieces of cannon,
were, amid great triumph, marched into Leith in the
afternoon.
This was not the only act of treachery of which
Sir William Drury was guilty. He swore that he
was entirely innocent, and threw the whole blame
on Morton; but though an ambassador, so exas.
perated were the people of Edinburgh against him,
that he had afterwards to quit the city under a
guard to protect him from the infuriated mob.
The Laird of Restalrig was among those who
surrendered with Kirkaldy of Grange, in 1573, when
the Castle of Edinburgh capitulated to Morton;
but he would seem to have been pardoned, as
no record exists of any seventy practised upon him.
In #some criminal proceedings, in I 5 76, the sheet
of water here is designated as Restalrig Loch,
when a woman named Bessie Dunlop was tried
for witchcraft and having certain interviews with
‘‘ ane Tam Reid,” who was killed at the battle of
Pinkie. Having once ridden with her husband to
Leith to bring home meal, “ganging afield to
tether her horse at Restalrig Loch, there came ane
company of riders by, that made sic a din as if
heaven and earth had gane together; and, incontinent
they rade into the loch, with mony
hideous rumble. Tarn tauld [her] it was the
Gude Wights, that were riding in middle-eard.”
For these and similar confessions, Bessie was
consigned to the flames as a witch.
During the prevalence of the pestilence, in 1585,
James Melville says that on his way to join the
General Assembly at Linlithgow he had to pass
through Edinburgh ; that after dining at Restalrig at
eleven o’clock, he rode through thecity from the Water
Gate to the West Port, “ in all whilk way, we saw
not three persons, sae that I mis-kenned Edinburgh,
and almost forgot that I had ever seen sic a town.”
In 1594 Restalrig was the scene of one of those
stormy raids that the “mad Earl of Bothwell”
caused so frequently, to the torment of James VI.
The earl, at the head of an armed force, was in
Leith, and broke out in open rebellion, when,
on the 3rd of April, the king, after sermon, summoned
the people of Edinburgh in arms, and moved
towards Leith, from whence Bothwell instantly
issued at the head of 500 mounted men-atms,
and took up a position at the Hawkhill near
Restalrig. Fearing, however, the strength of the
citizens, he made a detour, and galloped through
Duddingstone. Lord Home with his lances followed
him to “the Woomet,” says Birrel, probably
meaning Woolmet, near Dalkeith, when Bothwell
faced about, and compelled him to retire in turn,
but not without bloodshed.
In February, 1593, at Holyrood, Robert Logan,
of Restalrig, was denounced for not appearing to
answer for his treasonable conspiracy and trafiicking
“ with Francis, sum tyme Earl of Bothwell ; ” and
in the June of the following year he was again
denounced as a traitor for failing to appear and
answer for the conduct of two of his vassals, Jockie
Houlden and Peter Craick, who had despoiled
Robert Gray, burgess in Edinburgh of Lg50.
It was in this year that the remarkable indenture
was formed between him and Napier of Merchiston
to search for gold in Fast Castle (the “Wolf’s Crag”
of the Master of Ravenswood), a fortress which lie
had acquired by his marriage with an heiress of
the Home family, to whom it originally belonged.
Logan joined the Earl of Gowrie in the infamous
and mysterious conspiracy at Perth, in the year
1600. It was proposed to force the king into ir
boat at the bottom of the garden of Gowrie
House, which the river Tay bordered, and from‘
thence conduct him by sea to Logan’s inacces](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p145.gif "Volume 5 Page 134")
... of cannon,
were, amid great triumph, marched into Leith in the
afternoon.
This was not the only act of ...
Vol. 5 p. 134 (Rel. 0.32)
... body lay at full
length.”
On both sides of the Water of Leith lies Stockbridge,
some 280 yards east of the ...
Vol. 5 p. 71 (Rel. 0.32)
... May, the army landed two miles bewest the
town of Leith , at a place called Grantaine Cragge,
every man ...
Vol. 6 p. 310 (Rel. 0.32)
![Leith] BUILDING OF THE WESTERN DOCKS. 283
I Government advanced A25,ooo to the city of
Edinburgh on security of the future dock revenues,
imd on the 14th of May, 1801, the foundation-stone
of the wet docks was laid by Robert Dundas, of
Melville, Deputy Grand Master, in absence of
Charles, Earl of Dalkeith, Grand Master of Scotland.
An immense concourse of masonic brethren
and spectators attended this ceremony, and the
procession left the Assembly Rooms, and proceeded
along the quay to the southeast corner of the first
dock, where the first stone was laid.
When the procession reached that spot, the substitute
Grand Master, after the usual formula, placed
in the cavity of the stone a large phial, containing
medals “of the first characters of the present age,”
coated with crystal, and two plates, whereon were
engraved inscriptiohs so long that they occupy each
half a column of the ChronicZe.
A salute of twenty-one guns was fired by the
squadron in the roads, under Captain Clements,
R.N., and the militia formed the escort for the
Grand Lodge ; and the Dumfries-shire militia and
other corps stationed in Edinburgh and its vicinity
contributed largely by their manual labour, being
employed by companies, and even battalions, in the
excavation and general formation of these docks,
the first of which, called now the old dock, was
opened to the shipping in 1806 ; and in the preceding
year a further sum of A;25,000 had been
advanced by Government on the dock property.
The Western, or Queen’s Dock, begun in 1810,
was finished in 1817, the suite being at a cost of
about Az85,ooo.
These two are each 250 yards long, and IOO wide,
with three graving docks on their north side, and
all protected from the sea by a retaining wall of
enormous strength, composed of vast blocks of
stone. The third, or largest dock of all, designed
to reach nearly,to Newhaven, was then projected;
but this and all kindred matters which accorded
hith the magnificence of Mr. Rennie’s design, and
the intentions of his employers, the magistrates of
Edinburgh, were thrown into abeyance during his
We by a total failure of funds.
On the occasion of the jubilee of the 25th of
October, 1809-the anniversary of the accession of
George 111. to the throne-the foundation-stone of
what was named “ King George’s Bastion ’’ was
laid by the Earl of Moira, in the north-west angle
of the western dock, amid a magnificent assemblage,
and followed by a procession, including all the
tnagnates of Edinburgh, escorted by the troops and
volunteers, under a grand salute of heavy guns,
fired by the crew of H.M.S. Egeria, on the west
side of the basin, followed by a general salute of
fifty rounds from all the shipping in the roads, and,
as the Sots Magazine has it, “the acclamations
of twenty thousand people ;” and a grand banquet
was given in the Assembly Rooms, George Street.
The gates of the old dock were renewed, and
the sill deepened in 1844.
The Western, or Queen’s Dock, when the George
Bastion had been built, was for some years mostly
used by the naval service for repairing and fitting
out
In 1S25 the city of Edinburgh borrowed from
Government A240,ooo more on security of the
dock dues (after there had been a proposal to sell
the whole property to a joint-stock company, a
proposal successfully opposed by the inhabitants of
Leith) j and after Mr. W. Chapman, of Newcastle,
hadmade surveys and plans for further improve
ments, as the result of his report and of subsequent
voluminous correspondence with Govemment
on the subject of a naval yard and store
yard, it was decided to extend the eastern pier
about 1,500 feet, so as to have an entire length
there of 2,550 feet, or more than half a mile.
The ceremony of driving the first pile took place
on the 15th of August, 1826, the fourth anniversary
of the landing of George IV. at Leith, and was
made the occasion, as usual, of an imposing
demonstration. All the vessels in port were gdy
decorated, and the various public bodies, accompanied
by three regimental bands and escorted by
Hussars, proceeded from the Assembly Rooms to
the end of the old pier, where the Dock Commissioners
and Lord Provost occupied a platform.
The Provost having cut a rope, and allowed a
heavy weight to fall upon the upright pile, wine,
oil, and corn, were placed upon it, and the company
then embarked in a tug and crossed to the other
pier, where the same ceremony was repeated, and
a banquet followedl
A western pier and breakwater were next erected,
to the extent of r,Soo feet, terminating within 200
feet of the other.
The insolvency of the city of Edinburgh in 1833
led to important re-arrangements in connection with
the management of their now valuable docks ; and
by virtue of an Act of Parliament passed in 1838,
the care of the docks and harbour was vested in
eleven Commissioners-five appointed by the Lords’
of the Treasury, three by the city of Edinburgh,
and three by the town of Leith.
In the winter of 1838-9, Messrs. Walker and
Cubbitt, two eminent engineers of London, were
sent down by the Lords of the Treasury to undertake
jointly the duty of providing their lordships
“with such a plan as will secure to the Port of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p102.gif "Volume 6 Page 283")
... Leith ] BUILDING OF THE WESTERN DOCKS. 283
I Government advanced A25,ooo to the city of
Edinburgh on security of ...
Vol. 6 p. 283 (Rel. 0.32)
![Leith Wynd.] PAUL’S WORK. 301
issued an edict, that among the bedesmen entertained
there should be “na Papistes,” but men of
the “ trew religion.” The buildings having become
ruinous, were reconstructed under the name of
Paul’s Work in 1619, and five Dutchmen were
brought from Delft to teach certain boys and girls
lodged therein the manufacture of coarse woollen
stuffs. “ They furnished the poor children whom
The Town Council of Edinburgh became proprietors
of this charity, according to their Register,
in consequence of Queen Mary’s grant to them of
all such religious houses and colleges in Edinburgh;
and in 1582 they resolved to adapt the bishop’s
college for other purposes than he intended, and
‘ Edinburghers in 1621, as Calderwood records, on
the 1st of May, certain profane and shperstitious
“ weavers in Paul’s Worke, Englishe and Dutche,
set up a highe May-pole, with garlants and bells,”
crqusing a great concourse of people to assemble ;
and it seemed eventually that the manufacture did
not succeed, or the Town Council grew weary of
, encouraging it j so they converted Paul‘s Work
ding,” says Arnot, “and paid the masters of the
work, thirteen pence and a third 01 a penny
weekly, during the first year of their apprenticeship.
This was considered as a very beneficial institution,
and accordingly, many well-disposed people enriched
it with donations :’ but to the horror of the
COWGATE PORT. (Fvom a View by Ewbank, published in 1825.)](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p121.gif "Volume 2 Page 301")
... Leith Wynd.] PAUL’S WORK. 301
issued an edict, that among the bedesmen entertained
there should be “na Papistes,” ...
Vol. 2 p. 301 (Rel. 0.32)
... he became an apprentice on board a
merchant vessel at Leith -with his deaf and dumb
brother and sister, he ...
Vol. 2 p. 216 (Rel. 0.32)
... of Morton, brought about a reconciliation,
to Leith to beg his life as a boon at the hands of‘
Lennox ...
Vol. 2 p. 260 (Rel. 0.31)
![The water of Leith.] GEORGE RANKINE LUKE 81
memoir of him was prefixed by Dr. Leonhard
Schmitz to his last work, which was published six
years after his death, which occurred in his seventyfourth
year, at No. 21, St. Bernard’s Crescent, on
the 9th of July, 1859.
Academy, everywhere bearing off more prizes than
any of his contemporaries. Leaving the last in
1853, he w’ent to the University of Glasgow, and
at the close of the first session, when in his. seventeenth
year, he carried off the two gold medals
ST. STEPHEN’S CHURCH.
Our list of Stockbridge notabilities would be
incomplete were we to omit the name of one
whose fame, had he been spared, might have
been very glorious : young George Rankine Luke,
a Snell Exhibitioner at Baliol College, and one of
the most brilliant students at Oxford. Born in
Brunswick Street, in March, 1836, the son of Mr.
Tames Luke, a master baker, he passed speedily
through the ranks of the Hamilton Place Academy,
the Circus Place School, and the Edinburgh
107
for the senior Latin and Greek, three prizes for
Greek and Latin composition, the prize for the
Latin Blackstone, and the Muirhead prize. The
close of the second year saw him win the medal
for the Greek Blackstone, the highest classical
honour the University offers, Professor Lushington’s
final Greek prize, another for Logic, and for
Composition four others.
In 1855, as a Snell Exhibitioner at Oxford, he
, rapidly gained the Gaisford prizes for Greek prose](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p092.gif "Volume 5 Page 81")
... water of Leith .] GEORGE RANKINE LUKE 81
memoir of him was prefixed by Dr. Leonhard
Schmitz to his last work, ...
Vol. 5 p. 81 (Rel. 0.3)
![Burghmuir.] GOLF ON BRUNTSFIELD LINKS. 31
Lord High Treasurer, under James IV., the following
entries are found :-
In virtue of a bet in 1798, Mr. Scales of Leith,
and Mr. Smellie, a printer, were selected to perform
..
