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 OLD 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 A HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 or THE 
 
 ANCIENT METEOPOLIS OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 LOi^BOJNf: 
 THE RELIGIOUS TEACT SOCIETY; 
 
 Imtituted 1799.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Page 
 
 QUBEN MARGARET 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SONS OF ftUEEN MARGARET 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS . . . . 36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 JAMES II. AND MARY DE GUELDRES . . . .48 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JAMES III.— THE BLUE BLANKET ..... 55 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 JAMES IV. — THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE . . .59 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JAMES V 67 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION . . • .75 
 
 2G2SiG^
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. Page 
 
 THE REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY . . .88 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE REGENCY CP MARY DE GUISE . . . .99 
 
 CHAPTER XII, 
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS . . .... 121 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MURDER OF RIZZIO AND DARNLEY . . . .136 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE king's and QUEEN'S MEN 147 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 JAMES VI. AND CHARLES 1 155 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE RESTORATION .... . . 169 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE OLD TOWN 178
 
 OLD EDINBUKGH. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 QUEEN MARGARET. 
 
 The romantic capital of Scotland owes not a 
 little of the peculiar cliaracter which renders it 
 so remarkable among the cities of Europe to 
 the singularity of its site. The central county 
 of the Lothians, in which it is situated, forms 
 towards the south-east an extensive and wild 
 hilly district, rising at some points to upwards 
 of two thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
 The Muirfoot, the Soutra, and the Lammer- 
 muir hills, all range, with varying elevations, 
 around the same pastoral district ; while be- 
 yond these, and within a few miles of the Frith 
 of Forth, are thePentland Hills, with their out- 
 lying heights nearly reaching to the sea. On 
 the lower group of these, at the base of Arthur's 
 Seat, the ancient Caledonians fixed the singular 
 site of the Scottish capital. 
 
 The history of all great cities is in some 
 degree linked with that of the district in which 
 they are situated, and few capitals of northern
 
 6 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Europe can compete with Edinburgh, either in 
 the imposing grandeur of its aspect, or in the 
 romantic associations which cling to it. Tlie 
 veracious chroniclers of the middle ages as- 
 signed to it an origin nearly coeval with 
 Jerusalem, and on more trustworthy evidence 
 it is ascertained to have been occupied while 
 the Koman legions retained precarious hold of 
 the country north of the Tyne. The true era, 
 however, in which its authentic history begins, 
 is that of Malcolm Canmore, and his amiable 
 queen Margaret, sister of the Anglo-Saxon 
 prince, Edgar Atheling, who brought with her 
 to Scotland the more advanced civilization of 
 England. 
 
 The victory at Hastings, which brought the 
 Anglo-Saxon kingdom in England to a close, 
 exercised a remarkable, though indirect in- 
 fluence on Scotland in various ways, and iu 
 none more so than by the changes effected 
 by means of the Saxon princess whom Mal- 
 colm Canmore promoted to share his throne. 
 Christianity had then been introduced into 
 Scotland by St. Ninian, St. Columba, and 
 other primitive missionaries, for upwards of six 
 centuries. We have little reason to believe 
 that it had not partaken of the decline and 
 corruption which so speedily marred the beauty 
 of the spiritual edihce established by its 
 Divine Founder. There were, however, among 
 the Scots and Picts of the north, few of the 
 worldly attractions by which it was so 
 speedily debased at Korne ; and its errors appear
 
 QUEEN MARGARET. 7 
 
 rather to have arisen from the extravagances of 
 asceticism than from the corruptions of wealth 
 aid dissohiteness. Much has been -written on 
 tlie early history of the Scottish Culdees, or 
 servants of God, as their Celtic name implies ; 
 and there is not wanting evidence indicative of 
 great simplicity and earnest zeal, as well as the 
 cultivation of learning and piety, among these 
 primitive fraternities. At the period of the 
 Anglo-Saxon princess's marriage, there appears 
 to have been little intercourse Avith Rome, and 
 scarcely any attempt to conform to its usages. 
 The existing fraternities, or fiimilies as they 
 were termed, were associations of a much more 
 voluntary character that the monastic institu- 
 tions of a later age, and many of the practices 
 of the Romish church, including even the 
 celibacy of the clergy, appear to have been 
 either set aside or never adopted in Scotland. 
 
 The reform of all this, according to the 
 standards of the Romish church, if to such a 
 change the word reform can be applied, was 
 the work of the princess Margaret, the queen 
 of Malcolm Canmore. There can be no doubt, 
 however, that she found much requiring re- 
 formation among a barbarous people, fresh from 
 recent struggles with the Norse invaders, and 
 the distraction of civil war. The king, her 
 husband, appears also to have been one of 
 those stern and bloody warriors whom a 
 life of struggle moulds out of a fierce and in- 
 domitable spirit. His aiFection for his queen, 
 however, seems to have been both sincere
 
 8 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 and lasting. Her gentle disposition, tinctured 
 though it was by the asceticism of the period^ 
 softened his impetuous fierceness, and made h:s 
 "ivild nature bend subservient to her designs. 
 In these she "was no doubt mainly guided 
 by Turgot, her confessor and biographer, 
 ■whose great aim appears to have been zo 
 assimilate the church of Scotland to that of 
 Rome. Provincial councils were accordingly 
 summoned, at Avhich Malcolm acted as the 
 interpreter between the Celtic clergy and their 
 Saxon queen. 
 
 The favourite palace of Malcolm and his 
 queen ^was at Dunfermline, on the north side of 
 the Frith of Forth, but the stronghold of Edin- 
 burgh Castle was a more suitable residence 
 amidst the troubles of a warlike age, and there 
 accordingly the queen appears to have most 
 frequently abode, and to have fixed her court 
 during the absence of her husband on his 
 martial expeditions. We accordingly find 
 abundant evidence of the extensive additions 
 which she made to the castle in the descriptions 
 furnished of it even so late as the sixteenth 
 century, where such names occur as St. Mar- 
 garet's Gate, St. Margaret's Well, her tower, her 
 chamber, etc. ; all of which appear to have 
 remained until the siege of the castle in 1572, 
 when it was held out by the gallant sir William 
 Kirkaldy, of Grange, on belialf of queen Mary, 
 until the cannon of sir William Durie had 
 nearly battered it to a shapeless heap of ruins. 
 One highly characteristic relic of " the good
 
 QUKEN JIAIiGARET. 9 
 
 queen," as she was long termed, has however 
 escaped the waste of time and war, and still at- 
 tracts the interest of curious visitors by its asso- 
 ciation with its royal foundress. This is the little 
 oratory, a plain but handsome Norman chapel, 
 built by Margaret on the very summit of the 
 rock, where for eight hundred years it has 
 withstood the ravages of time, while all else 
 around it has been transformed by the tastes 
 and necessities of later ages. This interest- 
 ing little chapel, after being long devoted 
 to the base and dangerous uses of a powder 
 magazine, was re-discovered only a few years 
 since, and has been restored with considerable 
 taste, for the purpose of forming a baptistry 
 to the Episcopal chaplain of the garrison. Few 
 architectural relics of old Edinburgh are likely 
 to have stronger attractions for the curious 
 tourist, Avho may love to explore such storied 
 memorials of the past. 
 
 The queen, according to her earliest bio- 
 graphers, was regarded as a model of piety 
 during her life, and the Romish church con- 
 firmed this popular canonization by a bull of 
 pope Innocent iv., which permitted her to rank 
 among the saints of the kalendar. The 
 Breviary commends her virtues in the lessons 
 appointed for her festival, and the old metrical 
 chroniclers have recorded sundry quaint and 
 extravagant legends in confirmation of the 
 same. Archdeacon Barbour, for example, the 
 metrical historian of " the Bruce," after nar- 
 rating the surprise of Edinburgh Castle by 
 A 2
 
 10 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 William Francis, one of the followers of earl 
 Kandolph, about the year 1312, adds, "that 
 the event was revealed in prophecy to St. 
 Margaret, * the good holy queen,' who caused 
 it to be painted upon the walls of her chapel ; 
 and there," adds the poet, who wrote about the 
 year 1 380, or nearly three hundred years after 
 the death of the queen, " it remains." Even 
 now, after the old chapel has been devoted for 
 centuries to the use of a powder magazine, the 
 chapel still shows some faint traces of colour, 
 so that it is not impossible but further investi- 
 gation may disclose less dubious indications of 
 the painting to which the venerable father of 
 Scottish poetry ascribed such prophetic import. 
 A beautiful little Gothic well, in the vicinity 
 of Holyrood Abbey, built apparently about 
 the beginning of the fourteenth century, and 
 dedicated to St. Margaret, still yields a limpid 
 stream, to which superstition ascribed mira- 
 culous virtues for healing the sight ; while a 
 quaint legend connects the name of queen Mar- 
 garet with " the Balm Well of St. Katherine," 
 which stands on the southern outskirts of the 
 town. According to this tradition, during 
 Margaret's residence in the Castle of Edinburgh, 
 she commissioned her friend St. Katherine to 
 make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to bring her 
 some oil from Mount Sinai. The saint executed 
 her commission, and after long and sore travel, 
 and escaping many perils on the way, she arrived 
 on the height from which the southern traveller 
 catches the first sight of Edinburgh, bearing
 
 QUEEN MARGARET. 11 
 
 with her a vessel filled with the precious oil. 
 The saint, it would seem, was so entranced 
 with delight on once more catching a view of 
 the city, with the lofty fortress in which the 
 "good queen" dwelt, that she forgot all else, 
 and letting fall the vessel, the sacred oil was 
 all spilled on the ground. The pilgrim saint 
 stood affrighted at the irreparable loss, for 
 which such toil and dangers had been encoun- 
 tered in vain ; when, lo ! there sprang up on 
 the spot a medicinal well of miraculous efficacy, 
 on whose waters still floats the inexhaustible 
 fount of holy oil — an unfailing cure for all 
 cutaneous diseases. Such is the legend of the 
 origin of the Balm Well of St. Katherine, where 
 the sceptical may still have pointed out to them 
 what was once regarded as the veritable oil 
 brought from Mount Sinai. 
 
 The reformers of the sixteenth century 
 demolished a beautiful little chapel erected 
 beside it, in honour of St. Katherine, by one 
 of the queen's royal descendants, and threw 
 down the richly sculptured well, as a monu- 
 ment of superstition and idolatry. James vi., 
 after his accession to the throne of England, 
 restored the old well, but only to last for a 
 brief period, the reformers of the Common- 
 wealth having again demolished its carved 
 mason work. The well, however, still remains, 
 nor has the popular faith in the healing virtues 
 of its waters entirely disappeared even in our 
 own day. Unfortunately, however, for the 
 reign of superstition, modern science is a more
 
 12 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 effectual reformer of ignorance than even 
 iconoclastic zeal, and the miraculous balm 
 which seemed to the credulous to iioat on the 
 water as if to shame the unbeliever, is now 
 recognised as j»7efro^ei«H, a bituminous sub- 
 stance derived from the coal strata, and com- 
 mon in similar localities both in Europe and 
 Asia. 
 
 The era of Malcolm Canmore, the supplanter 
 of the usurper Macbeth, was a period of dis- 
 order and strife, for which the whole tastes and 
 habits of the Scottish monarch peculiarly 
 suited him, and his gentle queen w^as accord- 
 ingly very frequently left to her own resources 
 in the palace of Edinburgh Castle. A character- 
 istic incident is related of him, ontlie authority 
 of his son, David i. Malcolm, having received 
 intelligence that one of his nobles had formed a 
 design against his life, sought an opportunity of 
 meeting him in a solitary place while they were 
 hunting. " Now," said he, drawing his sword, 
 " we are alone and armed alike ; you seek my 
 life, take it!" The penitent traitor threw him- 
 self at the king's feet, imploring forgiveness, and 
 obtained it. 
 
 Margaret bore to Malcolm six sons, three of 
 whom successively occupied his throne ; and 
 two daughters, of whom INIatilda became the 
 wife of Henry i. of England, and Mary, of 
 .Eustace, count of Boulogne. The care of her 
 i'amily, doubtless, beguiled many an hour in 
 the old Castle of Edinburgh, and the austerities 
 of her mistaken vigils, fasts, and long prayers.
 
 QUEEN MARGARET. 13 
 
 Upon wliich her biographer never wearies to 
 enlarge, filled up much of the remainder of her 
 time — so that the ancient Norman chapel still 
 standing in the Castle of Edinburgh, with its 
 sculptured chancel arch, forms a singularly 
 appropriate memorial of the Saxon princess. 
 
 In 1003, William Kufus, the son of the 
 Norman conqueror, having made war on Scot- 
 land, and surprised the Castle of Alnwick, Mal- 
 oolm forthv.ith mustered an army and marched 
 to its recovery, accompanied by his eldest son, 
 Edward, leaving his queen and children in 
 Edinburgh Castle. But Margaret, to whom he 
 had hitherto intrusted the government in his 
 absence, was now a prey to deadly sickness, 
 and Malcolm's brother, Donald Bane, took 
 advantage of the opportunity to lay siege to the 
 castle, in the hope of gaining possession of the 
 children and securing the succession to himself, 
 in accordance with the ideas of Celtic rights, 
 l)y which the succession passed to the next 
 brother. Meanwhile, Malcolm pressed the 
 siege of Alnwick Avith such vigour that the 
 Norman garrison were hourly expected to sur- 
 render, when both he and his son were slain, 
 the former, it is said, by treachery. 
 
 The queen, already wasted by long and 
 severe sickness, and distracted by many anx- 
 ieties, died of grief on learning the death of 
 borh her husband and son. Donald Bane now 
 plied the siege of Edinburgh with renewed 
 vigour, in the hope of obtaining possession of 
 Edofar. the vouthful heir to the throne. But
 
 14 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 while the usurper, relying on the general 
 steepness of the rock on which the castle stands, 
 ■was intent only to guard the usual access, the 
 body of the queen was conveyed through a small 
 postern in the western wall, and down the 
 steep declivity, to Dunfermline Abbey ; while 
 the royal children were at the same time carried 
 off, and committed to the protection of their 
 uncle, Edgar Atheling. 
 
 The bodies of the king and liis eldest son 
 were also ultimately interred beside the queen 
 at Dunfermline, and various superstitious 
 monkish legends attest the sanctity of the 
 royal remains. According to one chronicler, 
 tlie corpse of queen Margaret escaped the 
 guards of Donald Bane by means of a mira- 
 culous mist, which rose from the earth as the 
 bearers lifted it to proceed on their journey, 
 and continued to envelop them till they reached 
 Queensferrj' on the Forth, nine miles distant. 
 
 Another miraculous attestation to the sanc- 
 tity of the queen, minutely narrated by Wyn- 
 ton and other monkish historians, may, perhaps, 
 notwithstanding the palpable extravagances of 
 its character, be accepted as a tradition of the 
 strong attachment borne by her to her husband. 
 On the canonization of the queen, her body 
 was removed from the original grave to be 
 deposited in a costly shrine before the high 
 altar. While the monks were thus employed, 
 they approached the tomb of her husband 
 Malcolm with their precious burden. The 
 body, however, so runs the legend, became on
 
 QUEEN MARGARET. 15 
 
 a sudden so heavy that they were obliged to 
 set it down. Still, as more of the fraternity 
 were called in to aid in lifting, it, the body 
 became heavier. The spectators stood amazed, 
 and imputed the phenomenon to the monks' 
 unworthiness, when it was suggested that the 
 queen desired to retain her husband's com- 
 pany. On this hint Malcolm's body also was 
 removed, and then that of the queen was carried 
 to her shrine with ease. 
 
 Such were the childish legends and lying 
 wonders which beguiled our fathers in these 
 old times. But though that age of darkness is 
 happily long past, the spirit of the erring church 
 of Rome remains unchanged. Within these 
 few years a convent has been established at 
 Edinburgh, dedicated to this same favourite 
 saint Margaret, and underneath the altar of its 
 chapel have been deposited the canonized bones 
 of some unknown saint, brought, by papal 
 authority, from the catacombs at Rome, and 
 placed in their new shrine, it is said, with a 
 pomp of ceremonial unknown in Scotland since 
 John Knox assailed the strongholds of Romish 
 superstition, and, according to the homely adage 
 ascribed to him, dug down the nests that the 
 rooks might be forced to flee away I
 
 16 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SONS OF QUEEN MARGARET. 
 
 The death of Malcolm and his eldest son, 
 followed as it \vas almost immediately by that 
 of queen Margaret, left the newly formed Saxon 
 kingdom of Scotland totally destitute of a leader ; 
 and Donald Bane, at the head of the fierce 
 Celtic tribes of Argyle, the seat of the Dalriadic 
 kingdom of the Scots, found no difficulty in 
 securing the succession to his brother's throne. 
 He was immediately proclaimed king, with the 
 full concurrence of the Norwegian monarch, 
 Magnus Barefoot, whose favour he purchased 
 by the concession of certain islands wrested 
 from him by Malcolm. Had Donald Bane 
 succeeded in his attempt to obtain possession of 
 Edinijurgh Castle while his nephews remained 
 within its walls, he would have made a speedy 
 end of the succession of Malcolm and Margaret, 
 through whom oiu' present queen Victoria 
 traces her descent from the great Saxon Alfred. 
 The children, however, were carried safely 
 be3''ond his reach before the castle fell into his 
 hands, and a few years afterwards, Edgar, a son
 
 THE SOXS OF QUEEN JUnCxARET. 17 
 
 of Malcolm, avenged himself on the usurper, 
 and ascended his father's throne. The young 
 iiionarch took up his residence in his mother's 
 favourite palace within the Castle of Edinburgh, 
 but his reign was of brief duration. He is 
 said to have been interred in the castle, probably 
 Avithin the little oratory to which we have 
 before alluded. 
 
 The influence of the Saxon princess, and the 
 predominating effects of her zealous domestic 
 training, are apparent in the history of her 
 sons, who successively occupied the throne. 
 The island of Inch Colm, on which Alexander 
 founded a monastery dedicated to the favourite 
 Scottish teacher St. Colomba, is visible from 
 the Castle of Edinburgh ; with its beautiful 
 ruins, forming an attractive and most pic- 
 turesque feature in the Frith of Forth. But it 
 is his younger brother, David i., or St. David, 
 as he is styled, to whom we must look as the 
 true successor of St. Margaret. It was reserved 
 for him to carry out the ecclesiastical changes 
 projected by his royal mother, and to him we 
 owe the foundation of the larger number of the 
 great Scottish abbeys, including the celebrated 
 abbey of the Holyrood, which became the 
 favourite residence, and finally the chief palace 
 of the Scottish kings. 
 
 David T., after his accession to the throne, 
 resided for the most part in the Castle of 
 Edinburgh, and thereby conferred on the 
 neighbouring town all the advantages arising 
 from its position as a royal demesne, and the
 
 18 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 principal seat of the court. The idea, however, 
 which we are able to form of the chief Scottish 
 city of the twelfth century from such authentic 
 notices as remain to us, furnishes a sufhciently 
 homely and primitive picture of the progress of 
 the country in civilization. Edinburgh was 
 then an unwalled town, occupying only the 
 higher ridge of the hill in the immediate 
 vicinity of the castle, where the oldest portions 
 still stand, and would, in all probability, have 
 borne no very favourable comparison with 
 some of the larger English villages of our OAvn 
 day. In the central place stood then, as now, 
 the venerable church of St. Giles, of the exist- 
 ence of which we have conclusive evidence 
 so early as tlie middle of the ninth centurj', 
 while the style of some of its oldest portions, 
 demolished about the year 17G0, leaves no 
 room to doubt that it had shared in the revived 
 taste for ecclesiastical architecture which so 
 remarkably distinguished the reign of David i. 
 The castle itself partook of the rude simplicity 
 of the age, its main feature being a massive 
 keep, which occupied the site of the present 
 Half-moon Battery. 
 
 Around the old parish church of St. Giles, 
 and crowding the narrow ridge between it and 
 the castle, the rude thatched habitations of the 
 citizens were clustered together, courting the 
 protection of the fortress, in addition to the 
 natural defences of their lofty site. On the 
 one side they were protected by the north loch, 
 filling the valley which now extends, as a
 
 THE SONS OF QUEEN MARGARET. 19 
 
 beautiful garden, between the old and new 
 town ; while on the other side, an equally effec- 
 tive marsh appears to have rendered impass- 
 able the loAv grounds occupied by the Cowgate 
 and Grass-market. On the west side, the rude 
 old Saxon fortress reared its frowning battle- 
 ments ; while the lower eastern ridge, which 
 has been occupied for centuries by the ancient 
 burgh of Canongate, was then covered by the 
 copse and spreading oaks of the forest of 
 Drumselch. 
 
 Here, according to the relation of one of the 
 ancient service-books of Holyrood Abbe}', 
 occurred the incident which gave rise to the 
 well-known legend of the White Hart. " King 
 David," says the chronicler, " in the fourth 
 year of his reign, was residing in the Castle of 
 Edinburgh, then surrounded Avith * ane gret 
 forest, full of harts, hynds, todds, and sic like 
 manner of beasts ;' and on Rood-day, the 14th 
 of September, after celebration of mass, he 
 yielded to the solicitation of the young nobles 
 of his train, and rode out to hunt in the neigh- 
 bouring forest, notwithstanding the earnest 
 dissuasions of Alkwine, his confessor, a canon- 
 regular of St. Augustine, who urged him to 
 devote the sacred festival to devotion rather 
 than to pastime. The royal cavalcade rode 
 gaily through the chase, ' with sic noise and ' 
 din of bugils that all the beasts were raisit fra 
 their dens,' The king, separated from his 
 train in the ardour of the chase, was thrown 
 from his horse, and about to be gored by a
 
 20 OLD EDINBURGir. 
 
 \vlnle hart, ' Avitli awful and braid tyndis,' 
 Aviien a miraculous cross was suddenly put into 
 his hand, at sight of which the hart vanished. 
 The king was thereafter admonished in a vision 
 to found and endow a monastery for the canons- 
 regular of St. Augustine, on the spot where he 
 had been thus miraculously preserved ; and 
 hence the origin of the monastery of the Holy- 
 rood, so intimately associated with many later 
 incidents of Scottish history. 
 
 The legend, absurd as it is, is curious, from 
 the glimpse it affords us of the city at that early 
 period, contracted within its narrow limits, and 
 encircled by a royal chase, where the fox, the wild 
 boar, and the deer found their abode on the very 
 site of some of the most venerable edifices of 
 the Scottish capital. The narrative, in all pro- 
 bability, had its origin in some real occurrence, 
 magnified by the superstition of a rude and 
 illiterate age ; though authentic history assigns 
 an earlier date to " The Black Eood of Scot- 
 land," — a mysterious relic brought thither by 
 queen Margaret, and clasped by her dying 
 hands. It was bequeathed by her to her chil- 
 dren, in accordance with the superstitious 
 veneration of the period, as a treasure above all 
 price, and was long regarded by the whole 
 nation as one of its most sacred treasures. 
 When Edward i. achieved the temporary sub- 
 jugation of the Scots, the Black liood of 
 Scotland was carried to England and deposited 
 in the shrine of St. Cuthbert, at Durham, where 
 it continued to be an object of awful regard so 
 
 J
 
 THE SONS OF C^UEEN MARGAKET. 21 
 
 long as such relics commanded the veneration 
 of the British nation. 
 
 The oldest known seal of the Abbey of Holy- 
 rood bears engraved on it the representation of 
 an ancient ecclesiastical edifice of singularly 
 rude and primitive form. Of this the author 
 of '• The Pre-historic Annals of Scotland" re- 
 marks : " A very curious seal, attached to one 
 of the older charters of Ht)lyrood Abbey, repre- 
 sents a structure so entirely differing from all 
 the usual devices of the earliest ecclesiastical 
 seals, that I am strongly inclined to look upon 
 it as an attempt to represent the original 
 ■u-ooden church, reared by the brethren of the 
 Holyrood Abbey, on their first clearance in the 
 forest of Drumselch. It manifestly represents 
 a timber structure. The round tower is also 
 curiously consistent with the older Scottish 
 style, which the Eomanesque was then re- 
 modelling or superseding. Viewed in this 
 light, the old Holyrood seal is one of the most 
 interesting ecclesiastical relics Ave possess, figur- 
 ing, it may be, the primitive structure first 
 reared on the site which is now associated with 
 so many of the most momentous occurrences, 
 both in the ecclesiastical and civil history of 
 Scotland. The earliest charter to which it 
 has been found attached is a notification by 
 Alwyn, abbot of Holyrood, a.d. 1141 ; but 
 both the style of workmanship and the curi- 
 ously mixed lettering manifestlj' belong to an 
 earlier period, and perhaps point to the exist- 
 ence of a familia, or Christian community,
 
 22 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 established in the glades of Drumselch forest, 
 long before the royal foundation of the Holy- 
 rood." 
 
 Whether this ingenious supposition of the 
 existence of an ancient Culdee establishment 
 prior to the reign of David i. be well founded 
 ' or not, it is undoubted that David established 
 there the Augustine abbey dedicated to the 
 Holyrood, and committed to its charge the 
 venerated relic which St. Margaret had be- 
 queathed to her sons. The custodiers of what 
 was deemed so precious a charge were not left 
 without the means of adequately maintaining 
 the royal foundation. David i. largely endowed 
 it, as he did many other abbeys, acquiring 
 thereby the quaint title long after conferred on 
 him by a royal descendant of being " A Sore 
 Saint for the Crown." In sir David Lindsay's 
 ingenious " Satyre of the Three Estaitis," he 
 introduces John Commonweal thus reasoning 
 with the abbot on the corruptions of the 
 church : — 
 
 " What, if king; David were living in thir days; 
 The whilk did found so mony gay abbeys; 
 Or out of hevin, what if lie luikit down ? 
 And saw the great abomiiiatioun 
 Amang their Abbeys, and their Nuneries, 
 Their public scandals, and their harlotries : 
 He wald repent lie narrowed so his bounds, 
 Of yearly rent, of threescore thousand pounds; 
 His successors make little praise, I guess, 
 Of his devotion or his holiness." 
 
 To such unpalatable arguments the abbot re- 
 plies by roundly rating John Commonweal for 
 his presumption in daring to meddle with " sa
 
 THE SONS OF QUEEN MARGARET. 23 
 
 heich a matter ; " on which John quotes the 
 judgment abeady pronounced by his betters : — 
 
 " King James the first, roy of this regioun, 
 Said that he was ane sair sanct to the crown ; 
 I hear men say that he was something blind 
 That gave away mair nor he left behind." 
 
 Many changes, however, were to be effected on 
 the commonwealth before the superstitious faith 
 of the twelfth century, and its veneration for 
 crosses, relics, and childish legends, was to be 
 exchanged for the new opinions which sir 
 David Lindsay so greatly contributed to render 
 popular in Scotland. Meanwhile, the constant 
 residence of David i. in Edinburgh Castle, and 
 the erection of Holyrood in its immediate 
 vicinity, largely contributed to lay the foun- 
 dation of the future, which we are now to trace 
 in the history of Edinburgh. 
 
 David's example was followed by his imme- 
 diate successors. Malcolm iv., surnamed the 
 Maiden, his grandson and immediate successor, 
 resided frequently in the castle, and w^as a 
 liberal benefactor to the brethren of the Holy- 
 rood. Nor were these examples of royal muni- 
 ficence without imitators ; nobles not only 
 augmented its revenues, but sought admission 
 among its brethren, as in 1160, when Fergus, 
 the turbulent Thane of Galloway, after being 
 thrice defeated by the royal forces, resigned for 
 ever the use of arms, and exchanged his helmet 
 for the cowl and tonsure of the brethren of St. 
 Augustine.
 
 24 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TIIE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 JMalcolm the I\Iaiden was succeeded on the 
 Scottish throne by William, surnamed the 
 Lyon, one of the most brave and chivalrous 
 princes of all the royal line ; but, as happened 
 vvith others of his gallant race, his chivalric 
 deeds were frequently more glorious than pro- 
 fitable to his country. After successfully re- 
 pulsing Henry ii., who had invaded Scotland, 
 he retaliated by crossing the border at the 
 head of a numerous force, and wasting the 
 northern counties of England with fire and 
 sword. AVhile before Alnwick, however, 
 William was treacherously betrayed into the 
 English liands, and, as was then conmionly the 
 case, the whole army retreated and dispersed 
 on the capture of their leader. The captive 
 monarch was not liberated until he had become 
 bound to pay an enormous ransom, and had 
 surrendered Edinburgh Castle, with three other 
 principal fortresses of the kingdom, as security. 
 Happily, however, the loss thus sustained by 
 the reverses of war was restored by peaceful
 
 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 25 
 
 means ; for an alliance having been concluded 
 between William and Ermengarde de Beau- 
 mont, cousin to king Henry, Edinburgh Castle 
 was gallantly restored as the queen's dowry, 
 after having been held by an English garrison 
 for twelve years. 
 
 The reign of Alexander ii. is marked by 
 another important addition to the ecclesiastical 
 foundations of the Scottish capital. In the year 
 1230, this monarch founded and endowed the 
 monastery of Black Friars, of the Order of St. 
 Dominic ; bestowing, as seems probable, on the 
 friars one of the royal residences for their first 
 abode, styled in the earlier charters Mansio 
 regis. All traces of the monastery have long 
 disappeared, and its site is now occupied by 
 the Surgical Hospital, but the ancient approach 
 to it still bears the name of the Black Friars 
 Wynd, and attracts the antiquary and the 
 tourist by its picturesque old tenements, and 
 the quaint legends of early date inscribed on 
 the lintels of doors and windows. Alexander ir. 
 dates many of his charters from Edinburgh 
 Castle, but the monastery which he had founded 
 in its neighbourhood appears to have been 
 his favourite residence, and his munificent 
 example was followed by several of his royal 
 successors, who added to its revenues. 
 
 In the reign of Alexander in., the son and 
 successor of Alexander ii., the Castle of Edin- 
 burgh became the permanent royal residence, 
 and the depository of the national records and 
 regalia, as well as the chief place foi* dispensing
 
 26 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 justice. In 1251, the English princess Mar- 
 garet, the daughter of Henry in., was brought 
 thither to her young husband, then a youth of 
 only ten years of age. As usual during the 
 minorities of the Scottish lungs, the kingdom 
 was divided into rival factions, and the youthful 
 king and queen were held safely in durance 
 within the royal fortress, while the faction who 
 retained possession of it governed in their 
 name. The queen Avas two years older than 
 her boy husband, and resented the restraint 
 and loneliness of their abode, which, under the 
 jealous care of their keepers, seemed to possess 
 more of the character of a prison than a palace. 
 She accordingly contrived to convey a private 
 letter to her father, complaining that "• she was 
 confined to the Castle of Edinburgh, a sad and 
 solitary place, and by reason of its vicinit}'^ to 
 the sea, unwholesome." Henry was already 
 employed in secretly organizing an English 
 faction, with a view to bring Scotland per- 
 manently under his dominion, and this supplied. 
 a sufficient pretext for more active measures, if 
 indeed it did not originate with him. When 
 we consider that the singular isolated rock on 
 which the castle stands has an area of upwards 
 of six acres inclosed on its summit, and that it 
 then included a palace which had been a 
 favourite residence of the Scottish court for 
 fully a century and a half, we can scarcely 
 suppose that a girl of fourteen years of age 
 could experience any very oppressive sense of 
 restraint within its walls, unless other means
 
 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 27 
 
 were resorted to, to awaken discontent in her 
 mind. The earl of Gloucester was despatched 
 to Edinburgh, accompanied by John IMaunsell, 
 the secretary and chief favourite of the EngHsh 
 monarch, and after a secret consultation with 
 the earls of Dunbar and Carrick, and other 
 leaders, a hostile collision took place between 
 the tAvo factions in the streets of Edinburgh. 
 Such contests continued to be of common 
 occurrence in the Scottish capital until the 
 final removal of the coui't to England. The 
 English faction succeeded in surprising the 
 Castle, and the young king, freed from the 
 control of the rival party, assumed nominal 
 rule. Alexander, however, as was afterwards 
 abundantly pi^oved, lacked only the wisdom 
 and experience of years to enable him to shake 
 off all factious incumbrances, and during his 
 long and prosperous reign the independence of 
 his country remained intact. His favourite 
 residence was Edinburgh Castle, and his queen, 
 we may presume, found it neither sad nor 
 solitary when once her royal husband attained 
 to the rights of manhood, and ruled not in 
 name only, but in reality. 
 
 Alexander in. reigned for thirty-seven years, 
 and proved himself a sagacious and brave ruler, 
 an impartial legislator, and a wary politician. 
 His death took place suddenly in 1286 ; his 
 horse having fallen with him over a precipice, 
 an event which filled the whole nation with 
 grief. Wynton has preserved a short contem- 
 porary elegy on his death, which Ellis justly
 
 28 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 remarks is far superior to any English song of 
 that early date. It is as follows : — 
 
 " When Alexander our king was dead, 
 
 That Scotland led in love and lee. 
 Away was sons of ale and bread, 
 
 Of wine and wax, of ^amyn and glee; 
 Our gold was chan.^ed into lead. 
 
 Christ! born into virginity. 
 Succour Scotland and remede, 
 
 That stad is in peipkxity." 
 
 Gloomy as were the forebodings of the people 
 on the sudden death of their favourite monarch, 
 their worst anticipations could not exceed the 
 real calamities in which their country was 
 speedily involved. His granddaughter — fami- 
 liarly known as the Maid of Norway — died 
 not long after, and the contested succession to 
 the crown between Baliol, Bruce, and others, 
 followed, leaving Edward i. of England abundant 
 scope for carrying out the ambitious schemes 
 so frequently entertained by his predecessoj's. 
 By intrigue and politic craft he got himself 
 nominated umpire between the rival claimants 
 to the Scottish crown. His next step was to 
 get the strongholds of the kingdom lodged in 
 his keeping, under the shallow pretext of 
 holding them in readiness to hand over to the 
 rightful successor. Sir Radulpho Basset de 
 Drayton, a brave Norman knight, assumed the 
 governorship of Edinburgh Castle, at the head 
 of an English garrison. Other strongholds 
 were occupied in like manner, and soon the 
 whole kingdom seemed to lie prostrate in 
 Edward's grasp. The Black Rood of Scotland, 
 the special relic of Ilolyrood Abbey, fell into
 
 THE WAR OF IKDErENDENCL:. 29 
 
 his hands, along with the national regalia, as 
 well as the most sacred treasures secured in 
 the Castle of Edinburgh, including the docu- 
 mentary evidence which established the ancient 
 independence of the kingdom. 
 
 The patriots of Scotland, under her " ill- 
 requited chief," could dispense with such 
 evidences of independence as require " charter 
 proof." In the long and bloody struggles that 
 followed, Edinburgh Castle was repeatedly be- 
 sieged and taken. More than once its whole 
 garrison was put to the sword, and its fortifica- 
 tions thrown down. In 1312, Robert the Bruce 
 had followed up his first success with such 
 vigour that, of all the Scottish strongholds, 
 Edinburgh and Roxburgh Castles alone re- 
 mained in the hands of the English. At this 
 crisis the noble Randolph, a nephew of Bruce, 
 ■whom he had recently created earl of JMoray, 
 resolved by a bold coup de main to complete 
 the conquests which the Bruce had already 
 conducted so nearly to a fortunate issue. He 
 had previously had some secret communica- 
 tions with sir Piers Lombard, the English 
 commander, with no better result than the 
 incarceration of the governor in the dungeons 
 of the castle by his own soldiery, when one of 
 his followers offered to be his guide into the 
 citadel of the garrison. 
 