King , . . . . . . . ixs.
1503, Feb. 22. Item, xij Golf Balls to the King iiijs.
1506. Item, the 28th day of Julii for ij Golf Clubbes to the
King . . . . . . . ijs.
During the reign of James VI. the business of
club making had become one of some importance,
and by a letter, dated Holyrood, 4th April, 1603,
William Mayne, Bowyer, burgess of Edinburgh, is
appointed maker of bows, arrows, spears, and clubs
to the king. From thenceforward the game took a
firm hold of the people as a national pastime, and
it seems to have been a favourite one with Henry,
Duke of Rothesay, and with the great Marquis of
Montrose, as the many entries in his ‘‘ Household
Book ” prove. ‘‘ Even kings themselves,” says a
writer in the Sots Magazine for 1792, “did not
decline the princely sport; and it will not be
displeasing to the Society of Edinburgh Golfers to
be informed that the two last crowned heads that
ever visited this country (Charles I. .and James
VII.) used to practise golf on the Links of Leith,
now occupied by the society for the same purpose.”
In 1744 the city gave a silver club, valued at
LIS, to be played for on the 1st of April annually
by the Edinburgh Company of Golfers, the victor
to be styled captain for the time, and to append
a gold or silver -medal to the club, bearing his
name and date of victory. The Honourable Company
was incorporated by a charter froni the
magistrates in 1800, and could boast of the most
illustrious Scotsmen of the day among its members.
Until the year 1792 St. Andrews had a species of
monopoly in the manufacture of golf balls. They
are small and hard, and of old were always stuffed
with feathers. The clubs are from three to four
feet long. “The heads are of brass,” says Dr.
Walker, in a letter to the famous Dr. Carlyle of
Inveresk ; ‘‘ and the face with which the ball is
struck is perfectly smooth, having no inclination,
such as might have a tendency to raise the ball
from the ground. The game may be played by
any number, either in parties against each other,
or each person for himself, and the contest is to
hole the course in the fewest strokes.”
“Far!” or “Fore!” is the signal cry before the ball
is struck, to warn loiterers or spectators; and
“Far and Surc !” is a common motto with golf clubs.
.
the Erle of Bothwile . . . . xlijs
Feb. 4- Item to Golf‘ Clubbes and Ballis to the
the church. They were allowed the use of six
balls each. These‘ all went considerably higher
than the vane, and were found in the Advocate’s
Close, on the north side of the High Street.
Duncan Forbes, the Lord President, was so fond
of golf that he was wont to play on the sands of
Leith when the Links were covered with snow.
Kay gives us a portrait of a famous old golfer,
Andrew McKellar, known as the “Cock o’ the
Green,” in the act of striking the ball. This enthusiast
spent entire days on Bruntsfield Links,
club in hand, and was often there by night too,
playing at the “short holes” by lantern light
Andrew died about 1813.
Bruntsfield Links and those of Musselburgh are
the favourite places yet of the Edinburgh Club ;
but the St. Andrews meetings are so numerously
attended that the old city by the sea has been
denominated the MefropoZis of golfing.
In a miscellaneous collection, entitled “ Mistura
Curiosa,” a song in praise of golf has two verses
“ I love the game of golf, my boys, though there are folks in
Who, when upon the Links they walk, delight to run it
But then those folks who don’t love golf, of coursc, can’t
The fond love that exists between the golfer and his friend.
“For on the green the new command, that ye love one
Is, as a rule, kept better by a golfer than a brother;
For if he’s struck, a brother’s rage is not so soon appeased,
But the harder that Zhit my friend, the better he is pleased.”
Until the Royal Park at Holyrood was opened
up, levelled, and improved, at the suggestion of the
late Prince Consort, Bruntsfield Links was the
invariable place for garrison reviews and field days
by the troops ; but >neither they nor any one else
can interfere with the vested rights of the golfers
to play over any part of the open ground at all
times.
On the summit of the green slope now crowned
by the hideous edifice known as Gillespie’s Hospital,
a picturesque mansion of very great antiquity,
quadrangular in form, striking in outline, with its
peel-tower, turrets, crowstepped gables and gablets,
thus :-
town
down ;
comprehend
another,
1 east corner of the Parliament Square over the
weathercock of St. Giles’s, 161 feet from the base of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p042.gif "Volume 5 Page 31")
... are found :-
In virtue of a bet in 1798, Mr. Scales of Leith ,
and Mr. Smellie, a printer, were selected to ...
Vol. 5 p. 31 (Rel. 0.3)
... have been cast in France, and
was shipped from Dunkirk to Leith , where, during
the process of unloading, it ...
Vol. 1 p. 184 (Rel. 0.3)
![Gnonpnte.] JVHN PATERSON. I1
The latter is an anagram on the name of “John
Paterson,” while the quatrain was the production
of Dr. Pitcairn, and is referred to in the first
volume of Gilbert Stuart’s Edinburgh Magazine
andRevim for 1774, and may be rendered thus:
--“In the year when Paterson won the prize in
golfing, a game peculiar to the Scots (in which his
ancestors had nine times won the same honour), he
then raised this mansion, a victory more honourable
than all the rest.”
According to tradition, two English nobles at
Holyrood had a discussion with the royal duke
as to the native country of golf, which he was
frequently in the habit of playing on the Links of
Leith with the Duke of Lauderdale and others,
and which the two strangers insisted to be an
English game as well, No evidence of this being
forthcoming, while many Scottish Parliamentary
edicts, some as old as the days of James II., in
1457, could be quoted concerning the said game,
the Englishmen, who both vaunted their expertness,
offered to test the legitimacy of their pretensions
on the result of a match to be played by them
against His Royal Highness and any other .Scotsman
he chose to select. After careful inquiry he
chose a man named John Paterson, a poor shoemaker
in the Canongate, but the worthy descendant
of a long line of illustrious golfers, and the association
will by no means surprise, even in the present
age, those who practise the game in the true old
Scottish spirit The strangers were ignominiously
beaten, and the heir to the throne had the best of
this practical argument, while Paterson’s merits
were rewarded by the stake played for, and he
built the house now standing in the Canongate.
On its summit he placed the Paterson arms-three
pelicans vuZned; on a chief three mullets ; crest,
a dexter-hand grasping a golf club, with the wellold
and well-known tradition, Chambers says, “it
must be admitted there is some uncertainty. The
house, the arms, and the inscriptions only indicate
that Paterson built the house after being victor at
golf, and that Pitcairn had a hand in decorating it.’’
In this doubt Wilson goes further, and believes
that the Golfers’ Land was Zmt, not won, by the
gambling propensities of its owner. It was acquired
by Nicol Paterson in 1609, a maltman in Leith,
and from him it passed, in 1632, to his son John
(and Agnes Lyel, his spouse), who died 23rd April,
1663, as appears by the epitaph upon his tomb in
the churchyard of Holyrood, which was extant in
Maitland’s time, and the strange epitaph on which
is given at length by Monteith. He would appear
to have been many times Bailie of the Canongate.
known mOttO-FAR AND SURE. Concerning this
Both Nicol and John, it may be inferred from the
inscriptions on the ancient edifice, were able and
successful golfers. The style of the bNilding, says
Wilson, confirms the idea that it had been rebuilt
by him “with the spoils, as we are bound to
presume, which he won on Leith Links, from ‘OUT
auld enemies of England.’ The title-deeds, however,
render it probable that other stakes had been
played for with less success. In 1691 he grants
a bond over the property for A400 Scots. This is
followed by letters of caption and hornhg, and
other direful symptoms of legal assault, which
pursue the poor golfer to his grave, and remain
behind as his sole legacy to his heirs.”
The whole tradition, however, is too serious to
be entirely overlooked, but may be taken by the
reader €or what it seems worth.
Bailie Paterson’s successor in the old mansion
was John, second Lord Bellenden of Broughton
and Auchnoule, Heritable Vsher of the Exchequer,
who married Mary, Countess Dowager of Dalhousie,
and daughter of the Earl of Drogheda. Therein
he died in 1704, and was buried in the Abbey
Church ; and as the Union speedily followed, like
other tenements so long occupied by the old
courtiers in this quarter, the Golfers’ Land became,
as we find it now, the abode of plebeians.
Immediately adjoining the Abbey Court-house
was an old, dilapidated, and gable-ended mansion
of no great height, but of considerable extent,
which was long indicated by oral tradition as the
abode of David Rizzio. It has now given place
to buildings connected with the Free Church of
Scotland. Opposite these still remain some of
the older tenements of this once patrician burgh,
distinguishable by their lofty windows filled in with
small square panes of glass ; and on the south side
of the street, at its very eastern end, a series of
pointed arches along the walls of the Sanctuary
Court-house, alone remain to indicate the venerable
Gothic porch and gate-house of the once famous,
Abbey of Holyrood, beneath which all that was
great and good, and much that was ignoble and
bad have passed and repassed in the days that are
no more.
. This edifice, of which views from the east and
west are still preserved, is supposed to have been
the work of “the good-Abbot Ballantyne,” who
rebuilt the north side of the church in 1490, and
to whom we shall have occasion to refer elsewhere.
His own mansion, or lodging, stood here on the
north side of the street, and the remains of it,
together With the porch, were recklessly destroyed
and removed by the Hereditary Keeper of the
Palace in 1753.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p023.gif "Volume 3 Page 11")
... was
frequently in the habit of playing on the Links of
Leith with the Duke of Lauderdale and others,
and which ...
Vol. 3 p. 11 (Rel. 0.3)
... of which are on the North Esk,
and nine on the Water of Leith . The first papermill
was built at Lasswade about I ...
Vol. 6 p. 360 (Rel. 0.3)
![Leith Wynd.] TRINITY COLLEGE. 303
near its site stands one of the fine and spacious
school houses erected for the School Board.
At the foot of Leith Wynd, on the west side,
there was founded on the 5th of March, 1462, by
royal charter, the collegiate church of the Holy
Trinity, by Mary, Queen of Scotland, daughter of
Arnold Duke of Gueldres, grand-daughter of John
Duke of Burgundy, and widow of James II., slain
about two years before by the bursting of a cannon
at Roxburgh. Her great firniness on that disastrous
occasion, and during the few remaining
years of her own life, proves her to have been a
princess of no ordinary
strength of
mind. She took
an active part in
goyerning the stormy
kingdom of her son,
and died in 1463.
Her early death may
account for the nave
never being built,
though it was not
unusual for devout
persons in that age
of church buliding,
to erect as much
as they could finish,
and leave to the
devotion of posterity
the completion of
the rest. Pitscottie
tells us that she OLD COLLEGIATE SEALS,
his office shall be adjudged vacant, and the same
shall, by the Provost and Chapter, with consent of
the Ordinary, be conferred upon another. If any
of the said prebendaries shall keep a $ye-maker,
and shall not dismiss her, after being therein admonished
thereto by the Provost, his prebend shall
be adjudged vacant, and conferred on another, by
consent of the Ordinary as aforesaid.
“ The Provost of the said college, whenever the
office of provostry shall become vacant, shall by
us and our successors, Kings of Scotland, be presented
to the Ordinary; and the vicars belonging
to the out-churches
aforesaid shall be
presented by the
Provost and Chapter
of the said college
to the Ordinary,
fromwhomtheyshall
receive canonical institution;
and no
prebendary shall be
instituted unless he
can read and sing
plainly, count and
discount, and that
the boys may be
found docile in the
premises. And we
further appoint and
ordain, that whenever
any of the said
‘RINITY COLLEGE CHURCH. prebendwies shall
“was buried in the
Trinitie College, quhilk she built hirself.” Her
grave was violated at the Reformation.
The church was dedicated “to the Holy Trinity,
to the ever blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, to
3t. Ninian the Confessor, and to all the saints and
elect people of God.” The foundation was for a
provost, eight prebendaries, and two clerks, and
with much minuteness several ecclesiastical benefices
and portions of land were assigned for the
support of the several offices ; and in the charter
there are some provisions of a peculiar character,
in Scotland at least, and curiously illustrative of
the age and its manners :-
“Aud we appoint that none of the said preben-
,daries or clerks absent themselves from their offices
without the leave of the Provost, to whom it shall
not be lawful to allow any of them above the space
of fifteen days at a time, unless it be on extraordiaary
occasions, and then not without consent of
the chapter ; and whosoever of the said prebendaries
or clerks shall act contrary to this ordinance,
iead mass,‘ he shall,
after the same, in his sacerdotal habits, repair to
the tomb of the foundress with hyssop, and there
read the prayer Dep-ofmdis, together with that of
the faithful, and exhortation to excite the people to
devotion.’’ .