 The father of William Frank, renowned as 
 one of the boldest followers of the earl of Mora}', 
 had been in happier times the constable of 
 Edinburgh Castle under the good king Alexan-
 
 3(! OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 der. It chanced that his son then became 
 attached to the daughter of one of the burghers 
 in the neighbouring town ; and, as the soldier 
 now told his chief, it had been his custom to 
 let himself over the wall at night at a place 
 where the exti'eme steepness of the rock seemed 
 to render any guard unnecessary. The bold 
 lover had found for himself a path up the appa- 
 rently inaccessible cliff, and by this he now 
 proposed to lead earl Randolph and his followers 
 within the walls. A dark and stormy night, 
 the 14th of March, 1312, was chosen for the 
 execution of this perilous project. William 
 Frank led the way up the precipitous cliff, 
 followed by Randolph, sir William Gray, and 
 thirty trusty Scots, bearing with them a scaling 
 ladder, with which to mount the wall. 
 
 As this gallant little band stealthily clam- 
 bered up the rock, a singular incident occurred, 
 which had well nigh rendered the whole scheme 
 abortive. As Barbour relates, they overheard 
 from the ramparts above them the challenge 
 of the English commander, as he went his 
 rounds to see that the garrison was on the 
 alert, and the sound had scarcely died away, 
 when one of the English soldiers, hurling a 
 stone over the battlements, shouted — " Away ! 
 I see you well!" This, as it proved, was a 
 mere wantoti frolic ; but the critical position of 
 the escalading party may well be conceived, as 
 they crouched in silence on their perilous path, 
 and listened for any further sounds that should 
 prove they were betrayed. But the noisy
 
 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 31 
 
 bluster of a March gale, added to the darkness 
 of the night, effectually concealed them, and 
 the first warning the English garrison had of 
 their presence was when they raised their slogan 
 as they engaged hand to hand with their sur- 
 prised antagonists. After a brief but bloody 
 conflict the castle was won, and according to 
 the shrewd policy of the Bruce, its fortifications 
 were levelled, so as to leave the entire Scottish 
 force unfettered for service in the field, without 
 permitting Edward to entrench himself again 
 in the national strongholds. 
 
 The Castle of Edinburgh repeatedly served 
 very effectually the purposes of Edward. He 
 was there in 1291, when both town and castle 
 were surrendered to him. Twice in the course 
 of the following year we find, from the evidence 
 of charters executed there, that it had been the 
 residence of the English monarch ; and, in 
 May, 1296, he received within the church in 
 the castle, the unwilling submission of many of 
 the Scottish nobles, acknowledging him as lord 
 paramount — an example in which they were 
 followed, a few months later, by William de 
 Dederyk, provost of Edinburgh, with the chief 
 burghers of the town. Earl Randolph, by dis- 
 mantling the castle, effectually put an end to its 
 further diversion to such anti-national pur- 
 poses, and for twenty-four years thereafter it 
 appears to have lain a desolate ruin, with per- 
 haps the exception of the little chapel of 
 St. Margaret, where some poor priest or monk 
 may have maintained service.
 
 32 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Edinburgh has few associations ^Yith the 
 Bruce ; nor was it till after the great dehverer 
 of his country was in his grave, that the long 
 dismantled fortress was re-edified, to serve 
 once more as the stronghold of the southern 
 foe. Edinburgh, indeed, lay much too open to 
 the inroads of the invader to form a safe 
 residence for the Scottish court during so unset- 
 tled a period. In 1333, Edward iir. visited 
 Edinburgh on his route to Perth, and ordered 
 the castle to be rebuilt and garrisoned. Sir 
 John de Striveling was appointed governor ; 
 and the fortress put in a state of complete 
 defence, as one of a chain of such strongholds, 
 by means of which the invader hoped to hold 
 the nation in subjection. But though sir John 
 de Striveling held Edinburgh, the adjacent 
 country was filled with bands of hardy Scots, 
 ever ready to take advantage of a fovourable 
 moment for attack, and to intercept the sup- 
 plies sent to the garrison. Sir Alexander .Kam- 
 say, of Dalhousie, in particular, after having 
 succeeded, with a band of only forty resolute 
 men, in raising the siege of Dunbar, retired 
 with his followers to the caves still existing in 
 the romantic glen of Koslin. The most exten- 
 sive of these are excavated in the cliffs beneath 
 the house of Hawthornden, celebrated long 
 afterwards as the residence of the Scottish poet 
 Drummond. These Avere so ingeniously con- 
 structed for concealment, as to elude the vigi- 
 lance of the most cunning foe ; the entrance 
 being still shown in the side of the deep draw-
 
 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 33 
 
 ^7eI], which served at once to cloak its purpose, 
 and to secure for the occupants a ready supply 
 of water. From this retreat Kamsay and his 
 followers sallied out whenever opportunity 
 offered, so as to keep the enemy in perpetual 
 fear, and prevent them from turning their 
 position to account for the main object of the 
 invader. 
 
 Sir William Douglas, the black knight of 
 Liddesdale, another hardy Scot, maintained a 
 similar band of followers further to the south, 
 and in like manner harassed the Edinburgh 
 garrison. Prendergast, a Scottish follower of 
 Baliol, chanced at this time to have rendered 
 some signal service to the English governor, 
 which was not, however, sufficient to make the 
 southern knight forget the feeling with which a 
 renegade and traitor to his country must ever 
 be regarded even by an opponent. Prendergast 
 resented some indignities wantonly put on him 
 by the governor, and this only leading to 
 further insult, he resolved to be avenged. 
 Renouncing his allegiance to Enghmd, he 
 escaped from the castle, and watching on the 
 morrow, when the governor rode into the city 
 attended only by a few followers, he sprang 
 suddenly from a place of concealment, and 
 plunged his sword into the heart of his foe. 
 Prendergast immediately leaped to the saddle 
 from which he had hurled the English governor, 
 and dashing down the street at his utmost 
 speed, he sought sanctuary within the church 
 of Holyrood Abbey.
 
 34 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 It furnishes a curious evidence of the powerful 
 influence of the Eomish church, that even at such 
 a moment the supposed sanctity of the abbey- 
 was respected. The English pursuers found the 
 assassin on his knees before the high altar in the 
 chapel of the abbey, and superstitious awe, and 
 the terror of the church's ban, compelled them 
 to repress their fury. A guard was placed by 
 them around the abbey, and for twelve days and 
 nights Prendergast remained beside the high 
 altar, dependent entirely on the supplies secretly 
 conveyed to him by some of the monks, who 
 longed to see the invaders banished from the 
 kingdom. At the end of that time he effected 
 his escape, disguised as a monk, and joining 
 the black Douglas, he led him with a chosen 
 body of followers in an attack on a part of the 
 garrison, in which above four hundred English 
 soldiers were left dead on the streets of Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 The new governor appointed to hold the 
 castle for Edward was sir Thomas Rokesby ; 
 but the charge appears to have devolved 
 shortly afterwards on sir Richard de Limoisin, 
 under whose governorship one of the most 
 signal exploits of the predatory bands of Scots 
 was effected which mark the annals of that 
 troubled and eventful era. The Douglas, with 
 William Bulloch, Simeon Frazer, Joakim of 
 Kinbuch, and a chosen body of two liundred 
 Scots, set out for Dundee, where they were 
 received into a ship by one Walter Curry, with 
 whom Bulloch, the contriver of the plot, had
 
 THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 35 
 
 already made the requisite arrangements. 
 Having taken on board a cargo of provisions, 
 they set sail, and casting anchor in Leith roads, 
 William Bulloch presented himself to the 
 governor of the castle, as master of an English 
 vessel just arrived with a valuable cargo of 
 wines and provisions on board, which he 
 offered to dispose of for the garrison. The 
 bait took ; and the pretended trader appeared 
 at the castle by appointment early on the 
 following morning, attended by a dozen armed 
 followers disguised as seamen ; while Douglas, 
 with the rest of the party, lay concealed in the 
 gorse and underwood of the neighbouring 
 slope. Upon entering the castle, Bulloch con- 
 trived to overturn a rude carriage laden with 
 the pretended supplies, so as to obstruct the 
 closing of the gates, and springing with his few 
 attendants on the guard, he raised the v/ell- 
 known war-cry — "A Douglas! a Douglas!" 
 At the appointed signal, Douglas and his party 
 sprang from their concealment, and after a 
 fierce conflict the English garrison was over- 
 powered and put to the sword. Only the 
 governor and six of his squires escaped the 
 general massacre, and the castle, restored to the 
 rightful possession of David ii., was never again 
 held by an English garrison, till it yielded to 
 the summons of Cromwell after the battle of 
 Dunbar.
 
 36 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTEB IV. 
 
 THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to remark, tliat the 
 progress of the Scottish capital must have been 
 greatly retarded by the long protracted wars 
 which drove the court from its castle, and left 
 it alternately the prey to invaders, or the battle- 
 field on Avhich their indomitable assailants 
 were wont to harass and waylay straggling 
 parties of the English garrison. For a quarter 
 of a century, as we have seen, the castle lay in 
 ruins ; during the whole of that time, however, 
 we must remember that the ecclesiastical 
 establishments remained, though deprived of 
 some of their sources of revenue, and generally 
 forced to accept of abbots and superiors imposed 
 on them by the invader. Edinburgh had 
 then its Holyrood and Blackfriars' Abbeys, 
 St. Giles's Church, St. Cuthbert's, St. Tri- 
 duana's at Restalrig, and probably also St. 
 INIary's-in-the-Fields, all parochial churches, 
 with their priests and services — common alike 
 to the invaders and the natives. We have 
 already seen how the former respected the right 
 of sanctuary, even in favour of the assassin of
 
 THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS. 37 
 
 their own leader ; and, erroneous as was the 
 principle upon which they acted, we may infer 
 from the fact Avhat a restraining influence 
 Christianity exercised in the rude mediaeval 
 era, overlaid and perverted though it was by 
 so many of the gross errors and superstitions 
 which the Reformation at length swept away. 
 
 Within a month after the surprise of Edin- 
 burgh Castle by the ingenious stratagem 
 recorded at the close of the last chapter, the 
 young king, David ii., landed from France with 
 his consort Johanna, and Edinburgh once more 
 shared in the privileges and the burdens of a 
 capital. "When, a few years later, the disastrous 
 raid of Durham terminated in the captivity of 
 the king, the merchants and burgesses of 
 Edinburgh became boun-d, along with those of 
 Aberdeen, Perth, and Dundee, for themselves 
 and all other merchants of Scotland, for the 
 payment of his ransom. 
 
 After the return of David Bruce from 
 England, he resided during his latter days in 
 Edinburgh Castle, to which he made large 
 additions. He built, on the site of the present 
 half-moon battery, a lofty keep, afterwards 
 known as DcwicVs Tower, which stood for 
 upwards of two hundred years, and is specially 
 referred to in the minute narrative of the siege 
 of 1572, in which it was battered to pieces. 
 Within this royal fortress he died in the forty- 
 second year of his age, and Avas buried in the 
 choir of the abbey church of Holy rood. With 
 this brave and gifted, but unhappy prince, the
 
 S8 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 direct line of the Bruce terminated. He fell 
 on evil days, and appears to have been one who 
 in moi'e peaceful times might have elevated the 
 character of his people. Tradition represents 
 him as beguiling his tedious captivity with his 
 pencil ; and Barnes relates that he left behind 
 him, in a vault in Nottingham Castle, the 
 whole story of our Saviour's passion, curiously 
 engraven with his own hand. 
 
 With the accession of Robert ii., the first of 
 the Stuarts, a new era begins in the history of 
 Edinburgh, which may indeed be emphatically 
 styled the capital of the Stuarts. We now 
 obtain some glimpses of its condition from con- 
 temporary records, which furnish a sufficiently 
 humble picture of its early progress, and of the 
 consequences of the repeated vicissitudes to 
 which it was exposed. In 1383, the ambas- 
 sador of Charles vi. of France was entertained 
 there by the Scottish court, and in the follow- 
 ing year it was in the hands of the English, 
 under the duke of Lancaster. It chanced that 
 the duke had been hospitably entertained by 
 the monks of Holyrood, while an exile in 
 former years from the English court, and in 
 gratitude for this the abbey was spared when 
 all else was given up to the flames. The pro- 
 gress of the invaders is thus quaintly noted by 
 Wynton : — 
 
 "With all their men the way they took 
 To Scotland, and at Melrose lay, 
 And there they brynt up that abbay. 
 Dryburgh and Newbottle, they twa, 
 In till their way they brynt alsua.
 
 THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS. 39 
 
 Of Edynburgh the kirk brynt they, 
 And would have done so that abbay. 
 But the duke for his courtesy 
 (Since he had vvylom there herbry * 
 When he was out of his country :) 
 Gart it at that time saved be." 
 
 The respite, however, was a brief one, for 
 the Scots having retaliated, according to their 
 wont, by a foray across the border so soon as 
 the invaders had withdrawn, they returned the 
 following year and destroyed whatever the 
 gratitude of the duke had at first induced 
 them to spare. Edinburgh was still an un- 
 walled town ; and such repeated invasions, 
 which exposed its citizens to the full brunt of 
 all the horrors of war, must have effectually 
 checked its advance, however much favoured 
 by the Scottish court. The town, nevertheless, 
 was already rising to an importance which 
 rendered its defenceless state a matter of serious 
 moment, and the evil was now partially reme- 
 died by granting the citizens of good fame the 
 novel privilege of building their houses within 
 the fortress. 
 
 A curious contemporary account of Edin- 
 burgh at this period is furnished by Froissart, 
 in giving a narrative of the reception of 
 De Kenne, the admiral of France, who had 
 been despatched to the assistance of the Scottish 
 king. "Edinburgh," says he, "though the 
 king kept there his chief residence, (and that is 
 Paris in Scotland) yet it is not like Tournay or 
 Valenciennes ; for in all the town is not four 
 
 * Harboured.
 
 40 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 thousand houses ; therefore it behoved these 
 lords and knights to be lodged about in the 
 villages." The reception which these alUes 
 met with was even worse than their accommoda- 
 tion. We are told that the Scots " did murmur 
 and grudge, and said, Who hath sent for them ? 
 Cannot v.-e maintain our war with England well 
 enough without their help ? They understand 
 not us, nor we them ; therefore, we cannot 
 speak together. They will anon rifle and eat 
 up all that ever we have in this country ; and 
 do us more despites and damages than though 
 the Englishmen should fight with us ; for 
 though the English burn our houses we care 
 little therefor ; we shall make them again 
 cheap enough." 
 
 The picture thus furnished of the Scots of 
 the fourteenth century is a sufficiently graphic 
 one, and represents a state of manners which 
 prevailed on the more exposed border districts 
 to a much later period. The constant liability 
 to have their houses plundered and burned, 
 rendered the citizens indifferent about their 
 furnishing or fitting, so that the straw roof of 
 the dwelling was frequently carried off by its 
 owner on his retreat, leaving the enemy to 
 wreak their futile vengeance on its rude furni- 
 ture and bare walls. At the same time they 
 were proportionably anxious to make up for the 
 absence of all household display by personal 
 ornaments ; and hence the costly brooches, 
 bracelets, and collars, and the general extrava- 
 gance in dress, which was frequently attempted
 
 THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS. 41 
 
 to be restrained within due bounds by the 
 enactment of stringent sumptuary hiws. 
 
 Some of the early Scottish sumptuary enact- 
 ments afford a curious insight into the manners 
 of the age. The dress of lords, knights, yeo- 
 men, burgesses, and labourers, are each specially 
 restricted within due limits, while that of the 
 ladies is placed under such restraints as prove 
 that female love of display is no taste of modern 
 growth. One act, for example, passed in the 
 reign of James ir., imposes on the citizens the 
 somewhat onerous duty of making their wives 
 and daughters dress in a way corresponding to 
 their estate, and especially enacts that " no 
 women wear tails of unfit length ;" an evil 
 which the satires of sir David Lindsay show to 
 have remained equally in need of curtailing 
 in the folloAving century ; and which, indeed, 
 some of the more zealous reformers of female 
 dress appear to regard as still open to improve- 
 ment even in our own day. By the same 
 enactment, " Baron's and other puir gentle- 
 men's wives" are forbid the use of silks or 
 furs, as well as various other costly adornments, 
 except on holidays ; v/hile husbandmen are 
 restricted to gray and white, and their wives 
 to "courchies of their awin making, not ex- 
 ceeding the price of 12 pennyes the ehie." 
 
 Other acts of the same period, which relate 
 to the prevention of fires, and to the accommo- 
 dation of travellers, serve to show that the 
 burghers' dwellings continued to be rude 
 wooden tenements, of one or two stories, 
 B 2
 
 42 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 thatched with straw. For the encouragement 
 of innkeepers, all travellers are forbidden to 
 lodge with their friends, or anywhere but in' 
 the public hostles, unless when they travel with 
 a numerous body of followers, in which case, if 
 their horses and baggage are harboured in the 
 hostle, they are at liberty to find lodging else- 
 where. Such were the habits of society in Scot- 
 land, and such was the condition of Edinburgh, 
 in the middle of the fifteenth century ; that 
 mediaeval era Avhich has been supposed by 
 some modern enthusiastic revivalists to have 
 been a period remarkable for contented happi- 
 ness, and the diffusion of moral and social 
 blessings in wise gradation through all the 
 various ranks of society.
 
 JAMES II. AND MARY DE GUELDRES. 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 JAMES II. AND MARY DE GUELDRES. 
 
 The forced residence of the royal poet, James I., 
 at the English court during his earlier years, 
 Avas the means of introducing some of the 
 refinement of the more polished southerns 
 among the Scottish nobles. During this reign, 
 however, the favourite residence of the king 
 was at Perth ; nor is it till his assassination iu 
 the convent of the Dominicans there, in 1488, 
 that Edinburgh again, and permanently, takes 
 its place as the Scottish capital. Thither his 
 queen Jane, celebrated long before in '' The 
 King's Quair," fled, and took refuge with the 
 young king, in its secure fortress ; and within 
 less than forty days after the murder of the 
 king, the assassins had been apprehended and 
 brought to Edinburgh for trial. Little form of 
 law was deemed requisite to sanction the cruel 
 vengeance with which the parricidal deed of the 
 conspirators was visited. The meaner agents 
 were left to the hangman, while, with respect 
 to the others, all the ingenuity of a barbarous 
 age was employed to devise such novel am)
 
 44 OLD EDINBUHGTI. 
 
 exquisite tortures as should satisfy the indigna- 
 tion of the people. 
 
 The scenes that follo^ved are sufficiently 
 characteristic of the times, and show how little 
 the royal pupil of Gower and Chaucer had 
 succeeded in instilling into his people the 
 refinement which follows in the train of poesie 
 and the arts of civilization. The sufferings of 
 the earl of Athol, an old man on the verge of 
 seventy, were prolonged through three days. 
 On the second of these he was exhibited to the 
 gaze of the people, bound to a pillar at the 
 cross of Edinburgh, and crowned, in cruel 
 derision, with a hot iron coronet as the King 
 of Traitors. His sufferings were terminated on 
 the third day by the executioner's axe. The 
 extreme age of the victim was not without its 
 influence on the sympathy of the populace. 
 But no feeling of pity was excited when the 
 arch-traitor, sir liobert Graham, was subjected 
 to still more barbarous and protracted cruelties, 
 furnishing a scene of feudal vengeance which it 
 is impossible to read of without loathing and 
 horror. Yet it would be unjust to infer from 
 such an account that the citizens of Edinburgh, 
 or even the barons of Scotland, in the fifteenth 
 century, were pre-eminently distinguished for 
 barbarity. The scenes thus enacted at the 
 cross of Edinburgh completely accorded with 
 the prevailing spirit of the age, when the 
 common death of every traitor was accompanied 
 with torture. JEneas Sylvius, an Italian eccle- 
 siastic, who afterwards filled the papal chair as
 
 JAMES II. AND MAUY DE GUELDUES. 4.0 
 
 Pius II., Avas at that time resident in Edinburgh 
 as the pope's nuncio for Scothmd ; and the only 
 horror he expresses is at the crime of the regi- 
 cides, Avhile the cruel justice of the nation -wins 
 his admiration. 
 
 The young king, James ii., Avas only in his 
 seventh year when he Avas brought from the 
 castle to Holyrood Abbey, attended by tlie 
 three estates of the kingdom, and there croA\med 
 Avith unwonted magnificence. The castle had 
 been his birthplace ; and from this time the 
 fortress and the pleasantly situated abbey in 
 the neighbouring valley at the foot of Salisbury 
 Crags, became the principal permanent resi- 
 dences of the Scottish court. 
 
 Queen Jane Avas nominated as the guardian 
 of the young king, Avith a suitable allowance, 
 while Archibald, earl of Douglas and Angus, 
 was appointed lieutenant-general of the king- 
 dom. It Avas the lot of Scotland to suiFer, to 
 an extent that has no parallel in the history of 
 any other European nation, from a succession 
 of minorities, during AA'hich the country Avas 
 too often left a prey to hostile factions, and all 
 its best interests sacrificed to the ambitious 
 projects of unprincipled riA'als. The guardians 
 of the nominal sovereign became for the time 
 being the real possessors of kingly power, and 
 hence the most unseemly stratagems Avere fre- 
 quently resorted to in order to gain possession 
 of the king's person. At this period the 
 chancellor, sir ^Yilliam Crichton, was the 
 most poAverful and sagacious statesman in the
 
 4(> 01 D EDINBURGH. 
 
 kingdom, and, under his vigilant management, 
 the queen and her party soon found the young 
 king placed entirely beyond their control. 
 This state of things continued for two years, 
 at the end of which time the queen visited 
 Edinburgh, professing great friendship for 
 the chancellor, and desiring to see her son. 
 Having won her way to the good-will of the 
 old statesman, she readily obtained access to 
 the castle, and took up her abode there along 
 with her retinue. After residing for some time 
 and effectually lulling all suspicion, she gave 
 out that she had made a vow to pass in 
 pilgrimage to the white kirk of Brechin, a 
 favourite resort of religious devotees of the 
 period ; and bidding adieu to the chancellor 
 over night, with many earnest recommendations 
 of her son to his care, she withdrew to prepare 
 for her departure at early dawn. No sooner 
 •was she thus left at liberty, than, getting the 
 young king to her own apartment, she set to 
 ■work with her maidens, and pinning him up 
 among her linen, he was thus conveyed in a 
 chest to Leith, and was far on his way to 
 Stirling Castle before the chancellor was aware 
 of the trick that had been played on him. 
 
 Stirling Castle was at this period in possession 
 of sir Archibald Livingstone, and the latter no 
 sooner found the king in his power, than he pro- 
 ceeded to raise an army for the purpose of laying 
 siege to Edinburgh Castle. The chancellor was 
 too crafty a diplomatist to risk even the appear- 
 ance of open Avarfare against the king. A com- 
 
 I
 
 /AMES II. AND MARY TE GUELDRES. 47 
 
 promise was proposed by him which met his 
 rival's views ; and the next scene witnessed in 
 the old hall of Edinburgh Castle was the 
 formal presentation of its keys to the boy-king, 
 who had been so recently carried off from it 
 hid in his mother's linen. That same evening, 
 Crichton and Livingstone supped together with 
 the king, and before they parted, the rivals 
 amicably agreed on a division of the power that 
 had fallen into their hands. 
 
 Not the least potent cause of the truce thus 
 concluded between the rival statesmen, was 
 their common enmity to the powerful house of 
 Douglas, the head of which now made little 
 concealment of his contempt for both as mere 
 political knight-errants, who owed their ibrtunes 
 to the mean wiles of state-craft. Favourably 
 for their schemes, the haughty earl, of whom 
 both stood in awe, was suddenly cut off by 
 malignant fever at this very time, while lodg- 
 ing at the village of Eestalrig, which lies 
 between Holy rood Palace and the sea. He 
 was succeeded by his son William, then a 
 youth of sixteen ; and the wily old chancellor, 
 watching like a hawk for his prey, now saw 
 with delight the probability of accomplishing 
 the destruction of the detested, but dreaded 
 house of Douglas. 
 
 The young earl abated in no degree the 
 pride of his family, but far surpassed the king 
 in the magnificence of his retinue, and the 
 number of his suite. This was made the 
 pretext of Crichton's advances. The young
 
 48 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 earl and liis brother, lord David Douglas, were 
 invited to join the court as friends most suit- 
 able for the king, alike by age and rank. No 
 ihittery Avas spared to ensnare the intended 
 victims. In the castle of the chancellor, the 
 magnificent quadrangular ruins of which still 
 stand in tlie vale of Tyne, distant about eleven 
 miles from Edinburgh, they were entertained 
 with the most magnificent hospitality of the 
 age. The spot is celebrated by Scott, in Mar- 
 mion, nor is the enmity between the liouses of 
 Crichton and Douglas forgotten : — 
 
 " The castle rises on the steep 
 
 Of the green vale of Tyne : 
 And far beneath, where slow they creep, 
 From pool to eddy, dark and deep, 
 \Vhere alders moist and willows weep, 
 
 You hear her streams repine. 
 The towers in different ages rose ; 
 Their various architecture shows 
 
 The builders' various hands; 
 A mighty mass that could oppose, * 
 
 When deadliest hatred fired its foes, 
 
 The vengeful Douglas' bands.". 
 
 It was not, however, the design of the crafty 
 chancellor to make his own stronghold the 
 scene of revenge on the vengeful Douglas. 
 The suspicions of the inconsiderate young earl 
 having been completely lulled, he was induced 
 to proceed to the Castle of Edinburgh, accom- 
 panied by his brother, lord David, sir IMalcolni 
 Fleming, and other adherents. There they 
 were received with every show of favour, and 
 dined at the same table with the king ; but 
 under all this treachci'ous dis})lay of wel- 
 come, the most deadly designs were concealed.
 
 JAMES ir. AND MARY DE GUELDHES. 49 
 
 Already the axe and fatal block were prepared, 
 and before the entertainment closed, a bull's 
 head — the well-known Scottish symbol of 
 destruction — was set before them. They re- 
 cognised the fatal signal, and sprang from the 
 board, but being immediately surrounded by 
 armed men, they were led forth, in defiance of 
 the tears and entreaties of the young king, and 
 beheaded in the western court of the castle, 
 while the king's presence was made use of to 
 give legal force to a mock trial, by which they 
 were condemned as his enemies. In the year 
 1753, some workmen employed in digging the 
 foundation of a new storehouse within the castle, 
 found the golden handles and plates of a coffin, 
 supposed — though on no very satisfactory evi- 
 dence — to have belonged to that in which the 
 victims of Crichton and Livingstone's vengeance 
 were interred. The popular estimation of this 
 base deed may be inferred from the rude old 
 rhymes quoted by Hume of Godscroft, the 
 historian of the house of Douglas : — 
 
 *' Edinburgh Castle, town, and tour, 
 God grant ye sinke for sin ; 
 And that even for the black dinour 
 Earl Douglas gat therein.'' 
 
 In this cruel deed was laid the foundation 
 of a long train of civil strife, involving botli 
 the king and the country in its miserable 
 consequences. James, the seventh earl of 
 Douglas, succeeded in ingratiating himself with 
 the young king, and found little difficulty in 
 inducing him to call the murderers of his kins-
 
 50 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 men to account for mal -administration during 
 the early years of James's minority. Crichtou 
 and Livingstone appealed against a decision 
 granted by the king while under the influence 
 of their avowed enemy ; and while the chan- 
 cellor held out, in the name of the king, the 
 Castle of Edinburgh during a blockade of nine 
 months, even while he was personally abetting 
 the besiegers, the city and its neighbourhood 
 were ravaged and spoiled by both factions ; the 
 besieged were declared traitors, the castles of 
 Crichton and Livingstone stormed, their baronies 
 seized, and their honours attainted. These 
 wrongs the chancellor and his friends failed 
 not to retaliate on their rivals, and thus the 
 wretched kingdom became a scene of anarchy 
 and bloodshed. The Douglas faction at length 
 succeeded in bringing the heir of the Living- 
 stones to the block. But the chancellor's 
 shrewd cunning outwitted the Douglas' power ; 
 and the earl no sooner withdrew from court, 
 than the former regained the entire favour of 
 the facile young king. 
 
 Crichton had owed his safety so frequently to 
 the security aiforded him by the strength of 
 Edinburgh Castle, that he took the first favour- 
 able opportunity for adding to its fortifications, 
 as appears from the evidence of various claims 
 for restitution of the expenses thus incurred. 
 In 1450, be received the lands of Castlelaw 
 from the king to repay not onl}^ the large sums 
 expended by him on the fortification, but also 
 in return for £400 lent by him to the monarch.
 
 JAMES II. AND MARY DE GUELDRES. 51 
 
 Sir William Crichton lived to an old age, 
 though beset by a host of powerful enemies. 
 The Douglases transmitted their hereditary- 
 quarrel to each successive heir, but the crafty 
 statesman outwitted their persevering revenge, 
 and the Douglas at length perished by a blow 
 of the young king's own dagger, in Stirling 
 Castle. The chancellor sought to atone for the 
 deeds of a life of craft and violence according to 
 the wont of the old Romish creed. He founded 
 and endowed a collegiate church, beside his 
 castle in the vale of Tyne, and vainly hoped 
 that in purchasing the favours of a corrupt 
 and venal priesthood, he was making his peace 
 with God. His family suffered the retaliation 
 which he himself escaped ; and the old church 
 still stands in the imperfect and mutilated 
 state in Avhich it was left at his death. The 
 era to which we now refer was, indeed, equally 
 remarkable for the grossness of the clergy, 
 and for the liberality with which the laity 
 strove to win the Divine favour by the endow- 
 ment of churches, the founding of chantries, 
 and the like vain oblations substituted for that 
 pure and undefiled religion of the heart which 
 is alone acceptable to God. 
 
 The death of James ii., in 1460, by the 
 bursting of a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh 
 Castle, once more involved the kingdom in all 
 the miseries attendant on a minority, from 
 which they had so recently escaped. His young 
 queen, Mary de Gueldres, a heroic but licentious 
 princess, abandoned herself after his death to
 
 52 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 such vicious courses as soon deprived her of 
 all the influence otherwise pertaining to her 
 position as the mother of the infant king, 
 James in. Yet she also accompanied the neg- 
 lect of the virtues which most adorn a woman, 
 with such largess to the church as was styled 
 piety in the language of that grossly corrupt 
 age. She founded and endowed a beautiful 
 collegiate church at Edinburgh, and dedicated 
 it to the Holy Trinity, appointing masses to be 
 said for the soul of her royal husband and his 
 predecessors on the throne, as well as for her 
 own. The regulations established for control- 
 ling the conduct of clergy appointed to the 
 royal foundation furnish a curious insight into 
 the manners of the age ; and the sculptures 
 with which the church was decorated, though 
 exceedingly rich and varied in design, evinced 
 the same impure and profane tastes. " Many 
 of the details of the church," says the author of 
 the Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden 
 Time, " are singularly grotesque. The monkey 
 is repeated in all variety of positions in the 
 gurgoils, and is occasionally introduced in the 
 interior among other figures that seem equally 
 inappropriate as the decorations of an ecclesias- 
 tical edifice, though of common occurrence in 
 the works of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies. The varied corbels exhibit here and 
 there an angel, or other device of beautifuh 
 form ; but more frequently they consist of such 
 crouching monsters, labouring under the bur- 
 den they have to bear up, as seem to reaUze
 
 JAMES II. AND MARY DE GUELDRES. 53 
 
 Dante's Purgatory of Pride, where the iinpiirged 
 sonls dree their doom of penance underneath a 
 crushing load of stone." Some of these! sculp- 
 tures, even above the very site of the high 
 altar, included caricatures of monks and friars 
 — a singular evidence of the irreverent and 
 faithless spirit of the age. All these incon- 
 gruous, grotesque, and profane decorations 
 added, however, to the value of the old church as 
 a historical memorial ; while as a whole it was 
 pronounced by Mr, Rickman to be " a small but 
 very beautiful cross church," and its interior 
 Avas described in still more glowing terms, as 
 " a very beautiful decorated composition with 
 the capitals of the piers enriched with foliage, 
 not exceeded in design or execution in any 
 English cathedral." 
 
 Unhappily this beautiful example of mediaeval 
 Scottish art no longer exists. It was demo- 
 lished in 1848 by the North British Railway 
 Company. The city corporation, however, 
 having been a|)pealed to, to avert the destruc- 
 tion of so fine a specimen of national architec- 
 ture, have had its materials removed under the 
 direction of a skilful architect, and it is under- 
 stood to be their intention to rebuild it, with 
 the original materials, on a new site. 
 
 The collegiate church of the Holy Trinity 
 was still in progress when its royal foundress, 
 Mary de Gueldres, died, and was interred, 
 according to the directions of the foundation 
 charter, in the church. On its recent demo-
 
 54 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 lition her remains were disinterred, and being 
 placed in a new coffin, with a suitable inscrip- 
 tion, were deposited in the royal vault in Holy- 
 rood Abbey, where they now lie.
 
 JAMES in, — THE BLUE BLANKET. 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JAMES III. THE BLUE BLANKET. 
 
 The long minority of James m, drew to a close 
 amid the usual difficulties and dangers attendant 
 on delegated authority unrestrained by well- 
 defined rules. In 1469, the Scottish capital 
 once more witnessed a royal coronation. In 
 the month of July, Margaret, princess of 
 Denmark, landed at Leith, amidst the liveliest 
 demonstrations of popular welcome. She was 
 married to king James, with great pomp and 
 solemnity, in the abbey church of Holyrood, 
 the royal bridegroom being then in his eigh- 
 teenth and the bride in her sixteenth year. 
 Not the least acceptable feature of this royal 
 wedding was the gift of the islands of Orkney 
 and Shetland, tendered in security for the* 
 queen's promised dowry. This important ter- 
 ritorial pledge, though mortgaged for the com- 
 paratively small sum of eight thousand florins, 
 the Danish court failed to redeem, and these 
 northern islands have ever since continued to 
 form a part of the Scottish dominions. 
 
 These wedding festivities were speedily fol-
 
 56 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 lowed by a struggle for freedom from the 
 nobles, who had, as usual, held the young 
 kmg in pupilage, and ruled in his name. The 
 duke of Albany, the king's brother-in-law, fled 
 to the continent ; but the younger earl of Mar 
 was seized and committed a prisoner to the 
 ancient Castle of Craigraillar, the beautiful 
 ruins of which still form so striking an object 
 on the rising ground to the south of Edinburgh. 
 Considerable uncertainty rests on his fate, but 
 he is said by one historian to have been bled 
 to death in Craigmillar Castle ; and this old 
 tradition of his fate was recalled to mind, when, 
 in 1818, a skeleton was discovered in one of 
 the lower vaults of the castle, which had been 
 walled up, while the wretched victim of abso- 
 lute power appeared to have been secured by a 
 chain to the floor of his dungeon. 
 
 In due time a prince, the destined successor 
 of his father, was born ; and when, on attaining 
 the age of twenty-five years, the king had, 
 according to a usual form, revoked all aliena- 
 tions of crown property, and especially the 
 custody of the royal castles, ceded during his 
 minority, he delivered over the Castle of Edin- 
 burgh to his queen, with an annual pension, 
 and full power to appoint her deputies, and 
 intrusted to her the keeping and government 
 of their son, prince James. 
 