Thechoir of this church from the apse to the
west enclosure of the rood tower was go feet long,
and 70 feet from transept to transept window ; the
north aisle was 12 feet broad, and the south g feet.
It is a tradition in masonry that the north aisles of
all Catholic churches were wider than the south,
to commemorate the alleged circumstance of the
Saviour‘s head, on the cross, falling on his right
shoulder. In digging the foundation of the Scott
monument, an old quarry 40 feet deep was discovered,
and from it the stones from which the
church was built were taken. With the exception
of Holyrood, it was the finest example of decorated
English Gothic architecture in the city, with many
of the peculiarities of the age to which it belonged.
Various armorial bearings adorned different parts](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p123.gif "Volume 2 Page 303")
... Leith Wynd.] TRINITY COLLEGE. 303
near its site stands one of the fine and spacious
school houses erected for the ...
Vol. 2 p. 303 (Rel. 0.29)
... I. 101
Kincleven Lord 111. 221
King Ceo;ge's dstion, Leith Dock,
Kinghorn, Earl of, 11. 352
Kinghorn, 111. ...
Vol. 6 p. 381 (Rel. 0.29)
... it was ordained that a passenger stage
between Leith and Edinburgh should have a fixed
place for ...
Vol. 2 p. 202 (Rel. 0.29)
![High Street.] THE REGENT MORTON. 259
the king‘s chamber j the lie was given, and a somewhat
ribald altercation followed, but nothing occurred
for nearly three weeks after, till Sir William
Stewart, when coming down the High Street with
a party of his friends, met Bothwell, accompanied
by the Master of Gray and others, going up.
A collision between two such parties was inevitable,
and, in the spirit of the times, unavoidable.
Sword and dagger were instantly resorted to, and
in the general fight Sir William Stewart slew a friend
of Bothwell’s, but in doing so lost his sword, and,
being defenceless, was compelled to fly into
Blackfriars Wynd. Thither the vengeful Bothwell
pursued him ; and as he stood unarmed against a
wall, “strake him in at the back and out at the
belly, and killed him.”
For this Bothwell found it necessary to keep
out of the way only for a few days ; and such
events so commonly occurred, that it is not curious
to find the General Assembly, exactly a week
after this combat, proceeding qnietly with the
usual work of choosiiig a Moderator, providing for
ministers, and denouncing Popery, exactly as they
do in the reign of Queen Victoria.
The next most remarkable event was in 1668,
when, on Saturday the 9th of July, James Sharpe,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, whose residence was
then in the Wynd, so narrowly escaped assassination.
His apostacy from the Covenant, and unrelenting
persecution of his former compatriots, its adherents,
had roused the bitterness of the people against
him. He was seated in his coach, at the head of
the Wynd, waiting for Andrew Honeyman, Bishop
of Orkney, when Mitchell, a fanatical assassin and
preacher, and bosom friend of the infamous Major
Weir, with whom he was then boarding in the
house of Mrs. Grise1 Whiteford in the Cowgate,
fired a pistol at the primate, but, missing him,
dangerously wounded the Bishop of Orkney. He
was immediately seized, and, with little regard
to morality or justice, put to the torture, without
eliciting any confession ; . and after two years
seclusion on the Bass Rock, he was brought to
Edinburgh in 1676, and executed in the Grassmarket,
to strike terror into the Covenanters ; but
history has shown that their hearts never knew
what terror was.
Sir William Honeyman, Bart., Lord Armadale in
1797, was the fourth in descent from the bishop
who was wounded on this occasion by a poisoned
bullet, as it is affirmed.
While much of the west side of Blackfriars
Wynd was left standing, the east, in the city improvements,
was completely swept away. On the
latter side, near the head of the wynd, was a
house with a decorated lintel, inscribed-IN. THE.
LORD. IS. MY. nom. 1564. The ground floor of
it consisted of one great apartment, the roof or
ceiling of which was upheld by a massive stone
column. This hall formed the meeting-place of
those who adhered to the Covenanted Kirk, after
the Revolution of 1688, and was long known as
“ The Auld Cameronian Meeting-house,” and in
the upper storey thereof tradition alleges that
Nicol Muschat, the murderer, lived, when a student‘
attending the university.
On the west side of the Wynd was the ancient
residence of the Earls of Morton, with a handsome
ogee door-head and elaborate mouldings, shafted
jambs, and in the tympanum of the lintel a
coroneted shield supported by unicorns, though
the arms of the family have always had two savages,
or wild men, hence the edifice is supposed to be of a
date anterior to the days of the Regent. Yet it is
distinctly described, in a disposition by Archibald
Douglas younger of Whittinghame, as “ that tenement
which was sometime the Earl of Morton’s,’’
from which, according to Wilson, it may be inferred
to have been the residence of his direct ancestor,
John second Earl of Morton, who sat in the Parliament
of James IV. in 1504, and whose grandson,
William Douglas of Whittinghame, was created
a senator of the College of Justice in 1575.
Tradition has unvaryingly alleged this house to
have been that of the Regent Morton, in those
days when the king‘s men and queen’s men were
fighting all over the city, and Kirkaldy of Grange
was bent upon driving him out of it ; and here no
doubt it was that he had his body-guard, which
was commanded by Alexander Montgomery the
poet, whom Melvil in his diary mentions as
“Captain Montgomery, a good honest man, and
the Regent‘s domestic ; ” and the house is often
referred to, during the, civil wars of that period,
before he attained the Regency.
While Lennox was in office, Morton projected
the assassination of the Laird of Drumquhasel, whom
the former confined to his residence in Leith as a
protection. This Morton deemed an affront to
himself, and prepared to leave Leith and the king‘s
standard together. ‘‘ Alarmed .by the probable
loss of the most influential earl of the house of
Douglas, the weak Regent, affecting to be ignorant
of his wrathful intentions, sent a servant to acquaint
him that ‘he meant to dine with him that day,’
‘ I am sorry I cannot have the high honour of his
lordship’s company,’ replied the haughty earl ; ‘ my
business is pressing, and obliges me to leave Leith
without even bidding him adieu.’ Lennox was](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p079.gif "Volume 2 Page 259")
... whom
the former confined to his residence in Leith as a
protection. This Morton deemed an affront ...
Vol. 2 p. 259 (Rel. 0.29)
![rrs PRISONERS. 7 127 The Talbooth.]
was sitting in the Tolbooth hearing the case of the
Laud of Craigmillar, who was suing a divorce
against his wife, the Earl of Bothwell forcibly
dragged out one of the most important witnesses,
and carrying him to his castle of Cricliton, eleven
miles distant, threatened to hang him if he uttered
a word.
On the charge of being a “ Papist,” among many
other prisoners in the Tolbooth in 1628, was the
Countess of Abercorn, where her health became
broken by confinement, and the misery of a
prison which, if it was loathsome in the reign of
George III., must have been something terrible in
the days orCharles I. In 1621 she obtained a
licence to go to the baths of Bristol, but failing
to leave the city, was lodged for six months in the
Canongate gaol. After she had been under restraint
in various places for three years, she was permitted
to remain ir. the earl’s house at Paisley, in March
1631, on condition that she “ reset no Jesuits,”
and to return if required under a penalty of 5,000
merks.
Taken seriatim, the records of the Tolbooth
contain volumes of entries made in the following
brief fashion :-
“1662, June 10.-John Kincaid put in ward
by warrant of the Lords of the Privy Council, for
‘ pricking of persons suspected of witchcraft anwarranfably.’
Liberated on finding caution not to
do so again.
“-June 10.-Robert Binning for falsehood ;
hanged with the false papers about his neck.
“--4ug. q.-Robert Reid for murder. His
head struck from his body at the mercat cross.
“- Dec. 4.-James Ridpath, tinker ; to be qhupitt
from Castle-hill to Netherbow, burned on the
cheek with the Toun’s common mark, and banished
the kicgdom, for the crime of double adultery.
‘‘ 1663, March ~g.-ATexander Kennedy; hanged
for raising false bonds and aritts.
“-March z I.-Aucht Qwakers; liberated, certifying
if again troubling the place, the next prison
shall be the Correction House.
“- July 8.-Katherine Reid ; hanged for
theft.
“-July &--Sir Archibald Johnston of Wamston;
treason. Hanged, his head cut off and placed
on the Netherbow.
“ - July I 8.-Bessie Brebner ; hansed for
murder.
‘I -Aug. zS.-The Provost of Kirkcudbright ;
banished for keeping his house during a tumult.
“ - Oct. 5.-William Dodds ; beheaded for
murder.”
And so on in grim monotony, till we come to
the last five entries in the old record, which is
quite incomplete.
1728, Oct. zs.-John Gibson; forging a
declaration, 18th January, 1727. His lug nailed
to the Tron, and dismissed.
‘( 1751, March 18.-Helen Torrance :md Jean
Waldie were executed this day, for stealing a child,
eight or nine years of age, and selling its body to
the surgeons for dissection. Alive on Tuesday when
carried OK, and dead on Friday, with an incision in
the belly, but sewn up again.
“ I 7 5 6, May 4.-Sir William Dalrymple of Cousland;
for shooting at Capt. Hen. Dalrymple of
Fordell, with a pistol at the Cross of Edinburgh.
Liberated’on 14th May, on bail for 6,000 merks,
to answer any complaint.
“ 1752, Jan. 10.-Norman Ross ; hanged and
hung in chains between Leith and Edinburgh, for
issassinating Lady Bailie, sister to Home of
Wedderburn.
‘ I 1757, Feb. 4.-Janies Rose, Excise Officer at
Muthill ; banished to America for forging receipts
for arrears.”
It was a peculiarity of the Tolbooth, that through
clanship, or some other influence, nearly every
criminal of rank confined in it achieved an escape.
Robert fourth Lord Burleigh, a half insane peer,
who was one of the commissioners for executing
the office of Lord Register in 1689, and who
married a daughter of the Earl of hfelville about
the time of the Union, assassinated a schoolmaster
who had married a girl to whom he had paid improper
addresses, was committed to the Tolbooth,
and sentenced to death; and of his first attempt
to escape the following story is told He was
carried out of the prison in a large trunk, to be
conveyed to Leith, on the back of a powerful
porter, who was to put hini on board a vessel
about to sail for the Continent. It chanced that
when slinging the trunk on his back, the porter
did so with Lord Burleigh‘s head doiwnnmost, thus
it had to sustain the weight of his whole body.
The posture was agony, the way long and rough,
but life was dear. Unconscious of his actual
burden, the porter reached the Netherbow Port,
where an acquaintance asked him “whither he
was going?” ‘:TO Leith,” was the reply. “ Is the
work good enough to afford a glass before going
farther?” was the next question. The porter said
it was; and tossed down the trunk with such
violence that it elicited a scream from Lord Burleigh,
who instantly fainted.
Scared and astounded, the porter wrenched open
the trunk, when its luckless inmate was found
cramped, doubled-up, and senseless. A crowd](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p139.gif "Volume 1 Page 127")
... Jan. 10.-Norman Ross ; hanged and
hung in chains between Leith and Edinburgh, for
issassinating Lady Bailie, ...
Vol. 1 p. 127 (Rel. 0.29)
![THE PRECEPTORY OF ST. ANTHONY. 215 Leith]
not making any deliberate assault ; but a pistol
shot was heard, and in a few minutes the Sieur de
la Roche lay dead, with a sword thrust in his body,
while Isaac had a finger nearly hewn OK
The guard now came on the scene, and Mowat
was found under an outer stair, with a bent sword
in his hand, bloody from point to hilt, his hand
wounded, and the sleeves of his coat stained with
blood. On seeing the dead body, he viewed it
without emotion, and merely remarked that he
wondered who had slain him.
The Master, Mowat, and James Sinclair the writer,
were all tried for the murder of Elias Poiret before
the Court of Justiciary, but the jury brought in a
verdict of not proven. The whole affair might
have been easily explained, but for heat of temper,
intemperance, and the ready resort to arms so usual
in those days. The three Frenchmen concerned in
it were Protestant refugees who were serving as
privates in the Scottish Life Guards. The Mastet
of Tarbet became Earl of Cromarty in 1714 and
survived the death of Poiret forty years. Two of
his sons, who were officers in the Scots-Dutch
Brigade, perished at sea, and his eldest, the third
and last Earl of Cromarty, was nearly brought to
Tower Hill in 1746 for his loyalty to the House of
Stuart.