 Alexander, duke of Albany, the younger 
 brother of the king, a scheming and ambitious 
 man, plays a prominent part in the incidents of 
 this reign. A romantic escape, effected by
 
 JAMES III. THE BLUE BLANKET. 57 
 
 him from Edinburgh Castle, adds another to 
 the many historic events connected with the 
 old fortress. The duke of Albany was con- 
 fined in a tower which overhung the northern 
 face of the rock towards the town, with only 
 one attendant, or chamber-chield, as he was 
 called, when a small trading vessel arrived in 
 the neighbouring Firth, with a cargo of Gascon 
 wine. Negotiations having been opened with 
 the castle, the duke was permitted to receive 
 two small casks of wine, one of which contained 
 a letter, warning him of the necessity of im- 
 mediate escape, and a coil of rope to aid him 
 in effecting it. The new supply of wine 
 afforded an excellent excuse for inviting the 
 captain of the guard to sup with him, while he 
 supplied the soldiers with such abundance of 
 liquor that the way for escape was soon clear. 
 The rope was then fastened to the window of 
 their apartment, and the attendant, letting him- 
 self down first, fell and broke his thigh. The 
 duke, following with more caution, reached the 
 ground in safety, and, taking up his disabled 
 chamber-chield on his back, he made good his 
 escape to the French ship, and was in full sail 
 down the Firth before his absence was known 
 to the governor of the castle. 
 
 It was during this period of extreme weak- 
 ness of the crown, and division among the 
 nobles, that the city of Edinburgh obtained 
 some of its most important and valued privi- 
 leges ; and the office of heritable sheriff within 
 the town, which is still claimed and exercised
 
 58 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 by the lord provost, was first conferred on its 
 chief magistrate. Along with these gifts, the 
 complete control of the trained bands and 
 armed citizens by their own magistrates was 
 confirmed by the gift of the craftsman's ban- 
 ner, styled the Blue Blanket. According to 
 ancient traditions, this banner was wrought by 
 the fair hands of queen Margaret. It has ever 
 since been a special object of regard to the 
 burghers of the Scottish capital, and has been 
 unfurled in many a battle, both for royal and 
 civic rights. Its use in the latter capacity is 
 referred to in no very satisfactory terms by 
 king James vi. in his Basilicon Doron, where 
 he says, " The craftsmen think we should be 
 content with their work, how bad soever it be ; 
 and if in anything they be controlled, up goes 
 the Blue Blanket." On the 8th of June, 
 1488, the unhappy James iii. fell by the hands 
 of his rebellious nobles on the field of Stirling, 
 when fleeing from the traitorous band, headed 
 by his own son, James iv., then a youth of 
 seventeen years of age.
 
 JAMES rV. — THE TIHSTLE AND THE ROSE. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 JAMES IV. THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE. 
 
 James iv. was crowned at Edinburgh in June, 
 1488, under circumstances that seemed to 
 promise anything rather than beneficial resuhs 
 to his distracted country. He was only in his 
 seventeenth year, and in the hands of coun- 
 cillors who had already made a tool of him in 
 their rebellion against his father ; yet his reign 
 of twenty-live years is one of the brightest in 
 the history of Scotland, and furnishes some 
 peculiarly interesting associations connected 
 with the Scottish capital. 
 
 Immediately after the coronation, which 
 took place in the Abbey of Holyrood, the 
 young king sent his heralds to demand the 
 restitution of the castle in his name. This was 
 conceded, as well as the other royal strongholds 
 throughout the kingdom, and he began his 
 reign with the full powers of sovereignty, 
 though at the head of a distracted nobility. 
 Soon after the royal coronation, a parliament 
 was held in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, in 
 which the victorious faction enacted various
 
 CO OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 liarsh and severe laws against the adherents of 
 the Lnte king, suspending or depriving all 
 officers of state, and handing over all church- 
 men taken in armour to be punished by their 
 ecclesiastical superiors. All this, however, was 
 but as the clouds that give way at the dawn. 
 The king already gave evidence of a peculiar 
 affability and sagacious wisdom, which ren- 
 dered him one of the most popular sovereigns 
 that ever occupied a throne ; while his chival- 
 rous tastes, and his liberal patronage of learning 
 and the arts, made his court the most illustrious 
 of his day in Europe. 
 
 During this reign the castle was a favourite 
 residence of the sovereign, and a tilting ground 
 inclosed on the plain immediately below the 
 rock to the south of the castle, w^as the scene of 
 many a royal tournament and gallant passage 
 of arms, the fame of which attracted knights 
 from the chief courts of Europe. One notable 
 encounter is recorded, which took place between 
 sir John Cockbevis, a famous cavalier of the 
 Low Countries, and sir Patrick Hamilton. 
 The king overlooked the field of contest from 
 the castle wall. The Scottish knight's horse 
 having failed him in the second onset, they 
 encountered on foot, and continued the contest 
 for a full hour, until at length the foreign 
 knight was struck down to the ground, and 
 about to be slain — for the challenge was to 
 fight to the death. At this critical moment 
 king James threw his bonnet over the castle 
 wall, as a signal to the marshals of the lists to
 
 JAMES IV. THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE. 61 
 
 stay the combat ; while tlie heralds proclaimed 
 the Scottish knight the victor. 
 
 But the court of James iv. was no less cele- 
 brated for its scholars and poets, than for its 
 chivalrous knights and its feats of arms. In 
 this reign the printing-press was introduced, 
 and the earliest examples of Scottish typo- 
 graphy were produced at Edinburgh, under the 
 special patronage of the king. Gawin Douglas, 
 afterwards bishop of Dunkeld, the well-known 
 translator of Virgil's yEneid into Scottish verse, 
 and the author of " The Palace of Honour," 
 dedicated the latter poem to the king, as his 
 gracious prince. The poet was promoted to 
 the provostship of the collegiate church of St. 
 Giles at Edinburgh, and enjoyed the favour of 
 the king throughout his whole reign. Walter 
 Kennedy, sir John Ross, Roull, and other early 
 poets, were also fostered under the genial 
 patronage of the king. But the most cele- 
 brated of all the royal favourites, and one whose 
 genius still remains uneclipsed by all who have 
 succeeded him, was William Dunbar, justly 
 pronounced by Ellis to be " the greatest poet 
 that Scotland has produced." 
 
 The poems of Dunbar contain some curious 
 allusions to Edinburgh, as, for example, in part 
 of a play, where a dwarf is introduced in the 
 character of Wealth ; he thus speaks : — 
 
 For sekerly the truth to tell, 
 I come among' you here to dwell ; 
 Fra sound of St. Giles's bell 
 Never think I to flee.
 
 62 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Wherefor in Scotland come I here, 
 
 With you to bide and persevere 
 
 In Edinburgh, where is merriest cheer ; 
 
 Pleasant disport, and play ; 
 "Which is the lamp, and A per se 
 Of this region, in all deijree 
 Of wellfare, and of honesty, 
 
 Renown and rich array." 
 
 In another pocm, Dunbar paj's the Scottish 
 capital the singularly choice compliment, " Were 
 honour tint, or lost, it might be found in thee." 
 His verse, however, is not always so lauda- 
 tory ; and one of the most graphic and lively 
 of his minor poems is a satire, entitled " An 
 Address to the Merchants of Edinburgh," 
 written probably about the year 1500, and 
 exhibiting a most curious picture of the state 
 of the Scottish metropolis at that early period. 
 One single stanza will suffice to give an idea of 
 the highly graphic character of this interesting 
 delineation, where the poet pictures the com- 
 mon street minstrels, whose skill was confined 
 to one or two hackneyed tunes : — 
 
 "Your common minstrels have no tune. 
 But * now the day daws,' and ' into June;' 
 Cuninger men maun serve saint cloun, 
 And never to other craftis claim ; 
 
 Think ye no shame 
 To hold sic mowis on the moon. 
 In hurt and slander of your name ! " 
 
 Various other equally interesting local allu- 
 sions are to be found in his poems. But an 
 incident of more general interest gave rise to 
 one of his two chief works, " The Thistle and 
 the Eose," written to celebrate the union of 
 James iv. wdth Margaret, the daughter of 
 Henry vii. of England. Up to this time,
 
 JAMES IV. — THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE. 63 
 
 thongli the Scottish kings had frequently re- 
 sided at Holyrood Abbey, it was only now, in 
 anticipation of the arrival of the English 
 princess, that the king set earnestly to work to 
 build a palace beside the abbey, worthy of the 
 royal residence. While this work was in pro- 
 gress, and every preparation was making for 
 the royal nuptials, messengers arrived at Edin- 
 burgh from pope Julius ii., bearing as gifts to 
 the Scottish king a SAVord and diadem, richly 
 wrought with acorns and oak-leaves of gold, 
 and which had been consecrated by the pontift 
 on Christmas eve. The beautiful large sword 
 and rich gold scabbard are still preserved in 
 Edinburgh Castle, along with the ancient 
 regalia of Scotland, which include the crown 
 of Robert the Bruce. 
 
 On the 7th of August, 1503, the princess 
 Margaret of England made her public entry 
 into Edinburgh, amidst rejoicings and costly 
 displays, such as probably the Scottish capital 
 never before witnessed. Entering the city 
 from the west, they were entertained by a 
 romantic play suited to the occasion, in which a 
 knight-errant engaged with a rival, and rescued 
 his distressed lady-love from the hands of her 
 ravisher. At the city gate the Grey Friars, 
 whose monastery they had to pass in the Grass- 
 market, received the royal pair, and presented 
 their most valued relics for them to kiss. At 
 another gate, a band of virgins, attired as 
 angels, sang a joyous welcome, and then pre- 
 sented the keys of the city to the young queen ;
 
 64 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 and so in like manner, along the whole way 
 down the High -street and the Canongate, 
 they were entertained with religious mysteries, 
 allegorical plays, and processions of monks and 
 priests. The Somerset herald, who attended the 
 princess, along with the archbishop of York, 
 the bishop of Durham, the earl of Surrey, and 
 other English nobles, has preserved an account 
 of the reception at Holyrood, and of the costly 
 hangings and furniture of the palace, which 
 proves that the Scottish court at that period 
 equalled in taste and magnificence that of any 
 capital in Europe. 
 
 Two princes successively born at Holyrood 
 Palace died in infancy, and the third, who 
 speedily succeeded to the throne as James v., 
 w\is born at Linlithgow in 1512. But the 
 alliance with England, though it ultimately led 
 to the accession of James's great grandson to 
 the English throne, did not prevent war, with 
 all its disastrous consequences, from breaking 
 out between the king and his royal brother- 
 in-laAv, Henry viir. 
 
 Among the warlike preparations made by 
 king James long prior to this collision with 
 England, his master gunner, Robert Borthwick, 
 was employed in casting a set of brass ordnance 
 for him in Edinburgh Castle, and seven of 
 these guns, remarkable for their size and 
 beauty, obtained from the king the name of 
 the Seven Sisters. On one occasion, when 
 trying a new culverin from the castle ramparts, 
 he narrowly escaped the fate of his grandfather,
 
 JAMES IV. — TME THISTLE AND THE ROSE. G5 
 
 the piece having burst and flown in fragments 
 around him. The Seven Sisters, with ten other 
 pieces of ordnance, fell into the hands of the 
 English at Flodden, and were boasted of by 
 the earl of Surrey, their captor, as being more 
 beautiful than any cannon which king Henry 
 possessed. 
 
 The author of Marmion has conferred a new 
 popularity and interest on the singular super- 
 natural warnings which, both at Linlithgow 
 and Edinburgh, v^-ere believed to have an- 
 nounced to the king the fatal results that 
 would foUovv', if he persisted in the meditated 
 war v/ith England. The ancient city cross was 
 an octagonal structure, surmounted by a lofty 
 Gotliic pillar, on the summit of which the 
 Scottish unicorn upheld a small cross. From 
 this structure the heralds published all acts of 
 parliament and public citations ; it was, there- 
 fore, a vision pregnant with peculiar meaning 
 when the phantom heralds of the unseen world 
 appeared on the cross summit, and cited the 
 king and the Scottish leaders by name, to 
 appear before its dread tribunal : — 
 
 " Then on its battlements they saw 
 A vision passing Nature's \a.\v, 
 
 Strange, wild, and dimly seen ; 
 Figures that seem'd to rise and die, 
 Gibber and sign, advance and lly, 
 "While nought confirm'd could ear or eye 
 
 Discern of sound or mien. 
 Yet darkly did it seem, as there 
 Heralds and pursuivants prepare, 
 With trumpet sound, and blazon fair, 
 
 A summons to proclaim : 
 But indistinct the pageant proud, 
 As fancy forms of midnight cloud, 
 
 C
 
 66 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 AVhen flings the moon upon her shroud 
 
 A wavering tinge of flame ; 
 It flits, expands, and shifts, till loud, 
 From midmost of the spectre crowd, 
 
 The awful summons came." 
 
 The poet has here in no way exaggerated 
 history ; nor, singular as this supernatural event 
 may appear, do Ave doubt that it did actually 
 occur. Its explanation probably is to be sought 
 for in the desire of the Scottish nobles to induce 
 the king to abandon his rash design of war, 
 which they thus tried by playing on his super- 
 stitious fears. If so, however, it was in vain. 
 In defiance, as it seemed, of earth and Heaven, 
 the headstrong monarch led forth the flower of 
 Scottish chivahy to perish on the bloody field 
 of Fiodden. So ended the prosperous reign of 
 James iv.
 
 JAMES V. 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JAMES V. 
 
 The first enclosure of Edinburgh with fortified 
 Avails took place, as has been already said, in 
 the reign of James ii. One consequence of the 
 great prosperity enjoyed under the reign of 
 James iv. appears to have been the rapid 
 extension of the town beyond these limits. A 
 large suburb, including the Cowgate, where 
 many of the nobles' and bisliops' palaces were 
 built, had sprung up to the south of the walled 
 town. Now all was consternation. A wall 
 was rapidly built to protect this new suburb, 
 and such was the effect of the panic, and of the 
 check produced by its causes on the progress of 
 the Scottish capital, that scarcely a single house 
 was erected beyond the second wall for upwards 
 of two centuries. Considerable portions of 
 this old wall and one of its towers remain, 
 the latter of which still bears the name of 
 the " Flodden Tower." 
 
 Another long minority was to succeed, for the 
 infant, James v., was only two years old ; and
 
 68 OLD l^DTNBLTvGH. 
 
 the streets of Edinburgh exchanged the gor- 
 geous pageants of the chivah-ous James iv. for 
 fierce tulzies, in which blood \vas shed as 
 on the open battle-field. The most celebrated 
 of these was the famous " Cleanse the Cause- 
 way," a street broil, which yet had many of 
 the characteristics of a pitched battle betv.'cen 
 rival factions in civil war. The queen, I\Iar- 
 garet of England, had accepted Archibald, 
 earl of Angus, in marriage, whereupon the earl 
 of Arran marched to Edinburgh at the head of 
 a numerous body of kinsmen and retainers, and 
 laid claim to the regency, as the nearest of 
 blood to the king. The earl of Angus mus- 
 tered five hundred armed followers, and like- 
 wise repaired to Edinburgh to assert his rights, 
 which he claimed through his ro3'al countess. 
 Arran meanwhile had assembled the chief 
 nobility of the w'est at the palace of James 
 Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, still a stately 
 though decayed mansion, standing at the foot 
 of Blackfriars Wynd, in the Cowgate. So soon 
 as he learned of Angus' arrival, he ordered the 
 city gates to be secured, little dreaming of the 
 formidable host he was enclosing. The earl 
 of Angus received early intimation of the rash 
 proceedings of his rival, and lost no time in 
 mustering his followers, whom he drew up in 
 battle array in the lower part of High-street, 
 within the Nether- row. 
 
 While things were in this critical position, an 
 incident occurred peculiarly characteristic of 
 the clergy of the period, and which has been
 
 JAMES V. 69 
 
 frequently narrated, from the interest attacliing 
 to the principal actors. Gawin Douglas, the 
 poet, who was uncle to the earl of Angus, and 
 at that time bishop of Dunkeld, resided in his 
 palace in the Cowgate, very little apart from 
 that of the archbishop of Glasgow, where the 
 rivals of his nephew held their deliberations. 
 Gawin Douglas accordingly repaired to the 
 archbishop, and appealed to him as a church- 
 man to use his influence with his friends to 
 compromise their differences, and prevent the 
 bloodshed which otherwise must ensue. The 
 archbishop excused himself on various accounts ; 
 and when closel}' pressed by Douglas, at length 
 exclaimed, " On my conscience I cannot help 
 it!" As he uttered this, he struck his breast 
 in the heat of his asseveration, and thereby 
 betrayed a concealed coat of mail under his 
 churchman's robes, whereupon Douglas retorted, 
 with a happy play upon the words : " How 
 now, my lord? methinks your conscience 
 clatters!" ■ 
 
 A fierce and bloodj'' contest ensued. The 
 citizens for the most part sided v/ith the earl 
 of Angus ; nearly a hundred of the earl of 
 Arran's followers were slain, including his own 
 brother, the master of Montgomery, and other 
 leaders of distinction ; and the treacherous arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow, after being dragged by the 
 incensed Douglases from behind the altar of 
 the church of the Blackfriars, whither he had 
 fled fur refuge, owed his life to the mediation of 
 the worthy bishop of Dunkeld, whose attempts
 
 70 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 to avert tlie conflict he had only a few hours 
 before repelled. 
 
 While scenes such as this di?graced the 
 capital, and filled the whole country with lawless 
 violence, the young king pursued his studies 
 under the direction of Gawin Dunbar, after- 
 wards archbishop of Glasgow ; and his sports, 
 ■with the aid of the poet, sir David Lindsay, 
 the future lord lyon herald. Their residence 
 was for the most part in the Castle of Edin- 
 burgh, but so little did either faction heed the 
 nominal sovereign in whose name they pro- 
 fessed to act, that the furnishing of his apart- 
 ments had to be paid for by his tutor, and 
 eA''en his wearing apparel was supj)lied by his 
 sister, the countess of Morton. 
 
 Sir David Lindsay gives some curious in- 
 sight into the privacy of the royal boy, during 
 this period of faction and civil strife ; and 
 describes with pleasant and lively truthfulness, 
 the pastimes by which the leisure of the young 
 king was beguiled. The Castle of Edinburgh 
 was his abode for safe protection from the frequent 
 feuds without ; but when not prevented by the 
 disturbed state of the town and neighbourhood, 
 he frequently rode forth with his attendants in 
 the neighbouring chase, and even occasionally 
 took up his residence in the adjacent castles of 
 Craigmillar and Dalkeith. But, as Lindsay 
 tells us in one of his liveliest satires, in which 
 he has pictured the obsequious rivalry of the 
 fawning courtiei'S in humouring the juvenile 
 king,—
 
 JAMES V. 71 
 
 " Imprudently, like witless fools, 
 They took the young prince fra the schools, 
 Where he, under obedience, 
 Was learning virtue and science, 
 And hastily put in his hand 
 The governance of ail Scotland." 
 
 The ]w3^-king was only twelve years of age 
 when thus taken from school to assume the 
 reins of government. The duke of Albany 
 had deserted the kingdom, the queen's party 
 was struggling for possession of the king's per- 
 son as a tool of faction, and all true government 
 seemed to be at an end, when a number of 
 the nobles adopted the device of investing the 
 young king with the full powers of royalty, in 
 the hope of thereby terminating the frightful 
 anarchy that prevailed. On the 22nd of 
 August, 1524, the king made his solemn entry 
 into Edinburgh, attended by the lords, and pro- 
 ceeded to hold a council in the Tolbooth, with 
 sceptre, crown, and all the insignia of royalty. 
 An old historian gives an amusing account of 
 the result of this novel experiment in govern- 
 ing : — The king and the lords remained together 
 at Holyrood for the space of a year, with great 
 triumph and merriment, till a benefice chanced 
 to fall vacant, and then the whole quarrelled 
 together about the disposing of it. Three 
 years of faction and lawless turbulence ensued. 
 But the king now drew near manhood, and 
 already showed evidences of decision and ability 
 beyond his years. 
 
 It is in this reign, and about the period ot 
 James v. attaining to his majority, that the first
 
 72 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 indications of the movements which brought 
 about the reformation of religion in Scotland 
 began to appear. The church in Scotland, 
 as elsewhere, had become grossly corrupt. 
 The clergy, instead of being the teachers of 
 virtue, and examples of a consistent and holy 
 life, had ceased even to respect common decency. 
 Simony, licentiousness, ignorance, and the 
 most base tampering with their public and 
 official trusts, were notorious as existing among 
 the great body of them, insomuch that the 
 name of a priest or monk, instead of suggesting 
 the idea of a teacher of religion, and a prac- 
 tiser of the highest virtues, was synonymous 
 with the impersonation of indolence and vice 
 The influence of such a state of things it is not 
 difficult to conceive. It realized once more the 
 picture drawn by an inspired prophet : — " My 
 people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. 
 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set 
 their heart on their iniquity ; and there shall 
 be, like people, Hke priest." 
 
 In the midst of this terrible state of things, 
 aggravated by the prevailing lawlessness of a 
 country of whom it could so long be truly said, 
 " Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is u 
 child!" there was raised up by Divine Provi- 
 dence one who was in some sense the precursor, 
 sent to bear witness of the coming light of the 
 Eeformation. This distinguished personage in 
 so important a crisis of Scottish history was 
 sir David Lindsay, the poet. I'inkerton has 
 said of him : " Sir David was more the re-
 
 JAMES V. 73 
 
 former of Scotland than John Knox : for he 
 had prepared the ground, and John only sowed 
 the seed." His position gave him peculiar 
 influence. As a special favourite of the king, 
 he "was beyond the reach of the enmity of the 
 licentious churchmen whom he satirized. His 
 mode of attack, moreover, was enjoyed by 
 many who only looked to the amusement of the 
 passing hour, without perceiving the results 
 that nuist flow from such a system of popidar 
 instruction. The dramatic w-orks of the poet, 
 and especially his " Satire of the Three 
 Estates," were accordingly enacted before both 
 court and people, to the delight of all. On 
 the north-west side of the Calton Hill, at Edin- 
 burgh, a deep natural amphitheatre still bears 
 its old name of Greenside, where this popular 
 drama was played in presence of Mary de Guise, 
 the queen of James v., and of the nobles and 
 people. In it the excesses of the clergy and 
 the gross corruptions of the church were exposed 
 with a freedom never surpassed by John Knox, 
 and hence some writers have assumed that the 
 king was not averse to reformation. Yet if 
 such was the case, it did not prevent the same 
 malignity being manifested in Scotland as 
 elsewhere, to all wdio dared to differ in doctrine 
 from the church of Rome ; and the reign of 
 James v. was accordingly signalized by the 
 execution of sundry heretics, Lollards, or 
 favourers of Martin Luther, as they are Aari- 
 ously termed, several of whom were burned on 
 the Castle Hill of Edinburgh. 
 c 2
 
 74 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 James v. married, in 1537, the princess 
 I\Iagdalen, eldest daughter of Francis i. of 
 France ; and her reception at Holy rood, and 
 her entry in state into Edinburgh, were marked 
 by the utmost magnificence and loyalty of an 
 age specially fond of such displays. But the 
 rejoicing was of brief duration. Ere six weeks 
 had elapsed, king James followed the remains 
 of his fair young bride, and saw them laid in 
 the royal vault of Holyrood Abbey, amidst the 
 greatest public mourning that had ever been 
 known in Scotland. Buchanan, who was an 
 eye-witness, mentions that it was the first 
 occasion on which mourning dresses were worn 
 hy the Scots. 
 
 Mary de Guise, the second queen of James v., 
 plays a part in the history of Scotland, and of 
 its capital, inferior only to that of her haj^less 
 daughter, queen Mary. All the parliaments 
 during this reign assembled at Edinburgh ; and 
 it more and more assumed the exclusive cha- 
 racter of the capital of the kingdom. The 
 palace which had been begun by James iv., 
 beside the Abbey of Holyrood, was continued 
 by his successor ; and tradition still assigns to 
 him the erection of the north-west towers of 
 the palace, the only portion of the original 
 building which has survived the successive con- 
 flagrations and demolitions to which it has been 
 subjected.
 
 THE DAWN OF THE KEFORMATION. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DAWN OF THE REFOKMATION. 
 
 It was impossible that the collision between the 
 grossly corrupt church of Scotland and the 
 people could be long averted, in the reign of 
 James v., when the neighbouring country of 
 England was passing through the singular 
 ordeal by which it was prepared under Henry 
 vni. for the Reformation. But the marriage of 
 James V. to Mary of Lorraine, daughter of the 
 duke of Guise, undoubtedly tended to increase 
 the violence of the strife between the reformers 
 and the adherents of Rome. Throughout the 
 whole reign, the influence of sir David Lindsay's 
 writings was widely felt, and it cannot be 
 doubted that his private interest with the king, 
 whom he had tended from his childhood, was 
 directed to the same end. But in the new 
 queen, the churchmen had a much more 
 powerful agency for their immediate purpose, 
 though the reforming poet finally triumphed. 
 The queen was undoubtedly a woman ol 
 ability, and characterized by such virtues as 
 might have shone with great lustre, and been
 
 76 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 productive of the happiest effects on her adopted 
 country under more favourable circumstances ; 
 but her lot was cast in the midst of that 
 momentous strife of great principles, in which 
 luihappiiy she was led by her liereditary associa- 
 tions and early education to take the side of 
 error and persecution. Plence her name is 
 associated with the struggle for liberty of con- 
 science in Scotland, as the great upholder and 
 instigator of the persecution and bloodshed 
 which prevailed during the long minority of 
 her ill-fated daughter, queen Mary, and which 
 paved the way for all that has given her name 
 so sad a pre-eminence in the national annals. 
 
 Whether under the direct countenance of 
 the queen, or merely encouraged by her known 
 partiality to the Komish cause, there is no 
 doubt that soon after her arrival in Edinburgh 
 the persecution against all who favoured the 
 reformed doctrines became more violent, while 
 the proceedings of Henry viii.- of England 
 added to the virulence of the incensed church- 
 men. Many iled to England and the continent 
 to escape the danger which threatened them ; 
 while others were induced, through fear, to 
 bear a fsiggot, or as the old Scottish Avriters term 
 it, " to burn their bill," in token of recantation. 
 "The form of burning one's bill," says Keith, 
 " or recanting, was this : — the person accused 
 was to bring a faggot of dry sticks and burn it 
 publicly, by which ceremony he signified that 
 \u\ destroyed that which should have been the 
 instrument of his death."
 
 THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION. 77 
 
 In 1534, sir William Kirk, Mr. Henry Hen- 
 drj'son, master of the Grammar School of 
 Edinburgh, and sundry other inhabitants of 
 the town and of the neighbouring port of Leith, 
 ■were summoned to appear beibre an assembly 
 of the bishops in llolyrood Abbey, some of 
 whom abjured and publicly burned their bills, 
 and others fled to ibreign lands ; but two of 
 them, of \vhom Knox has preserved a parti- 
 cular account in his History of the Reformation 
 in Scotland, were brought to trial in the pre- 
 sence of the king at Holyrood Abbey, These 
 were David Straiton, a gentleman of property, 
 and INIr. Norman Gourlay, whom the historian 
 describes as a man of reasonable erudition. 
 
 In David Straiton, as in so many others 
 of that age, the first movements of rebellion 
 against the intolerant sway of the corrupt 
 church of Rome, flov/ed from the lively indig- 
 nation at the pride and avarice of the priest- 
 hood, and a resolute opposition to their unjust 
 claims. He had provided for himself a fishing- 
 boat, with which it was his frequent custom to 
 go to sea to fish. Thereupon the prior of St. 
 Andrew's and his factors came upon him for 
 the tithe of the product of his labours. His 
 answer was sufliciently explicit. If, said he, 
 they must have the tiend of what my servants 
 won from the sea, it is only reasonable that they 
 should come and receive it where the v.hole 
 stock was got ; and so, as was afterwards wit- 
 nessed against him, he caused his servants to 
 throw every tenth fish into the sea. The prior
 
 78 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 forthwith brought an action against him for 
 non-payment of tithes ; and on his failing to 
 make good his charge, he summoned him to 
 answer for the more heinous crime of heresy. 
 The account which the great reformer, John 
 Knox, gives of his conversion is nearly as 
 follows : — He was greatly troubled at this charge 
 of heresy, and forthwith began to frequent the 
 company of such as were godly ; though before 
 he had been of a stubborn and worldly character, 
 and one who specially despised all religious 
 discourse or reading. But now a marvellous 
 change appeared. He delighted in nothing but 
 such reading, and was a vehement exhorter of 
 all men to concord, peaceableness, and contempt 
 of the world. It chanced on one occasion that 
 the laird of Lowriston, a kinsman of his own, 
 was reading to him from the New Testament, 
 in a quiet place in the fields, and as God had 
 appointed, he chanced to read these words of 
 our Divine Master : " Whosoever shall deny 
 me before men, him will I also deny before my 
 Father which is in heaven." At these words 
 he suddenly, as one ravished, cast himself on 
 his knees, and looking up to heaven, with 
 hands extended for some time, he at length 
 burst forth in these words : " O Lord, I have 
 been wicked, and justly mayest thou withdraw 
 thy grace from me. But, Lord, for thy mercy's 
 sake, let me never deny thee nor thy truth, for 
 fear of death or corporal pain." The issue, as 
 Knox observes, proved that his prayer had not 
 been made in vain. 

 
 THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION. 79 
 
 A solemn conclave of the bishops and chief 
 dignitaries of the church was held in the Abbey 
 of Holyrood, presided over by the king in per- 
 son. Great exertions were made to induce 
 Straiten to recant, but in vain. He stood on 
 his defence, maintaining his opinions, but 
 alleging that he had committed no offence 
 worthy of punishment. He was then con- 
 demned to be burned, as an obstinate heretic. 
 He appealed to the king for mercy, which, says 
 Knox, he would willingly have granted to him, 
 but the bishops proudly answered that the 
 king's hands were bound in the case of a 
 heretic, and that he had no grace to extend to 
 those who were condemned for sins against the 
 church. 
 
 The place where Straiten and Gourlay were 
 led forth to be burned, was the same green 
 hollow on the northern slope of the Calton Hill, 
 already described as the scene of some of the 
 earliest known dramatic performances at Edin- 
 burgh, and Avhere public sports, tournaments, 
 and the burgher musters, called the weapon- 
 shaws, had been customarily held since the 
 reign of James n. These early Scottish mar- 
 tyrs failed not to witness a good confession at 
 the stake ; and Straiten, especially, remem- 
 bered that solemn warning of his Divine Master, 
 which had so deeply impressed his heart, and 
 exhorted the people to renounce their supersti- 
 tion and idolatry, and to learn for themselves, 
 from God's word, what was the pure fliith of 
 which the church was now the persecutor
 
 80 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 instead of the teacher. They were led, says 
 the old Scottish reformer, to a place beside the 
 Rood of Greenside, and there they two were 
 both hanged and burned, " according to the 
 mercy of the papistical kirk." Among those 
 who escaped from sharing in the like fate at 
 this period, was James Hamilton, sheriff of 
 Linlithgow, and brother of Patrick Hamilton, 
 titular abbot of Feme, one of the earliest of the 
 Scottish reformers, who was burned at St. 
 Andrew's in 1527. In August, 1535, as we 
 learn, Cranmer introduced j\Ir. James Hamil- 
 ton to Cromwell, as a gentleman who had left 
 his country for no cause but " that he favoured 
 the truth of God's word." Two years after 
 this, David Beaton became archbishop of St. 
 Andrew's, and was raised to the dignity of a 
 cardinal, and under his influence the flames 
 of persecution were rekindled with redoubled 
 fury. Notwithstanding their tyranny, says 
 Knox, the knowledge of God did wondrously 
 increase within this realm, partly by reading, 
 and partly by brotherly conference, which in 
 those dangerous days was used to the comfort 
 of many ; but chiefly by merchants and 
 mariners, who, frequenting other countries, 
 heard the true doctrine aflirmed, and the vanity 
 of the papistical religion openly rebuked. Dun- 
 dee proved, along with the port of Edinburglf, 
 the most formidable source of such danger to the 
 exasperated upholders of the old and corrupt 
 church. A very strait inquisition was made in 
 both places by cardinal Beaton, and divers per-
 
 THE DAWN OF THE IJEFOHMATION. 81 
 
 sons were compelled to abjure andburn their bills, 
 some in St. Andrew's, and some in Edinburgh. 
 About the same time, captain John Borthwick 
 Avas burned in effigy, but, by God's good ])ro- 
 vidence, his person escaped their fury. This, 
 the historian adds, was done for a spectacle and 
 triumph to Mary of Lorraine, lately arrived 
 from France as wife to the king James v. 
 
 The flames of persecution being thus effec- 
 tually kindled, they were not allowed to be 
 extinguished during the remainder of the king's 
 reign ; and however much he may have per- 
 sonally disliked such proceedings, he was com- 
 pelled not only to permit them, but to witness 
 and countenance them by his presence. Yet it 
 is marvellous to think that on the very spot, on 
 the green slopes of the Calton Hill of Edin- 
 burgh, where some of the martj-rs of this reign 
 witnessed a good confession at the stake, the 
 court and clergy, with the queen at their head, 
 patiently beheld the exhibition of sir David 
 Lindsay's satire of the Three Estates. A few 
 extracts from this early dramatic performance 
 Avill show how wonderfully the good providence 
 of God was employing the favourite of the 
 king, Avith his bold satiric pen, to compass the 
 downfal of the corrupt and persecuting church. 
 The first part introduces a number of allegorical 
 characters, such as Diligence, Wantonness, Sen- 
 suality, Falsehood, Deceit, etc. Among the rest, 
 Verity appears, and most solemnly, and with 
 much beauty, exhorts both king and prelates 
 to rule justly, and to teach not only by precept
 
 82 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 hut by example. Thereupon, Deceit, Flattery, 
 and Falsehood hold council together, and resolve 
 on accusing her to the spirituality of heresy, as 
 the readiest means of getting rid of an unwel- 
 come intruder. The plot succeeds ; — the abbot, 
 the parson, and the spirituality all unite in 
 putting down Verity, lest she should come 
 within hearing of the king. In answer to a 
 threat of the stake and faggots if she ventures 
 to teach any more in the kingdom, she replies : — 
 
 " I have said nothing hut the verity ; 
 But, with the king, what time that I be known 
 1 doubt, ye freres of spiritualitie 
 Shall rew that ever I came to this countrie ; 
 For if the verity plainly was proclaimed, 
 And specially to the king's majesty, 
 For your traditions you will be defamed." 
 
 On this Flattery bursts in exclaiming : — 
 
 " What book is that, harlot, into thy hand? 
 Out ! well away ! 'tis the New Testament, 
 In English tongue, and printed in England, 
 Heresie! heresie! fire! tire! incontinent!" 
 
 Verity replies, by declnring that the New 
 Testament contains no heresy but Christ's own 
 word, most sweet, a well of sincerest verity ; 
 and then kneeling down, she solemnly prays 
 God to arise and strive with those who thus 
 trampled under-foot his gracious w^ord ; where- 
 upon she is put in the stocks. 
 
 Chastity appears and meets •with a similar 
 reception ; the prioress telling her that Dame 
 Sensuality had warned her of such dangerous 
 company ; and after being rejected and buffeted 
 by the abbot, parson, and all the ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries, and being turned out of doors by
 
 THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION. 83 
 
 the nuns, she resorts at length to the laity, and 
 receives a kindly -welcome from a poor shoe- 
 maker and tailor. 
 
 The whole satire is of the same free and 
 plain-spoken character. The Pardoner plays 
 an important part in succeeding scenes, and 
 exposes the vice and greed of the clergy in 
 a similarly popular and truthful style. The 
 effect of such exhibitions on the popular mind 
 could not fail to be strong and lasting ; and 
 that the clergy would gladly have put down 
 the bold satirist we have good evidence from 
 the fact that, not long after, Kyllor, a black- 
 friar, prepared a play, or religious mj-stery, in 
 the same style, for which he was condemned 
 to the flames. " A blackfriar," says Knox, 
 " called friar Kyllor, set forth the history of 
 Christ's passion in the form of a play," that is, 
 one of the miracle plays which so commonly 
 formed a part of the service on the principal 
 holidays of the church in the middle ngos. 
 This he both preached and acted openly in 
 Stirling, in the presence of the king, on the 
 morning of Good Friday, 1539. In this play 
 all things were so livelily expressed, that the 
 common people understood and confessed that, 
 as the priests and Pharisees persuaded the 
 people to refuse Christ Jesus, and caused 
 Pilate to condemn him, so did the bishops and 
 priests of their own day blind the people, and 
 persuade princes and judges to persecute and 
 condemn such as profess Jesus Christ and his 
 blessed Evangel.
 
 S4 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 This popular exposure of tlie persecuting 
 spirit of these modern Pharisees roused their 
 utmost indignation, and as the poor friar had 
 no such friends at court as had sufficed to 
 secure impunity to sir David Lindsay's satirical 
 exposures, he was forthwith summoned to 
 answer for his offences before a consistory, 
 held, as usual, at the Abbey of Holyrood. 
 The Scottish cardinal David Beaton ; Gawin 
 Dunbar, king James's former tutor, now arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow and lord chancellor ; and 
 George Crichton, bishop of Dunkeld, took the 
 lead in this proceeding, by which they were 
 to furnish fresh proof of the justice of the poor 
 friar's allegory. Along with the chief offender, 
 they also summoned before them sir Dun- 
 can Symson, Eobert Forrester, dean Forret, 
 vicar of Dolhir, and canon-regular in the 
 monastery of Inch Colm, and friar Beveredge, 
 all of whom were condemned to the stake on 
 the 28th of Februar}^ 1539, and were the 
 same day burned to death on the Castle-hill of 
 Edinburgh. The charge against Robert For- 
 rester, a gentleman, as appears from Pitcairn's 
 Criminal Trials, was that he had in his pos- 
 session books suspected of heresy. Knox 
 describes dean Forret as a man of upright life, 
 and Foxe has preserved an interesting account 
 of him in his Book of Martyrs. His father 
 was master of the king's stables in the reign of 
 James iv., and his name repeatedly occurs in the 
 treasurer's accounts among those attending on 
 the court. It appears from other instances of
 
 THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION. 85 
 
 trials for heresy, tliat the archbisliop of Ghisgow, 
 vho was a man of learning and a liberal patron 
 of letters, had little inclination for these violent 
 proceedings, and would willingly have spared 
 some whom these zealous Scottish inquisitors 
 burned at the stake. 
 
 How far the moderate views of the king's 
 former tutor, superadded to the influence of 
 his favourite courtier, sir David Lindsay, might 
 have affected the policy of James v. in relation 
 to the increasing demands of the people for the 
 reformation of the church, it is now difficult 
 to determine. But Knox relates in his history 
 some curious accounts of visions with which 
 the king was troubled, and warnings of judg- 
 ments he believed himself to have received, 
 which seem to indicate a mind preyed on by 
 remorse for his part in such cruel and unjust 
 persecutions. Little further time, however, 
 was left for repentance or amendment. In- 
 volved by the influence of the cardinal, and 
 other leaders of the Romish party, in an impru- 
 dent war with England, and in a hopeless 
 struggle with his own subjects, he died at his 
 palace of Falkland of a broken heart, on the 
 13th of December, 1542, in the 31st year of 
 his age. Both of the king's sons were dead, 
 and as he lay, racked by the fever which 
 preyed on his wasted frame, intelligence was 
 brought him that the queen had given birth to 
 a daughter at Linlithgow Palace. The news, 
 which in happier hours might have cheered 
 him, seemed only to add to his hopeless
 
 8Q OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 despondency. With a melancholy ]"efleclion on 
 the fortunes of an infant born to the crown 
 which had brought him such sorrow, he gave 
 the friends around his couch a parting look of 
 recognition, turned himself on his pillow, and 
 expired. He was interred in the Abbey of 
 Holyrood with the wonted pomp that waits on 
 the obsequies of kings, and not Avithout some 
 of the more valued accompaniments of true 
 mourning. His favourite adherents appear to 
 have been most strongly attached to him ; and 
 his early servitor and faithful friend, sir David 
 Lindsay, as lord lyon herald, directed the 
 mournful ceremony Avhich laid his royal master 
 by the side of his first young bride, queen 
 Magdalen, in the vault of Holyrood Abbey. 
 The daughter Avhose birth was announced 
 under such sorrowful circumstances, was the 
 beautiful, but unhappy, Mary queen of Scots. 
 
 Among those citizens we have mentioned as 
 summoned before the bishops at Holyrood, in 
 1534, to answer the charge of heresy for their 
 adoption of the scriptural doctrines of the re- 
 lormers, it is interesting to find the name of 
 Henryson, one of the masters of the High 
 School of Edinburgh. The precise date of the 
 foundation of this celebrated seminary is un- 
 certain ; but an act of the town council, in 
 1519, prohibits all parents and guardians from 
 placing their 3'outh at any other school under 
 pain of incurring a heavy fine. About the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, a venerable 
 mansion, still standing at the foot of Blackfriars
 
 THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION. 87 
 
 WyncI, ill the Cowgate — and which has been 
 noted as the scene of more than one remark- 
 able occurrence while occupied as the archiepis- 
 copal palace — was hired for the accommodation 
 of the Grammar School, In 1557, a handsome 
 new school was built on the site of the old 
 monastery of the Blackfriars ; and that was 
 again replaced in 1777, by the building at the 
 foot of Infirmary-street, now occupied as a 
 surgical hospital. We may be permitted to 
 depart from chronological order, to remind the 
 reader that in this latter building were edu- 
 cated sir Charles Bell, sir Walter Scott, lord 
 Brougham, lord Jeffrey, and many more of the 
 most distinguished Scotchmen of recent times. 
 In 1829, the Edinburgh High School was 
 removed to a noble Grecian building on the 
 Galton Hill ; and there, with all the facilities 
 and advantages which modern improvements 
 can bestow, it may be expected to add not a 
 few to the honourable names of its distinguished 
 pupils.
 
 88 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE REGENC" OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY. 
 
 The infant princess, sole lieir to the crown, and 
 to more than all the cahimities of James v., was 
 only six days old Avhen she inherited the un- 
 enviable honours of royalty, and once more 
 involved the Scottish nation in all the evils of 
 a protracted minority. Scotland became the 
 scene of dissension, strife, and civil war, such 
 as had usually marked the minorities of its 
 princes, but now rendered doubly virulent by 
 the fierceness of theological rancour, and the 
 treacherous effects of Ibreign influence. In 
 the disastrous strife which preceded the death 
 of the king, many of the Scottish nobility had 
 been taken prisoners by the English, and the 
 wily councillors of Henry vm. found no diffi- 
 culty in persuading them to co-operate with 
 him in designs for subverting the plans of the 
 cardinal and his faction. The grand scheme of 
 the English monarch was to bring about a 
 marriage between the Scottish queen and his 
 son, and afterwards his successor, Edward vi. 
 The plan was one dictated by sound poHcy, but
 
 THE REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY. 89 
 
 the cardinal and the queen-dowager both saw in 
 it the certain downfal of the Romish church, 
 and employed all their arts to oppose it. Hence 
 arose all the enmity subsequently manifested 
 against Scotland, and most of the miseries 
 inflicted on it, in the reigns both of Henry viii. 
 and Edward vi. 
 
 Meanwhile, the dominant Scottish party 
 adopted means for strengthening their cause, 
 and the regent Arran put the fortresses of the 
 kingdom into good repair. Edinburgh Castle 
 especially was happily committed to the care of 
 sir James Hamilton of Stainehouse, a brave 
 soldier, under whose directions it w^as once 
 more put into good condition for resisting any 
 attempt on it. 
 
 On the 12th of March, 1543, a parliament 
 assembled at Edinburgh, at which sir Ralph 
 Saddler appeared as ambassador from the 
 English court, Avhile the Scottish prisoners, 
 now secretly engaged to further the plans of 
 the English monarch, also repaired thither, and 
 employed their influence in promoting the 
 negotiatioiis for the marriage. These were the 
 earls of Cassillis and Glencairn, the lords 
 Fleming, Maxwell, Somerville, and Oliphant, 
 most of whom afterwards played a prominent 
 part among the reforming party. The pro- 
 ceedings of this parliament were wise, tempe- 
 rate, and truly patriotic. They approved of tlie 
 proposed marriage, but under such restrictions 
 as efFectually guarded the liberties of tlie king- 
 dom from the encroachments of the English
 
 90 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 crown, and at the same time the first important 
 step in the Scottish reformation was taken, on 
 tlie motion of lord Maxwell, by enacting that 
 all might have liberty to read the Bible in an 
 approved Scottish or English translation, pro- 
 vided they avoided disputes on controverted 
 opinions. 
 
 The patriotic measures adopted by the parlia- 
 ment for protecting the liberties of the country 
 excited the liveliest indignation in the mind of 
 Henry viii., Avho had calculated on getting the 
 infant queen into his own possession. In the 
 most treacherous manner he seized all the 
 Scottish merchant ships which arrived at any 
 of the English harbours, and confiscated their 
 cargoes. On the news of this reaching 
 Edinburgh, the populace rose in a body, sur- 
 rounded the house of the English ambassador, 
 and threatened his life in case their ships were 
 not returned. 
 
 IMeanwhile, the old factions revived, and in 
 the midst of a threatened rupture with Eng- 
 land, they seemed bent only on each other's 
 overthrow, when, on the 1st of May, 1544, a 
 fleet of two hundred sail, under the command 
 of lord Lisle, high-admiral of England, appeared 
 in the Forth. The cardinal, who had borne 
 the most prominent part in the proceedings 
 M'hich provoked this war, had utterly failed to 
 provide for repelling the invaders. The earl of 
 Hereford, who commanded the English army, 
 was provided with instructions sufficiently cha- 
 racteristic of the ferocious and sanguinary
 
 THE REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY. 91 
 
 spirit of the English monarch. The citizens 
 of Edinburgh, though deserted by the governor 
 and the rational forces, flew to arms for the 
 defence of the capital, while their provost pro- 
 ceeded to the English camp and tried to effect 
 an amicable adjustment of their grievances ; 
 but the only condition he had to propose was 
 the delivery of the young queen into the hands 
 of the English monarch — a step which, rather 
 than agree to, the citizens declared their 
 intention of submitting to the utmost extremi- 
 ties of war. To these the instructions of Henry 
 insured their subjection ; for the earl was com- 
 manded to put all to fire and sword ; to burn, 
 raze, and sack Edinburgh ; to beat down the 
 castle and level it with the ground ; to sack 
 Holyrood Abbey, and all the towns and villages 
 he could reach ; and specially to sack, burn, 
 and overthrow Leith ; putting man, woman, 
 and child to fire and sword. 
 
 After occupying and plundering Leith for 
 three days, Hereford marched on Edinburgh ; 
 but the citizens had employed the interval in 
 removing their most valuable effects, and pro- 
 viding means for their own retreat. To attempt, 
 indeed, to hold out the town with no garrison 
 but its own burghers, against a well-appointed 
 army, provided with heavy ordnance, would 
 have been folly ; and it had ever been the 
 policy of the Scots to retreat before an invading 
 army, and renew the attack on its return from 
 the profitless assault on their empty dwellings. 
 
 The English army entering by the Water-
 
 ya OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 gate, ill tlie vicinity of Holyrood Abbe}--, 
 assaulted the Nether Bow Port, and easily 
 battered in its gates. They then dragged their 
 cannon up the High-street, to the old Butter 
 Tron, which subsequently served both Ciomwell 
 and prince Charles for a guard-house when 
 they made similar attempts on the castle. On 
 emerging in front of the fortress, and trying a 
 shot at its entrance, liowever, they found that 
 they had a serious opposition to encounter. 
 Their guns were dismounted, and the gunners 
 slain by the vrell-directed fire of the garrison ; 
 and on their attempting the construction of 
 trenches, sir James Hamilton made a sudden 
 sortie with a part of the garrison, and not 
 only put the besieging party to flight, but cap- 
 tured a part of their artillery. 
 
 The earl of Hereford now proceeded to put 
 his cruel orders in execution. We learn from 
 the old Scottish acts of parliament relating to 
 the construction of dwellings, and the pre- 
 vention or extinction of fires in boroughs, what 
 were the usual characteristics of the houses of 
 the period. The High-street was then adorned 
 with goodly houses, many of them erected in 
 the prosperous reign of James iv., decorated 
 with heavy overhanging oaken fronts, and 
 with arcades and open galleries of ornamented 
 timber ; while here and there among them 
 rose the more substantial structures of stone, 
 including the hereditary town mansions of some 
 of the chief nobility, and the palaces of the 
 bishops and mitred abbots of the great abbeys.
 
 THE REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY. 93 
 
 To all these the torches of the invaders Avere 
 ruthlessly applied. They fired the city in 
 numerous quarters at once, and continued the 
 work of devastation and plunder, till compelled 
 to abandon it by the smoke and flames, as well 
 as by the continual firing on them from the 
 castle. They renewed the work of destruction 
 on the following day ; and for three successive 
 days they returned with unabated fury to the 
 smoking ruins, till they had completely effected 
 their purpose. 
 
 The invaders then proceeded to lay the whole 
 surrounding country waste. Craigmillar, which 
 was surrendered on the promise of being pre- 
 served scathless, was immediately devoted to 
 the flames. Roslin Castle shared the same 
 fate ; and while part of the army proceeded 
 southward by land, burning every abbey, town, 
 and village in their line of march, the re- 
 mainder returned to Leith, and after plunder- 
 ing it, they set both the town and shipping on 
 fire, and then re-embarked, leaving behind them 
 a wilderness of blackened and bloody ruins. 
 
 This disastrous invasion forms an important 
 era in the history of Edinburgh. With the 
 exception of the older portions of the castle, the 
 churches, and the remains of the palace of 
 James V. at Hoiyrood, it may be doubted if any 
 ])uildings which survived this conflagration now 
 exist in Edinburgh, though some of an earlier 
 date have been destroyed within the last few 
 years. The hand of destruction has been pecu- 
 liarly busy of late, and the modern innovators,
 
 94 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 who levelled the venerable Trinity College 
 Church, founded by the queen of James ii., 
 also destroyed an interesting and curious group 
 of buildings, latterly occupied as the Trinity 
 Hospital for decayed burghers, but which had 
 originally formed the collegiate buildings for 
 the residence of the prebends attached to the 
 royal foundation of Mary de Gueldres. 
 
 Such a sacking and spoiling might have 
 seemed sufficient to quench the spirit of Scottish 
 burgher and peasant for many a day ; but it 
 Avas not so. The invaders were scarcely over 
 the borders, when a body of about thirteen hun- 
 dred men mustered, with their wonted pertina- 
 city, for a raid into England. They who had 
 suffered most, we may presume, were foremost 
 in this retaliator}'' movement. Without waiting 
 for the leaders, who had deserted them in 
 their hour of need, they crossed the borders, 
 burned and plundered the nearest towns, drove 
 off the cattle, and returned in safety with a 
 spoil which in some degree compensated for 
 their recent losses. Henry vni. had, indeed, 
 conducted his invasion with far more ot the 
 character of an angry and resentful suitor, than 
 of a politic foe. His army had retreated with- 
 out effecting any permanent hold on the coun- 
 try, and in their indiscriminate spoliation had 
 aroused a spirit which served to unite for the 
 common good many who had before bsen more 
 inclined to side with the English monarch than 
 the cardinal. The insincerity of Henry's pro- 
 fessions of friendly intentions was proved by
 
 THE REGEIICY OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY. 95 
 
 the cruel and indiscriminating ravages he had 
 ordered to be executed on the country, and all 
 classes of the population recoiled from the 
 thought of a union Avhich they were called 
 upon to celebrate amidst the flames of the Scot- 
 tish capital, and the murder of its citizens. 
 Eeprisals ensued, in which both parties perpe- 
 trated many acts of cruelty ; and in the battle 
 of Ancrum, fought the same year, the English 
 were totally routed, Avith a loss of eight hun- 
 dred slain, and upwards of a thousand taken 
 prisoners. 
 
 In the interval of truce or border warfare 
 that followed, Edinburgh was visited by Wish- 
 art, the noble Scottish reformer, and one of the 
 most distinguished of its martyrs. He preached 
 both at Edinburgh and Leith, during the year 
 1545, and it was at this time that John Knox 
 became deeply impressed by his instructions, 
 and earnestly attached himself to liis party. 
 But Wishart knew that he went forth with his 
 life in his hand, and when Knox pressed to be 
 permitted to take a more active part with him 
 immediately before his capture by the emissa- 
 ries of cardinal Beaton, he charged him to 
 return to his pupils, saying, " One is sufficient 
 now for a sacrifice." Edinburgh Castle was for 
 a brief period the scene of his imprisonment, 
 after his seizure by Bothwell, before he was 
 delivered up to the cardinal at Elphinstone 
 Tower, still standing a few miles from the 
 capital, on the border of East Lothian. 
 
 The jdeath of Henry . vm., in 1547, in no
 
 96 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 degree lessened the animosity between the two 
 kingdoms. Heniy on his death-bed urged the 
 prosecution of his schemes against Scotland, 
 and the councillors of the young king Edward 
 vr., including Hereford, now duke of Somerset 
 and lord protector of England, lost no time in 
 completing arrangements for their accomplish- 
 ment. In a very short time the duke appeared 
 on the borders at the head of a numerous army, 
 while a large fleet co-operated with him by a 
 descent on the Scottish coast. 
 
 At Edinburgh no lack of zeal was wanting 
 to resist the invaders. The earl of Arrau 
 dispatched the heralds with the ancient national 
 symbol of the fierij cross, seldom resorted to 
 but in cases of extreme peril ; and all men, 
 clergy as well as laity, were Avarned to repair to 
 Edinburgh, fully equipped for war. The duke 
 of Somerset meanwhile entered Scotland, and 
 gave notice to the governor of the sole con- 
 ditions on which peace would be granted, the 
 first of which was the hand of the young queen 
 for his royal master. But the strongest spirit 
 of opposition was now roused ; and though on 
 the bloody field of Pinkie, distant only about 
 six miles from Edinburgh, the Scottish army 
 was defeated with terrible slaughter, the spirit 
 of the nation was not subdued. Immediately 
 after the battle the English advanced and took 
 Leith, while many of tliose who escaped from 
 the frightful rout entrenched themselves within 
 the walls of the neighbouring capital. Many 
 of the Scottish nobles* were taken prisoners at
 
 THE KEGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ALBANY. 97 
 
 Pinkie, and being carried by their captors to 
 Leith, they were confined in St. Mary's church, 
 — whicli still forms the principal phice of Avor- 
 ship in the old seaport, — Avhile treating with 
 the duke of Somerset for their ransom. " They 
 also," says the author of the Memorials of 
 Edinburgh, " made an imsuccessful attempt 
 on the capital, whose provost had fallen on 
 the field, and it is recorded that this fatal 
 battle had alone made three hundred and sixty 
 widows ; but finding the Scottish nation as 
 resolute as ever in rejecting all terms of accom- 
 modation, they again pillaged and burned the 
 town of Leith, spoiled the Abbey of Holyrood, 
 from which they tore off the leaden roof, and 
 re-embarked on board their fleet. They 
 wreaked their vengeance on some defenceless 
 fishing towns and villages along the coasts of 
 the Firth, and then returned to England, 
 where a general thanksgiving, to be used 
 throughout all the churches in the kingdom, 
 for the great victory God had vouchsafed over 
 their enemies was prepared ! So differently 
 are the same actions estimated according as 
 our interests are affected ; for the duke of 
 Somerset had so exasperated the Scottish 
 nation by his cruelty, and disgusted even the 
 barons who had inclined to the English party 
 by his impolitic conduct, that they were more 
 unanimous than ever against the proposed 
 alliance." It was, indeed, a strangely short- 
 sighted policy that dictated such savage cruel- 
 ties and bloodshed, in the hope of thereby
 
 98 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 forcing a free and peculiarly sensitive people 
 into a matrimonial alliance. When, at a later 
 period, Edward vi. availed himself of the pre- 
 sence of the queen-regent at Whitehall, on her 
 return from France to Scotland in 1551, to 
 urge his own suit for her daugljter's hand, she 
 answered him with characteristic shrewdness 
 and spirit, that the fault must be charged to 
 those who, by fire and sword, had compelled the 
 Scottish nobles to seek a friendly alliance else- 
 where, and that such fashion of dealing was not 
 the likeliest way to win a lady and princess in 
 marriage, who should rather be sought by 
 courteous and gentle behaviour, than by cruelty 
 and violence. One of the Scottish barons 
 stated the case somewhat more bluntly, but 
 with no less point, when lie said, " He disliked 
 not the match so much as the manner of 
 the wooing!" And Tytler no less aptly com- 
 ments on the impolicy of the whole course of 
 procedure adopted by the duke of Somerset, 
 when he remarks : " The idea that a free 
 country was to be compelled into a pacific 
 matrimonial alliance, amidst the groans of its 
 dying citizens and the flames of its seaports, 
 was revolting and absurd."
 
 THE REGENCY OF MARY DE GUISE. 99 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE REGENCY OF MARY DE GUISE. 
 
 The short-sighted policy of England had solely 
 contributed to force Scotland into a closer 
 alliance with France. The queen - dowager, 
 who had all along coveted the supreme power, 
 now availed herself of the strong popular feeling 
 to summon the nobility together, and under 
 her influence ambassadors were dispatched to 
 France to renew the ancient league with that 
 kingdom. The fruits of this were soon appa- 
 rent. In the month of June, 1548, the citizens 
 of Edinburgh and Leith were delighted by the 
 arrival of a large French fleet in the Firth, on 
 board of which was Andre de Montalembert, 
 lord d'Esse, with a reinforcement of six thou- 
 sand men, and an excellent train of artillery. 
 D'Esse was introduced to the parliament, assem- 
 bled at Edinburgh, to which he was the bearer 
 of the warmest assurances of aid in troops, 
 money, and arras, from the French king, and 
 a proposal that the ancient amity subsisting 
 between the two nations should be cemented 
 by the marriage of the heirs of their respective
 
 100 OLD EDlNBUiiGH. 
 
 crowns. The French monarch, while willingly 
 undertaking to defend Scotland against her 
 foreign foes, and to educate the young queen 
 at his court, solemnly pledged himself to respect 
 the laws and liberties of the kingdom. It can- 
 not be wondered at that an alliance proposed 
 in so different a manner from that with Eng- 
 land should have been promptly acceded to, 
 and thus the differences with England were 
 rendered more lasting and inveterate. Shortly 
 after the young queen, then a beautiful child, 
 in her sixth year, set sail for France, accom- 
 panied by her governors, the lords Erskine and 
 Livingstone, and her natural brother, the lord 
 James, after\vards the famous regent Moray, 
 then in his seventeenth year. Along with her 
 also embarked the queen's four Marys, famous 
 in Scottish song, selected as her playmates 
 from the families of Fleming, Seton, Beaton, 
 'and Livingstone. 
 
 The port of Leith still lay in ruins, and the 
 neighbouring capital was only beginning to 
 attempt the re-edification of its desolate streets ; 
 but from this period we are able to trace the 
 rise of many important structures both in 
 Edinburgh and Leith. On the disembarkation 
 of the French auxiliaries it was found impos- 
 sible to accommodate them in the ruined towns, 
 and they had to be distributed in companies 
 through the neighbouring vilhiges. But d'Esse 
 now undertook the fortification of Leith, and 
 thereby conferred on it an importance alto- 
 gether unknown before. People crowded from
 
 THE REGENCY OF MARY DE GUISE. 101 
 
 all parts to shelter themselves ^vithin its walls ; 
 and when the conclusion of a peace with Eng- 
 land once more permitted the rival factions to 
 gain head, and come to open rupture, it became 
 one of the places of chief importance in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 One of the most interesting relics of this 
 memorable period in the history of the Scottish 
 capital was the palace of Mary de Guise, Avhich, 
 after standing for three centuries, was demo- 
 lished in 1845, to make way for the New 
 College erected at the top of the mound. This 
 mansion of Mary de Guise, the queen of James 
 v., has been supposed to have been built after 
 the destruction of the town and of the Abbey 
 of Ilolyrood in 1544, and its site has been 
 assumed to have been selected in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of the castle, to place its royal 
 occupant under the shelter of the guns of 
 the fortress, and enable her to retreat within 
 its walls on the approach of any imminent 
 danger. The inscription above its main en- 
 trance, however, was rather calculated to prove 
 an earlier origin for the building, as it bore 
 the initials of the king, i. n. Between these 
 was the favourite inscription, cut in bold 
 Gothic characters, Laus honou Deo, with shields 
 bearing monograms of the Saviour and the 
 virgin Mary. Within, the decorations were of 
 a remarkable character, including richly carved 
 oak, sculptured stone niches, and painted and 
 emblazoned ceilings, all of which tended greatly 
 to increase the singular effect which this ancient
 
 102 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 abode of royalty presented in its latter years, 
 when it had become the squalid abode of 
 poverty and vice. A richly carved oaken 
 doorway from one of the apartments is now 
 in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of 
 Scotland, and a series of carved armorial bear- 
 ings, executed with great vigour and beauty, 
 have been transferred to Dunrobin Castle, the 
 residence of the duke of Sutherland. These 
 latter decorations included the arms of the 
 queen-regent, of Henry ii. of France, and of the 
 duke of Chatelherault, the predecessor of Mary 
 de Guise in the Scottish regency. All these 
 point umnistakably to that period of the queen- 
 regent's history, when she was likely to prefer 
 a residence within the city walls, and in the 
 vicinity of the castle, while the burning of the 
 capital, and the royal palace attached to the 
 abbey of Holyrood, were of so recent an 
 occurrence that it may be doubted if the 
 palace had then been restored.* Adjoining to 
 
 * Mr. Chambers gives an amusing account, in his "Tradi- 
 tions of Edinburgh," of the consequences resulting to the 
 tenants of this decayed abode of royalty from its popular 
 attractions. The carved door was an object of special interest 
 with all, from its two ])rincipal figures being- supposed to re- 
 present James V. and the queen, its fir.st occupant. "The 
 door," says Mr. Chambers, " is regarded as an object of 
 great curiosity by the tenants of the house — though those who 
 occupy the room told us when we called to inspect it, tliat 
 they had much better want a door altogether than have one of 
 so curious a sort, seeinjr they never got either night's rest or 
 day's ease on account of it, and could sometimes scarcely ca' 
 the house their ain for antiquarian gentlemen like ourselves 
 who came to see it. When we ventured to suggest the expe- 
 diency of charging a certain honorarium from every vis'tor, 
 in imitation of other exhibitors of palaces, they told us of an 
 Irishman, their predecessor in the habitation, who became so
 
 THE REGENCY OF MARY DE GUISE. 103 
 
 the queen-regent's palace was an ancient edifice, 
 pointed out by very old tradition as her oratory, 
 or private chapel. A beautiful large tind highly 
 decorated recess was believed to indicate the 
 site of the altar ; and an ancient reliquary, or 
 iron casket, found built up within it, was pre- 
 served by sir Walter Scott, and now ibrms part, 
 of the singular collection amassed by him at 
 Abbotsford. Various other ancient mansions 
 of the Scottish nobility, erected on the Castle- 
 hill, in the immediate vicinity of the castle, 
 appear to have owed their origin, and the 
 choice of their site, to the same cause which 
 induced the queen- regent to forsake the royal 
 palace attached to the old Abbey of Holyrood 
 for her civic mansion on the Castle-hill. 
 
 The driving of the English beyond the 
 border, and the occupation and garrisoning of 
 Leith with French troops, were not long in pro- 
 ducing the usual heart-burnings and animosi- 
 
 incensed about the matter, that he would admit no person 
 under half a crown, and at last threatened to burn the door 
 for tirevvood, on finding the impossibility of substantiating 
 his charges, which he was only prevented from doinji' by the 
 interference of the landlord. ' But, for my part,' said the 
 good woman, as she wiped the dust from the qnoen's nose 
 with her apron, ' I would scorn any such in.positions— and I 
 like the door very weei, only ye see, sirs, its black and uae 
 look of a thhig. and a good tir-deal door would answer our 
 purpose as wee! .... but I can assure \e, sir, there's 
 many grar.d folk come here to see the door; the queer ane 
 society came a' in a buiulle ae day — and i laistly every ane o' 
 them had silver spectacles, and were i'k ane mair civil than 
 anither.' We were ohiiged to acknowledge the [)oor woman's 
 case sufficiently distressing — though we could not but thiuic 
 at the same time that she . \\. even more than the usual 
 resource of those who ar*^ t.oabled with their visitors — 
 we mean, that she had noliung to do but shoic them the 
 door."
 
 104 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 ties. The foreigners behaved to the citizens 
 with an insolence scarcely less irritating to 
 them than the spoilings and burnings of the 
 enemy they had helped to expel. Matters 
 having reached this pass, a very slight cause 
 served to bring about a collision. A French 
 soldier having insulted one of the citizens in 
 the High-street of Edinburgh, the two came 
 to blows. The citizens rushed to aid their 
 companion, and the comrades of the soldier 
 mustered in his defence, till at length the 
 High-street became the scene of a bloody fight, 
 in which many were slain, including sir James 
 Hamilton, the provost and governor of the 
 castle, his son, and several citizens of rank ; 
 besides which, many men, women, and children 
 fell by the random shots of the French soldiers. 
 As a reparation for such an outrage, the soldier 
 who had begun the affray was hanged at the 
 Market-place, where the quarrel originated. 
 " A very unpropitious state of things," as one 
 of the historians of Edinburgh justly observes, 
 " and the only alternative seemingly left to the 
 Scots from another English harrying." 
 
 The difficulties resulting from the burning 
 of Edinburgh bore some resemblance to those 
 occasioned by the great fire of London. The 
 precise sites of properties were no longer dis- 
 coverable. Claims for ground rent, clerical 
 dues, and other obligations, were pressed on 
 those who had not been able to rebuild the 
 property so attached ; and one curious act 
 passed by the Scottish parliament, Avhich had
 
 THE REGENCY OF MARY DE GUISE. 105 
 
 assembled at Edinburgh in 1551, was designed 
 to right some of these difficulties aiFecting the 
 Scottish capital, being entitled, " Anent the 
 annuals of lands burnt by our auld enemies 
 of England, ^Yithin the burgh of Edinburgh, 
 and other burghs." 
 
 It Avas not till the year 1554 that the Scot- 
 tish regency was transferred to the queen- 
 dowager, though the earl of Arran had long 
 ceased to retain any influential party among 
 the Scottish nobles. While he continued to 
 maintain the forms of government at Edin- 
 burgh, surrounded by a small body of his adhe- 
 rents, the queen-dowager was holding a brilliant 
 court at Stirling, and winning the most influen- 
 tial of the nobility to her party. At the time 
 her exertions were thus directed to strengthen 
 her party, she had not been less zealous in 
 providing means for transferring to herself the 
 titles as well as the actual power and influence 
 of her daughter's vicegerent. While the feeble 
 earl was intimidated by threats of a rigid 
 reckoning being required for the dilapidation of 
 the royal revenues and crown lands, he was 
 offered, through the duke of Guise and the 
 cardinal of Lorraine, the brothers of the queen- 
 dowager, the splendid bribe of the dukedom of 
 Chatelherault, with ample provision for his 
 eldest son at the French court, if he would 
 resign the regency. Liberal promises and gifts 
 were not neglected for others of the nobility ; 
 and when all things were in readiness, the 
 Scottish parliament was summoned to assemble 
 D 2
 
 106 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 at Edinburgh, on the 12th of April, 1554, to 
 witness the transfer of the government to her 
 hands. The earl of Arran, or, as he was now 
 styled, duke of Chatelherault, rose in the parlia- 
 ment, and the articles of agreement having 
 been read, and ratified by the subscriptions and 
 signets of the assembled barons, he presented 
 the royal crown, sword, and sceptre, the ensigns 
 of government, or, as they were wont to be 
 called, the honours of the kingdom, to monsieur 
 d'Oysel, the French ambassador, who received 
 them in the name of queen Mary. Immediately 
 thereafter he produced a commission and man- 
 date from the queen, then in her twelfth year, 
 in obedience to which he delivered these insig- 
 nia of government to the queen- dowager. The 
 new regent acknowledged her acceptance of the 
 office, and received the homage and congratula- 
 tions of the assembled nobility. She was then 
 conducted in public procession, with great 
 pomp, through the city to the palace of Holy- 
 rood, and forthwith entered upon the admi- 
 nistration of the government. 
 
 The citizens of Edinburgh hailed the transfer 
 of the government to the firm hands of Mary de 
 Guise with the heartiest acclamations. The 
 feeble rule of Arran, and the divided state of 
 the factions of the nobles, had exposed the 
 capital to disorders and tumults, and left the 
 whole government in an unsettled state. The 
 streets of Edinburgh had become, as usual in 
 such periods of dissension, the scenes of con- 
 stant feud among the rival barons, who, as
 
 THE REGENCr OF MARY DE GUISE. 107 
 
 bishop Lesley remarks, found the time very 
 convenient for revenging their quarrels. Deadly 
 combats again and again took place on the open 
 street, in one of which sir Walter Scott of Buc- 
 cleugh was slain on the High-street, bj a party 
 of the Kerrs with whom the border Scotts were 
 at open feucj for long-cherished grievances. 
 Our own sir Walter has celebrated the fate of 
 the old chief of his clan in the " Lay of the 
 Last Minstrel," — 
 
 " Bards long shall tell 
 How lord Walter fell ! 
 When startled burghers fled, afar. 
 The furies of the border war ; 
 When the streets of high Dunedin 
 Saw lances gleam, and falchions redden, 
 And heard the slogan's deadly yell — 
 Then the chief of Branksome fell." 
 
 The strife of the border clans was no such 
 rarity, however, on the High-street of Edin- 
 burgh, as greatly to startle the affrighted 
 burghers. About the same time, as bishop 
 Lesley relates, the master of Ruthven slew a 
 valiant gentleman, sir John Charteris of Kin- 
 clevin, in Edinburgh, upon occasion of an old 
 feud, and for staying an action which he pursued 
 against him in the court of session — a deed 
 which led to the passing of an act by the Scottish 
 parliament, which somewhat naively declares 
 that whosoever shall slay a suitor who is pur- 
 suing an action against him, shall forfeit the 
 right of judgment in the action, in addition to 
 any other liabilities he may incur. The same 
 year the lord Semple slew the lord Crichtoun 
 of Sanquhar in the governor's own house in
 
 108 OLD EDINBURGIf. 
 
 Edinburgh, and by the interest of the arch' 
 bishop of St. Andrew's and other friends, he 
 escaped all consequences of the crime. Such 
 were some of the fruits of the earl of Arran's 
 feeble government, producing a state of things 
 well calculated to make the people at large 
 rejoice in witnessing any change that trans- 
 ferred the regency to vigorous hands. 
 