No. 141 Kirkgate was long the place of business
of Mr. Alexander Watson, who is chiefly remarkable
as being the nephew and close correspondent
of a very remarkable man, who frequently resided
with him-Robert Watson, who was made Principal
of the Scots College at Paris by the Emperor
Napoleon I., an office which he held for six years.
It was to his nephew at Leith, after his escape to
Rome (having been tried at the Old Bailey as
President of a Corresponding Society), he confided
his discovery of a large mass of correspondence
known as “ The Stuart Papers,” which he
purchased (as stated in the Courunt for 1819.)
In one of his letters, dated London, 6th April,
1818, he states that they consist ofhalf a million of
pieces, and are valued at ~300,000. ‘‘ The Pope,
however, took military possession of them, under
the protest that they were of too much importance
to belong to a private individual. I protested
against the arbitrary proceedings of his Holiness.
The Prince Regent sent two ships of war to Civita
Vecchia to bring them to London, and they are
now in Carlton House.”
To his nephew in the Kirkgate he subsequently
wrote that a Royal Commissiolr under the Great
Seal (including Sir James Mackintosh) was a p
pointed to examine these valuable papers ; and in
1824 he wrote that amongst other things of some
value which have fallen into my possession, are the
carriage and tent-bed of Bonaparte, taken at the
battle of Waterloo. Further events will decide
to what purposes I may apply it (the carriage),
though it is probable I shall keep it for my own
use.”
This singular person committed suicide in 1838,
by strangling himself in a London tavern, in the
ninety-second year of his age--“a case of suicide,”
it was said, “unparalleled in the annals of sorrow.”
On the east side of the Kirkgate, to take the
edifices in succession there, there was founded by
Robert Logan of Restalrig, in 1435, a preceptory
for the canons of St. Anthony, the only establkhment
of the kind in Scotland.
Arnot, in his history, unthinkingly mentions ‘‘ the
monastery of Knights Templars of St. Anthony”
at Leith. These canons, says Chalmers, “ seem to
have been an order of religious knights, not
Templars. The only document in which they are
called Templars is a charter of James VI. in 1614,
giving away their establishment and revenues; and
this mistake of an ignorant clerk is wildly repeated
by Arnot.”
Their church, burying-ground, and gardens were
in St. Anthony’s Wynd, an alley off the Kirkgate ;
and the first community was brought from St
Anthony of Vienne, the seat of the order in France
They were formed in honour of St. Anthony, the
patriarch of monks, who was born at Coma, a
village of Heraclea on the borders of Arcadia, in
A.D.‘z~I, and whose sister was placed in the first
convent that is recorded in history. A hermit by
habit, he dwelt long in the ruins of an old castle
that overlooked the Nile; and after his death (said
to have been in 356) his body was deposited in the
church of La Motte St. Didier, at Vienne, when,
according to old traditions, those labouring under
the pest known as St. ,4nthony’s Fire-a species of
erysipelas-were miraculously cured by praying at
his shrine.
Gaston, a noble of Vienne, and his son Gironde,
filled with awe, we are told, by these wonderful
cures, devoted their lives and estates to found a
hospital for those who laboured under this disease,
and seven others joined them in their attendance
on the sick; and on these Hospitaller Brethren
Boniface VIII. bestowed the Benedictine Priory
of Vienne, giving them the rules of St. Austin, and
declaring the Abbot General of this new orderthe
Canons Regular of St, Anthony. The superiors
of the subordinate preceptones were called commanders,
says Alban Butler, “ and their houses are
called commandenes, as when they were Hospitallers”
.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p034.gif "Volume 6 Page 215")
... PRECEPTORY OF ST. ANTHONY. 215 Leith ]
not making any deliberate assault ; but a pistol
shot was heard, and in ...
Vol. 6 p. 215 (Rel. 0.29)
... a serious affair,
i~ 1708.
In a drinking match in a tavern in Leith he
insisted on making his friend Mr. ...
Vol. 6 p. 319 (Rel. 0.29)
![Leith.] THE BARTONS. 203
is the second of the name, who died in 1513,
John the senior was certainly dead in 1508.
Charles, Duke of Burgundy, was so incensed by
the capture of the Juliuna in Flemish waters that
he demanded the surrender of Pret and Velasquez
to himself, with due compensation to Barton, but
failed in both cases. Joam 111. was then King of
Portugal.
Robert Barton would seem also at one time to
have faHen into the hands of the Portuguese ; and
there is extant a letter sent by James IV. to the
Emperor Maximilian, requesting his influenCe to
have him released from prison, and therein the
king refers to the quarrel of 1476, and merely
states that old John Barton was thrown into a prison
also.
In 1506, at a tournament held by James IV. in
Stirling, we read of a blackamoor girl, captured
from the Portuguese by Captain Barton, seated in
a triumphal chariot, being adjudged the prize of
the victor knight ; but the Bartons sent other gifts
to the king, in the shape of casks full of pickled
Portuguese heads.
In 1498, when Perkin Warbecli and his wife, the
Lady Katharine Gordon, left Scotland for Flanders,
they were on board a ship which, Tytler says, was
commanded by and afterwards the property of the
celebrated Robert Barton. Amongst her stores,
noted in the “.Treasurefs Accounts,” are ‘‘ ten tuns
and four pipes of wine, 8 bolls of aitmele, 18 marts
of beef, 23 muttons, and a hogshead of herring.”
Andrew Barton, the brother of the captain (and,
like him, a merchant in Leith), is mentioned as
having furnished biscuit, cider, and beer, for the
voyage.
In 1508 this family continued their feud with the
Portuguese. In that year Letters of Marque were
granted to them by James IV., and they run thus,
according to the “Burgh Records of Edinburgh ” :-
“]~callus Dei Gratia Rex Scatorurn, deZectis semit
o d u s nosiris. John Barton and Robert Barton,
sons of our late beloved servant John Barton, shipmaster,
and other shipmasters our lieges and subjects,
in company of the said John Barton for the
time (greeting) :
“ Some pirates of the nation of Portugal attacked
a ship of our late illustrious ancestor (James HI.),
which, under God, the late John commanded, and
with a fleet of many ships compelled it to surrender,
robbed it of its merchandise, of very great
value, and stripped it of its armament On account
of which, our most serene father transmitted his complaint
to the King of Portugal.” Justice not having
been done, the document runs, Jarnes 111. decreed
Letters of Reprisal against the Portuguese. “ We,
moreover, following the footsteps of our dearly
beloved ancestor . . . . . concede and grant by
these presents to you, John and Robert aforesaid,
and our other subjects who shall be in your company
for the time, our Letters of Marque or Reprisai,
that you may receive and bring back to us
from any men whomsoever of the nation of Portugal,
on account of the justice aforesaid being.
desired, to the extent of 3,000 crowns of money
of France . . . . Givenunder our Privy Seal, &c.”
Under these letters the brothers put to sea in
the quaint argosies of those days, which had low
waists with towering poops and forecastles, and
captured many Portuguese ships, and doubtless
indemnified themselves remarkably well ; while
their elder brother, Andrew, an especial favourite
of James IV., who bestowed upon him the then
coveted honour of knighthood, “ for upholding
the Scottish flag upon the seas,” was despatched
to punish some Dutch or Flemish pirates who had
captured certain Scottish ships and destroyed theircrews
with great barbarity. These he captured,
with their vessel, and sent all their heads to LeitL
in a hogshead.
As is well known, he was killed fighting bravely
in the Downs on the 2nd August, 1511, after a
severe conflict with the ships of Sir Thomas and Sir.
Edward Howard, afterwards Lord High Admiral of
England, when he had only two vessels with him,
the Lion of 36 great guns, and a sloop name$ the.
Jenny. The Howards had three ships of war and
an armed collier. The Lion was afterwards added
to the English navy, as she was found to be only
second in size and armament to the famous Great
Harry. His grandson Charles married Susan
Stedman of Edinburgh, and from them are said tobe
descended nearly all of that name in Fife, Kinross,
and Holland.
For his services as Admiral on the West Coast,
John Barton received the lands of Dalfibble ; and
in April, 1513, he returned from a diplomatic mission
to France, accompanied by the Unicorn Pursuivant;
and so important was its nature that he
took horse, and rode all night to meet the king,
who was then on the eve of departing for Flodden.
On the 26th of July in the Same year he joined
the squadron, consisting of the Great Michael, the
James, Marguret, the S/$ of Lynne (an English
prize), a thirty-oared galley, and fourteen other
armed ships, commanded by Gordon of Letterfourie
(and having on board the Earl of Arran and
3,000 soldiers), which sailed from Leith as a present
to Anne, Queen of France-a piece of ill-timed
generosity on the part of the princely Jarnes IV.,
who accompanied the armament as far as the Isle](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p022.gif "Volume 6 Page 203")
... Leith .] THE BARTONS. 203
is the second of the name, who died in 1513,
John the senior was certainly dead in ...
Vol. 6 p. 203 (Rel. 0.29)
... that enormity so
ARIS. 0. LORD-MAIRIORIE.ROGER. 1573.
Leith , and in the summer of the same year he was
made ...
Vol. 2 p. 277 (Rel. 0.29)
... named the Salt Backet, which
ran between the head of Leith Street and the Low
Calton, and by this avenue, in ...
Vol. 3 p. 178 (Rel. 0.28)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith .
memorials of still earlier fabrics here and there
meet the eye, and carry back ...
Vol. 6 p. 214 (Rel. 0.28)
![Newhaven. ] HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 299
Newhaven was deemed a place of much more
importance in those days,than it has been in subsequent
times.
Thus, in 1554, the works then occupied the
attention of the Provost and Council repeatedly.
In February that year A500 was given for timber
to repair the harbour, to be taken with a portion
of the tax laid on the town for building forts upon
the Borders ; and in 1555 we read of timber again
for Newhaven, brought there by Robert Quintin,
but which was sold by the advice of Sir William
Macdowall, master of the works. (“Burgh Records?’)
In the Burgh Account, under date 1554-5, we
find some references to the locality, thus t
“Item, the vj day of July, 1555, for cords to
bind and hang the four Inglismen at Leyth and
Newhaven, iijs.
“ Item, geven to Gorge Tod, Adam Purves, and
ane servand, to mak ane gibbet at Newhaven, in
haist and evil wedder (weather), 4s.
“ Item, for garroun and plansheour naillis, xxd.
“ Item, for drink to them at Newhaven, vj4
“Item, to twa workmen to beir the wrychtis
lomis to the Newhevin and up again, and to beir
the work and set up the gibbet, xxd.”
In the same year extensive works seem to have
been in operation, as, by the Burgh Accounts,
they appear to have extended from August to
November, under Robert Quintin, master of the
works. The entries for masons’ wages, timber
work, wrights’ wages, “ on Saiterday at evin to thair
supperis,” are given in regular order. John Arduthy
in Leith seems to have contracted for the “ standarts
to the foir face of the Newhevin;” and for
the crane there, eighteen fathoms of “Danskin tow”
(rope), were purchased fram Peter Turnett’s wife,
at tenpence the fathom.
John Ahannay and Geoge Bennet did the smithwork
at the crane, bulwarks, and worklooms. The
works at Newhaven, commenced in August, 1555,
under John Preston, as City Treasurer, were continued
till the middle of December eventually, under
Sir John Wilson, “master of work at the Newhevin,”
when they were suspended during winter and resumed
in the spring of 1556 ; and “ drink silver,”
to all the various trades engaged, figures amply
among the items. (“ Burgh Accounts.”)
In 1573 the Links of Newhaven were let by the
city, at an annual rent of thirty merks per annum
as grazing ground, thus showing that they must
then have been about the extent of those at Leith.
In 1595 they only produced six merks, and from
this rapid fall Maitland supposes that the sea had
made extensive encroachments on the ground ; and
as they are now nearly swept away, save a space
500 yards by 250, at the foot of the Whale Brae,
we may presume that his conjecture was a correct
one.
Kincaid states that at one period Newhaven had
Links both to the east and west of it. Even
the road that must have bordered the east Links
was swept away, and for years a perilous hole,
known as the ‘‘ Man-trap,” remained in the placea
hole in which, till recently, many a limb was
fractured and many a life lost.
In one of the oldest houses in Newhaven, nearly
opposite the burial-ground, there is a large sculp
tured pediment of remarkable appearance. It is
surmounted by a thistle, with the motto Nemo me
impune Zacessit, on ,a scroll, and the date 1588, a
three-masted ship, with the Scottish ensign at each
truck, pierced for sixteen guns, and below the
motto, in Roman letters,
IN THE NUM OF GOD.