 Few rulers have succeeded to powers with 
 such general approbation as that which now 
 hailed the transfer of the reins of government to 
 Mary de Guise. She had displayed equal per- 
 severance, tact, and ability, during the four 
 years that she had intrigued to obtain her 
 object. She had conciliated the Protestant 
 party by the greatest show of toleration, while 
 she won over the nobility by promises which 
 tempted their avidity or gratified their ambi- 
 tion. To the Romish clergy she was already 
 the centre of their highest hopes ; and thus, 
 while her success still further enfeebled the 
 regent Arran, the miseries resulting from his 
 vv'cak rule gave an additional force to the hope 
 with which all looked forward to her accession 
 to the regency. But the wisest and most just 
 rulers have ever found it easier to acquire 
 authority than to maintain it. Not a little of 
 her influence with the Scottish nobles had 
 been purchased Avith the aid, and under the 
 direct advice of the cardinal of Lorraine and the 
 duke of Guise, the object of both being to 
 make Scotland the mere tool of France. Fol- 
 lowing out the policy they had dictated, some
 
 THE KEGENCY OF MAliV DE GUISE. 109 
 
 of the greatest offices of the kingdom were 
 forthwith conferred on Frenchmen, and her 
 confidential advisers Avere chosen by the same 
 rule. Hence arose jealousies, lieart-burnings, 
 and dissensions, and to this policy was owing 
 the final termination of that alliance which had 
 bound France and Scotland together in the 
 bonds of mutual interest and friendly relations, 
 for upwards of two centuries. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs when John 
 Knox returned from France, where he had 
 passed four years chained as a prisoner in the 
 galleys, for his share in some of the earlier 
 deeds of the Scottish reformers. This was not a 
 process likely to lessen the unfriendly feeling 
 now springing up against the French. The 
 bold relbrmer began forthwith to denounce the 
 mass as an idolatrous worship, and to expose 
 the grossness of the lives of the clergy by whom 
 it was maintained. For this he was summoned 
 before the ecclesiastical judicatory held in the 
 monaster}' of the Bhickfriars ; an ancient royal 
 foundation already mentioned, which occupied 
 the site of the present Surgical Hospital of 
 Edinburgh. Already, however, the clergy 
 were learning to dread the popular sympathy 
 which leaned so manifestly to the side of their 
 opponents, and the proceedings against John 
 Knox were allowed to drop. But they had done 
 enough to increase the reformer's popularity ; 
 and bishop Keith remarks, " It is certain that 
 Mr. Knox preached to a greater auditory the 
 very clay he should have made his appearance
 
 110 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 before them, than ever he did before." The time, 
 however, was not yet ripe for his effectual 
 labours. The same year he accepted an invi- 
 tation to undertake the pastoral charge of an 
 English congregation at Geneva ; and he was 
 no sooner gone than the clergy anew cited him 
 before them, and in default of his appearance 
 he was condemned to death as a heretic, and 
 burned in vffigy at the cross of Edinburgh. 
 
 During the remaining years of the queen- 
 regent's life, Edinburgh was the scene of fre- 
 quent strife, violence, and bloodshed, occasioned 
 by the French party co-operating with those 
 who strove to maintain the old Komish church, 
 against the reforming party, which was now 
 rapidly gaining influential adherents. The 
 latter assumed the position of the national 
 party, in opposition to the foreign interests 
 which continued to prevail at court ; and thus 
 all the most influential popular motives were 
 brought into play against the regent. Guided 
 by her French councillors, she matured a plan 
 for substituting a standing army in lieu of the 
 de[)endence of the crown, as heretofore, on the 
 popular musters, or the vassals and retainers of 
 the barons. But this was a scheme little likely 
 to be sanctioned either by barons or people. 
 Three hundred of the barons and lesser gentry 
 assembled in the abbey church of Holyrood, 
 almost within the precincts of the palace, to 
 remonstrate against such an innovation on the 
 ancient liberties of the kingdom ; and two of 
 their number were forthwith dispatched to the
 
 THE REGENCY OF MART DE GUISE. Ill 
 
 queen-regent and her council with such a reso- 
 lute protest as compelled the abandonment of 
 tlie unpopular scheme. Another cause con- 
 tributed largely to increase' the divided feelings 
 which were thus estranging the regent and the 
 people. So soon as queen Elizabeth succeeded 
 to the English throne, the reforming party in 
 Scotland found their cause great!}' strengthened, 
 while tliey were encouraged to look with 
 jealousy on the French party as being the ene- 
 mies of England, chiefly in consequence of the 
 reformation of its church, and its renounce- 
 ment of rll allegiance to the pope of Rome. 
 Frequent outbreaks now occurred. In 1556, a 
 mob of excited citizens broke into St. Giles's 
 Church, overthrew some of the altars, and de- 
 molished the statues of the virgin Mary, St. 
 Francis, and others of the saints. The regent 
 indignantly remonstrated with the magistrates 
 against such violence ; but they could only 
 offer their own subservient reverence to the 
 luipopular services of the church, one of the 
 special marks of which was an order by the 
 town council, requiring, as a mark of honour 
 conferred on the jjrovost, that the servants of 
 the citizens should wait on him with lighted 
 torches from his attendance on vespers at St. 
 Giles's Church to his own house. This was 
 probably only a part of the arrangements which 
 we find about this period first introduced for 
 lighting up the streets of the Scottish capital. 
 By an entry in the register of the town 
 council, in 1554, it is ordeied that, owing to
 
 112 OLD EDINBUKGH. 
 
 the frequent robberies and assaults committed 
 in tbe streets of Edinburgh at night, " hmterns 
 or bowets be hung out in the streets and closes, 
 by such persons and in such places as the 
 magistrates should appoint, to continue burning 
 from five o'clock in the evening till nine, which 
 was judged a proper time for people to repair to 
 their respective habitations." The account is 
 curious, as indicating the introduction of this 
 element of modern civilization at so early a 
 date. 
 
 In 1557, a parliament which assembled at 
 Edinburgh empowered James Stuart, prior 
 of St. Andrew's, afterwards the celebrated 
 regent Moray, and other leaders of the influ- 
 ential Protestant party, to proceed to Paris, 
 and give their assent to the marriage of the 
 young queen of Scots, then in her fifteenth 
 year, with the dauphin of France, who was 
 further to assume the title and arms of king of 
 Scotland, during the continuance of the mar- 
 riage. They accordingly proceeded to Paris, 
 and there, on the 24th of April, 1558, they 
 witnessed the solemnization of the marriage, 
 with the utmost pomp and magnificence, in the 
 cathedral of Notre Dame. 
 
 The same year which witnessed the mar- 
 riage of the young Scottish queen, amidst all the 
 pomp of ecclesiastical ceremonial, in the cathe- 
 dral of Paris, was signalized at Edinburgh by 
 a riot, which furnished sufficiently immistak- 
 able evidence how thoroughly the bands of 
 Romish superstition were losing tlieiv hold
 
 THE REGENCY OF MARY DE GUISE. 113 
 
 on the minds of the people of Scotland. The 
 patron saint of Edinburgh was St. Giles, to 
 whom the great collegiate church, afterwards 
 constituted the cathedral of the bishop of Edin- 
 burgh, was dedicated. The saint was accord- 
 ingly the object of profound popular veneration. 
 Just one century before, the city granted a 
 special charter to William Preston, of Gorton, 
 because of his having got from France " the 
 arm-hone of St. Geill,'" which precious relic 
 he presented to. the church of St. Giles. The 
 charter secured to him and his lineal descen- 
 dants the privilege of bearing the saint's arm- 
 bone in all public processions, and thereafter 
 large sums were expended on silver-Avork, 
 rings, jewels, and other costly decorations for 
 the supposed relic of the patron saint. The 
 special occasion for its display was the 1st of 
 September, the festival of St. Giles, when the 
 whole college of priests, with the magistrates, 
 corporations, and civic dignitaries of all sorts, 
 were wont to walk in grand procession, bearing 
 a huge wooden statue of the patron saint, along 
 with his relics. Sundry n(;tices of outlays for 
 repairing, painting, and decorating this image 
 appear in the old records of the town ; but the 
 time had at length come when the veneration 
 and worship of such stocks and stones was to 
 have an end in Scotland ; and not the least 
 influential cause of this happy change was 
 the celebrated reformer and poet, sir David 
 Lindsay. Only five years before the occasion 
 now referred to, his Monarchic was finished,
 
 114 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 in which he thus graphically describes the 
 superstitious honours rendered by the citizens 
 to their patron saint, and warns the clergy of 
 the recompense that awaits them : — 
 
 " Of Edinburgh the great idolatry, 
 And manifest abomination, 
 On their feast day ail creatures may see, 
 They bear an auld stock image through the town, 
 TVith tabret, trumpet, schaim, and clarion; 
 Which has been used mony a year bygone, 
 With priests and friars in procession, 
 Sic like as Bell was borne through Babylon. 
 
 " Fye on you, friars ! that uses for to preach 
 And does assist in such idolatry; 
 Why do you not the iirnorant people teach 
 How a dead image carved o' a tree. 
 As it were holy snould not honoured be, 
 Nor borne on burgess' backs thus up and down ; 
 But ye show plainly your hypocricy 
 When ye pass foremost in procession. 
 
 " Fye on you, fosterers of idolatry ! 
 That to a dead stock do such reverence, 
 In presence of the people publicly ; 
 Fear ye not God, committing such offence? 
 I counsel you do yet your diligence 
 To cause suppress sic great abusion; 
 For if you fail, I dread your recompence 
 Shall be nought else but clean confusion." 
 
 The leaven thus introduced in strains so well 
 adapted to the understanding of the people, was 
 not allowed to work long without producing its 
 fruits. The festival of the saint drew near, 
 when the wonted honours should be paid to 
 him, and the mob, watching their oppor- 
 tunity, contrived to gain entrance to the 
 church, and to get hold of the image. This 
 they bore in triumpli to the North Loch — a 
 favourite place for ducking certain classes of 
 offenders — and after treating St. Giles to an 
 immersion in the impure waters, they carried
 
 THE REGENCY OF MART DE GUISE. 115 
 
 it to a bonfire, and burned it to ashes. The 
 utmost wrath and consternation filled the 
 minds of the clergy on missing the image and 
 learning its fate. The magistrates were com- 
 manded to restore it, or be at the cost of pro- 
 viding another ; but the times were now greatly 
 changed, for they resolutely refused, alleging 
 the authority of Scripture for the destruction of 
 idols, and replying to the order of the bishop 
 for its restitution, that " they understood God 
 had in some places commanded idols and images 
 to be destroyed, but where he had commanded 
 images to be set up they had not read ; and 
 therefore desired the bishop to find a warrant 
 for his commandment." 
 
 The clergy, however, were resolved that St. 
 Giles's day should not pass without its wonted 
 procession. A small image of the saint was 
 borrowed from the Grey Friars' monastery in 
 the Grassmaiket, and firmly secured to the 
 shrine on which it was usually borne. " There 
 as3embled," says Knox, " priests, friars, ca- 
 nons, and paj)ists, with tabors and trumpets, 
 banners and bagpipes, and who was there to 
 lead the ring but the queen-regent herself, with 
 all her sliavellings, for honour of the feast." 
 The regent had been induced to bear her share 
 in the proceedings the more fully to honour the 
 occasion, and add a dignity to a service which 
 had so wonderfully lost its reverence in popular 
 estimation. 
 
 The presence of the queen-regent had the 
 desired effect, and the saint was borne down
 
 116 OLD EDINBUHGH. 
 
 tbe High-street, to the Canongate Cross unmo- 
 lested ; but she had engaged to honour one of 
 the citizens with her company to dinner, and 
 no sooner did she withdraw than the populace 
 proceeded to testify their estimation of the 
 honours thus rendered to " the Little St. Giles," 
 as they contemptuously termed the borrowed 
 image. The old reformer thus graphically 
 pictures the scene that followed : — " Imme- 
 diately after the queen had entered the lodging, 
 some of those engaged in the enterprise drew 
 near to the idol, as if willing to help in bearing 
 him, and getting the fertour on their shoulders, 
 they began to jolt it, thinking thereby to have 
 thrown the idol down ; but that was prevented 
 by the iron nails with which it was secured, so 
 the cry began, * Down with the idol !' and St. 
 Giles was soon brought to the ground, like his 
 predecessor. One of the rioters then taking 
 him by the heels, dashed his head on the 
 causeway, and left Dagon without head or 
 hands, exclaiming, ' Fye upon thee, young 
 St. Geile, thy father would have withstood such 
 usage fourfold ! ' 
 
 "Some boasting made. the priests at first," 
 adds the old reformer, " but when they saw the 
 feebleness of their god, the monks and friars 
 fled faster than they did at Pinkie Cleuch. 
 There miglit have been seen so sudden a fray 
 as rarely has been witnessed amongst that sort 
 of men within this realm ; for down go the 
 crosses, off go the surplices, and round caps 
 that cover bare crowns. The Grey Friars
 
 THE REGEis^CY OF MARY BE GUISE. 117 
 
 gaped, the Black Friars blew, the priests 
 panted and fled ; and happy M-as he that first 
 got home, for such a sudden fra}^ came never 
 among the generation of antichrist within this 
 realm before." 
 
 This incident of the St. Giles's day riot is 
 singularly characteristic of the remarkable 
 change which a very few years had wrought 
 on the people, since they witnessed in silence, 
 if not with approbation, the burning to death 
 on the Castle-hill, or at the cross of Greenside, 
 the Christian confessors, whose only crime was 
 the reading of the Bible and the rejection of 
 the mass. The last days of the Romish church 
 in Scotland were manifestly near at hand, and 
 the last provincial assembly of the clergy, con- 
 vened in the Blackfriars monastery for the 
 purpose of devising measures to save the 
 church from its threatened peril, was dissolved, 
 it is said, without having been able to suggest a 
 remedy, on the very day that John Knox 
 landed at Leith on his return from the continent. 
 
 The lords of the congregation noAv appear as 
 an influential agency in the progress of Scottish 
 history. Including among their numbers the 
 chief of the reforming barons, they speedily 
 organized a movement for ridding the country 
 of the grosser evils of the Romish church. 
 The populace lost no time in pushing such an 
 example to the uttermost. Mobs in Edinburgh 
 attacked the monasteries of both the Black and 
 the Grey IViars, and left only the bare walls 
 standing. The reformers sought merely to
 
 118 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 remove the images, altars, and monuments of 
 idolatry ; but uhen the work commenced, it 
 was difficult to keep the populace within 
 bounds. St. Giles's Church, Holyrood Abbey, 
 the Kirk of Field, the Trinity College, and other 
 churches were all visited ; their altars thrown 
 down, the images destroyed or burned, and 
 much of their beautiful carved work and stalls 
 defaced. 
 
 The queen-regent and the Protestant party, 
 after a few ineffectual attempts at compromise, 
 at length came to an open rupture. The regent 
 retreated within the protection of the fortifica- 
 tions of Leith, which was held for her by the 
 French garrison ; while the Protestant party 
 mustered their forces and invested it, with the 
 resolution of driving the French troops from 
 the kingdom. As the sti'ife became more vio- 
 lent, new elements were added. The English 
 queen openly espoused the cause of the Pj'O- 
 testant party, and in 1560, lord Grey of 
 Wilton arrived to their aid with six thousand 
 English troops. The queen-regent already felt 
 ihe approaches of that illness of which she died, 
 and was soon glad to escape from the dangers 
 and privations incident to a siege, by retiring 
 within the Avails of Edinburgh Castle. From 
 its ramparts she daily watched the operations 
 against Leith, where the French garrison were 
 at length reduced to the necessity of eating the 
 horses of their men-at-arms. But she did not 
 live to witness the fall of Leith. Suffering 
 alike from bodily pain and mental anguish,
 
 THE REGENCY OF MARY DE GUISE. 119 
 
 she once more resumed the conciliatory spirit 
 which had secured her so much influence at 
 an earlier date, and now strove to effect a 
 reconciliation between the contending parties, 
 that she might, if possible, resign the sceptre 
 to her daughter free from the contentions which 
 had imbittered nearly the whole period of her 
 regency. 
 
 When IMary de Guise found her end ap- 
 proaching, she requested an interview with the 
 lords of the congregation. The lord James 
 Stuart, and the earls of Argyle, Marischal, and 
 Glencairn, forthwith repaired to the castle, 
 where they were received by the dying regent 
 with such tenderness as greatly moved them. 
 She extended her hand to each as she sought 
 their forgiveness, and prayed them to be loyal 
 and true men to her young daughter, Mary 
 queen of Scots. She expressed deep grief for 
 the evils which had resulted from her adminis- 
 tration, and besought their forgiveness. 
 
 John Willock, one of the gentlest of the 
 reforming preachers, was present, and, with the 
 others, was moved to tears. He conversed 
 with her long on the momentous questions 
 which alone have value at so solemn an hour. 
 Pie besought her to seek mercy through the 
 death of Christ, and to hope for justification 
 by God's free grace, through faith in the peace- 
 speaking blood of his Son. At the same time, 
 the preacher urged her to acknowledge the 
 mass to be a relic of idolatry. She assured 
 him that she looked for salvation ia no other
 
 120 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 way than tliroiigli the deatli of the Saviour ; 
 and without replying to his further exhortation, 
 she bade him fiirewelL The queen-regent died 
 on the following day, June 10th, 1560. The 
 reformed preachers refused to permit her 
 burial according to the rites of the Romish 
 church ; for whatever may be the ideas of 
 toleration now entertained, these stern old 
 reformers, who had tliemselves witnessed the 
 fruits of Romish superstition, alike in its cruel 
 spirit of persecution, and the antagonism of its 
 idolatrous creed to all true Christian teaching, 
 deemed the permission of any popish service a 
 sanctioning of sin. Her body was accordingly 
 placed in a leaden coffin, and lay in the castle 
 nnburied till the Och of October, when it was 
 conveyed on board a vessel at Leith, and trans- 
 ported to France. There it was removed to the 
 Benedictine monastery of Rheims, whereof the 
 sister of Mary de Guise Avas abbess ; and was 
 at length interred with unmaimed rites.
 
 MAHY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 121 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 
 The reign of Mary queen of Scots, and her 
 active interest in the government of her king- 
 dom, may be dated from the death of her 
 mother, the regent, Mary de Guise, Avho had so 
 long struggled to maintain the cause of the 
 Romish church, and the influence of the French 
 party in Scotland. In both, however, she had 
 signally failed ; and the triumph of the Pro- 
 testant party, with which queen Elizabeth was 
 in close alliance, had become inevitable. The 
 death of the queen-regent, however, helped to 
 facilitate the arrangements now entered into, 
 which sealed the triumph of the Congregation, 
 as the Protestant party was called. On the 8th 
 of July, 1560, a treaty was signed at Edin- 
 burgh, which secured the immediate abandon- 
 ment of the country both by the French and 
 English troops, that had been the allies of tlie 
 rival parties into which Scotland was divided. 
 As soon as the dominant party thus saw all 
 their fondest wishes realized, a solemn public 
 thanksgiving was held by the reformed nobles
 
 122 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 and the leaders of the Congregation in St. Giles's 
 Church, where John Knox officiated, and 
 acknowledged the mercy of God in delivering 
 them from that corrupt and erring church, 
 ■whose worship he pronounced to be abominable 
 and idolatrous. The first steps were then taken 
 for establishing the Protestant religion in Scot- 
 land on a permanent footing. John Knox was 
 appointed to the ministerial charge of Edin- 
 burgh, and other ministers were nominated to 
 the pastoral charge of St. Andrew's, Perth, 
 Aberdeen, Dundee, Leith, and other principal 
 towns of Scotland. Superintendents were also 
 chosen, whose functions were not greatly dif- 
 ferent from those of the bishops whom they 
 were to supersede, though they abjured the 
 hated name, and the church, when it finally 
 assumed its later Presbyterian form, dispensed 
 with them altogether. 
 
 But the preachers who were thus sent all 
 over the kingdom had other duties to perform. 
 The parliament, which was to give permanent 
 shape and legal authority to all they had been 
 struggling for during the long minority of the 
 queen, was to assemble at Edinburgh on the 
 1st of August, and it may be well believed that 
 the preacliers failed not to employ all their 
 inriuence at this momentous crisis, to secure the 
 assembly of such a parliament as sliould per- 
 manently sanction by the highest constitutional 
 authority the alteration of the religious consti- 
 tution of Scotland. On this point their influence 
 proved of no slight importance. To the inferior
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 123 
 
 nobles the attendance on parliament had long 
 been felt ms a costly and irksome duty, and the 
 great majority of them had ceased to make 
 their appeanmce. But these were the very 
 class among whom the reformed doctrines had 
 made most way, and they now resumed their 
 rights, bringing thus an accession of about a 
 hundred votes to the Protestant party. The 
 ecclesiastical benches, on the contrary, were 
 nearly deserted ; for fear, despondency, and 
 an unwillingness to witness the downfal of 
 their church, whose overthrow they could not 
 avert, kept the most of them away. With this 
 exception, however, the attendance of all ranks 
 was more numerous than had ever been seen by 
 any men of that time. 
 
 It was })leaded by some, who were inclined 
 to temporize, and by more who were opposed to 
 all reform, that the parliament could take no 
 steps till a commission arrived from the queen. 
 The Scottish parliament, however, had been too 
 long and frequently accustomed to the mere no- 
 minal control of sovereigns in their minorities, 
 or under the sway of defeated factions, to attach 
 much importance to this point, and they were 
 now, least of all, likely to yield to it, with a 
 triumphant majority within, and the great mass 
 of the people in their favour without. Mait- 
 land of Lethington was accordingly chosen 
 speaker, the crown and sceptre were placed on 
 the vacant throne as the emblems of majesty, 
 and thus fortified with the formalities of 
 constitutioual order, the Scottish parliament
 
 124 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 proceeded to complete the ^vork of reformation, 
 which had progressed with varying success for 
 upwards of twenty years. A petition, composed 
 in all probability by Knox, was laid before this 
 parliament, demanding the restoration of the 
 primitive discipline of the Christian church, the 
 proscription of Popery, the suppression of the 
 Eomish clergy, the condemnation of the doc- 
 trine of trausubstantiation, and the denounce- 
 ment of the mass, purgatory, pilgrimages, 
 prayers for the dead, and all the essential ele- 
 ments of the Eomish church. The parliament 
 abundantly satisfied the reformers on matters 
 of faith. The opponents of change were, indeed, 
 extremely few ; and even the archbishop of St. 
 Andrew's, and the bishops of Dunkeld and 
 Dunblane, while refusing to concur in the 
 sweeping measures of the reformers, craved 
 delay only, as they professed, that abuses might 
 be amended with mature dehberation. On this 
 point, however, even their right to have any 
 share in such deliberations was no longer 
 recognised ; and the interested sympathy ol' the 
 nobility in the new order of things was secured 
 by their obtaining in various ways a large 
 share of the property pertaining to the sup- 
 pressed monasteries. In some cases the great 
 abbey lands were converted into temporal 
 lordships ; and thus the singular anomaly 
 helps to confuse the new page of Scottish his- 
 tory, of titular priors, bishops, and abbots, 
 appearing the foremost among the reformers 
 who aimed at the overthrow of the Romish
 
 MARY QUKIiN OF SCOTS. 125 
 
 cliurch, and the establishment of that simple 
 Presbyterian polity still maintained in Scotland, 
 which recognises no difference of degrees in 
 the rank of the clergy. 
 
 It was by no timid or temporizing measures 
 that this parliament secured the overthrow ot 
 Popery in Scotland. Knox and others, who 
 now most largely influenced its movements, had 
 themselves passed weary years in prison and 
 exile, and in the cruel slavery of the French 
 galleys, at the hands of the Romish priests, and 
 many more had learned the practical value of a 
 purer faith in witnessing its power to sustain 
 the martyrs of the truth amidst the flames of the 
 faggot and stake. The blood of these martyrs, 
 who perished on the Castle-hill of Edinbui'gh, 
 and at the rood of Greenside, was the seed of 
 the church ; and we need not Avonder, if in 
 putting down the system which led to such 
 cruelties, the reformers were little inclined to 
 tolerate Popery under any form. It was indeed 
 a struggle, as it had been in Germany and 
 England, between the old and new faith, wherein 
 neither dreamt of the possibility of life while 
 the other remained. 
 
 The ministers of the reformed church of 
 Scotland proceeded in like manner, at the 
 desire of the parliament, to draw up a Confes- 
 sion of Faith, the Book of Discipline, and other 
 important documents, by which the entire 
 aspect of Scottish history has been largely 
 modified. In particuhir, it was in obedience to 
 the Book of Discipline that those parish schools
 
 126 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 were established throughout the country which 
 have so largely contributed to the prosperity 
 and true moral worth of the peasantry and 
 middle ranks from that time to our own day. 
 The results, indeed, of this famous Edinburgh 
 convocation of 1560 were of the most important 
 and lasting character. The immediate effect 
 was to constitute Scotland a sort of Protestant 
 republic, governed by its old nobility and new 
 clergy, and depending meanwhile more on the 
 countenf.nce and protection of England, than on 
 any favour it could hope for from its own 
 nominal sovereign. The deputation which pro- 
 ceeded to Paris to communicate to the queen 
 the proceedings of this parliament which had 
 abolished Popery in Scotland, was headed by 
 one of the singular lay impropriators of the 
 ecclesiastical titles and property of the old 
 church, sir James Sandilans, titular grand prior 
 of the Knights of St. John, who continued to 
 take a prominent share in the proceedings of 
 the reforming nobles. 
 
 It was not to be expected that all this popular 
 liberty could be so speedily secured without it 
 degenerating in some cases to licence. The 
 Book of Discipline gave large powers to the re- 
 formed clergy for the suppression of vice, and 
 the earliest attempts to enforce such discipline 
 were not always quietly submitted to. The 
 city council registers of the same year, 1560, 
 bear record of a serious riot originating in this 
 way. " That the work of reformation might 
 not be retarded, Sanderson, deacon of the
 
 MART QUEEN OF SCOTS. 127 
 
 fleshers, or butchers, was ordered by the council 
 to be carted for adultery." As deacon, he was 
 the head of his trade, and his punishment was 
 accordingly resented as an insult to the whole 
 body. They mustered for defence of their 
 rights, and being joined by many others of 
 their own class, they broke open the prison 
 and released their deacon ; nor were they sup- 
 pressed till the privy council interfered, and 
 after putting them down by force, committed 
 the ringleaders to safer durance in the castle. 
 
 A still more serious riot serves even better 
 to illustrate the manners of the age. Among 
 the favourite pastimes derived from an earlier 
 period, against which the reformers both of 
 Scotland and England directed their keenest 
 hostility, was the game of Kobin Hood. Both 
 this, and that of the Abbot of Unreason, or Lord 
 of Misrule, were more or less connected with the 
 practices of the Romish church, and were 
 usually celebrated on special holidays. That 
 of Robin Hood was played, on a Sunday or 
 holiday in May, and was, no doubt, attended 
 with a reprehensible degree of popular licence. 
 Bishop Latimer, it may be remembered, com- 
 plains in one of his sermons, preached before 
 Edward vi., that having given notice of his 
 intention to preach in a certain town on a par- 
 ticular holiday, when he came to the church 
 he found the door locked, and after being kept 
 half an hour waiting for the key, he was told 
 by one of his unwilling attendants, " This is a 
 busy day with us ; we cannot hear you. It is
 
 128 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Eobin Hood's day. The parish are gone 
 abroad to gather for Itobin Hood ; I pray yoii 
 hinder them not." " I thought," says the 
 bishop, " my rochet should have been regarded, 
 though I Avere not ; but it would not serve ; 
 it was fain to give place to Robin Hood's men." 
 The Scottish clergy, however, had no idea of 
 giving place in such a manner, and the magis- 
 trates were called upon to put down the Robin 
 Hood play. The craftsmen and apprentices, not 
 choosing to be so balked, united together, and 
 resolved to revive the old pastime. The magis- 
 trates having interfered, a determined riot 
 ensued, which was carried so far that one of 
 the ringleaders was condemned to be hanged. 
 The gallows was accordingly erected at the 
 cross, and all preparations completed for the 
 execution of this severe sentence, when the 
 craftsmen once more resumed their weapons, 
 broke down the gallows, and put the magis- 
 trates to flight. The Tolbooth was next 
 assaulted and all the prisoners released, peace 
 being only restored at last by the magistrates 
 publishing a proclamation engaging that no one 
 should be punished for any share in the riots. 
 
 But a new character was now to add fresh 
 interest to the proceedings which mark this 
 period in the history of the Scottish capital. On 
 the 19th of August, 1561, the little fleet v/hich 
 brought from France the Scottish queen, cast 
 anchor in the Frith of Forth. A thick fog 
 concealed it as it entered on the previous day, 
 and Mary Stuart landed in the harbour of
 
 MAITY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 129 
 
 Lcitli before she was expected. As soon as the 
 news of her arrival became known, the people 
 flocked from all quarters to welcome her, and 
 the nobility hiistened to conduct her to the 
 palace of lloljrood. Nothing was wanting to 
 testify the hearty loyalty and affection of her 
 subjects. But the fogs of the Scottish coast 
 contrasted unftivourably with the sunny skies 
 of France ; and the young queen could not 
 help mournfully comparing the poor cortege 
 and rough mountain ponies brought for her 
 retinue, with the gorgeous pageants to which 
 she had been accustomed at the court of France. 
 Even the demonstrations of popular loyalty 
 served to remind her how completely she was 
 a stranger among her own people. During the 
 evening the citizens assembled beneath her 
 window in the palace of Holyrood, to play on 
 their three-stringed violins, and to sing psalms, 
 in demonstration of their joy at her return. 
 " The sound of their discordant music," says one 
 of her latest biographers, " and the hymns of a 
 creed which she deemed gloomy and heretical, 
 added to the melancholy impressions experienced 
 by Mary Stuart on returning to a country 
 where she felt she was a stranger ; whose 
 manners she had not adopted, and whose faith 
 she no longer shared." 
 
 It would not be easy to conceive a more try- 
 ing position for a sovereign than that which the 
 young queen of Scots was called upon to fill. 
 Fresh from the gay court of Roman Catholic 
 France, she had to deal with Prolcstant nobles 
 E
 
 130 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 who had long been accustomed to independence 
 and revolt, and -with a people just awaking to 
 all the ideas of personal liberty resulting I'lom 
 the struggle in which they had triumphed. 
 Her position, moreover, was peculiar, as the 
 Roman Catholic sovereign of a Protestant peo- 
 ple; and much as we must sympathize in the 
 triumph of the truth over Komish errors and 
 corruptions, it is impossible to overlook the 
 fact that the intolerance experienced by her 
 from her Protestant subjects was little calcu- 
 lated to wean her from the faith in which she 
 had been nurtured, or to induce her to look 
 with a favourable eye on that which her people 
 had adopted with so resolute a zeal. Her first 
 proceedings were characterized by wisdom and 
 moderation. She placed herself, to a great 
 extent, under the guidance of lord James 
 Stuart and lord Lethiiigton, the two Protestant 
 leaders; and declared that, as she meant to 
 constrain none of her subjects on matters of 
 faith, she trusted that they would not wish to 
 constrain her. But this toleration was more 
 than the zealous reformers deemed themselves 
 justified in permitting. They had already put^ 
 down the mass as a national sin in the sight of 
 God, and they regarded its restoration, even 
 under circumstances so limited and peculiar, 
 as the re-establishment of idolatry. " One 
 mass," said Knox, " is more fearful to me than 
 if ten thousand armed enemies were landed in 
 any part of the realm." Accordingly, when, on 
 the first Sunday after the queen's arrival, mass
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 131 
 
 was celebrated in her private chapel at Holy- 
 rood, the rumour almost excited the citizens 
 of Edinburgh to insurrection. The ministers 
 threatened, and the general exclamation was, 
 as John Knox says, " That idol shall not be 
 suffered « gain to take place within this reahni" 
 A party ot" the more zealous citizens was soon 
 excited to action; and the master of Lindsay, 
 clad in mail, and followed by a troop of men 
 armed and ready for the utmost violence, 
 rushed into the court-yard of Ilolyrood Palace, 
 crying out that " the idolatrous priests should 
 die the death, according to God's law!" Lord 
 James Stuart had made preparations for pre- 
 venting any interruption to the services con- 
 ducted in accordance with the queen's religious 
 opinions, an interruption which he knew Irom 
 the temper of the times to be by no means 
 improbable. 
 
 The opinion of the early reformers, as to 
 the utter impossibility of extending toleration, 
 or permitting any religious freedom to Roman 
 Catholics, is sufficiently manifested in a letter 
 written by Knox at this time to his friend 
 Calvin, to whom he observes, " The queen had 
 scarcely been back three days, before the idol 
 of the mass was again set up." He then refers 
 to the opinion of the more moderate Protestant 
 party: " That it is not lawful lor us to prevent 
 the queen from practising her religion. Al- 
 though," he adds, " I contradict this rumour, 
 which appears to me very false, it has taken 
 such deep root in men's hearts, that it will be
 
 182 OLD EDINBURGH 
 
 impossible for me to dislodge it, unless I learn 
 from you the opinion of the church." Such, it 
 must be owned, was not the spirit most likely 
 to wean the young queen from the faith in 
 which she had been reared, or from the pre- 
 judices which she could not fail to imbibe at the 
 court of France, against all who maintained (he 
 doctrines of the Protestant Reformation. In 
 justice to the reformers, however, it must be 
 remembered, that religious toleration was then 
 a doctrine almost entirely unknown, and that 
 they were too recently escaped from the yoke 
 of the Romish church to have thoroughly eman- 
 cipated themselves from its intolerant spirit. 
 
 The zeal of the Protestant party found rather 
 a novel mode of displaying itself before the 
 queen, on her first public entrance into the city. 
 Preparations w^ere made for her reception on a 
 magnificent scale. After having dined in the 
 castle, she proceeded towards the west gate of 
 the city, where she was met by a train of fifty 
 black slaves, gorgeously apparelled, while twelve 
 of the chief citizens, dressed in rich velvet 
 gowns and crimson satin doublets, bore a 
 canopy of violet-coloured velvet, under which 
 she rode in state, accompanied by the nobility 
 and principal burgesses. The whole prepara- 
 tions for fitly receiving the queen were of the 
 like costly description. All the citizens were 
 required to appear in gowns of fine French 
 satin and coats of velvet, and the young men 
 were commanded to devise for themselves some 
 befitting habiliments of taffeta or other silk, to
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 133 
 
 convey the court in triiimpli. Immediately on 
 the queen's entry Avithin the precincts of the 
 city, a lovely boy of six years of age descended 
 from a globe, and addressing her in congratu- 
 latory verses, at Avhich she was seen to smile, 
 presented lier Avitli the keys of the city, a 
 Psalter, and the Erjglish Bible. Had the zeal 
 of the citizens stopped here it would have been 
 well. But it was a fashion of the age to pre- 
 sent on such occasions masks and pageants, 
 derived for the most part from the old mys- 
 steries of the Komish church, and this custom 
 was now turned to full account. The royal 
 procession was stopped at a convenient spot, 
 and one of these mysteries was performed, 
 in which Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were 
 swallowed up by the earth, Avliile offering 
 strange fire upon the altar, as a warning of 
 the vengeance of God upon idolaters. Nor did 
 even this significant interlude satisfy the po- 
 pular desire to set forth the new opinions 
 before the queen. Another had been provided, 
 in which a priest Avas to have been burned r.t 
 the altar while elevating the host ; but the 
 e;irl of Huntly persuaded the parties with some 
 difiiculty to desist from so gross an outrage on 
 the queen's feelings and religious opinions, and 
 to content themselves with the abstruser 
 allegory. 
 
 Thus strangely did the citizens of Edinburgh 
 endeavour at once to hail Mary as their sove- 
 reign, and to menace her as a Eoman Catholic. 
 She was inclined , however, to overlook such
 
 134 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 excesses of popular feeling, and had no reason 
 otherwise to complain of any want of loyalty. 
 All the public way through which she passed 
 was adorned with splendid hangings and de- 
 vices, and she was entertained by the magis- 
 trates at a public banquet, given in the ancient 
 archiepiscopal palace, which still stands — a 
 strangely faded memorial of such olden times — 
 in the Cowgate of Edinburgh. 
 