Below this again is a deeply-cut square panel,
decorated with a pair of globes, a quadrant, cross,
staff, and anchor; and beneath these part of the
motto “ Yirtzte sydera ’ may, upon very close examination,
still be deciphered; but the history of
the stone, or of the house to which it belonged, is
unknown.
Some hollows near the p?ace were known as the
Fairy Holes, and they are mentioned in the indictment
of Eufame McCulzane for witchcraft, who is
stated to have attended a convention of witches
there in 1591, and also at others called the “Brume
Hoillis,” where she and many other witches, with
the devil in company, put to sea in riddles.
In 1630 and 1631 we find from “Dune’s Decisions,”
James Drummond, tacksman to the Lord
Holyroodhouse, of the Tiend Fishes of Newhaven,
(‘ pursuing spulzie ,’ against the fishers there.
The year 1630 was the first year of the tack, and
the fishermen alleged that they had been in use to
pay a particular duty, that was condescended an,
“ of all years preceding this year now acclaimed.”
The Lords found there was no necessity to grant
an inhibition, and reserved to themselves the modification
of the duty or quantity to be paid.
Newhaven gave the title of Viscount to an
English family who never had any connection with
the place, when in 1681 Charles 11. raised to the
peerage of Scotland Charles Cheyne, of Cogenho,
in Middlesex (dcscended from an ancient family in
Buckinghamshire), with the titles of ‘‘ Lord Cheyne
and Viscount Newhaven, near Leith, in the county
of Midlothian,” by patent dated at Windsor. His
son, the second Viscount Newhaven, who was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Bucks by Queen](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p118.gif "Volume 6 Page 299")
... are given in regular order. John Arduthy
in Leith seems to have contracted for the “ standarts
to ...
Vol. 6 p. 299 (Rel. 0.28)
... and
nearly absorbed village on the banks of the Water
of Leith , which is there crossed by a narrow ...
Vol. 5 p. 90 (Rel. 0.28)
... at Edinburgh, to join the
DK. JOHN HOPE. (AferKay.)
leith , whose castle in those days would be quite
visible ...
Vol. 2 p. 364 (Rel. 0.28)
... as many towns and villages as he could; to
sack Leith , burn, and subvert it, and all the rest ...
Vol. 1 p. 43 (Rel. 0.28)
... from the Parliament Square to Holyrood,
and thence to Leith , wbere they shot for the
Edinburgh Arrow, and ...
Vol. 4 p. 354 (Rel. 0.28)
![The Water of Leith.] DANIEL STEWART. 67
with sword and sash, wig and cocked hat, queue
and ruffles. After looking at him steadily, but sadly,
the figure melted away; and, as usual with such
spectral appearances, it is alleged young Nisbet was
shot at the same moment, in an encounter with the
colonists.
In 1784 the Dean House was the residence of
Thomas Miller, Lord Barskimming, and Lord
Justice Clerk. In 1845 it was pulled down, when
the ground whereon it had stood so long was
acquired by a cemetery company, and now-save
the sculptured stones we have described--no relic
remains of the old Nisbets of Dean but their burial
place at the West Church-a gloomy chamber of
the dead, choked up with rank nettles and hemlock.
By 1881 the old village of Dean was entirely
cleared away. Near its centre stood the blacksmith’s
forge of Robert Orrock, who was indicted for
manufacturing pikes for the Friends of the People
in 1792. He and his friend, Arthur McEwan,
publican in Dean Side, Water of Leith village,
were legally examined at the time, and it is supposed
that many of the pikes were thrown into the
World’s End Pool, below the waterfall at the
Damhead. South of the smithy was the village
school, long taught by “ auld Dominie Fergusson.”
North of it stood the old farmhouse and steading
of the Dean Farm, all swept away like the quaint
old village, which’was wont to be a bustling place
when the commander-in-chief of the forces in
Scotland tenanted the Dean, and mounted orderlies
came galloping up the steep brae, and often reined
up their horses at the “Speed the Plough” alehouse,
before the stately gate.
Somewhere in the immediate vicinity of this
old village a meeting-house was erected in 1687
for the Rev. David Williamson, of St. Cuthbert’s,
who was denounced as a rebel, and intercommuned
in 1674 for holding conventicles, but was sheltered
secretly in the Dean House by Sir Patrick Nisbet.
In 1689 he was restored to his charge at the West
Church, and was one of the commissioners sent to
congratulate King William on his accession to the
throne.
Now all the site of the village and farms, and
the land between them and the Dean Bridge, is
covered by noble streets, such as Buckingham
Terrace and Belgrave Crescent, the position of
which is truly grand. In 1876 a movement was
se: on foot by the proprietors of this crescent, led
by Sir James Falshaw, Bart, then Lord Provost,
which resulted in the purchase of the ground between
it and the Dean village, at a cost of about
A5,ooo. In that year it was nearlyall covered by
kitchen gardens, ruinous buildings, and brokendown
fences. These and the irregularities of the
place have been removed, while the natural undulations,
which add such beauty to the modem
gardens, have been preserved, and the plantations
and walks are laid out with artistic effect,
The new parish church-which was built in
1836, in the Gothic style, for accommodation of
the inhabitants of the Water of Leith village1 and
those of the village of Dean-stands on the western
side of the old Dean Path.
Farther westward is Stewart’s Hospital, built in
1849-53, after designs by David Rhind, at a cost
of about ~30,000, in a mixture of the latest
domestic Gothic, with something of the old castellated
Scottish style. It comprises a quadrangle,
about 230 feet in length by IOO feet in minimum
breadth, and has two main towers, each 120 feet
high, with several turrets.
Mr. Daniel Stewart, of the Scottish Exchequer,
who died in 1814, left the residue of his property,
amounting (after the erection and endowment of a
free school in his native parish of Logieraitj to
about ;G13,000, with some property in the old
town, to accumulate for the purpose of founding a
hospital for the maintenance of boys, the children
of honest and industrious parents, whose circumstances
do not enable them suitably to support and
educate their children at other schools. Poor boys
of the name of Stewart and Macfarlane, resident
within Edinburgh and the suburbs, were always
to have a preference. The age for admission was
to be from seven to ten, and that for leaving at
fourteen .
The Merchant Company, as governors, taking
advantage of the powers given them by the provisional
order obtained in 1870, opened the hospital
as a,day school in the September of that
year. The education provided is of a very superior
order, qualifying the pupils for commercial
or professional life, and for the universities. The
course of study includes English, Latin, Greek,
French, German, and all the usual branches, including
drill, fencing, and gymnastics.
The Orphan Hospital at the Dean was erected
in 1833, after elegant designs by Thomas Hamilton,
at a cost of A16,000, in succession to the
older foundation, which we have already described
as standing eastward of the North Bridge, on the
site of the railway terminus. It comprises a large
central block, with two projecting wings, a portico
of Tuscan columns, and two light, elegant quadrangular
towers with arches, and has within its
clock-turret on the summit of its front the ancient
clock of the Nether Bow Port.
Its white facade stands boldly and pleasingly](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p078.gif "Volume 5 Page 67")
... Water of Leith .] DANIEL STEWART. 67
with sword and sash, wig and cocked hat, queue
and ruffles. After looking ...
Vol. 5 p. 67 (Rel. 0.28)
![The Castle Hill.] THE DUKE OF GORDON’S HOUSE. 89
ter of the Duke of Norfolk and wife of Duke
George, who SO gallantly defended the Castle
against the troops of William of Orange; during
the lifetime of the duke she retired to a Belgian
convent, but afterwards returned to the old mansion
in Edinburgh, where she frequently resided till
her death, which took place at the abbey in 1732,
life, destroyed utterly the ancient Gothic fireplace,
which was very beautiful in its design.
This house is mentioned in the “Diurnal of
Occurrents” as being, in 1570, the residence of
~ Patrick Edgar; and after it passed from the Gordons
it was possessed by the family of Newbyth,
who resided in it for several generations, and
ALLAA RAMSAY’S HOUSE.
sixteen years after that of the duke at Leith.
The internal fittings of the mansion are in many
respects unchanged since its occupation by the
duchess. It is wood-panelled throughout, and
one large room which overlooks the Esplanade. is
decorated with elaborate carvings, and with a large
painting over the mantelpiece the production of
Norrie, a famous housedecorator of the eighteenth
century, whose genius for landscapes entitles him
to a place among Scottish painters. An explosion
of gunpowder which took place in the basement
of the house, in 1811, attended with serious loss of
12
therein, on the 6th December, 1757, was born
the gallant Sir David Baird, Bart., the hero of
Seringapatam and conqueror of Tippoo Saib ; and
therein he was educated and brought up. Returning
years after, he visited the place of his birth,
which had long since passed into other hands.
Chambers relates that the individual then occupying
the house received the veteran hero with great
respect, and, after showing him through it, ushered
him into the little garden behind, where some boys
were engaged in mischievously throwing cabbage
stalks at the chimneys of the Grassmarket. On](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v1p101.gif "Volume 1 Page 89")
... RAMSAY’S HOUSE.
sixteen years after that of the duke at Leith .
The internal fittings of the mansion are in ...
Vol. 1 p. 89 (Rel. 0.28)
... . . . . . . . . . . . -172
CHAPTER XXIV.
ELDER STREET- LEITH STREET-BROUGHTON STREET.
Elder Street-- Leith ...
Vol. 4 p. 388 (Rel. 0.27)
![Holyrood.] SUCCESSION. OF ABBOTS. 47
between Randolph the famous’ Earl of Moray and
Sir William Oliphant, in connection with the forfeited
estate of William of Monte Alto. Another
species of Parliament was held at Holyrood on
the 10th of February, in the year 1333-4, when
Edward 111. received the enforced homage of his
creature Baliol.
XVI. JOHN II., abbot, appears as a witness to
three charters in 1338, granted to William of
Livingston, William of Creighton, and Henry of
Brade (Braid?).
XVII. BARTHOLOMEW, abbot in 1342.
XVIII. THOMAS, abbot, witnessed a charter to
William Douglas of that ilk, Sir James of Sandilands,
and the Lady Elenora Bruce, relict of Alexander
Earl of Carrick, nephew of Robert I., of the
lands of the West Calder. On the 8th of May,
1366, a council was held at Holyrood, at which the
Scottish nobles treated with ridicule and contempt
the pretensions of the kings of England, and sanctioned
an assessment for the ransom of David II.,
taken prisoner at the battle of Durham. That
monarch was buried before the high altar in 1371,
and Edward 111. granted a safe conduct to certain
persons proceeding to Flanders to provide for the
tomb in which he was placed.
XIX. JOHN III., abbot on the 11th of January,
~372. During his term of office, John of Gaunt
Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III., was
hospitably entertained at Holyrood, when compelled
to take flight from his enemies in England.
XX. DAVID, abbot on the 18th of January, in
the thirteenth year of Robert 11. The abbey was
burned by the armyof Richard 11. whose army
encamped at Restalrig; but it was soon after
repaired. David is mentioned in a charter dated
at Perth, 1384-5.
XXI. JOHN (formerly Dean of Leith) was abbot
on the 8th of May, 1386. His name occurs in
several charters and other documents, and for the
last time in the indenture or lease of the Canonmills
to the city of Edinburgh, 12th September,
1423. In his time Henry IV. spared the monastery
in gratitude for the kindness of the monks to
his exiled father John of Gaunt.
XXII. PATRICK, abbot 5th September, 1435.
In his term of office James II., who had been born
in the abbey, was crowned there in his sixth year,
on the 25th March, 1436-7; and anothet high
ceremony was performed in the same church when
Mary of Gueldres was crowned -as Queen Consort
in July, 1449. In the preceding year, John Bishop
of Galloway elect became an inmate of the abbey,
and was buried in the cloisters.
XXIII. JAMES, abbot 26th April, 14~0.
XXIV. ARCHIBALD CRAWFORD, abbot in 1457.
He was son of Sir William‘ Crawford of Haining,
and had previously been Prior of Holytood. In
1450 he was one of the commissioners who treated
with the English at Coventry concerning a truce ;
and again in 1474, concerning a marriage between
James Duke of Rothesay and the Princess Cecile,
second daughter of Edward IV. of England. He
was Lord High Treasurer of Scotland in 1480.
He died in 1483. On the abbey church (according
to Crawford) his arms were carved niore than
thirty times. “He added the buttresses on the
walls of the north and south aisles, and probably
built the rich doorway which opens into the north
aisle.” Many finely executed coats armorial are
found over the niches, among them Abbot Crawford’s
frequently- fesse ermine, with a star of five
points, in chief, surmounted by an abbot’s mitre
resting on a pastoral staff.
XXV. ROBERT BELLENDEN, abbot in 1486,
when commissioner concerning a truce with
England. He was still abbot in 1498, and his
virtues are celebrated by his namesake, the archdean
of Moray, canon of ROSS, and translator of
Boece, who says ‘‘ he left the abbey, and died ane
Chartour-monk.” In 1507 the Papal legate presented
James IV., in the name of Pope Julius II.,
in the church, amid a brilliant crowd of nobles,
with a purple crown adorned by golden lilies, and
a sword of state studded with gems, which is still
preserved in the Castle of Edinburgh. He also
brought a bull, bestowing upon James the title of
Defender of the Faith. Abbot Bellenden, in 1493,
founded a chapel in North Leith, dedicated to St.
Ninian, latterly degraded into a victual granary
The causes moving the abbot to build this chapei,
independent of the spiritual wants of the people,
were manifold, as set forth in the charter of
erection. The bridge connecting North and South
Leith, over which he levied toll, was erected at the
same time.
XXVI. GEORGE CRICHTOUN, abbot in 1515,
and Lord Privy Seal, was promoted to the see of
Uunkeld in 1528. As we have recorded elsewhere,
he was the founder of the Hospital of St. Thomas,
near the Water Gate. An interesting relic of his
abbacy exists at present in England.
About the year 1750, when a grave was being
dug in the chancel of St Stephen’s church, St.
Albans, in Hertfordshire, there was found buried
in the soil an ancient lectern bearing his name, and
which is supposed to have been concealed there at
some time during the Civil Wars. It is of cast
brass, and handsonie in design, consisting of an eagle
with expanded wings, supported by a shaft deco-
The piers still remain.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p059.gif "Volume 3 Page 47")
... dated
at Perth, 1384-5.
XXI. JOHN (formerly Dean of Leith ) was abbot
on the 8th of May, 1386. His name ...
Vol. 3 p. 47 (Rel. 0.27)
![Newhaven.] FISHER FEUD WITH PRESTONPANS 301
men of the town of Edinburgh, and Lady Greenwich,
on one part, and certain fishermen of
Prestonpans on the other. The point in dispute is
certain oyster scalps, to which each party claims an
exclusive right. Accusations of encroachment were
mutually given and retorted. At dredging, when
the parties met, much altercation and abusive
language took place-bloody encounters ensued,
but only occurs in the Tmendas, like hawkings,
huntings, or other words of style.
“ After various representations to the Judge-
Admiral, his lordship pronounced an interlocutor,
ordaining both parties to produce their prescriptive
rights to their fishings, and prohibited them from
dredging oysters in any of the scalps in dispute till
the issue of the cause.
November 10, 1786, in virtue of which his lordship
was infeft, interaZia, in the oyster scalps in question.
They also condescended on a charter granted by
King James VI., in 1585, to the town of Burntisland,
which is on record, and which they say establishes
their right. They further contend that the magistrates
have produced no proper titles to prove
their exclusive right to the scalps they have let in
tack to the Newhaven fishermen.
“The charter of King James VI. was resigned
,by the town in the time of Charles I,, and the new
charter granted by the latter, gives no right to the
oyster scalps in dispute. The word ‘fishings,’ in
was abolished in defiance of the principles of the
Treaty of Union) in favour of the Newhaven men;
but each party had to pay their own expenses.
So far back as 1789 we begin to read of the
encroachments made by the sea in this quarter, and
probably of what was afterwards so long known as
the “ Man-trap,” as the Advertiser mentions that ‘‘ a
young lady coming from Newhaven to Leith fell
over the precipice on the side of the sea,’’ and
that within six weeks the same catastrophe had
befallen four others, ‘‘ the road being so narrow
and dangerous that people at night run a great risk
of their lives”](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p120.gif "Volume 6 Page 301")
... mentions that ‘‘ a
young lady coming from Newhaven to Leith fell
over the precipice on the side of the sea,’’ ...
Vol. 6 p. 301 (Rel. 0.27)
... in 1710, he appears as Dean of Guild in
a case against certain burgesses of Leith , that
savours of the ...
Vol. 5 p. 46 (Rel. 0.27)
... weight, was removed from the Old
Weigh House at Leith , and lodged in the outer
aisle of the old church ...
Vol. 1 p. 186 (Rel. 0.27)
... issued from the Nether
Bow Gate, and fled towards Leith , but were met
midway by the inhabitants of that ...
Vol. 2 p. 331 (Rel. 0.27)
... contest took place at
the back of the Black Rocks, near Leith Harbour,
between a boat’s crew belonging to ...
Vol. 6 p. 300 (Rel. 0.26)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [ Leith Wynd.
housses, biggins, and yards adjacent thereto, and
by and contigue to the ...
Vol. 2 p. 306 (Rel. 0.26)
... over their lands of St. Leonard’s, in the town
of Leith , “from the end of the great volut of
William ...
Vol. 3 p. 54 (Rel. 0.26)
... the year 1716, at his residence in the citadel of
Leith .
The Castle was once more fully repaired, ...
Vol. 1 p. 65 (Rel. 0.26)
... the
zgrd of March. He took his passage on board the
Leith smack Endeavorfr for that port, disguised as
an ...
Vol. 1 p. 115 (Rel. 0.26)
![Newhaven.] “OUR LADY’S PORT OF GRACE.” 295
1815 it was changed to a revolving light, as at
present. Its elevation is 235 feet above the waterline.
On the 1st October, 1835, thereflecting light was
discontinued, and a dioptric light was put in its
place, It consists of seven annular lenses, which
circulate round a great lamp having three concentric
wicks and produce brilliant flashes once in
every minute, and of five rows of curved mirrors,
which, being fixed, serve to prolong the duration
of the flashes from the lenses. The appearance of
the new light does not, therefore, differ materially
from that of the old one-save that the flashes
which recur at the same periods, are considerably
more brilliant, and of shorter duration. In clear
weather the light is not totally eclipsed between
the flashes at a distance of four or five miles, and
it is visible at the distance of eighteen nautical
miles. . The expense of this lighthouse in 1839 was
The old light of 1803~ with all its apparatus, was
purchased by the Government of Newfoundland,
and is still in use on Cape Spear, near the Narrows
of St. John.
A467 14s. sd.
C H A P T E R XXV.
NEWHAVEN.
Cobbett on Edinburgh-Jam- IV.5 Dockyard -Hi Gift or Newhaven to Edinburgh-The Gnat Mick&Embarkation of Mary of G b
Works at Newhaven in the Sixteenth Century-The L i V k u n t Newhaven-The Feud with Preston-The Sea Fencibles-
Chain Pier-Dr. Fairbairn-The Fishwives-Superstitions.
IT may not be uninteresting to quote, the ideas
entertained of Edinburgh by an English visitor in
the first years of the nineteenth century, as he was
-in his time-considered a typical John Bull,
I now come back to this delightful and beautiful
city,” wrote William Cobbett in his RegWr.
I thought Bristol, taking in its heights and Clifton
with its rocks and river, was the finest city in the
world; but it is nothing to Edinburgh, with its
castle, its hills, its pretty little seaport detached
from it, its vale of rich land lying all around, its
lofty hills in the background, its views across the
Firth. I think little of its streets and its rows of
fine houses, though all built of stone, and though
everything in London and Bath is begary to these ;
I thing nothing of Holyrood House ; but I think a
great deal of the fine and well-ordered streets of
shops ; of the regularity which you perceive everywhere
in the management of business ; and I think
still more of the absence of that foppishness and
that affectation of carelessness and insolent assumption
of superiority in almost all the young men you
meet in the fashionable parts of the great towns in
England. I was not disappointed, for I expected
to find Edinburgh the finest city in the kingdom. . . . The people, however, still exceed the
place; here all is civility; you do not meet with
rudeness, or with the want of disposition to oblige,
even in the persons of the lowest state of life. A
fiend took me round the environs of the city ; he
had a turnpike ticket, received at the first gate,
which cleared five or six gates. It was sufficient
for him to tell the gate-keepers that he had it.
When I saw that, I said to myself, ‘Nota bene:
gate keepers take people’s wordin Scotland,’ a thing
I have not seen before since I left Long Island.”
Now its seaport is no longer (‘ detached,” but has
become an integral part of Edinburgh, and all the
vale of rich land” between it and the Forth to
Granton, Trinity, and Newhaven, is covered by a
network of fine roads and avenues, bordered by
handsome villas.
Newhaven now conjoined to Leith, and long
deemed only a considerable fishing village, lies two
miles north of Princes Street, and yet consists
chiefly of the ancient village \;hich is situated,
quoad civilia, in the parish of North Leith, and
whose inhabitants are still noted as a distinct community,
rarely intermarrying with any other class.
The male inhabitants are almost entirely fishermen,
and the women are employed in selling the produce
of their husbands’ industry in the streets of the city
and suburbs. Intermarriage seems to produce
among them a peculiar cast of countenance and
physical constitution. The women, inured to outdoor
daily labour in all weathers, are robust, active,
and remarkable for their florid complexions, healthy
figures, and regular features, as for the singularity of
their costume.
In the fifteenth century this village was designated
“ Our Lady’s Port of Grace,” from a chapel dedicated
to the Virgin Mary and St. James, some
portions of which still exist in the ancient or
unused burial-ground of the centre of the village.
The nearly entire west gable, with a square window
in it, can still be seen in the Vennel, a narrow](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p114.gif "Volume 6 Page 295")
... bordered by
handsome villas.
Newhaven now conjoined to Leith , and long
deemed only a considerable fishing ...
Vol. 6 p. 295 (Rel. 0.26)
![Chongrte.] A LEGEND BY SIR WALTER SCOT‘I’. 5 -
when the Castle of Duiiglass was blown up by
gunpowder.
An old house at the head of the Canongate, on
the north side, somewhere in the vicinity of Coull’s
Close, but now removed, was always indicated as
being the scene of that wild story which Scott
relates in his notes to the fifth canto of ‘‘ Rokeby,”
and in his language we prefer to give it here.
He tells us that ‘( about the beginning of the
eighteenth century, when the large castles of the
Scottish nobles, and even the secluded hotels,
hke those of the French noblesse, which they
had each 40,000 merks Scots as a fortune, their
uncle, the Earl of Argyle, being cautioner for the
payment, “for relief whereof he got the wadset of
Lochaber and Badenoch” Lady Jean, a third
daughter, was also married in the ensuing January,
with a fortune of 30,000 merks, to Thomas, Earl
of Haddington, who perished in the following year,
bearers insisted upon his being blindfolded. The
request was enforced by a cocked pistol, and
submitted to ; but in the course of the discussion
he conjectured, from the phrases employed by the
chairmen, and from some parts of their dress not
completely concealed by their cloaks, that they
were greatly above the menial station they had
assumed. After many turnings and windings the
chair was carried upstairs into a lodging, where his
eyes were uncovered, and he was introduced into
a bed-room, where he found a lady nen-ly delivered
of an infant, and he was commanded by his
possessed in Edinburgh, were sometimes the scenes.
of strange and mysterious transactions, a divine of
singular sanctity was called up at midnight to pray
with a person at the point of death. This was no
unusual summons ; but what followed was alarming-
He was put into a sedanchair, and after he had
been transported to a remote part of the town the
EAST END OF HIGH STREET, NETHER BOW, AND WEST END OF CANONGATE. (Frmn G d w ofRofhiemay’r Mu!.)
48, Blackfriars Wynd : 49, l’odrig‘s Wynd ; 50, Gay’s Wynd ; 51, St. Mary’s Wynd : 58, Leith Wynd ; 8, Suburbs of the Canongate : g, High
Street : 14, The Nether How ; h, The Nether-bow Port; 18, The Flesh Stocks in the Goongate.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p017.gif "Volume 3 Page 5")
... Wynd ; 50, Gay’s Wynd ; 51, St. Mary’s Wynd : 58, Leith Wynd ; 8, Suburbs of the Canongate : g, ...