 Queen Mary was at this time, we may 
 observe, guided almost entirely by her brother 
 the lord James's counsel, and she pursued a 
 wise and conciliating policy to all. At this 
 period, as we learn from various public do- 
 cimients, the ancient Tolbooth, or Hotel de 
 Ville of Edinburgh, where the Scottish parlia- 
 ments usually assembled, and the courts of jus- 
 tice were held, had become ruinous ; and, in 
 accordance with a royal letter issued by the 
 queen, it was removed, and the building 
 erected in its stead which became famous in 
 later days under its more popular name of the 
 " Heart of Midlothian." During the progress 
 of the new erection, accommodation was pro- 
 vided for the meetings of the council and the 
 court of session in one of the transepts of St. 
 Giles's Church, known as the IIoli/ Blood Aisle; 
 a sufficiently significant name, suggestive of 
 one of the favourite miraculous relics of the 
 Romish church. 
 
 The arms of the city of Edinburgh appear, 
 up to this date, to have been the insignia of the 
 patron saint, St. Giles, who is usually represented,
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, 185 
 
 in accordance Avith the old legend of the "Romish 
 chnrch, with a fawn beside him. This, however, 
 could no longer be tolerated, when all other 
 emblems and memorials of superstition were 
 being swept away. An act of the town council 
 of the year 1562, accordingly, orders the idol 
 to be cut out of the town's standard, and a 
 thistle to be put in its room. The latter w^as 
 afterwards replaced by a more regular specimen 
 of the herald's pictorial art, and the saint's fawn 
 alone now appears as one of the supporters o^ 
 the city arms.
 
 136 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MURDER OF RIZZIO AND DARNLEY. 
 
 A BRIEF period of peace, succeeded by another 
 of resolute triumph over her opponents, marked 
 the first years of queen Mary's reign, and then 
 followed the terrible incidents which to this day 
 confer a singular interest on Edinburgh to the 
 eye of strangers. The opposition of the citizens 
 to any toleration of the mass, however privately 
 celebrated, continued unabated. During the 
 queen's absence at Stirhng, her private chapel 
 at Holyrood was broken into, and the queen's 
 domestics, as well as the officiating priest, 
 threatened with the terrors of the law for con- 
 ducting and abetting the Romish services. 
 
 A still more serious display of zeal was 
 manifested at Easter, in 15G5, when sir James 
 Tarbet, a Roman Catholic priest, was seized by 
 an Edinburgh mob, headed by one of the 
 bailies, as he was riding home from celebrating 
 mass. He was imprisoned in the Tolbooih, 
 along with several of his assailants ; but this 
 by no means satisfied the populace, who broke
 
 MURDER OF RIZZIO AND DARNLEV. 137 
 
 into tlie prison, brought him forth, and clothing 
 him in his sacerdotal robes, set him up in the 
 pillory at the Market Cross, where he was ex- 
 posed for an hour to the pelting of the mob. 
 lie was then brought to trial, and again con- 
 demned to the pillory for having celebrated 
 mass contrary to law. On this second occasion, 
 the common hangman was appointed to preside 
 at the pillory, and so rudely was the poor priest 
 maltreated by the rabble, that he was reported 
 to be dead. Such proceedings could not fail to 
 exasperate the queen, and from this time for- 
 ward she became more and more alienated 
 from the Protestant party. 
 
 On the 28th of July, 1565,Darnley was pro- 
 claimed king at the Market Cross of Edinburgh, 
 and on the following day he was married to the 
 queen in the chapel of Holyrood, by the dean 
 of Eestaliig. Lord Henry Darnley, the son of 
 the earl of Lennox, a member of the royal 
 liouse of Stuart, and of lady Margaret Douglas, 
 the granddaughter of Henry vii. of England 
 through Margaret Tudor, the widow of James 
 IV., was as suitable a marriage as the queen 
 could make among the subjects of Scotland or 
 England, and mutual affection seemed at the 
 time to give promise of the happiest results. 
 Bat reasonable and auspicious as it appeared, 
 this was a fital union. Politically, it awoke 
 the jealousy of England, and excited fresh fears 
 in the minds of Mary's Protestant subjects ; 
 while Darnley himself proved a weak, vain, 
 ambitious youth, Avho became the tool of his 
 
 E 2
 
 188 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 own and his Avife's opponents, and involved 
 both in misery and ruin. 
 
 On the 9th of March, 1566, the queen was 
 at supper in her cabinet at Holy rood Palace, 
 in company with the countess of Argyle and 
 lord Robert Stuart, her natural sister and 
 brother, and other members of the court, 
 among whom was her private secretary, David 
 Rizzio, when her husband Darnley admitted a 
 body of armed assassins into his apartments in 
 the north-west tower of the palace, immediately 
 below those of the queen, and communicating 
 with them by a private staircase. The chief 
 conspirators included lords Morton and Lind- 
 say, who, with a body of about two hundred 
 armed men, occupied the court-yard, and seized 
 the gates of the palace ; while lord Kuthven, 
 Ker of Fawdonside, Patrick Bellenden, and 
 George Douglas, followed Darnley to execute 
 the bloody purpose for which they were assem- 
 bled. Darnley himself first ascended the stair, 
 and throwing back the tapestry, which is still 
 shown, concealing the secret door, he entered 
 the small apartment in the north-west turret 
 where the queen and her friends were seated at 
 supper. On entering, he took his seat behind 
 the queen, who turned towards him and em- 
 braced him affectionately. A minute had 
 scarcely ela[)sed when lord Ruthven, clad in 
 complete armour, and pale and haggard fjoni 
 disease, stalked into the room, lie was followed 
 immediately by the other conspirators, armed 
 "with pistols and daggers ; and the queen, who
 
 MURDER OF RIZZIO AND DARNLEY. 139 
 
 was now fiir advanced in pregnancy, sprang up 
 in alarm, and demanded by whose permission 
 they had dared thus to intrude on Jier presence. 
 She then ordered Ruthven to retire, on pain of 
 treason; but without vouchsafing her a reply 
 he drew his dagger, and attempted to lay hold 
 of Rizzio, who sprang behind the queen, and 
 clinging to her dress, wildly besought her to 
 save his life. Darnley, who had hitherto affected 
 ignorance of the objects of the conspirators, now 
 interfered, and loosing the hands of the wretched 
 Italian from the queen's robes, and grasping the 
 queen in his arms, he withheld her from further 
 attempts to save him, while the conspirators 
 dragged him from her cabinet, and through her 
 bedroom to the entrance of her presence-cham- 
 ber. Morton and Lindsay wished to have kept 
 him for execution with some show of justice, 
 but George Douglas, more impatient than they, 
 struck him as he reached the outer doorway 
 with the king's dagger, which he had got hold 
 of, and the others immediately rushing upon 
 him, pierced his body with their daggers, 
 leaving a pool of blood on the chamber floor, 
 the marks of which are believed still to remain, 
 and are pointed out to the credulous visitor at 
 the present day. So determined were the con- 
 spirators in their bloody purpose, that the body 
 was mangled with fifty-six wou.ids, and the 
 corpse was then thrown out of the window into 
 the court- yard. 
 
 The utmost consternation was excited both 
 in the palace and town by this iai'ing assassi-
 
 140 OLD EDINBURGH, 
 
 nation. The earls of Huntly, Bothwell, and 
 Athol, the lords Fleming and Livingstone, and 
 sir James Balfour, were all in Holyrood when 
 the conspirators effected an entrance, and hastily 
 fled ; the first two of them effecting their escape 
 by means of a rope from one of the palace 
 windows. 
 
 The provost of Edinburgh having been ap- 
 prised of the tumult in the palace, sounded the 
 tocsin, and assembling a body of armed citi- 
 zens, presented himself at Holyrood, and de- 
 manded admission to the queen. The chief 
 actors in the deed made their escape by a small 
 and picturesque lodge, still existing, on the 
 north side of the palace garden, popularly 
 known as Queen Maiy's Bath. In the course 
 of some repairs executed a few years since on 
 the roof of this building, a rusty dagger, with 
 the blade richly inlaid, was discovered sticking 
 in one of the planks. This the discoverers sup- 
 posed, not without some appearance^ of proba- 
 bility, to have remained there from the flight 
 of the murderers of Eizzio. As the provost and 
 citizens insisted on admission, Darnley went 
 out to them, and thanking them for their loyal 
 zeal, assured them of the safety of the queen, 
 and informed them that no harm had happened 
 to any one but the Italian secretary, who had 
 been put to death " because he had conspired 
 with the pope and the king of Spain to intro- 
 duce foreign troops into the country, to conquer 
 it, and restore the ancient religion." 
 
 A flat stone, with some nearly obliterated
 
 MURDER OF RIZZIO AND DARNLEY. 141 
 
 carving upon it, is pointed out in the aisle which 
 connects the modern quadrangle of the palace 
 with the remains of the ancient abbey church, 
 as marking the grave of Eizzio. 
 
 This cruel deed was the turning point in the 
 history of the unhappy Scottish queen. In the 
 struggle which preceded the seizure of her 
 doomed secretary, the supper table was over- 
 turned upon her, and she received considerable 
 injury; yet during the whole of that terrible 
 night she remained captive in her room, with- 
 out being permitted access even to her servants, 
 or any of the ladies in waiting. Accustomed to 
 control her feelings, she now felt herself com- 
 pelled to dissemble her wrath. By means of 
 the winning blandishments which won so many 
 to her aid, even when a captive and for ever 
 shut out from the throne of her kingdom, she 
 soon succeeded in detaching her weak and 
 facile husband from the conspirators wdth 
 whom he had leagued in the murder of Rizzio. 
 Escaping from the palace at midnight, they fled 
 first to Seaton, and then to Dunbar. After an 
 Jibsence of a few days, the queen returned to 
 Edinburgh; but she shuddered at the thought 
 of re-entering the blood-stained apartments of 
 Holyrood Palace, and she and Daruley took up 
 their abode in the house of a private citizen in 
 the High-street. From thence the queen re- 
 moved, after a few days, nearer the castle, her 
 residence being in all probability the mansion 
 built by her mother on the Castle-hill, to which 
 allusion has previously been made.
 
 142 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Lord Euthven, the chief actor in the assassi- 
 nation of Eizzio, had risen from a sick bed to 
 bear his part in the cruel deed. He fled to 
 Newcastle, and died there. The other pro- 
 minent sharers in the deed escaped for the time 
 beyond reach of the queen, and only two of 
 their humbler agents suffered for the crime : 
 Thomas Scott, the deputy of lord Euthven as 
 sheriff of Perth, and Henry Yair, one of his 
 inferior retainers. They are the first criminals 
 known to have been executed by the Scottish 
 maiden — a curious ancient guillotine of rude 
 workmanship, still preserved in the IMuseum of 
 the Scottish Antiquaries at Edinburgh, and by 
 which, as is stated in the synopsis of that in- 
 teresting collection, were subsequently beheaded 
 " the regent Morton, sir John Gordon of Haddo, 
 president Spottiswoode, the marquis of Ar- 
 gyle, the earl of Argyle, besides many others of 
 the noblest and best blood in Scotland." 
 
 The period of the queen's accouchment now 
 drew near, and with the advice of her council 
 she took up her residence within the old palace 
 in Edinburgh Castle, in one of the rooms of 
 which her mother, Mary de Guise, had expired. 
 Over the entrance to this part of the castle, a 
 stone tablet, put \ip, as is believed, preparatory 
 to the visit of James vi. to Scotland in 1617, 
 bears the letters II: A: M: wrought into a mo- 
 nogram for Hknuy and ]\Iaky, with the date 
 1566, commemorative of the birth of James on 
 the 19th June of that year. The small room 
 which was the scene of this important event is
 
 MURDER OF RIZZIO AND DARNLEY. 143 
 
 an irregular chamber, in the south-east angle of 
 the old castle, measuring little more than 
 eight feet in its greatest length. The original 
 panelled ceiling is decorated with the roj^al ini- 
 tials I.E. and M. R., in alternate compartments, 
 each surmounted by a crown, and on the wall 
 is the following quaint distich, put up, as its 
 contents show, during the life of the queen : — 
 
 Lord Jesu Chryst, that crownit was with Thornes, 
 Preserve the Birth, quhais Badgie heir is borne, 
 And send hir Sonne successione to Reigne still 
 Lang in this realme, if that it be thy will, 
 Als, grant, O Lord, qiiliat ever of Hir proseed 
 Be to thv Honor and Prais, sobied. 
 19th IVN 11, 1566. 
 
 The room in which the infant was born, in 
 whom the rival crowns of Elizabeth and Mary 
 were afterwards united, has recently been re- 
 stored, with judicious care, as nearly as possible 
 to its original condition, and it now forms one 
 of the most popular attractions to the numerous 
 visitors who proceed to the ancient fortress to 
 examine the crown of Bruce, the sword of 
 James iv., the Stuart jewels, — restored on the 
 death of cardinal York, the brother of prince 
 Charles Edward, — and the other interesting 
 relics which contribute to crowd so many his- 
 torical associations on the mind in connexion 
 with the old Castle of Edinburgh. 
 
 The birth of a prince, and an heir to the 
 Scottish throne, was a source of the liveliest 
 joy to the citizens. A public thanksgiving was 
 offered up on the following day in the church of 
 St. Giles, and sir James Melvil was despatched 
 to London to communicate the intelligence to
 
 144 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 the English court ; and, as the author of the 
 " Memorials of Edinburgh " says, " posted with 
 such speed that he reached London on tlie 
 fourth day thereafter, and spoiled her majesty's 
 mirth for one uiaht, at least, with the ' happy 
 news.' " 
 
 The queen had dissembled her wrath at the 
 murder of Eizzio, and weaned her imbecile 
 husband from co-operating with the conspira- 
 tors wlio had leairued with him to effect that 
 
 o 
 
 barbarous deed. There is little doubt, hov/- 
 ever, that from that moment she resolved on 
 taking vengeance on the perpetrators of the 
 crime, and the conduct of Darnley was in no 
 degree calculated to make her forget the part 
 he had played in that gross outrage on her 
 person, and on her rights as a sovereign, as 
 well as on her character as a woman. He was 
 a vain, weak, and unstable man, who by his 
 folly alienated from him the interest and affec- 
 tions of every political party, and by his gross 
 licentiousness rendered himself an object of dis- 
 gust to the queen. His destruction had already 
 been resolved on, when he was seized at Glas- 
 gow with a loathsome disease, described by 
 some writers as smallpox. On his partial re- 
 covery he was removed to Edinburgh, and 
 lodged in the mansion of the provost of the 
 collegiate church of St. Mary- in -the -Field, 
 as a salubrious place. This ancient church 
 stood on the site of University Buildings, and 
 the infirmary now occupies the ground of the 
 provost's mansion where Darnley was lodged.
 
 MURDER OF RIZZIO AND DARNLEY. 145 
 
 There he was frequently visited by the queen, 
 nnd she spent the evening of the 9th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1567, with him, leaving him at eleven 
 o'clock to return to Holyrood Palace, where a 
 banquet was to be given on occasion of the 
 marriage of one of her servants. The most 
 minute account of the proceedings of this night 
 are preserved to us in the depositions afterv\'ards 
 taken in investigating into the murder which 
 was then perpetrated ; and one of Bothwell's 
 servants states in his evidence, that when re- 
 turning from the Kirk of Field to the lodging 
 of his master, he saw the queen going before 
 liim with lighted torches, as he went up Black- 
 friars Wynd; so that it would appear the queen 
 walked home with a few attendants, passing up 
 the close, and proceeding by the Canongate to 
 the palace, much as any ordinary citizen would 
 have done. 
 
 About three hours after the queen's de- 
 parture, a loud explosion, which shook the 
 whole town, blew the lodging of Darnley into 
 the air, and his body, with that of his servant, 
 were found at some little distance, under cir- 
 cumstances which seemed to prove that they 
 had been strangled before the explosion took 
 place, and afterwards carried to the spot where 
 they were found. The queen's implication in 
 this dark deed has been the subject of much 
 dispute, and there may perhaps still exist ad- 
 vocates to maintain her innocence ; but her 
 latest biographer, Mignet, who has many of 
 the requisites for a candid and impartial
 
 146 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 historian, entertains no doubt of her guilt ; and 
 her immediate intercourse and speedy mar- 
 riage with Bothwell, the active agent in the 
 murderous deed, unhappily furnishes such 
 corroboration of the charge as cannot easily 
 be set aside. But whether innocent or guilty, 
 the murder of Darnley proved fatal to Mary 
 queen of Scots. After the brief interval which 
 transpired between that deed and her marriage 
 Avith the murderer, she surrendered to the earl 
 of Morton, at Carbery-hill, near Musselburgh, 
 on the 15th of June, 1567; and late the same 
 evening she entered her capital a prisoner in 
 the hands of her captors. 
 
 Dark as it was, the captive queen was 
 recognised as she passed along the streets, and 
 was assailed with insulting cries by the rude 
 populace. She was lodged for the night in an 
 ancient building in the High-street, called the 
 Black Turnpike, the town mansion of the pro- 
 vost, sir Simon Preston ; and the following 
 evening she quitted Edinburgh for the last 
 time, on her way to the scene of her first cap- 
 tivity in the Castle of Lochleven. On that 
 night, the IGt.h of June, 1567, the sceptre of 
 Scotland passed away for ever from her grasp; 
 and the historian of Edinburgh is no longer called 
 upon to follow out the incidents of that sad and 
 sorrowful career, wdiich, by the wrongs and suf- 
 ferings that were crowded into it, has served to 
 cast into the shade those darker incidents which 
 mark the period of her life from the marriage 
 of Darnley to his sudden and violent death.
 
 THE king's and QUEEn'S MEN. 147 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 THE king's AND QUEEN's MEN. 
 
 The defeat of queen Mary's small hand of 
 adherents, and the steps which followed on her 
 forced abdication, placed the crown of Scotland 
 nominally on the head of her infant son, James 
 VI., and once more subjected the kingdom to 
 the oft-experienced evils of a long minority. 
 The residence of the young king was almost 
 entirely at Stirling, and Edinburgh ceased to 
 be enlivened with the presence of royalty. The 
 successive regents, however, frequently abode 
 there, and the councils of the nation continued 
 to hold their chief deliberations within its walls. 
 The queen still found adherents, and the 
 country was divided into king's and queen's 
 men, who were for the most part, in other 
 words, Protestants and Roman Catholics. In 
 England also, where the Scottish queen was 
 lield a prisoner, under circumstances strongly 
 calculated to excite sympathy in her behalf, 
 the Romish party plotted and secretly devised 
 plans for the restoration of the old faith in her
 
 14<S OLD EPIKBIT.GII. 
 
 name; and thus the interests of Elizabeth were 
 closely linked with all the movements of the 
 king's party in Scotland. One of the proceed- 
 ings resulting from this, connected with the 
 history of Edinburgh, was the famous siege of 
 the castle in 1572. 
 
 When the regent IMurray obtained possession 
 of the fortress, after the defeat of queen Mary at 
 Langside, he committed it to the care of the 
 celebrated sir William Ivirkaldy of Grange. 
 Maitland of Lethington, however, the most subtle 
 of all the Scottish statesmen of the period, was the 
 secret and persevering agent of the queen's party 
 both in England and Scotland; and under his 
 influence the new governor of Edinburgh Castle 
 was before long gained over to the cause of Mary. 
 This was an important accession, securing as 
 it did one of the chief fortresses of the kingdom 
 for her adherents; and when, after the brief 
 duration of Murray's regency, he fell by the 
 hand of an assassin, in January, 1570, the 
 queen's party once more acquired hope and 
 courage. The citizens of Edinburgh were now 
 placed, as it were, between two contending 
 forces. The earl of Lennox having been 
 appointed to the vacant regency, resolved to 
 hold a parliament in Edinburgh : this the 
 governor of the castle was bent on preventing, 
 and for that purpose took possession of St. 
 Giles's Church, and manned its tower with 
 musketeers. The regent's adherents marched 
 on the town in great force, erected batteries on 
 the Calton, and other available points, and
 
 THE king's AND queen's MEN. 149 
 
 battered the town, while the parliament as- 
 sembled in the Canongate, without the walls. 
 Sir William Ivirkaldy thereupon transferred his 
 soldiers to the old monastery of the Blackfriars, 
 and erecting a battery there, kept up a constant 
 firing on the quarter where the estates held 
 their meeting. Many houses, both in the city 
 and Canongate, were damaged, and the citizens 
 kept in danger of their lives. 
 
 This frightful state of aifairs continued with 
 little change till the month of July, 1572. The 
 earl of Mar cast up trenches in the Pleasance, 
 a suburb on the south side of the town, and 
 mounted artillery on Salisbury Crags, where- 
 with to batter the town ; while the governor of 
 the castle, with no less resolute zeal, rebuilt the 
 Nether Bow Port, the chief gate of the town, 
 fortified and renewed its walls, and spared no 
 pains to prepare the city for withstanding a 
 siege. At the same time, as if to encourage 
 the citizens by the promise of a freedom under 
 the queen's rule preferable to the restraints 
 imposed on them by the strict principles of the 
 reformers, the discarded sports of Eobin Hood 
 and Little John were renewed with the return 
 of IMay. 
 
 On the 27th of June the threatened siege 
 was averted, and the ominous strife brought 
 for the time to a close, a truce being procUiimed 
 at the city cross by the heralds, with the hearty 
 rejoicings of the people. 
 
 In the following month John Knox returned 
 to Edinburgh, after an absence of nearly two
 
 150 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 years. The house of the great reformer, which 
 still stands, is within a few yards of the site of 
 the Nether Bow Port, the principal gate of the 
 town,. and must therefore have been specially 
 exposed to the dangers arising from the siege. 
 The venerable reformer's life was now drawing 
 rapidly to a close, and his last days were 
 imbittered by the terrible news of the massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew, by which nearly all the 
 Protestants of France were exterminated, amidst 
 atrocities more horrible even than those of the 
 later reign of terror. 
 
 This frightful event, which occurred on the 
 24th of August, 1572, produced a powerful, 
 though very varying sensation throughout 
 Europe, and exercised a strong influence on the 
 movements of parties in Scotland. In France, 
 the horrible excesses of the populace at length 
 alarmed even the monarch who had instigated 
 them. But the courts of Rome and of Spain 
 were filled with joy and exultation at the news. 
 The pope went in procession to the church of 
 St. Lewis to render public thanksgiving for 
 such a signal triumph ; medals were struck in 
 commemoration of the deed of blood ; and the 
 Komanists throughout Europe ilattered them- 
 selves that Pj-otestantism had received its death- 
 blow. But it was not so. England, indeed, 
 heard it with terror, and when the fearful 
 tidings reached Scotland, its dying reformer 
 lifted up his expiring breath to God in prayer 
 on behalf of his suffering church. But at the 
 same time it helped to show more vividly to
 
 THE king's and QUEEN'S MEN. 151 
 
 the Protestants of Europe the true character of 
 the church of Rome, and in England and Scot- 
 land more especially, it gave fresh impulse to 
 the exertions of the Protestant party. 
 
 In both countries the unhappy Scottish queen 
 was the centre of all the hopes of the Romish 
 party, and queen Elizabeth now resolved to 
 employ her influence in establishing on a per- 
 manent and indisputable footing the Protestant, 
 or king's party, in the neighbouring kingdom. 
 Sir William Drury, governor of Berwick, was 
 ordered therefore to enter Scotland at the head 
 of a considerable force, to co-operate with those 
 acting in the name of the infant king. 
 
 Sir William Kirkaldy had adopted every 
 means for strengthening the garrison, and pre- 
 paring the Castle of Edinburgh for a lengthened 
 siege. Murray had been succeeded as regent 
 by Lennox, Lennox by Mar, and Mar by 
 Morton ; and it was the last of these, James 
 Douglas, earl of Morton, who, in laying the 
 dust of the great Scottish reformer, John Knox, 
 in his grave in St. Giles's Church, on the 26th 
 of November, 1572, pronounced over him the 
 emphatic words, which have been remembered 
 for their aptness and truth, " There lies he who 
 never feared the face of man." It was indeed a 
 singular evidence of the strange confliction of 
 parries in that age in which the Scottish Re- 
 formation was brought forth, that its leadt-r, 
 after bearding haughty prelates, queens, and 
 rulers, even in their palaces, after being con- 
 signed a prisoner and galley-slave to the French
 
 152 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 hulks, and forced more than once to flee to 
 foreign lands from the rage of his enemies, by 
 whom he was burned in effigy at the cross of 
 Edinburgh, should at length return to die in 
 peace there, in the house provided for him by 
 its magistrates, and be interred within the 
 precincts of the ancient collegiate Church of 
 St. Giles, amidst a nation's grief. 
 
 The keen feelings aroused in all men's minds 
 by the horrible deeds of the popish party in 
 France, encouraged the Protestants of Scotland 
 to take steps for rooting out the last remnant 
 of the queen's party. The siege of Edinburgh 
 Castle was now resolutely proceeded with. 
 Batteries were cast up around it, and all sup- 
 plies cut off. Its brave governor, one of the 
 most gallant captains of the age, failed not to 
 retaliate with equal resolution and bravery, 
 and as his operations involved great injury 
 to the town, and inflicted much suffering 
 on the citizens, a keen feeling of exasperation 
 was thereby excited against him. It was im- 
 possible, however, for the most resolute bravery 
 to maintain a fortress against the combined 
 forces of Scotland and England. There was 
 no army in the field to co-operate with the 
 garrison, or hold out the slightest hope of 
 relief; and at length, when the castle was 
 nearly reduced to a heap of ruins, and its only 
 remaining well was completely choked up with 
 the rubbish, sir William Kirkaldy offered to 
 capitulate. Such was its ruinous condition that 
 when a parley was demanded, the messenger
 
 THE king's and QUEEN'S MEN. . 153 
 
 had to be let over the wall by a rope. The 
 victors acted with unworthy vindjctiveness. 
 Instead of treating the vanquished captain as a 
 prisoner of war, he was dealt with as the 
 meanest felon. Sir William Drury delivered 
 him up to the regent, who was his bitter per- 
 sonal enemy, and by him both the governor of 
 the castle, his brother, sir James Kirkaldy, and 
 two citizens, who had been employed in coining 
 money in the name of the queen, were igno- 
 miniously hanged at the cross of Edinburgh, 
 and their heads exposed on the castle wall. 
 
 Amidst the scenes of civil strife and violence, 
 however, to which we have thus adverted, the 
 great, work of the Reformation in Scotland had 
 gradually acquired increasing strength, and 
 been settled upon a comparatively solid basis. 
 The notices which we have incidentally given 
 of the superstitions and ignorance that pre- 
 vailed during the period in which the papal 
 church was in the ascendant in Scotland, must 
 have satisfied the intelligent reader how much 
 that event was required. In no country, per- 
 haps, which the Ileformation visited, have its 
 beneficial effects been more apparent than in 
 Scotland. The nation aroused itself as from 
 a slumber. " Before this blessed era," to use 
 the language of an eloquent divine, " Scotland 
 hjid no arts but the arts of war ; no philosophy ; 
 no literature save her songs of love and chivahy, 
 and little government of law. Yet no sooner 
 did the breath of truth from the living oracles 
 of God breathe over her, than the wilderness 
 and the solitary place became glad, and the
 
 154 OLD EDINBURGH. ' 
 
 desert rejoiced and blossomed like the rose, 
 lieligious principles chose to reside within the 
 troubled land, bringing moral virtues in their 
 train ; and they begot a national character for 
 knowledge, industry, and enterprise, and ibr 
 every domestic and public virtue, which has 
 made her children an acceptable people to all 
 the nations of the earth." 
 
 Great as were the national advantages which 
 the Reformation brought in its train, the indi- 
 vidual blessings which it bestowed were no less 
 precious. It broke the seal which had pre- 
 viously been fixed upon the word of God, and 
 enabled all to study for themselves the solemn 
 truths relating to their immortal destinies 
 which that volume contains. Men were taught 
 to abandon vain oblations and superstitious 
 rites for a pure and living faith in Christ. They 
 learned their true relations to their Creator ; 
 the holiness of the Divine character, the per- 
 fection of his moral law, the unbroken obedience 
 in thought, word, and deed, which it required ; 
 the radical corruption of their nature, and the 
 necessity of a great and vital change to be 
 accomplished by the regenerating influence of 
 the Holy Spirit. Thus renewed and Divinely 
 taught, the burdened conscience felt peace, 
 while those who had ineffectually toiled by 
 weary penance and monastic vigils to recom- 
 mend themselves to the favour of tiieir Creator, 
 had the fetters struck off irom their souls, and, 
 influenced by the faith which works by love, 
 sprang forward to run the arduous, but happy 
 race of evangelical obedience.
 
 JAMES VI. AND CHARLES I. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 JAMES VJ. AND CHARLES I. 
 
 In October, 1579, king James vl summoned a 
 parliament to assemble at Edinburgh, and made 
 his first public entry to his capital. He was 
 received at the Westport by the magistrates, 
 under a pall of purple velvet, and was appro- 
 priately entertained by a representation of the 
 Judgment of Solomon, an allegory designed 
 to flatter the vanity of the young king. Various 
 other splendid pageants and equally appropriate 
 allegories followed, as the king passed down 
 the High-street, until on his approach to St. 
 Giles's Church he was addressed in Hebrew by 
 an allegorical personage, styled Dame, Religion^ 
 who desired his attendance at church. He 
 entered St, Giles's accordingly, and listened to 
 a sermon preached there by one of the reform- 
 ing clergy. 
 
 In 15;30, the marriage of the king to Anne of 
 Denmark, and her reception on her arrival in 
 Edinburgh, led to many gay festivities, as well 
 as to some of the singular displays of learning 
 and scholastic disputations for which the king
 
 156 OLD EDINBUIIGH. 
 
 at all times showed a special favour. On the 
 coronation of the queen, the principal of the 
 college addressed her in an oration of two hun- 
 dred Latin verses ; and on her entry to the 
 capital, similar learned and lengthy orations 
 were delivered by a curious variety of alle- 
 gorical personages. A few days after, the 
 magistrates entertained the ambassadors and 
 Danish nobles who had accompanied her to 
 Scotland, at a splendid banquet given in the 
 great hall of the Mint House, which still stands 
 in the Cowgate, though long since divested of 
 much of its ancient magnificence, and now 
 applied to the humble purposes of a broker's 
 store-room. 
 
 Within the last half of the present century, 
 the spirit of modern improvement and inno- 
 vation has obliterated many venerable memo- 
 rials of the times of queen INIary and James vi. 
 A glance at one or two of these may help to 
 rccal some idea of the manners of these olden 
 periods. King James was brought up as the 
 pupil of George Buchanan ; and while his 
 teacher duly instilled into him all requisite 
 learning — it not indeed rather more than his 
 capacities enabled him to turn to any good 
 account — he was at the same time accustomed 
 to a freer intercourse with the citizens than had 
 been usual with former princes. When he 
 came to the throne, a very limited exchequer, 
 and the risks to which he was frequently ex- 
 posed during the collisions of rival i'actions, 
 both inclined him to turn the hospitalities of
 
 JAMES VI. AND CHARLES I. 157 
 
 his civic acquaintances to account; it was ac- 
 cordingly no uncommon thing, when the larder 
 at Holyrood was exhausted, or its precincts 
 rendered unsafe by factions at court, for the 
 king to take up his lodgings with some wealthy 
 burgher in the High-street. 
 
 One of these old resorts of king Jamie was a 
 substantial quadrangular building in Niddry's 
 Wy nd, called Lochart's-court, whither, as Moysie, 
 an officer of the royal household, informs us in 
 his I\Iemoirs, both the king and queen withdrev/ 
 in 1591, when the earl of Both well had ren- 
 dered the palace somewhat too hot for them; 
 and the officers of state following their majesty's 
 prudent example, " the chancellor lodged him- 
 self in Alexander Clark's house, at the same 
 wyndhead." 
 
 The king's host was Nicol Udward, the 
 builder of the civic mansion, and styled in its 
 tvi'ifs " a citizen of auld descent in the burgh." 
 Over one of the mantel-pieces was a fine piece 
 of oak carving, containing the arms of this well- 
 descended burgher, with the following quaint 
 anagram peculiarly characteristic of the period : 
 
 " VA d'UN vol X CHRIST," 
 
 Go with one flight to Christ, — a pious effusion 
 which it will be seen is made out of the 
 Latinized name of the owner, Nicholaus Edu- 
 ARTUS. A secret subterranean dungeon also 
 existed in the same mansion, entered only by 
 a concealed trap-door, which we may presume 
 sorved the wealthy citizen for a place of con- 
 cealment of his hoards.
 
 158 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Another favourite haunt of king James was 
 a little booth at the west end of St. Giles's 
 Church, where the famous royal goldsmith, 
 George Heiiot, had his forge and workshop. 
 This homely resort of the king, demolished 
 within the last few years, measured only seven 
 feet square, yet there the financial difficulties of 
 the court of Holy rood were most frequently put 
 to rights, and if tradition is to be credited, king 
 James made no objection to wind up such 
 negotiations by partaking of a flagon of the 
 goldsmith's wine in his little booth. By the 
 transactions settled in this amicable fashion 
 between George Heriot and his royal master, 
 much of that wealth was acquired which was 
 afterwards devoted to the founding of the cele- 
 brated scholastic institution at Edinburgh which 
 bears the goldsmith's name. 
 
 The same period witnessed the foundation of 
 the University of Edinburgh, with its single 
 college, which retains the name of king James as 
 its founder. In reality, however, the king con- 
 tributed little more than his name. The first 
 contributor towards tlio establis^hment of this 
 celebrated seat of learning was Robert Eeid, 
 bishop of Orkney, who in 1558 bequeatheil ihe 
 sum of 8,000 marks, Scots' money, towards 
 founding a college in Edinburgh for the educa- 
 tion of youth. He died at Dieppe, when re- 
 turning from witnessing the marriage of queen 
 Mary to the dau[)hin; and according to some 
 authorities his original bequest greatly exceeded 
 the above sum, but was appropriated by the
 
 JAMES VI. AND CHARLES I. 159 
 
 eari of Morton to his own use. It was not till 
 1581 that tlie town council of Edinburgh 
 actuall}'' began to build, and two years after- 
 waid.s the infant university commenced with the 
 labours of a solitary professor, Mr Robert 
 Rolloch, transferred from the ancient College 
 of St. Salvator, St. Andrew's. Notwithstanding 
 the nominal favour of the king for " King 
 James's College," the contributions of private 
 citizens, and grants from the city funds, were 
 the chief sources of its extension, and it retains 
 to this day certain peculiarities arising from 
 these causes. In opposition to the practices of 
 the great universities of England, the town coun- 
 cil of Edinburgh are its absolute patrons and 
 governors; and the Lord Provost exercises the 
 office of Lord Rector by right, and without any 
 election either of the senatus or the students, 
 with whom the choice lies in the other Scottish 
 universities. This system of things has been 
 at various times attempted to be modified, but 
 hitherto without success, as the town council, 
 in the exercise of their patronage, have gene- 
 rally shown such judgment and impartialit}^ as 
 contrasts favourably with the exercise of the 
 same duties by more learned bodies elsewhere. 
 The annals of the High School preserve an 
 account of a remarkable resistance to the au- 
 thority of these civic patrons of learning on the 
 pait of its more juvenile students. In the year 
 1595, the magistrates had taken upon them to 
 abiidge certain old-established holidays of the 
 school, and to this the pupils were determined
 
 160 OLD EDIXBUEdH. 
 
 not to submit. They are described iu the Diary 
 of BiiTell, an old citizen of the period, as "a 
 niiml)er of scholars, being gentlemen's bairns." 
 They had learned, no doubt from the example 
 of their elders, the fashion of resisting consti- 
 tuted authorities, and a regular barring-out 
 took place. The juvenile garrison armed 
 themselves, and threatened death to any -who 
 approached, unless Avith the assurance of the 
 concession of their claims. At length, baillie 
 Macmoran, one of the magistrates, headed 
 a posse of ofFicials, and proceeded to attack 
 the young I'ebels in their stronghold, Avhen 
 William Sinclair, one of the boldest of the 
 mutineers, shot the magistrate dead on the 
 spot. The contemporary chronicle adds : "Pre- 
 sently the hail townsmen ran to the school, and 
 took the bairns, and put them in the Tolbuith." 
 The rash youth, however, -was a son of the 
 chancellor of Caithness, and his father's power 
 and influence secured his escape from the con- 
 sequences of his fatal rebellion. Until the 
 demolition of the old High School, the boys 
 used to point out in one part of the building 
 Avhat was called the baillie's window, being that 
 through which the fatal shot was fired. 
 