Vol. 3 p. 5 (Rel. 0.25)
![High Street.] PHILIP STANFIELD. 281
(presumed) Custom House of ice^ running out of it,
with something under his coat. There can be no
doubt that this was the murderer, and the description
given coincided exactly with the appearance
of Mackoull, Although the boy heard of the murder
before he lkft Leith, he never thought of communicating
what he had seen to the authorities ; he was
shortly after captured and carried to a French prison,
where he remained for many years. Mackoull resided
in Edinburgh from September, 1805, till the
end of 1806, lodging very near the scene of the
murder, and was a frequent visitor at the coffee-
It was raised from the grave, after it had lain
there two days, and the surgeons having made an
incision near the neck, became convinced that
death had been caused by strangulation, so all
supposition of suicide was abandoned. This examination
took place in a church. After the cut
had been sewn up, the body was washed, wrapped
in fresh linen, and James Row, merchant in Edini
burgh, and Philip Stanfield, the disinherited son,
lifted it for deposition in the coffin, when 10 ! on
the side sustained by Philip an effusion of blood
took place, and so ample as to defile both his hands.
printers and publishers.
The World’s End Close was the curious and
appropriate name bestowed upon the last gloomy,
and mysterious-looking alley on the south side of
the High Street, adjacent to the Netherbow Port,
when it lost its oXer name of Sir John Stanfield’s
Close.
At the foot of it an ancient tenement, has a shield
of arms on its lintel, .with the common Edinburgh
legend-“Praisze. the. Lord. for.all.His.giftis,M.S. ;I’
but save this, and a rich Gothic niche, built into a
modern “land ” of uninteresting aspect, nothing remains
of Stanfield‘s Close save the memory of the
dark tragedy connected with the name of the knight.
Sir Jaines Stanfield was one of those English manufacturers
who, by permission of the Scottish Government,
had settled at Newmills, in East Lothian.
He was a respectable man, but the profligacy of
Philip, his eldest son, so greatly afflicted him that
he became melancholy, and he disinherited his heir
by a will. On a day in the November of 1687 he
was found drowned, it wafi alleged, in a pool of
water near his country house at Newmills. Doubts
were started as to whether he had committed
suicide, in consequence of domestic troubles, or had
been murdered. The circumstances of his being
hastily interred, and that Lady Stanfield had a suit
of graveclothes all ready for him before his death,
‘seemed to point to the latter; and two surgeons
“ Tiditions and Antiquities of Leith.”
36
November, 1806, Mackoull was seized with convulsions,
and threw himself back on his bed and
began to rave.
Tweeddale House, after being quitted by the
British Linen Company for their new office in St.
after handled by the murtherar, it will ;ushe out of
blood, as if the blood were crying to heaven for
revenge of the murtherar.”
Accordingly, on the 7th of February, 1688,
Philip was brought to trial at Edinburgh, and after
the household servants had been put to torture
without eliciting anything on the strength of the
mysterious bleeding, according to Fountainhall, save
that he was known to have cursed his father, drunk
to the king’s confusion, and linked the royal name
with those of the Pope, the devil, and Lord Chancellor,
he was sentenced to death. He protested
his innocence to the last, and urged in vain that
his father was a melancholy man, subject to fits;
that once he set out for England, but because his
horse stopped at a certain place, he thought he saw
the finger of God, and returned home ; and that he
once tried to throw himself over a window at the
Nether Bow, probably at his house in the World’s
End Close.
Philip Stanfield was hanged at the Market Cross
on the 24th of February. In consequence of a slip
of the rope, he came down on his knees, and it was
necessary to use more horrible means of strangulation
His tongue was cut out for cursing his
father ; his right hand was struck off for parricide ;
his head was spiked on the East Port of.Haddington,
and his mutilated body was hung in chains
between L.eith and the city. After a few days the
body was stolen fiom the gibbet, and found lying
in a ditch among water. It was chained up again,
time groaning in great anguish, and refusing to
touch the corpse again, while all looked on with
dismay. The incident was at once accepted by
the then Scottish mind in the light of a revelation
of Philip’s guilt as his father’s murderer. “In a
Andrew Square, became, and is still, the establish- 3 I ment of Messrs. Oliver and Boyd, t!ie well-known
secret niurther,” says King James in his ‘ Damonology’-“
if the dead carkasse be at any time there](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p101.gif "Volume 2 Page 281")
... Although the boy heard of the murder
before he lkft Leith , he never thought of communicating
what he had ...
Vol. 2 p. 281 (Rel. 0.25)
... Drumsheugh, says
another account; between the city and Leith at the
Gallowlee, according to a third, with the ...
Vol. 1 p. 117 (Rel. 0.25)
... Hermitage, I. m, 11.
303, 19, 111. 216
St. Ant%ony's Port, Leith , 111.151
SI. Anthonys preceptory, Leith ,
its ...
Vol. 6 p. 389 (Rel. 0.25)
![Leith Walk.] THE REV. JOHN KELLOE. I55
of sand, much of it was carted away, and, with the
ashes of the malefactors of centuries, converted into
mortar, and used in the erection of the New Town.
So far from being a knoll, the place is now a hollow.
It is related that, every day while the carts were
taking away the sand, the proprietor of the knoll
stood regularly at the place receiving the money in
return, and “every little sum he got was converted
into liquor, and applied to the comfort of his inner
man. A public-house was at length erected oe the
spot for his particular behoof; and, assuredly, as
long as the Gallow Lee lasted this house did not
want custom, Perhaps, familiar as the reader may
be with stories of sots who have drunk away their
last coin, he never before heard of this thing being
done in so literal a manner.”
It immediately adjoined the place known as
Shrub Hill. Ordinary malefactors were hanged at
the Cross in the Grassmarket, or on the shore of
Leith ; but the Gallow Lee was latterly the special
place for the execution of witches, and for hanging
in chains the bodies of those who had committed
great crimes. Sometimes only a hand or other limb
was gibbeted here, while the rest of the body was
buried elsewhere. Among the most noted executions
and gibbetings here, we may add the following
to those which have been referred to incidentally
elsewhere in our pages :-
Crawford of Drumsoy records that two criminals
were burned to death here in 1570; and then he
relates an execution at the same place in the autumn
of the year, which made some excitement even in
the Scotland of those days.
Mr. John Kelloe, minister of Spott, near DunSar,
being seized by a sudden remorse of conscience,
came to Edinburgh, and judicially made confession
of a crime which otherwise would never have been
proved against him. He had been married to a
poor but very handsome and attractive girl, “ very
witty and fond, a very little woman, but well
shap’d,” before he got the benefice of Spott, after
which he began to propose to himself a second
marriage with the wealthy daughter of a laird,
whose name Crawford omits, provided he could by
any means rid himself of his first wife, to whom
now he began to behave harshly and petulantly.
To prepare the way for the execution of his design,
and to conceal it when done, he suddenly began to
dissemble in his treatment of her ; his manner was
full of tenderness, kindness, and delicacy.
“She who now thought herself the happiest of
her sex,” continues Crawford in his “ Memoirs,”
written in I 705, “ effusively strove to make him so
too, and hastened her own ruin ; for, upon a Sunday
morning, as she was saying her prayers upon
her knees, he came softly behind her, put a rope
(which he had kept all night in his pocket) about
her neck, and after he had strangled her tied her up
to an iron hook which a day or two before he had
purposely nailed to the ceiling of the room. This
done, he bolted his gate, crept out of his parlour
window, stept demurely to church, and charmed
his hearers with a most excellent sermon.”
The murderer next imited two or three of his
parishioners to sup with him, telling them casually,
as it were, that ‘‘ his wife was not well, and of late
somewhat inclined to melancholy ; that she had not’
come to kirk that day, but would be glad to see
them at her house.” On knocking at the gate, the
Rev. Mr. Kelloe affected to be much astonished
that there was no response. Ultimately he and his
guests were obliged to make a forcible entrance, and
the murdered wife was found hanging from the
hook to which her corpse had been attached. The
reverend incumbent of Spott now feigned grief
and counterfeited sorrow so much to the life that
his neighbours almost forgot to mourn for the dead
so much were they afraid of losing the living.
However, these forged tears, by the mercy of
God to this great offender, suddenly became real
ones.”
Tortured by conscience, after six weeks of misery
he made a confession of his crime to the schoolmaster
of Dunbar, according to Crawford-to
Andrew Simpson, minister there, according to the
“ Historie of King James the Sext ”-and after
being convicted, on his own confession, at Edinburgh,
he was conveyed to the Gallow Lee, on the
4th of October, and strangled. His corpse was
then consumed by fire and the ashes scattered on
the air. ‘‘ Never did any man appear more penitent
or less fearful of death. He was attended from
the prison to the stake by three of the clergy, and
by the way he rather instructed them than received
any assistance from them.”
A century or so later and we have some appalling
accounts of the cremation of so-called witches
at the terrible Gallow Lee.
In 1678 five were (mercifully) strangled first and
burnt to ashes there, by sentence of the Lords;
and other four, their companions, were burned
at Painston Muk, in their own parish. The accusations
against them were intimacy with the devil,
dancing with him, renouncing their baptism, and
being kissed by him, though his lip3 were icy cold,
and his breath like damp air ; taking a communion
at his hands, when ‘‘ the bread was like wafers, the
drink sometimes blood and other times like black
moss water,’’ and much more to the same purpose,
all of which is gravely recorded by Lord Fountain](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p166.gif "Volume 5 Page 155")
... Leith Walk.] THE REV. JOHN KELLOE. I55
of sand, much of it was carted away, and, with the
ashes of the ...
Vol. 5 p. 155 (Rel. 0.25)
![Currie.] LENNOX TOWER. 333
The surface of the pond on Harelaw Muir is 802
feet above the level of the sea.
One of the chief antiquities of Cume is Lennox
Tower, on a high bank overhanging the Water of’
Leith, and now called by the rather uncouth name
of Lumphoy. It is a massive edifice, measuring
externally fifty-five feet by thirty-five, with walls
above seven feet in thickness. It is entered by
an archway on the north, where the gate was
secured by a horizontal bar, the socket of which
as cattle were apt to stray into it. The extent of
the outer rampart, which goes round the brow of
the hill, is given in the “ Old Statistical Account ”
as measuring “304 paces, or 1,212 feet.”
It was surrounded by a moat, and there can still
be traced the remains of a deep ditch. Though
small, it was undoubtedly a place of some strength.
Amongst the many conjectures of which it has
been the subject, one declares it to have been a
hunting-seat of James VI. and a residence of George
still remains in the wall. It is all built of polished
ashlar; the hall windows are arched, with stone
seats within them, and the ascent to the upper
storeys has been by a narrow circular stair, part
of which still remains within the thickness of the
wall, at the north-east angle, the steps of which are
only three feet long.
It is said, traditionally, to take its name from the
Lennox family, to whom it belonged; and the
same vague authority assigns it as a residence to
Mary and Darnley, and afterwards to the Regent
Morton. It occupies very high ground, commandhg
a beautiful prospect of the Firth of Forth, and
has a subterranean passage to the river, which was
Heriot, hy whom it was bequeathed to a daughter,
“ from whom, along with the adjacent land, it was
purchased by an ancestor of the present proprietor.”
It has been alleged that there existed a subterranean
communication between it and Colinton
Tower, the old abode of the Foulis family; and
the common stock story is added that a piper once
tried to explore it, and that the sound of his pipes
was heard as far as Currie Bridge, where he
perished. But people were still living in 1845 who
had explored this secret passage for a considerable
way.
“ It is supposed that the garrison (in war time)
secured by this means a clandestine supply of water,](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p152.gif "Volume 6 Page 333")
... Lennox
Tower, on a high bank overhanging the Water of’
Leith , and now called by the rather uncouth name
of ...
Vol. 6 p. 333 (Rel. 0.25)
... though all it; features have not
been copied.
Inver leith , or Inner leith , as it was often called of
old, was ...
Vol. 5 p. 92 (Rel. 0.25)
... had an establishment at Currie, then
called Kill- leith (i.e., the
1
of Currie. These circumstances
tend ...
Vol. 6 p. 331 (Rel. 0.25)
... ruins of which
stand on the opposite bank of the Leith , at a little
distance, and which was the ...
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... in a deep and wooded dell, through which
the Water of Leith winds on its way to the Firth
of Forth, and around ...
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... spans a deep
ravine, through
which the Water ol
Leith finds its way
to the neighbouring
port. In ...
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... the
August of the same year.
In October he sailed from Leith to Gsit the
king again at Brussels on public ...
Vol. 6 p. 338 (Rel. 0.24)
... donjon keep ; but a body of the king's men
veyed to Leith , and hanged, while he had a narrow
escape, his ...