 The escape of young Sinclair gives no 
 uncertain insight into the influence of court 
 favour, and the subjection of the citizens 
 to the interests or caprice of the king at this 
 j)eriod. 
 
 Tlie authority established by the magistrates 
 of Edinburgh over the college of king James,
 
 JAMES VI. AND CHARLES I. 161 
 
 ^Yas, no doubt, in part at least, due to the im- 
 ])ortant changes which transferred the king of 
 Scotland to the English throne. So long as he 
 remained in Edinburgh lie watched with curious 
 jealousy everj-^ proceeding, either of the citizens 
 or clergy, Avhich he deemed likely to trench on 
 the royal prerogative, and some of his debates 
 and contentions, with the clergy especially, are 
 peculiarly characteristic of the age in which the 
 Presbyterian church of Scotland assumed its 
 permanent form. The death of queen Eliza- 
 beth, in 1603, at length opened the way to 
 James's long-coveted accession to the English 
 throne. The king before his departure attended 
 public service in St. Giles's Church, where he 
 had often held disputations with the clergy from 
 the royal gallery. An immense crowd assem- 
 bled on the occasion, and heard with hvely in- 
 terest the discourse addressed to his majesty, on 
 the important change by which the crowns of 
 the two rival kingdoms were at length to be 
 placed peaceably on his head. The king then 
 addressed his people, bidding them farewell in 
 kind and gracious terms ; and many were 
 deeply affected at his words, and at the pro- 
 spect of their monarch's departure. 
 
 In whatever light the accession of king 
 James to the English throne might be viewed 
 by his new subjects, it was generally regarded 
 ])y the Scottish nation as anything rather than 
 a benefit. In Edinburgh especially this could 
 not fail to be the case, where the removal of 
 the court and of the chief nobility deprived 
 
 F
 
 162 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 the citizens of so important a source of wealth. 
 Fourteen years elapsed ere James again visited 
 his native capital, when he was received, as 
 the town clerk expressed it in the oration 
 with which his majesty was welcomed at the 
 city gate, as " our true phoenix, the bright 
 Btar of our northern firmament, our sun, by 
 whose removing from our hemisphere we were 
 darkened ; a king in heart as upright as 
 David, as wise as Solomon, and as good as 
 Josias ! " Language so grossly flattering must 
 fill, we need hardly say, every right-minded 
 reader with disgust. 
 
 The king had other objects in view on this 
 occasion besides the mere pleasure arising from 
 the flattery of the citizens, and the display of 
 his magnificence to their wondering eyes. He 
 longed to assimilate the form of church govern- 
 ment in Scotland to that which existed in 
 England. By his orders the ancient palace of 
 Holyrood was completely repaired and put in 
 order, and the chapel decorated and furnished 
 with an organ. The Scottish parliament was also 
 summoned to meet the king, and he availed 
 himself of the popular feelings excited by his 
 return to his ancient kingdom to secure the 
 first steps in his favourite project for establish- 
 ing episcopacy in Scotland. What he begun 
 with caution, his son, Charles i., endeavoured 
 to carry out with a high hand, and Avith what 
 result it is scarcely necessary to say. 
 
 In the year 1G18, the eccentric genius, John 
 Taylor, generally known as the water-poet,
 
 JAMES VI. AND CHARLES I. 163 
 
 visited Edinburgh, and in his " Pennylesse 
 Pilgrimage," published soon after his return to 
 London, he thus describes the city and its in- 
 habitants, after having noticed the castle: — 
 "I descended lower to the city, wherein I 
 observed the fairest and goodliest street that 
 ever mine eyes beheld, for I did never see or 
 hear of a street of the length, the buildings on 
 each side of the way being all of squared stone, 
 five, six, and seven stories high, and many by- 
 lanes and closes on each side of the way, 
 wherein are gentlemen's houses, much fciirer 
 than the buildings in the High-street, for in 
 the High-street the merchants and tradesmen 
 do dwell, but the gentlemen's mansions and 
 goodliest houses are obscurely founded in the 
 aforesaid lanes ; the walls ai'e exceedingly 
 strong, not built for a day, a week, a month, 
 or a year, but from antiquity to posterity, for 
 many ages. There I found entertainment 
 beyond my expectations and merit ; and there 
 is fish, flesh, bread, and fruit, in such variety 
 that I think I may, offenceless, call it super- 
 fluity and satiety." 
 
 The picture thus furnished by Taylor, the 
 water-poet, of the condition of Edinburgh, may 
 be contrasted with the somewhat earlier de- 
 scription of Fynes Moryson, another English 
 traveller, who visited the Scottish metropolis 
 in 1598, and thus details the impression left 
 on his mind: — "The houses are built of uu- 
 poliished stone, and in the fore-street good part 
 of them is of freestone, which in that broad
 
 164 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 street would make a fair show, but that the 
 outsides of them are faced with wooden gal- 
 leries, built upon the second story of the 
 houses; yet these galleries give the owners a 
 fair and pleasant prospect into the said fair and 
 broad street, when they sit or stand in the 
 same." Such galleries may still be seen on 
 some of the old houses in the High-street, and 
 from one of these balconies it is that the author 
 of IVIarmion pictures the lady abbess and De 
 Wilton witnessing the spectral heralds fore- 
 telling the doom of Flodden from the city 
 cross : — 
 
 " When, with deep charge of secrecy, 
 She named a place to meet, 
 Within an open balcony 
 That hung; from dizzy pitcli and high. 
 
 Above the stately street ; 
 To which, as common to each home, 
 At night they might in secret come. 
 
 The anticpie buildings, climbing high, 
 Whose gothic frontlets sought the sky, 
 
 Were here wrapt deep in shade ; 
 There on their brows the moonbeams broke, 
 Through the faint wreaths of silvery smoke, 
 
 And on tlie casements play'd, 
 
 And other light was none to see. 
 Save torches gliding far. 
 
 Before some chieftain of degree. 
 
 Who left the royal revelry 
 To bowne him for the war. 
 
 In 1633, Charles i. paid a visit to Edinburgh, 
 and ^VRS received with no less hearty loyalty 
 than his father had been. The poet Drummond 
 of Hawthornden took a prominent lead in the 
 preparations for the occasion, including the 
 composition of sundry long prose and metrical 
 addresses, which were delivered by various
 
 JA5IES VI. AND CHARLES I. 165 
 
 allegorical characters, such as Ediiia, Cale- 
 donia, Apollo, Fergus i., etc. The coronation 
 of Charles, as king of Scots, followed on the 
 18ih of June, in the abbey church of Holy- 
 rood, with the utmost pomp and splendour. But 
 the king had resolved on carrying out his father's 
 ecclesiastical projects with all the characteristic 
 vehemence of his chief adviser. Laud, and he 
 now proceeded to confer certain honours and 
 privileges on Edinburgh which its citizens 
 were little incHned to appreciate. Edinburgh 
 was erected into an episcopal see, and its iincient 
 collegiate Church of St. Giles became, for the 
 first time, a cathedral. The consequences are 
 well known. Archbishop Eaud prepared a 
 service book, which, though expressly designed 
 for the Scottish church, contained portions cal- 
 culated to offend the honest Protestantism of 
 every member of his own church of England. 
 This, after considerable delay, was produced in 
 the Scottish churches on Sunday, the 23rd 
 July, 1637. In the new cathedral church the 
 lord chancellor, the lords of the privy council, 
 the bishops, judges, and a numerous assembly, 
 awaited the novel services of the day with 
 varied feelings. The dean of St. Giles's as- 
 cended the reading-desk and opened the ser- 
 vice book, but his attempts to proceed were 
 the signal for the utmost confusion and uproar, 
 which at length reached its climax when Jenny 
 Geddes, an old woman, seized the cutty-stool 
 on which she had been seated, and hurled it 
 at the dean's head, as she exclaimed, " Out,
 
 166 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 thou fause thief! dost thou say mass at my 
 lug?" An ancient Scottish folding-stool, with 
 the date 1565 carved on it, is preserved among 
 the curious relics of the Society of Antiquaries' 
 Museum at Edinburgh, as " the cutty-stool with 
 which the immortal Janet Geddes struck the 
 initial stroke in the great civil war, by hurling 
 it at the dean of St. Giles's head, on his pro- 
 ceeding, for the first time, to read the liturgy 
 in the cathedral church of St. Giles, Edin- 
 burgh." 
 
 In the outbreak that immediately followed, 
 Dr. Lindsay, the bishop of Edinburgh, was 
 hustled and pelted by the mob, from whose 
 rude violence he was at length rescued by the 
 earl of Wemyss when in danger of his life. A 
 church thus established in defiance of all the 
 most firmly established opinions and prejudices 
 of the people, could not be expected to stand 
 in a country where the throne had been vacated 
 and the queen driven into exile on like grounds. 
 The multitudes of all ranks who were attracted 
 to Edinburgh by the reports of the first pro- 
 ceedings determined to unite for mutual pro- 
 tection. They formed themselves into a national 
 league for the defence of religion, each section 
 being classified according to their different 
 ranks; and thus arose the famous committees 
 called the Fouii Tables. On the royal edict 
 for the maintenance of the hated service book 
 being proclaimed at the city cross on the 22nd 
 of February, 1638, a deputation of nobles 
 attended by appointment of these committees,
 
 JAMES Vr. AND CHARLES I. 167 
 
 and roarl aloud a solemn protest against the 
 edict as an encroachment on their rights and 
 liberties. 
 
 In the Cowgate of Edinburgh stands one of the 
 old corporation halls, -which formed the place of 
 meeting of the national leagu(>, and is still an 
 ol\ject of interest on that account. This is the 
 Tailors' Hall, the exterior gateway of which is 
 decorated with a sculj)tured tablet, bearing the 
 shears and other insignia of the craft, along 
 with a quaintly pious inscription ; Avhile within 
 the spacious quadrangle are sundry other de- 
 corations and inscriptions, such as — 
 
 " God give the busing to the tailzer craft 
 in the good tovn of edinburgh." 
 
 On the 27th of February, only five days after 
 the proclamation of the edict al)ove referred to, 
 a body assembled in this hall, including 
 between two and three hundred clergymen and 
 citizens, with various influential nobles and 
 gentry, and took into consideration the national 
 COVENANT. The earl of Rothes, who had a 
 prominent share in the proceedings, has left a 
 particuhir account of them, lie, and the earl 
 of Loudoun, were appointed by the nobles to 
 deal specially with the commissioners of pres- 
 byteries, and the summer-house existed till 
 very recently in the adjoining gardens, where, 
 as he informs us, the more refractory were 
 taken aside, and dealt with for the removing of 
 their scruples. The important document thus 
 prej)ared was presented to the vast multitude 
 who assembled on the following day in the
 
 168 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Greyfriars' Church and the adjacent churchyard, 
 and after being signed by the nobles and others 
 in the church, it was laid on a flat tombstone 
 in the churchyard, and eagerly signed by all 
 ranks of the people. The parchment on which 
 it was engrossed measured four feet in length, 
 and when there was no longer space lelt on 
 either side for their names, the eager multitude 
 subscribed their initials round the margin. 
 The proceedings thus vigorously begun did not 
 stop till they had not only effectually banished 
 episcopacy from Scotland, but had cost the king 
 both his throne and his life. 
 
 In the changes which followed, the old corpo- 
 ration hall of the tailors of Edinburgh was once 
 more in vogue for a very different purpose. 
 After the battle of Dunbar, the victorious Crom- 
 well established his head-quarters in the old 
 mansion of the earls of Moray, still standing in 
 the Canongate, while the Tailors' Hall was used 
 as the court of the Scottish commissioners 
 appointed by him for the administration of the 
 forfeited estates.
 
 THE RESTORATION. 169 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. 
 
 The restoration of Charles ir. to his fiither's 
 throne was nowhere more joyously celebrated 
 than in the ancient capital of the Stuarts, and 
 the court in front of the old Scottish Parliament 
 House is still decorated with the line equestrian 
 statue of the king erected on the occasion, and 
 with an inscription on the pedestal describing 
 the restored monarch as the sun rising in his 
 brightness, and dispersing the noxious clouds and 
 mists that had surrounded them ! The expe- 
 rience of his Scottish subjects soon dispelled the 
 joy with which they had too hastily welcomed 
 his return. The re-establishment of episcopacy 
 in defiance of the most solemn engagements, 
 satisfied the people that no faith could be put 
 in the word of the king. 
 
 One of the first scenes witnessed in Edin- 
 burgh, characteristic of the change of policy, 
 w:is the trial and execution of the marquis of 
 Argyle. He was condemned by judges, each 
 of whom Avas as deeply implicated as himself in 
 the acts for which, in defiance of all justice, he 
 f2
 
 170 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 Iiad been called to answer. He was beheaded 
 by the maiden, at the cross, and his head was 
 exposed on the Tolbooth. Bishops were once 
 more consecrated and restored to seats in par- 
 liament, and the king resolved, as he said, " to 
 settle the church government in Scotland." But 
 this was a thing difficult to accomplish, where 
 the will of the people was so little considered. 
 The chief incidents connected with the history 
 of Edinburgh during the reigns of Charles ii. 
 and James ii., are the cruelties and barbarous 
 executions by means of which the religion of 
 the nation was attempted to be suppressed, that 
 that of the court might be substituted for it. 
 
 Johnston of Warriston, one of the most 
 eminent lawyers and statesmen of the age, who 
 had been selected as one of Cromwell's abortive 
 house of peers, was hanged ignominiously at 
 the cross. Mitchell, a fanatic who attempted 
 the life of archbishop Sharp, was tortured and 
 then executed in the Grassmarket. Men of 
 every degree of rank and worth were made 
 the victims of the court party, till from the 
 many heroic martyrs who there laid down 
 their lives in defence of liberty of conscience, 
 the Grassmarket of Edinburgh acquired an 
 interest equal to that with which Smithtield is 
 regarded by English Protestants, as the scene of 
 martyrdom during the reign of bloody INIary. 
 It is painful, however, to think that the Scottish 
 Smith field reflects its infamy on the memory of 
 Protestant rulers and bishops ; though Charles 
 evinced the real spirit from which deeds of
 
 THE RESTORATION. 171 
 
 this character spring, when on his death- 
 bed he secretly received such consolations as a 
 Romish priest could offer to one of the most 
 licentious and profligate men that ever abused 
 the sacred trust of a crown. 
 
 During the reign of Charles n., his brother, 
 who succeeded to his throne, was wont to pre- 
 side at the meetings of the " Scottish Star 
 Chamber," held in an apartment which now 
 constitutes one of the rooms of the Advocates' 
 Library, and to share with Dalziell and sir 
 George Mackenzie in that barbarous infliction 
 of torture on the Covenanters, which has ren- 
 dered the names of their persecutors infamous, 
 and a byword in the country. Sir George 
 Mackenzie, whom we have just named, was 
 without question an able lawyer, a man of 
 great learning, and a liberal encourager of 
 literature, yet he is only remembered by the 
 title of '' bloody Mackenzie." At this period of 
 tyranny and religious persecution, not only were 
 the boots, thumbkins, and other instruments of 
 torture employed without mercy, but every 
 form of decency was set aside by those Avho 
 undertook the sanguinary work. Fountainhall, 
 the old Scottish judge, describes, for example, a 
 scene at one of the trials, where the sole crime 
 alleged against the prisoners was their " reli- 
 gion and fanaticism." Yet upon one of these 
 victims of intolerance railing at his judge, the 
 infamous Dalziell, the latter sprang up in a 
 passion, and struck him on the mouth with the 
 pommel of his sword till the blood flowed.
 
 172 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 In the reign of James ii., Poj^ery ceased to deem 
 any further disguise requisite. Holyrood Chapel 
 was fitted up fur the celebration of the service 
 of the Komish church, and duly provided with 
 a college of priests. The abhorrence with which 
 the latter were regarded led to such violent 
 outbreaks that two of the rioters were executed, 
 while others were publicly whipped through 
 the streets. Such proceedings only tended still 
 further to exasperate the minds of men, and 
 when the news of the landing of the prince of 
 Orange reached Scotland, the Presbyterian 
 party were filled with the utmost joy. The 
 country had indeed reached a crisis even more 
 perilous than that of England. The only form 
 of Protestantism which was tolerated was one 
 hateful to the people, and opposed to all their 
 prejudices ; while tlie pious and devout adhe- 
 rents of the faith of their fathers, which they 
 had inherited as a birthright achieved by pro- 
 tracted struggles, were subjected to imprison- 
 ment, torture, and violent death, for holding 
 fast what they believed to be the doctrines of 
 the Bible and the commands of God. The 
 people who had rebelled against the private 
 masses of queen I\Iary in her own chapel, as an 
 offence to God and a toleration of idolatry, 
 calculated to bring down Divine judgments on 
 the nation, were now forced to look on while 
 a Romish monastery was once more established 
 within the abbey of Holyrood, where for 
 upwards of a century the simple rites of 
 Presbyterian worship liad alone been permitted.
 
 THE RESTORATION. 173 
 
 Those, too, who had risen in riglitcoiis indigna- 
 tion ngainst the corrupt church which incited the 
 civil powers to enkindle tlie fires of persecution, 
 and condemn the maintainors of a purer faith 
 to the dungeon and the stake, had been sub- 
 jected to a system which seemed once more to 
 realize, though under the nominal sanction of 
 a Protestant church, the fruits of faith recorded 
 by the apostle Paul of the Old Testament con- 
 fessors. They " had trial of cruel mockings and 
 scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and impri- 
 sonment: (of whom the world was not Avorthy :) 
 they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, 
 and in dens and caves of the earth." * 
 
 * Without vindicating eA'erything which the persecuted 
 party, commonly known by the name of the " Covenanters," 
 said and did about this period of Scottish history, it can- 
 not be doubted that amongst them were many men who, 
 from their spirit of Christian heroism and resignation, would 
 have been worthy of admission to the clmrch'sroU of martyrs 
 in the most trying age. From a numerous catalogue we 
 select one example. The sufferer was a young preacher, named 
 William Mackail, twenty-six years of age, vvho having given 
 offence by some bold expressions in a sermon, was cruelly 
 tortured and then executed in the Grassmarket. His last 
 moments are tlms described bv a popular writer : — "Tlie 
 extreme youthfulness and delicacy of his appearance, the 
 comeliness and composure of his countenance, struck every 
 beholder, and a thrill of mingled pity and horror ran through 
 the crowd. After deliverinof his last si)eech, and on taking 
 hold of the ladder to go up, he said in an audible voice, ' I care 
 no more to go up this ladder and over it than if I were going 
 to my father's house.' Then turning to his fellow suiterers 
 he cried, ' Friends, be not afraid, every step in this ladder is a 
 degree nearer to heaven.' Before being turned over he re- 
 moved the napkin from his face, saying, ' I hope you perceive 
 no alteration or discouragement in my countenance or car- 
 riage, and as it may be your wonder, so I profess it is a 
 wonder to myself, and I will tell you the reason of it. Besides 
 the justice of my cause, this is my comfort, what was said of 
 Lazarus when he died, that the angels did carry his soul to 
 Abraham's bosom ; so that as there is a great solemnity here, 
 a confluence of people, a scaffold, a gallows, and people looking
 
 174 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 The old spirit of the Scottish Reformation, 
 which in John Knox's days had waged such 
 determined war against Popery, was not dead, 
 though it had been forced to smoulder unseen 
 under the iron despotism of James and his 
 cruel agents. With the first news of coming 
 succour it burst into a flame. Holyrood Chapel 
 was attacked with the most resolute determina- 
 tion. A body of an hundred men defended it 
 with fire-arms, which they freely used against 
 the assailants. Twelve of the latter were shot 
 dead, and many more were wounded ; but this 
 only increased the fury of the mob. They 
 persevered, in spite of the cries of the wounded 
 and dying, with that resolute and cool determi- 
 nation which has been frequently noted as the 
 characteristic of an Edinburgh mob when 
 roused to action. The armed defenders of the 
 royal chapel were at length overpowered, and 
 the place delivered up to the will of the popu- 
 lace. It had been newly fitted up with magnifi- 
 cently carved stalls and costly appurtenances, 
 while the altar had been decorated with a 
 gorgeousness designed to aid in presenting the 
 worship of the Romish church in its most 
 
 out of windows, so there is a greater and more solemn pre- 
 paration of angels to carry niy soul to Christ's bosom.' He 
 then ended with that noble burst of Christian eloquence so^ 
 much admired and so often imitated : ' And now I leave off 
 to speak any more to creatures, and begin my intercourse with 
 God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and 
 mother, friends and relations; farewell the world and all 
 delij:;hts ; farewell meat and drink ; farewell sun, moon, and 
 stars. Welcome God and Father; welcome sweet Jesns 
 Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant ; welcome blessed 
 Spirit of gvace, the God of all consolation ; welcome glory ; 
 >Yelcome eternal life ; and welcome death.' "
 
 THE RESTORATION. 175 
 
 attractive form. A new organ-loft also had 
 been erected, and a fine instrument (recently 
 sent by the king from London) put up in it. 
 All these were at once devoted to destruction, 
 and the venerable fabric was only abandoned 
 when the newly completed decorations destined 
 for the service of the Romish priesthood had 
 been reduced to an unsightly heap of ruins. 
 
 While these proceedings were going on at 
 the palace, the students of the university 
 assembled in a body, and marching in proces- 
 sion to the cross, with bands of music and the 
 college mace borne before them, they erected a 
 huge bonfire and burned the pope in effigy. 
 On the 11th of April, 1688, William and Mary 
 were proclaimed at the cross, king and queen 
 of Scotland ; but the castle was still held by 
 the duke of Gordon for king James, and the 
 rival parties in Scotland each looked on in 
 hope of triumph. From the flight of the 
 chancellor till March, 1689, when a convention 
 of the Scottish estates was summoned to meet 
 at Edinburgh, all law was practically suspended, 
 except such as the magistrates enforced with 
 the countenance and aid of the citizens. 
 
 The sack of Holyrood completely established 
 the superiority of the Presbyterian party in 
 Edinburgh, most of whom were familiar with 
 the use of arms, and the royalist soldiers had 
 to confine themselves exclusively to the castle. 
 The mob now pursued their triumph by as- 
 saulting the houses of the wealthy Roman 
 Cath(ilics, and the most hateful officers of the
 
 176 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 crown, who then resided chiefly in the Canon- 
 gate. These they " rabbled," as the phrase 
 then was, gutting them, and sometimes setting 
 them on fire. "When at length," says the 
 author of the Memorials of Edinburgh in the 
 Olden Time, " the convention met, the adhe- 
 rents of the exiled king crowded to the capital 
 in hopes of yet securing the majority in his 
 favour. Viscount Dundee openly marched 
 into the town with a train of sixty horse, while 
 the Whigs, (as the Presbyterian party were 
 then called,) with equal promptitude, but more 
 secretly, gathered an armed body of the perse- 
 cuted Presbyterians, whom they concealed in 
 garrets and cellars, ready to sally out at a con- 
 certed signal, and turn the scale in fiivour of 
 their cause. The sumptuous old oahen roof of 
 the Parliament Hall then witnessed as stirring 
 scenes as ever occurred in the turbulent 
 minority of the Jameses within the more ancient 
 Tolbooth. Dundee arose in his place in the 
 convention, and demanded that all strangers 
 should be commanded to quit the town, declar- 
 ing his own life and those of other of the king's 
 friends to be endangered by the presence of 
 banded assassins. On his demand being re- 
 jected, he indignantly left the assembly, and the 
 convention, with locked doors and the keys on 
 the table before them, proceeded to judge the 
 government of king James, and to pronounce 
 iiis crown forfeited and his throne vacant, 
 beneath the same roof where he had so often 
 sat in judgment on the oppressed." .
 
 THE RESTORATION. 177 
 
 As viscoTint Dundee, retreating, left the town 
 at the head of his dragoons, he stopped beneath 
 the castle, and clambering up the rock, held a 
 conference with the duke of Gordon, in which lie 
 strove in vain to induce him to accompany him 
 to the north. Finding him resolved to remain 
 in charge of the fortress which had been com- 
 mitted to his trust, Dundee then engaged the 
 duke to hold it out, while he proceeded to the 
 Plighlands to raise forces and muster the 
 friends of king James. The citizens were 
 filled with the utmost alarm at this interview, 
 dieading that the guns of the castle would be 
 turned on the town. The drums beat to arms, 
 and a body of troops which the duke of Hamil- 
 ton })ad quartered in the city, was called out to 
 pursue Dundee ; but the latter made good his 
 retreat, and the duke of Gordon being nearly 
 destitute of provisions, and but lukewarm in 
 his adherence to a failing cause, at length 
 yielded up the castle on the 13th of June, 1689 
 — the last considerable stronghold in Scotland 
 that had remained in the interest of its exiled 
 and dethroned monarch. Under the new 
 dynasty a new era opened for Edinburgh, and 
 here therefore appropriately terminates our 
 sketch of the history of the old metropolis of 
 Scotland.
 
 178 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 
 
 Edinburgh, as is well known, is divided by the 
 area of the ancient North Loch into the old and 
 iieAv town ; the former containing the relics of 
 those periods of its history which have been 
 sketched in the preceding chapters, the latter 
 being the creation of modern tastes in the pre- 
 sent century. The bridging over the deep valley 
 wherein the waters of the North Loch were 
 accumulated of old, first by the erection of the 
 north bridge, completed in 1772, and subse- 
 quently by the gradual formation of the earthen 
 mound, literally paved the way for the rising of 
 the modern city, which excites such universal 
 admiration, no less from its architectural 
 uniformity and elegance, than by the contrast 
 it presents to the massive and picturesque 
 grouping of its venerable neighbour, where — 
 
 " Such dusky grandeur clothes the height, 
 Wliere the huge castle holds its state, 
 
 And all the steep slope down, 
 "Whdse ridgy back heaves to the sky, 
 Piled deep and massy, close and high, 
 
 Mine own romantic town ! " 
 
 It is with the ancient city that we have alone
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 179 
 
 to deal in the present volume ; and having in 
 the preceding chapters traced out the varied 
 incidents of its history, we shall now endeavour 
 to present to the reader a concise guide to its 
 local antiquities. We shall suppose him to 
 accompany us first to the ancient fortress, which 
 forms the central nucleus of the city. Here is 
 tlie venerable little chapel of St. Margaret, 
 already described, with its old chancel arch 
 and simple apse, seemingly little altered since 
 the grand-niece of Edward the Confessor made 
 this the place of her monastic devotions and 
 austerities. This chapel is in every respect 
 the fittest point from whence to begin our 
 topographical explorations, for it is, without 
 exception, the oldest building now existing in 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Crowning the summit of the lofty rocks 
 which overhang the Grassmarket, are the 
 ancient royal apartments ; the great hall, where 
 the Scottish parliament occasionally assembled; 
 the room where the regent Mary de Guise 
 expired, and that in which queen Mary gave 
 birth to the prince who was to inherit the long 
 rival crowns of England and Scotland, and to 
 close the dissensions of these ancient foes by the 
 peaceful recognition of one common rightful 
 heir to the double throne. Not the least strik- 
 ing feature of the curious little apartment 
 which is so interestingly associated with the 
 union of the two kingdoms, is the remarkable 
 prospect conmianded by its lofty site. " The 
 view from the windows on this side of the
 
 180 OLD EDINDUUGIT. 
 
 palace," says Dr. Wilson, in Lis ^Memorials of 
 Edinburgh in the Olden Time, " is scarcely 
 surpassed by any other in the capital. Imme- 
 diately below are the picturesque old houses of 
 the Grassmarket and West Port, crowned by 
 the magnificent towers of Heriot's Hospital. 
 From this abyss the hum of the neighbouring 
 city rises up, mellowed by the distance into 
 one pleasing voice of life and industry ; while, 
 beyond, a gorgeous landscape is spread out, 
 reaching almost to the ancient landmarks of the 
 kingdom, guarded on the far east by the old keep 
 of Craigmillar Castle, and on the west by Mer- 
 chiston Tower. Between these is still seen the 
 wide expanse of the Borough Moor, on which 
 the fanciful eye of one familiar with the national 
 history will summon up the Scottish hosts 
 marshalling for southern war ; as when the 
 gallant Jameses looked forth from these s;une 
 towers proudly, and beheld them gathering 
 around the standard of the * Ruddy Lion,' 
 pitched in the massive * bore stane' still remain- 
 ing at the Borough IMoor Head." 
 
 Adjoining the old royal apartments of the 
 castle is the massive bomb-proof vault, wherein 
 the regalia of the ancient kingdom of Scotland 
 are secured, along with the iron-bound oaken 
 chest, in which these national treasures lay, 
 from the union of the two kingdoms till the 
 year 1818. Sir Walter Scott, who formed one 
 of the commissioners appointed to search for the 
 regalia, thus describes their feelings during the 
 final proceedings by which these valued memo-
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 181 
 
 rials of the ancient independence of the Scottish 
 crown were once more brought to light. " The 
 general persuasion that the regalia had been 
 secretly removed, weighed heavy on the minds 
 of all while the labour proceeded. The chest 
 seemed to return a hollow and empty sound to 
 the strokes of the hammer ; and even those 
 •whose expectations had been most sanguine, 
 felt at the moment the probability of disap- 
 pointment, aiid could not but be sensible that 
 should the result of the research confirm these 
 forebodings, it would only serve to show^ that a 
 national affront and injuiy had been sustained, 
 for w'hich it might be diflicult, or rather impos- 
 sible, to obtain any redress. The joy was 
 tlierefore extreme, when the ponderous lid of 
 the chest being forced open, at the expense of 
 some time and labour, the regalia were disco- 
 vered lying at the bottom, covered with linen 
 cloths, exactly as they had been surrendered 
 a hundred and ten years before by Williani 
 the ninth earl mareschal." The discovery was 
 announced by the display of the royal standard 
 from the castle ; and the universal rejoicing 
 which foUow-ed showed that, amidst all tlie 
 changes Avhich the preceding century had 
 wrought, the people of Scotland still regarded 
 " the honours of the kingdom " with all the old 
 national enthusiasm. These interesting relics — 
 the crown of the Bkuce ; the sword of state, pre- 
 sented by pope Julius n. to James iv., in 1507; 
 the sceptre of James v. ; the lord-treasurer's 
 rod ; and the York jewels, bequeathed by
 
 182 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 cardinal York to George iv. — are now open to 
 the inspection of the curious Ansitor, and form 
 not the least among the many attractions of 
 the Scottish capital and its venerable citadel. 
 
 Leaving the castle, the explorer finds himself 
 in a narrow but picturesque street, styled the 
 Castle-hill, where stood till very recently the 
 palace and oratory of Mary de Guise, and 
 "which still includes the mansion of the old 
 regent Morton, and other similar memorials of 
 former days, nestling amidst the dark and 
 narrow alleys which lead off on either hand 
 down the steep slopes of the ridge on which the 
 old town is built. Passing along one of those on 
 his left, the stranger is surprised by coming 
 suddenly on some of the finest of the modern 
 buildings, which there reach across the deep 
 ravine, that elsewhere holds apart the old and 
 new — " their soft outlines and white walls con- 
 trasting with the sterner proportions of the dark 
 and warlike structures, like the fair hands of a 
 * lady bright' enclosed in the gaufitleted grasp 
 of her knightly lover." 
 
 Beneath the lanes and closes which thus 
 lead towards the bed of the old North Loch, an 
 ancient tradition, still credited by some, affirms 
 that a subterranean passage exists, once con- 
 necting the castle and the palace of Holyrood. 
 According to the favourite tale of the old town 
 gossips, an intrepid Highland piper engaged to 
 explore the mysterious passage, of which the 
 entrance was formerly known. His success 
 was to be suitably rewarded, and his progress
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 183 
 
 was to be announced to those above ground by 
 the sound of his bagpipes, which he engaged 
 to play all the way through. The bold High- 
 lander accordingly entered, and the people fol- 
 lowed the sound of the subterranean music 
 from the castle down to the Tron Church, where 
 it suddenly ceased, and the poor piper was 
 never more seen or heard of. Where the Castle 
 Hill widens into the broad place, known as the 
 Lawnmarket, a curious ancient fabric marks 
 the entrance of the close which formerly led to 
 the abode of the queen-regent, Mary de Guise. 
 It is built of polished ashlar, in the style which 
 prevailed in the early part of the sixteenth 
 century, and its front is decorated with the 
 inscription curiously wrought in iron : lavs 
 DEO. 1593. M. R. Immediately fronting this 
 old mansion is the precipitous and crooked 
 street called the "West Bow, from the ancient 
 hoio, or arch, one of the city gates erected by 
 James n. in 1450, and which long formed the 
 Temple Bar of Edinburgh. 
 
 Few parts of the old town still remaining 
 have suffered more from modern innovations 
 than this ancient thoroughfare. " In the centre 
 of the ancient city," says the author of the 
 Memorials of Edinburgh, " there stood till a 
 few years since, a strange, crooked steep, and 
 altogether singular and picturesque avenue 
 from the High-street to the low valley on the 
 south, in which the more ancient extensions of 
 the once circumscribed Scottish capital are 
 reared. Scarcely anything can be conceived
 
 184 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 more curious and whimsically grotesque tlian 
 its array of irregular stone gables and timber 
 galleries, which seemed as if jostling one another 
 for room along the steep and narrow thorough- 
 fare ; while the busy throng were toiling up or 
 hurrying down its precipitous pathways, amidst 
 the ceaseless din of braziers' and tin-smiths' ham- 
 mers, for which it was famed, and the rumbling 
 of wheels, accompanied with the vociferous shouts 
 of a host of noisy assistants, as some heavy- 
 laden wain creaked and groaned up the steep. 
 Here were the Templar lands, with their 
 antique gables surmounted by the cross that 
 marked them as beyond the reach of civic cor- 
 poration laws, and with their old world asso- 
 ciations with the knights of St. John of Jeru- 
 salem. Here was the strange old timber-fronted 
 tenement where rank and beauty held their 
 assemblies in the olden time. Here was the 
 provost's lodging, where prince Charles and his 
 elated counsellors were entertained in 1745, and 
 adjoining it there remained till the last a me- 
 mento of his royal ancestor, James ii.'s massive 
 wall, and of the Old Port or Bow whereat the 
 magistrates were wont to present the silver keys, 
 with many a grave and costly ceremonial, to each 
 monarch who entered his Scottish capital in state. 
 Down this steep the confessors of the Covenant 
 were hurried to execution. Here, too, was the 
 old-fashioned forestair over which the amazed 
 and stupified youth, who long after sat on the 
 bench under the title of lord Monboddo, gazed 
 in dreamy horror as the wretched Porteous was
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 185 
 
 dragged to tlie scene of bis crime, on the night 
 of the 7lh of September, 1736 ; and near by 
 stood the booth at Avhich the rioters paused, and 
 with ostentations deUberation purchased the 
 rope wherewith he was hung at its foot." 
 