Vol. 5 p. 36 (Rel. 0.24)
![Calton HiX] SHORT’S 0 ESERVATORY. ‘05
‘patriotic Earl of Morton gave a sun1 for the purpose;
leaving the management thereof to Colin
‘Maclaurin, Professor of Mathematics, and others
of the Senatus Academicus. Maclaurin, with his
characteristic liberality, added to the earl’s gift by
the profits arising from a course of lectures on
experimental philosophy ; but his death, in 1746,
put a stop a second time to the execution of the
disposal for the purpose of building an observatory,
and to allow him to draw the whole emoluments
arising from the use of his apparatus for a certain
number of years ; “but,” says Arnot, ‘‘ on condition
that the students should, in the meantime,
have access to the observatory for a small gratuity,
and that the building,withall the instruments, should
. be vested in the Town Council for ever, as trustees
THE CALTON HILL, CALTON GAOL, BURYING-GROUND, AND MONUMENTS.
In 1776 there came to Edinburgh Mr. Short,
brother and executor to Mr. James Short, F.R.S.,
formerly an optician in Leith, and who brought with
him all his brother‘s optical apparatus, particularly
a large reflecting telescope that magnified 1,200
times, “and is,” says the Week0 Magazine for
that year, “ superior to any in Europe, but one in
possession of the King of Spain.” Mr. Short
intended to erect an observatory, which was to
be his own private property, and from which he
expected to draw considerable emoluments ; but
Dr. Alexander Monro, Professor of Anatomy, one
of Lord Morton’s trustees, showed that an observatory
unconnected with the Council and University
would conduce but little to the progress of science,
62
after a certain period. Mr. Short readily agreed,
and the Council were applied to for their concurrence
and patronage.”
It appears from their Register that in the
summer of 1776 the Council granted to Mr. Short,
his sons and grandsons, a life-rent lease of
half an acre on the Calton HilL A plan of the
intended building was made by James Craig,
architect, and the foundation-stone was laid by
Provost James Stodart, in presence of the Senatus,
25th July, I 776 ; and upon the suggestion of Adam,
the famous architect, in consequence of the high
and abrupt nature of the site, the whole edifice was
constructed to have the aspect of a fortification. 1 In the partial execution of this faulty design, thc](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p117.gif "Volume 3 Page 105")
... to Mr. James Short, F.R.S.,
formerly an optician in Leith , and who brought with
him all his brother‘s ...
Vol. 3 p. 105 (Rel. 0.24)
... I. 383
Union BankofScotlind 11.150,151
Unlon Bank Leith I d . 239
Union Canal, The,'I$. 99, 2x5, ...
Vol. 6 p. 391 (Rel. 0.24)
![Leith Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter’s sister, Maria Whiteford, afterwards Mrs.
Cranston, was the heroine of Bums’s song, “The
Idass 0’ Ballochmyle,” her father being one of the
poet’s earliest and warmest patrons.
The Gayfield quarter seems to have been rather
aristocratic in those days. In 1767, David, sixth
Earl of Leven, who had once been a captain in the
army, occupied Gayfield House, where in that year
his sister, Lady Betty, was married to John, Earl of
Walk is shown edificed from the corner of Picardy
Place to where we now find Gayfield Square,
which, when it was first erected, was called Gayfield
Place. West London Street was then called
Anglia Street, and its western continuation, in
which old Gayfield House is now included, was not
contemplated. North of this house is shown a
large area, “ Mrs. D. Hope’s feu ;” and between it
and the Walk was the old Botanical Garden.
In 1783 Sir John Whiteford, Bart., of that ilk,
Gordon, relict of Sir Alexander Gordon of Lesmoir,
Bart., died there.
Gayfield House is now a veterinary college.
In 1800 Sir John Wardlaw, Bart., of Pitreavie,
resided in Gayfield Square ; and there his wife, the
daughter of Mitchell of Pitteadie (a ruined castle
in Fifeshire), died in that year. He was a colonel
in the army, and died in 1823, a lieutenantcolonel
of the 4th West India Regiment.
No. I, Gayfield Place, was long the residence of
BOARD SCHOOL, LOVER’S LOAN.
a well-known citizen in his time, Patrick Crichton,
whose father was a coachbuilder in the Canongate,
and who, in 1805, was appointed lieutenantcolonel
commandant of the 2nd Regiment of Edinburgh
Local Militia. He had entered the army when
young, and attained the rank of captain in the
57th Regiment, with which he served during the
American war, distinguishing himself so much that
he received the public thanks of the comrnanderin-
chief. Among his friends and brother-oficers.
then was Andrew Watson, whose brother George
founded the Scottish Academy. When the war was
over he retired, and entered into partnership with
his father ; and on the first formation of the Volunteers,
in consequence of his great military e x p](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p172.gif "Volume 5 Page 161")
... Leith Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter’s sister, Maria Whiteford, ...
Vol. 5 p. 161 (Rel. 0.24)
![Princes Street.] EDINBURGH IN 1783. 119
vincial towns were combined in the case of Edinburgh
She was the titular capital of Scotland, and
as such, was looked up to with pride and veneration
by the nation at large. She was then the
residence of many of the old Scottish nobility, and
the exclusion of the British from the Continent,
during a long, protracted war, made her, either for
business, society, or education, the favourite resort
of strangers. She was the headquarters of the
legal profession at a time when both the Scottish
bench and bar were rendered illustrious by a numbet
of men celebrated far their learning, eloquence, and
wit. She was the head-quarters of the Scottish
Church, whose pulpits and General Assembly were
adorned by divines of great eminence and piety.
Lastly, she was the chief seat of scholarship, and
the chosen home of literature and science north of
the Tweed.”
With the Edinburgh of those days ,and of the
present we have now deal
CHAPTER XVII.
PRINCES STREET.
A Glance at Society-Change of BIanners, &-The Irish Giants-Poole’s Coffee-house-Shop of Constable 8 Co.-Weir’s Muscum, 1794-
The Grand Duke Nichoh-North British Insurance Life Association4ld Tax Office and New Club-Craig of Ricarton-“?he
White Rose of Scotland”‘-St. John’s Chapel-Its Tower and Vaults, &.-The Scott Monument and its MUseum-The Statues of Professor
Wilson, Allan Ramsay, Adam Black, Sir James Sirnpson, and Dr. Livingstone-The General Improvements in Princes Street.
IN 1774 a proposal to erect buildings on the south
side of Princes Street-a lamentable error in taste
it would have proved-led to an interdict by the
Court of Session, which ended in a reference to
the House of Lords, on which occasion Imd
Mansfield made a long and able speech, and the
result was, that the amenity of Princes Street was
maintained, and it became in time the magnificent
terrace we now find it.
Of the city in 1783 some glimpses are given us
in the ‘‘ Letters of Theophrastus,” appended to the
second edition of “Arnot.” In that year the
revenue of the Post Office was only ~ 4 0 , 0 0 0 .
There were four coaches to Leith, running every
half hour, and there were 1,268 four-wheeled carriages
and 338 two-wheeled paying duty. The
oystercellars had become numerous, and were
places of fashionable resort. A maid-servant’s
wages were about f;4 yearly. In 1763 they wore
plain cloaks or plaids; but in 1783 “silk, caps,
ribbons, ruffles, false. hair, and flounced. petticoats.”
In 1783 a number of bathing-machines had been
adopted at Leith. People of the middle class and
above it dined about four o’clock, after which no
business was done, and gentlemen were at no pains
to conceal their impatience till the ladies retired.
Attendance at church . was, much neglected, and
people did not think it “genteel” to take their
domestics with them. “In 1783 the daughters
even of tradesmen consume the moriings at the
toilet (to which rouge is now an appendage) or in
strolling from the perfumer‘s to the milliner’s.
They would blush to be seeri at market. The
cares of the family devolve upon a housekeeper,
’
and Miss employs those heavy hours when she
is disengaged from public or private amusements
in improving her mind from the precious stores of
a circulating library.” In that year a regular cockpit
was built for cock-fighting, where all distinctions
of rank and character were levelled. The weekly
concert of music began at seven o’clock, and
mistresses of boarding-schools, &c., would not allow
their pupils to go about unattended ; whereas,
twenty years before “young ladies might have
walked the streets in perfect security at all hours.”
In I 783 six criminals lay under sentence of death
in Edinburgh in one week, whereas it1 1763 three
was an average for the whole kingdom in a year.
A great number of the servant-maids still continued
“ their abhorrence of wearing shoes and stockings
in the morning.” The Register House was unfinished,
‘‘ or occupied by pigeons only,” and the
Records “ were kept in a dur.geon called the high
Parliament House.”
The High Street alone was protected by the
guard. The New Town to the north, and all the
streets and new squares to the south, were totally
unwatched ; and the soldiers of the guard still preserved
“the purity of their native Gaelic, so that
few of the citizens understand, or are understood
by them ;” while the king‘s birthday and the last
night of the year were ‘‘ devoted to drunkenness,
outrage, and riot, instead of loyalty, peace, and
harmony,” as of old.
One of the earliest improvements in the extended
royalty was lighting it with oil lamps; but in
the Adnerh’ser for 1789 we are told that “while all
strangers admire the beauty and regularity of the](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p131.gif "Volume 3 Page 119")
... Post Office was only ~ 4 0 , 0 0 0 .
There were four coaches to Leith , running every
half hour, and there were ...
Vol. 3 p. 119 (Rel. 0.24)
... of the South Fencible Regiment, who
lost his life at Leith in 1779, when attempting to
quell a ...
Vol. 2 p. 299 (Rel. 0.24)
... of these two regiments.
After eight years of military parade, and many
a sham fight on Leith Links and at ...
Vol. 4 p. 372 (Rel. 0.24)
![Cnigmillar.] CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. 61
when descending Craigmillar Hill, a queen’s soldier,
who had a loose match in his hand, exploded
the powder-barrels, and mortally injured Captain
Melville, the kinsman of Sir William Kirkaldy.
The latter interred him with military honours in a
vault of Edinburgh Castle, where, doubtless, his remains
still rest
In 1589 there was granted a charter under the
great seal to John Ross of the lands of Limpitstoun,
which was witnessed in Craigmillar by the Arch-
%ishop of St. Andrews, John Lord Hamilton, the
Commendator of Arbroath, Maitland of Thirlstane,
Walter, Prior of Blantyre, and others.
Calderwood relates, that in January, 1590, when
Jaines VI. was sitting in the Tolbooth, hearing
to the gibbet by forty and fifty at a time. in the
sight of Edinburgh and Leith.
In 1573 the Loyalists, says Crawford of Drumsoy,
sent a strong body of horse and foot, in hope
to capture the Regent Morton at Dalkeith in the
aight; but found him ready to receive them on
Sheriff-hall Muir, from whence he drove them in as
far as the Burghmuir, and only lost the Laird of
Kirkmichael and some fifty men. Few were killed,
recent rains having wetted the gun-matches ; but
its ofice houses and grass,” it was advertised to be
let in the Edinburgh Cowant for 11th March, 1761.
In that year Sir Alexander Gilmour of Craigmillar
was elected M.P. for the county.
We cannot dismiss the subject of Craigmillar
without a brief glance at some of those who occupied
it
Sir Simon Preston, who obtained it from John
de Capella, traced his descent up to Leolph de
Preston, who lived in the reign of William the
Lion; and, according to Douglas, his father was
Sir John Preston, who was taken at the battle of
Durham in 1346, and remained in the Tower of
London until ransomed.
In 1434 Sir Henry Preston of Craigmillar (whose
the case of the Laird of Criigmillar, who was sueing
for a divorce against his wife, the Earl of Bothwell
forcibly carried off one of the most important witnesses
to his Castle of Crichton, threatening him
with the gallows, ‘&as if there had been no king
in Israel.”
It was not until after the beginning of the present
century that the castle was permitted to fall into
ruin and decay, which it did rapidly. It was
in perfect preservation, no doubt, when, with ‘‘ all
PEFFER MILL-HOUSE.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p072.gif "Volume 5 Page 61")
... and fifty at a time. in the
sight of Edinburgh and Leith .
In 1573 the Loyalists, says Crawford of ...
Vol. 5 p. 61 (Rel. 0.24)
... 111: 315
Inchmnny House, 11.60
Incorporated lrades of Edinburgh,
11. 29; of Leith , 111. 180
Incomration of ...
Vol. 6 p. 379 (Rel. 0.24)
![253 Leith.] ST. NINIAN’S CHURCH.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p072.gif "Volume 6 Page 253")
![Leith.] MONSON'S SUGGESTIONS. 185
12 0](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p196.gif "Volume 5 Page 185")
![Leith.] JAMES IV. AND THE SCOTTISH NAVY. 205](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p024.gif "Volume 6 Page 205")