 Such are some of the curious antiquities of 
 the West Bow which have disappeared, along 
 with the old " clockmaker's hand," and " lord 
 Euthven's hand," — the mansion of the grim 
 baron who stalked into the chamber of queen 
 Mary on that dire night of the 9th of March, 
 1566, and struck home his dagger into the 
 unhappy royal favourite, Rizzio. But the 
 most remarkable of all the old mansions of the 
 West Bow still remains. This is the house 
 of the celebrated Scottish wizard, major Weir. 
 No story of witchcraft and necromancy ever 
 made- a deeper or more lasting impression 
 on the popular mind than that of major Weir, 
 nor was any spot ever more celebrated in the 
 annals of sorcery than the little court at the 
 head of the Bow, where the wizard and his 
 sit-;ter dwelt. A contemporary writer describes 
 liiui, in a manuscript preserved in the Advocates' 
 Librarj'', as a tall black man, with a grim coun- 
 tenance and a big nose^ and who ordinarily 
 looked down to the ground. He had a black 
 staff which he never went without ; and this 
 staff, according to the popular tradition, was 
 frequently known by his neighbours to step iu 
 to their shops and tap at their counters on 
 some errand of its master, or running before 
 him with a lantern as he went out on nocturnal
 
 186 OLD EDINBURaH. 
 
 business, and gravely walked down the Lawn- 
 market behind this mysterious link-boy. 
 
 The major, who had made great professions 
 of devoutness, was at length driven to despair, 
 and yielding to the stings of conscience, called 
 in some of his neighbours and confessed to 
 them crimes of the most loathsome description. 
 His history is strangely blended with the super- 
 stitious credulity of the age. It is, however, 
 an undoubted historical fact, that he was tried 
 on the 9th of April, 1670, and was condemned 
 to be strangled and burned. The sentence was 
 carried into execution on a spot still pointed out 
 in the ravine on the north side of the Calton 
 Hill, and the contem])orary writer already 
 quoted adds : " His black staff was cast into 
 the fire with him, and whatever incantation 
 was in it, the persons present aver that it gave 
 rare turnings, and was long a burning, as also 
 himself." His sister Grizel, who appears to 
 have been more a victim than an accomplice of 
 his crimes, was likewise condemned and exe- 
 cuted. One of the evidences of her supposed 
 witchcraft was the possession of a spinning- 
 wheel, which, by the aid of its magical and 
 unearthly charms, enabled her to surpass all her 
 neigh l)ours in the product of her industry with 
 the lint. 
 
 Whatever be now thought of these strange 
 products of the popular credulity of the aeven- 
 teenth century, it is not only certain that they 
 obtained universal credence at the period, but 
 though nearly two centuries have elapsed, it is
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 187 
 
 believed that the major's house has never since 
 been occupied as a dwelling. It is now used as 
 a broker's store. " It is not to be wondered," 
 says the author already quoted, " that major 
 Weir's house should have been deserted after 
 his death. The enchanted staff was believed 
 to have returned to its post, and to wait as 
 porter at the door. The hum of the necro- 
 mantic wheel Avas heard at the dead of night, 
 and the deserted mansion was sometimes 
 seen blazing with the lights of some eldrich 
 festival, when the major and his sister were 
 supposed to be entertaining the prince of dark- 
 ness. There were not even wanting those, 
 during the last century, who were affirmed to 
 have seen the major issue at midnight from the 
 nfjrrow close, mounted on a headless charger, 
 and gallop off in a whirlwind of flame. Time, 
 however, wrought its usual cure. The major's 
 visits became fewer and less ostentatious, until 
 at length it was only at rare intervals that some 
 midnight reveller, returning homeward through 
 the deserted Bow, was startled by a dark and 
 silent shadow that flitted across his path as he 
 approached the haunted corner." 
 
 Not far from the head of the West Bow is 
 another alley, opening from the Lawnniarket, 
 which still bears the old aristocratic name of 
 Lady Stair's Close. The close is associated 
 with more than one old citizen of distinction; 
 for the mansion of the celebrated countess of 
 Stair bears over the doorway the shield and 
 initials of its original proprietor, sir William
 
 188 OLD EDINBUIiGH. 
 
 Gray, of Pittendrum — the ancestor of the pre- 
 sent lord Gray — with the date 1622. Lady 
 Stair's Close derives its name from Elizabeth, 
 dowager-countess of Stair, who, as the wife of 
 the viscount Primrose, forms one of the most 
 remarkable characters associated with the 
 romantic traditions of Old Edinburgh. Her 
 ladyship was afterwards married to the cele- 
 brated general and statesman, John, second 
 earl of Stair, and she long survived him, to 
 occupy the place of the leader of fashion in the 
 Scottish capital. It gives a curious as well as 
 amusing glimpse of the fashionable society of 
 Edinburgh in the earlier part of the eighteenth 
 century, to picture the leader of ton condescend- 
 ingly receiving the elite of fashionable society 
 in the second flat of a common stair in the old 
 town ; yet such were the habits of society in 
 the eighteenth century, when admission to her 
 select circle was one of the highest objects of 
 ambition among the smaller gentry of the period. 
 
 Itiddle's-court, another ancient aristocratic 
 nook of the Lawnmarket, still contains the man- 
 sion of baillie Macmoran, already mentioned as 
 the unhappy victim of juvenile rashness, during 
 a rebellion of the pupils of the High School, in 
 1595. No less interest attaches to the locality 
 from the fact of its including among its \^hy 
 tenements the first residence of David Hume, 
 when he commenced his great literary work, 
 the History of England. 
 
 The progress of modern improveuients has 
 swept away of late years many buildings of
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 189 
 
 local celebrit}', and " the great fire," which 
 devastated the High-street in 1824, destroyed 
 many more of considerable historical interest. 
 Among those that still remain, however, may 
 be pointed out Dunbar's Close, in which Crom- 
 well's guard-house was established after the 
 victory of Duubar, and where may be seen 
 one of the pious old mottoes, with which the 
 citizens were wont to inscribe their lintels : — 
 
 FAITH . IN . CRIST . ONLIE . SAVIT . 15G7. 
 
 Many of these memorials of ancient piety still 
 remain, reminding the wayfarer of the Old 
 Testament injunction which they seem so 
 literally to fulfil : — " These words, which I com- 
 mand thee this day, shall be in thine heart. . . . 
 thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine 
 hand, and they shall be as frontlets between 
 thine eyes ; and thou shalt write them upon the 
 ]JOsts of thy house, and on thy gates." Some of 
 these mottoes are directly taken from Scripture ; 
 the oldest of them in the Latin of Guttenberg's 
 Bible, printed at Mentz in 1455. Others again 
 are such pious ejaculations as Onlie be Cuyst, 
 and AiiYis, O Lord, both of which appear over 
 a lintel marked with the date 1573. Another, 
 of the year 1614, recently demolished, bore the 
 following devout confession of faith : — 
 
 I . TAKE . THE . LORD . JESUS . AS . MY . ONLY . ALL . 
 SUFFICIENT . PORTION . TO . CONTENT . JIE. 
 
 ]\[any other examples of the same religious 
 spirit manifested by the builders of the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, have survived the
 
 190 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 remodeliings and demolitions which have re- 
 cently obliterated so large a number of the 
 like memorials of the past. 
 
 In the Cowgate, the traces of former grandeur 
 strikingly contrast with the squalor of poverty 
 and vice. Some of the most remarkable build- 
 ings of this ancient thoroughfare have been 
 already referred to in the course of our his- 
 torical sketch. Here may still be seen the 
 palace of cardinal Beaton, where queen Mary 
 was feasted by the citizens on her return from 
 France ; the INIint House, built in 1574, as 
 appears by the date on its inscribed lintel, 
 whereon is cut, in large Roman characters, the 
 brief prayer — 
 
 BE . MERCIFVL . TO . ME . . GOD. 
 
 In 1590, the great hall of the Mint was the 
 scene of a splendid banquet given to the 
 Danish nobles and ambassadors who came 
 over to Scotland in the train of queen Anne of 
 Denmark. Among somewhat more recent 
 buildings in the Cowgate, is the mansion of 
 sir Thomas Hope, the king's advocate and 
 zealous leader of the Covenanters in the reign 
 of Charles i. ; while near to it is the Tailors' 
 Hall, which has already been described as the 
 scene of the preparation and signature of the 
 famous national document, the Solemn League 
 and Covenant, in 1638. 
 
 While the castle forms the termination of the 
 ancient city towards the west, it is bounded on 
 the east by the old burgh of Canongate, once 
 the court end of the town, and terminated bj
 
 THE OLD TOWN. 191 
 
 the ancient abbey and palace of Holjrood. 
 Behind the latter, on one of the lower heights 
 of Arthur's Seat, stands the hoary ruin of St. 
 Anthony's Chapel, wiih the old well, so often 
 sung of in the poet's lays. Many other spots 
 and objects of interest might be pointed out 
 among the relics of the past which still remain 
 in the romantic capital of Scotland, but enough 
 has been done to indicate its most prominent 
 and characteristic features, and to guide the 
 stranger through its old streets and alleys with 
 a fresh interest, awakened in his mind by many 
 links, uniting its faded and wasted glories with 
 the thrilling incidents of the storied past. 
 
 Thus terminates our sketch of the history of 
 " Old Edinburgh." Brief as has been our 
 narrative, we have traversed in it centuries 
 full of eventful interest, and have seen succes- 
 sive generations rise and disappear. In such a 
 retrospect, how naturally is the thoughtful 
 reader reminded of the fleeting and evanescent 
 character of all earthly pursuits ! Man does 
 indeed walk in a vain show. The place that 
 once knew him soon knows him no more. The 
 actors in the chequered scenes which we have 
 been contemplating have long since passed into 
 the unseen world, that solemn point to which 
 the writer and the reader are alike inevitably 
 verging. Could we summon them back to the 
 stage of life, how different would now appear 
 their estimate of things temporal in comparison 
 "with those which are eternal I How insignificant,
 
 192 OLD EDINBURGH. 
 
 too, would they confess all earthly pursuits to 
 have been, save in so far as they tended to the 
 benefit of tlie immortal soul ! IMay we, then, to 
 whom life yet remains, wisely improve our 
 allotted period ! Repenting of all sin, and re- 
 nouncing every form of dependence on our woiks 
 or righteousness, may we cleave in faith to the 
 Saviour as all our hope and all our salva- 
 tion ; and through the influence of his Holy 
 Spirit, (freely imparted to all who ask aright,) 
 adorn his gospel by bringing forth those fruits 
 of love to God and man, which, while they 
 prove our faith to be genuine, will evidence to 
 others also that we are the heirs of a glorious 
 immortality ! 
 
 tOKDON : BIACKBUBN AKD BT7BT, PB1NTEH9, HOLBOBIT HItt,
 
 MODERN 
 
 EDINBURGH, 
 
 " What the tour of Europe was necessary to see elsewhere I 
 now find congregated in this one city. Here are alike the 
 beauties of Prague and of Salzburgh ; here are the romantic 
 sites of Orvietto and Tivoli ; and here is all the magnificence of 
 the admired bays of Genoa and Naples ; here, indeed, to the 
 poetic fancy, may be found realized the Eoman ('apitol and the 
 Grecian Acropolis."— Sir David Wilkie. 
 
 LONDON: 
 THE PvELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 JnstituUd 1799.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGK 
 
 EDINBURGH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DARIEN HOUSE 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PRINCE CHARLES 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RISE OF THE NEW TOWN 42 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN . . . .54 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HAUNTS OF THE POETS 68 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 81 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS . . ... 93
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 rAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BKNEVOLENT AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS . . 105 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MODERN ART 112 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CEMETERIES 117 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE 130 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH 138 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH, CONTINUED . . 158 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CONCLUSION 176
 
 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 1 
 
 EDINBURGH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUPwY. 
 
 Modern Edinburgh derives not a little of the 
 singular charm which almost every visitor 
 recognises in it, from the striking contrast pre- 
 sented by the union of the old and new. The 
 modern town, if spread out on a level area, 
 would be nearly as formal as the blocks of an 
 American city of the west ; but while this 
 symmetrical arrangement is relieved by the 
 varying undulations of its remarkable site, it 
 is sufficiently strongly marked to afford one of 
 the most striking contrasts, when the stranger 
 crosses the beautifully terraced bed of the old 
 North Loch, and enters within the picturesque 
 precincts of the ancient city. 
 
 The history of most large towns, like that of 
 the great metropolis itself, exhibits to us the 
 results of a gradual growth and extension, 
 arising simply from the yearly additions to its 
 suburban streets ; but Edinburgh has pro- 
 gressed only at long intervals, as it were by a
 
 C MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 succession of bounds, when it has leaped from 
 one height to another, and then hastened to 
 occupy the new acquisition. When Edinburgh 
 first became a walled town, in 1450, it occupied 
 only the upper area of the Castle-hill, but a 
 most rapid extension followed during the next 
 fifty years. The very construction of the civic 
 Avails would seem to have awakened a desire to 
 escape beyond their confines. The period, 
 moreover, was one of great prosperity; and so 
 the New Town of the fifteenth century arose in 
 the open valley to the south, with the CoAvgatt 
 as the chief thoroughfare of this fiishionable 
 suburb, which appears, within the single half 
 century to have nearly equalled in extent the 
 old intra-mural capital. 
 
 " This expansion of the town," says the author 
 of the "Traditions of Edinburgh," ''is to be 
 considered a proof of the prosperity of Scotland 
 during the reigns of James iii. and his succes- 
 sor, testifying that our country saw no brighter 
 period till the reign of George in. — an era by 
 far the most splendid in her annals. The first 
 wall was built, as may be gathered from the 
 grant for its erection, under the dread of inva- 
 sion from England. But so secure had the 
 kingdom afterwards become in its own internal 
 strength, that Edinburgh was suffered to luxu- 
 riate into twice its original extent, without any 
 measures being taken for additional defence. 
 The necessity of enclosing the Cowgate after 
 the fatal field of Flodden, seems to have come 
 upon the citizens in the most unexpected
 
 EDINBURGH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 7 
 
 manner, and they no doubt regretted that hixui-y 
 and taste for improvement had led them so far 
 out into the unprotected country. But they 
 certainly did afterwards retrieve their native 
 character of prudence ; as scarcely a house 
 arose beyond the second wall for two hundred 
 and fifty years ; and if Edinburgh increased in 
 any respect, it was only by piling new flats 
 upon the tenements of the ancient royalty, 
 thereby adding to the height rather than to 
 the extent of the city." 
 
 Such are the elements which have combined 
 to produce what we may here fitly enough style 
 the modern old town of Edinburgh ; the an- 
 cient city which still exists as the heart and 
 nucleus round which the recent and more 
 ornate additions have gathered. It was in- 
 deed by another, and no less sudden outburst 
 than that of the fifteenth century, that the new 
 suburbs arose on the neighbouring heights 
 surrounding the long narrow ridge which, with 
 its southern valley, had formed for three cen- 
 turies the entire site of the Scottish capital. 
 Topham, in his letters from Edinburgh, pub- 
 lished in 1774, thus describes the appearance 
 of the town at that comparatively recent date: — 
 " Tlie situation of Edinburgh is probably as 
 extraordinary a one as can well be imagined 
 for a metropolis. The immense hills, on which 
 great part of it is built, though they make the 
 views uncommonly magnificent, not only in 
 many places render it impassable for carriages, 
 but very fatiguing for walking. The principal
 
 8 JIODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 or great street runs along the ridge of a very 
 high hill, -which, taking its rise from the palace 
 of Holyrood House, ascends, and not very gra- 
 dually, for the length of a mile and a quarter, 
 and after opening in a spacious area, terminates 
 in the castle. On one side, as far as the eye 
 can reach, you view the sea, the port of Leith, 
 its harbour and various vessels, the river Forth, 
 the immense hills around, some of which ascend 
 above even the castle ; and on the other side 
 you look over a rich and cultivated country, 
 terminated by the dark, abrupt, and barren 
 hills of the Highlands. 
 
 " You have seen the famous street of Lisle, 
 la Rue Ivoyale, leading to the port of Tournay, 
 which is said to be the finest in Europe ; but 
 which, I can assure you, is not to be compared 
 either in length or breadth to the High-street 
 of Edinburgh ; and would they be at the ex- 
 pense of removing some buildings which obstruct 
 the view, by being placed in the middle of the 
 street, nothing could be conceived more mag- 
 nificent. Not content, however, with this, they 
 suffer a weekly market to be held, in which 
 stalls are erected nearly the whole length of it, 
 and make a confusion almost impossible to be 
 conceived. All sorts of iron and copper ware 
 are exposed to sale ; here likewise the herb 
 market is held, and the herb women, who are 
 in no country either the most peaceable or the 
 most cleanly beings upon earth, throw about 
 the roots, stalks, etc., of the bad vegetables, to 
 the great nuisance of the passengers.
 
 EDINBURGH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 9 
 
 " 'J'lie style of building here is much like 
 the French ; the houses, however, in general 
 are higher, as some rise to twelve, and one in 
 particular to thirteen stories in height. But 
 to the front of the street nine or ten stories is 
 the common run ; it is the back part of the 
 edifice which, by being built on the slope of a 
 hill, sinks to that amazing depth so as to form 
 the above number. This mode of dwelling, 
 though very proper for the turbulent times to 
 which it was adapted, has now lost its con- 
 venience ; as they no longer stand in need of 
 the defence from the castle, they no more 
 find the benefit of being crowded together 
 so near it. The common staircase which 
 leads to the apartments of the different in- 
 habitants, must always be dy:ty, and is in 
 general very dark and narrow. It has this 
 advantage, however, that as they are all of 
 stone, they have little to apprehend from fire, 
 which in the opinion of some would more than 
 compensate for every other advantage. In 
 general, however, the highest and lowest tene- 
 ments are possessed by artificers, while the 
 gentry and better sort of people dwell in fifth 
 and sixth stories. 
 
 " Iti London you know such a habitation 
 would not be deemed the most eligible, and 
 many a man in such a situation would not be 
 sorry to descend a little lower. The style of 
 building here has given rise to different ideas ; 
 some years ago a Scotch gentleman who went 
 to London for the first time, took the upper- 
 A 2
 
 10 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 most story of a lodging house, and was very 
 much surprised to find what he thought the 
 genteelest place of the whole at the lowest 
 price. His friends who came to see him, in 
 vain acquainted him with the mistake he had 
 been guilty of; ''He hen'd vary tveel,'' he said, 
 ^what gentility was, and after having lived all 
 his life 171 a sixth story, he ivas not come to 
 London to live upon the ground !' 
 
 " From the High-street you pass down by 
 a number of different alleys, or, as they call 
 them here, wynds and closes. They are 
 many of them so very steep that it requires 
 great attention to the feet to prevent falling : 
 but so well accustomed are the Scotch to 
 that position of body required in descending 
 these declivities, that I have seen a Scotch 
 girl run down them with great swiftness in 
 pattens." 
 
 Such may be accepted as a clear and toler- 
 ably impartial picture of the Scottish metropolis 
 as it continued to be even in the earlier years 
 of the present century. It is difficult for us 
 now thoroughly to realize the social changes 
 which resulted from the abandonment of this 
 curious and time-honoured system, by which 
 the Scottish nobility and gentry had been so 
 long pent up within these narrow limits. With 
 all its evils, it had many redeeming features. 
 Such mansions and such avenues were better 
 than the most stringent sumptuary laws, for 
 enabling a poor nobility and gentry, deprived 
 of the wealth and patronage of a resident court,
 
 EDINBURGH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 11 
 
 to maintain their dignity with a very limited 
 income. A costly equipage "was altogether 
 useless in a town where scarcely a single public 
 thoroughfare, except its main street, was wide 
 enough for anything but a sedan chair. Private 
 assemblies were equally out of the question 
 where some of the oldest and proudest families 
 were suitably lodged on a fourth or fifth flat ; 
 and the most distinguished of the Scottish nobles 
 were content to approach their town mansions 
 through a narrow close and up a still narrower 
 turnpike stair, such as may still be seen in 
 dwellings which were occupied by the noble 
 families of the Gordons, the Sempills, and the 
 Stairs, even in the present centur3^ We shall 
 form a most mistaken idea if we imagine that 
 such customs involved any sacrifice of the 
 dignity or privileges of social rank. Never, 
 probably, was an aristocracy more exclusive, 
 or less liable to have its claims disputed by 
 its plebeian neighbours, thus often separated 
 from it literally by no more than a thin 
 jDartition. 
 
 Peter Williamson, a curious old Edinburgh 
 character, after spending a considerable period 
 among the Bed Indians of the great American 
 forests, established himself as a vintner in 
 Edinburgh, and Avas the first to introduce the 
 luxury of a local penny-post system within the 
 city. To this he afterwards added a street 
 directory for the town ; and from some of 
 the pages of these old volumes not a little 
 curious information may still be gleaned, as to
 
 12 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 the mode by v.'hicli the nice lines of demar- 
 cation were preserved between the various 
 ranks of society. Similar information of an 
 older date, derived from legal inventories on 
 the sale or transference of property, serves to 
 show that towards the close of the eighteenth 
 century, Edinburgh society retained all its 
 social characteristics unchanged since the de- 
 parture of the Scottish court. One example 
 of an old tenement or land of six stories, 
 situated in the Lawn jMarket, may serve as a 
 sample of the whole. The ground-floor, sub- 
 divided into two, sufficed for the accommoda- 
 tion of a baker and grocer ; on the first floor 
 above resided general Lockhart, of Carnwath ; 
 the second was occupied by the widow of a 
 gentleman of property ; the third by sir Islay 
 Campbell, lord advocate, and afterwards lord 
 president of the court of session ; the fourth 
 by Mr. Bell, a respectable writer to the 
 signet ; the fifth, by John Hume, esq., of 
 Ninewells, the representative of an old Scottish 
 family ; and, with more than usual demand 
 for accommodation, the attics were retained for 
 additional rooms used by general Lockhart's 
 family and servants. In other cases, the top 
 story is found occupied by a dress-maker, or 
 tailor, or even by a char-woman or sick- 
 nurse. Such is a sample of the mode by 
 which the varied ranks of life were packed 
 together Avithin the densely crowded dwellings 
 of Old Edinburgh, one public stair serving as 
 Ihe common access of all ; and the ladies of
 
 EDINBURGH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 13 
 
 my lord president, general Lockliart, or the 
 laird of Ninewells, being liable at all times to 
 meet with their baker's or grocer's wife, on 
 common ground. No very troublesome sense 
 either of intrusive collision or of repulsive 
 hauteur, seems to have resulted from this. 
 Society moved on with even fewer jars than 
 now ; and the dignity of no modern countess, 
 amidst all the costly appliances of a London 
 palace, is more fully recognised and freely 
 conceded to her, than was that of the leaders 
 of fashion in those old times of our grand- 
 mothers, when the countess of Stair enter- 
 tained the elite of Scottish society on the 
 second-floor of a house, still standing in one 
 of the closes of the High-street. 
 
 It is curious, indeed, to see from the de- 
 scriptions supplied to us by old title-deeds, that 
 those humble dwellings which we now see 
 deserted, even by the decent mechanic, as too 
 straitened for his moderate wants, actually 
 supplied so recently to our ancestors a com- 
 plete suite of apartments, according to the 
 most refined notions of aristocratic life. One 
 fashionable half of a fourth Hat in a high 
 street, alley, or close, for example, once the 
 town mansion of a wealthy landed proprietor, 
 has its little closets and passages thus grandi- 
 loquently described in its legal title deeds : *'Ane 
 large fore-chamber, with a study, upon the 
 south side of the turnpike, (or spiral stair- 
 case,) off the right hand of the entry, with 
 
 transe (passage) leading to the rest of the
 
 14 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 house, and a kitchen on the west side of 
 the said transe, with a hanging gallery on 
 the west side thereof, divided into two rooms 
 and a back hall within ; and upon the north 
 side of the said chamber, with a summer 
 dining-room on the west side of the same, 
 a chamber of dais within the said back hall, 
 and a study on the east side thereof, and 
 loft above the said chamber of dais and back 
 hall aforesaid." Thus it will be seen, that 
 the Scottish grandee of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, while " cribbed, cabined, and confined," 
 within his dingy half-flat on the fourth floor, 
 had, according to his ideas of domestic 
 economy, as complete a suite of apartments 
 as Burlington or Northumberland Houses now 
 furnish to their noble occupants. Certain it 
 is, that a reference to one of the street direc- 
 tories of Peter Williamson, whose death took 
 place so lately as 1797, supplies us with 
 lists of noblemen and heads of old families, 
 crowded together in a single close, such as 
 could not now be equalled in the most mag- 
 nificent quarters of the New Town, West- 
 End. Much, doubtless, was gained in point 
 of health and personal comfort, by the aban- 
 donment of these old straitened dwellings, 
 yet it cannot be doubted that something also 
 was lost ; and that by that very change, one 
 of the great barriers against the extrava- 
 gances and excesses of fashionable life was 
 broken down — a barrier which, it is not too 
 much to say, exercised its influence in help-
 
 EDINBURGH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 15 
 
 ing the poorer country to maintain its ground 
 in the earlier part of its struggle v/ith the 
 sister kingdom of England. 
 
 We designate our volume, "Modern Edin- 
 burgh ;" but under this title may fairly be 
 included much that pertains to older gene- 
 rations than our own. The interest, indeed, 
 of the modern city is still derived chiefly 
 from the past. Between the lofty tower-clad 
 rocks of its hoar castle, and the grey walls 
 of St. David's Abbey, at the foot of the Salis- 
 bury Crags, lie still the chief attractions of 
 the Scottish capital in the eye of the stranger ; 
 nor can we more appropriately introduce these 
 notices of the history and associations of its 
 ancient and modern walls, than by a glance 
 at the historical incidents which pertain to the 
 transition period of its history, from the last 
 sitting of the Union Parliament to our own 
 day. From the foundation of the Scottish 
 monarchy under Malcolm Canmore in the 
 eleventh century, till the union of the two 
 crowns on the death of queen Elizabeth, 
 Edinburgh partook of all the grandeur and 
 of all the vicissitudes and sufferings of the 
 capital of a warlike kingdom. From the 
 occurrence of the latter event, till the Union 
 in 1707, it was practically the capital of an 
 independent kingdom, though visited only at 
 few and rare intervals by its sovereigns. But 
 with that event, the ancient history of Edin- 
 burgh closes. 
 
 Though still the chief city of Scotland, its
 
 16 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 history is no longer political, but social, lite- 
 rary, and domes Uc. To the incidents which 
 form the connecting link between these ancient 
 and modern periods, we shall devote our next 
 chapter.
 
 THE DARIEN HOUSE. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DARIEN HOUSE. 
 
 The stranger, or tourist, who passes along the 
 great thorough Aire leading by the Earthen 
 Mound and George iv. Bridge, from the new 
 town, right through the old, to a second new 
 town, known as the southern districts, is not 
 unlikely to have his attention called to an 
 old-fashioned building, with a curious, high- 
 pitched roof, in the French style which pre- 
 vailed in the reign of William ni. This is the 
 old Darien House, a sufficiently melancholy 
 and desolate-looking memorial of the unfortu- 
 nate Darien enterprise. This forlorn character 
 is not a little heightened by its later use as a 
 pauper lunatic asylum, and in this capacity 
 still more melancholy associations attach to it 
 as the scene where poor Ferguson, the Scottish 
 poet, that hapless child of genius, so wretchedly 
 terminated his brief career. The building 
 still bears some faded relics of the original 
 grandeur which characterized it while yet the 
 centre of so many golden dreams. Externally 
 a series of niches decorate the front; and on
 
 18 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 an ornamental tablet above the doorway, and 
 surmounted by a sundial, is the date 1698. 
 Internally, a broad staircase leading to the 
 first floor is adorned with a handsome, though 
 somewhat heavy and massive balustrade ; but, 
 otherwise, the glory has long departed from it, 
 and with its later inmates, it bears all the 
 melancholy and desolate aspect which the fancy 
 could conceive as most suitable for the memo- 
 rial of that disastrous national enterprise. 
 
 The proceedings of the Edinburgh populace 
 in the earlier years of the eighteenth century, 
 in retaliation for the fi^ilure of the favourite 
 national scheme, amply bore out the character 
 acquired by the mobs of the Scottish capital 
 for a stern and resolute daring, and an unflinch- 
 ing tenacity of purpose. While the people 
 were still suffering from the ruinous failure of 
 their scheme, which the Scottish speculators, 
 with only too good reason, ascribed to the 
 sacrifice of their interests for their Englisli 
 rivals, the Scottish government took the bold 
 step of seizing, by way of reprisal, a vessel 
 belonging to the East India Company which 
 entered the Forth. The sole plea originally 
 advanced for this was the right of retaliation 
 for the unjust seizure and detention of the 
 Annandale, a ship belonging to the Scottish 
 compan}'-, in the Downs, at the instance of 
 the English East India Company. In the pro- 
 ceedings which followed, however, other, and 
 much more substantial reasons were discovered 
 or devised. While the vessel lay in the Forth,
 
 THE DARIEN HOUSE. 19 
 
 under embargo, the unguarded fepeeclies of the 
 crew led to their being implicated in the 
 crimes of piracy and murder, committed on 
 a Scottish vessel and its crew in the East 
 Indies. In all these proceedings, Scotland 
 appears acting, not only to a great extent as 
 an independent kingdom, but with much of 
 the ancient hereditary rancour with Avhich it 
 had been accustomed of old to regard its 
 " auld enemies of England." Captain Thomas 
 Green and fourteen of the crew were brought 
 to trial, and the bitter national hatred excited 
 against them was further increased by their 
 attempting to deny the jurisdiction of the 
 court. Whether it was possible at that period 
 to find an impartial jury in Edinburgh for 
 such a trial, may reasonably be questioned. 
 The evidence, however, which has been pre- 
 served, was sufficient to have justified any 
 jury in returning their verdict of guilty ; and 
 the court accordingly sentenced captain Green 
 and his associates to be hanged on the sands 
 of Leith. 
 
 Arnot, in his " Celebrated Criminal Trials," 
 remarks : — '' As the factions into which Scot- 
 land was then divided about the depending 
 treaty of Union, did each of them take up this 
 cause as a matter of party, the faction Avhich 
 fiivoured the Union maintained the prisoners' 
 innocence, and on this ground solicited a 
 pardon for them. The party, again, that op- 
 posed the Union, which was much more 
 numerous, and fully more violent, held the
 
 20 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 evidence of the prisoners' guilt as equal to 
 demonstration, and resented the attempt to 
 obtain a pardon for the prisoners with the 
 highest indignation." Under such circum- 
 stances it is easy to see that the unfortunate 
 prisoners had but a poor chance of obtaining 
 an impartial hearing, or an unprejudiced judg- 
 ment on the evidence advanced. The justice 
 of the whole proceedings, and the probability 
 of the evidence stumbled upon with such re- 
 markable opportuneness, have accordingly been 
 the subject of very conflicting opinions, and, 
 apart altogether from the political motives 
 above referred to, there were found influential 
 persons at the time who thought the evidence 
 insufficient to justify the condemnation. Their 
 influence was accordingly directed strongly in 
 their favour ; nor indeed did more than three 
 eventually suffer for the alleged crimes. These 
 three, however, were the captain, mate, and 
 chief gunner, who, as the supposed instigators 
 and ringleaders in the crime, were the special 
 objects of popular indignation. 
 
 In this case, as in the later one of Porteous, 
 the prospect of royal pardon being extended to 
 their victims excited the utmost indignation 
 among the populace ; and on the report benig 
 circulated that a reprieve had been granted, a 
 mob assaulted the lord chancellor while passing 
 down the High-street in his carriage, on his 
 return from the privy council. The windows 
 of his carriage were immediately smashed, and 
 the chancellor was dragged out and thrown
 
 THE DARIEN HOUSE. 21 
 
 upon tlie street, Avhere he was at length, with 
 great difficult}^, rescued from the fury of the 
 mob by an armed body of his friends. The 
 2X)piihir feeling, however, was so strong and 
 universal on the subject, and the conviction 
 had so generally gained ground that Scotland 
 had no justice to hope for except such as she 
 secured for herself, that it Avns found impossible 
 to attempt the pardon of the accused pirates, 
 and the tumult was only appeased at last by 
 their public execution. 
 
 Such was the state of popular feeling in the 
 Scottish capital when the project of a Union 
 of the two kingdoms Avas first entertained. In 
 a, parliament which met at Edinburgh only 
 three years after the execution of captain Green 
 and his associates, steps were taken for bring- 
 ing about this object, which has proved so 
 great a blessing to both countries. It would 
 have been difhcult, however, to have selected a 
 more unfavourable period for making such a 
 proposal to the Scottish nation. The failure of 
 the favourite scheme of colonization, entirely, as 
 it i'.ppeared, through the jealousy of rival inte- 
 rests in England, had excited all the old feelings 
 of national antipathy, and the plan for a Union 
 was almost universally regarded as a covert 
 attempt to sacrifice the independence of the 
 country to the interests of its ancient rival. 
 So soon as the proposed Articles of Union were 
 made public, the utmost uproar ensued. When 
 the parliament assembled, the adjoining square, 
 or Parliament Close, as it was then called, was
 
 22 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 crowded with an excited multitude, wlio mani- 
 fested their displeasure at the supporters of the 
 scheme by hootings and opprobrious epithets, 
 and even by personal violence. The roj'al 
 commissioner, the duke of Queensberry, Avas an 
 especial object of the popular resentment ; and 
 as the discussion advanced, the people pro- 
 ceeded to more violent acts of hostility against 
 the promoters of the scheme. The house of 
 sir Patrick Johnston, the representative of the 
 city in Parliament, and formerly a great fa- 
 vourite when provost, was attacked Avith the 
 utmost violence, and sir Patrick himself nar- 
 roAvly escaped failing a victim to the lliry of 
 the mob. 
 
 The old days when the streets of Edinburgh 
 formed the chief battle-field of the rival Scot- 
 tish factions seemed once more revived. Three 
 regiments of foot were on constant duty, and 
 the Nether Bowport, and other of the most 
 important points of the city, were taken pos- 
 session of by the military. Yet the mob con- 
 tinued to keep the parliament in awe, and to 
 hold the town nearly at their mercy. The 
 duke of Queensberry and all who acted wath 
 him were kept in terror of their lives. A 
 strong battalion protected Holyrood Palace, and 
 guards were stationed at the approaches to the 
 Parliament Close to prevent any but members 
 obtaining admission. His grace, the commis- 
 sioner, walked from the Parliament House to 
 his coach between a double file of musketeers, 
 and he was driven from the Cross at full
 
 THE DARIEN HOUSE. 23 
 
 gallcip to his residence at the palace, hooted, 
 cursed, and pelted by the rabble. A proper 
 city police uas then unknown in Scotland. 
 The only substitute for it in Edinburgh was 
 the town guard, an inefficient body of old sol- 
 diers ; and unless when it came to open warfare 
 with fire-arms, the mol) was supreme in any 
 question on which the popular feeling Avas 
 unanimous. Even when fire-arms were resorted 
 to, and the military called out, the peculiarly 
 cool and dogged pertinacity of the mobs of the 
 Scottish capital, added to the great advantages 
 they possessed from the singular construction 
 of the old town, Avith its numerous courts, nar- 
 row lanes, and alleys, so frequently enabled the 
 latter to secure the victory, that the govern- 
 ment rarely risked such a contest. 
 
 The favour of the mob was no less zealously 
 manifested than their displeasure. The duke 
 of Hamilton, who, as hereditary keeper of 
 the palace, had his lodgings there, was nightly 
 escorted home by immense multitudes, with 
 flambeaus and fire-arms, cheering and ap- 
 plauding his fidelity to the popular cause. It 
 was on one of these occasions, after having 
 seen the duke home, that the mob proceeded 
 in a body to the house of the city member, and 
 after scaring him into a hasty retreat, sacked' 
 it, and flung its contents into the street. 
 
 At this period the stately mansion of Moray 
 House, still existing in th« Canongate, and 
 which formed the residence of Oliver Cromwell 
 during his abode in Edinburgh, was occupied
 
 24 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 by the lord chancellor Seafield, and its fine old 
 halls were the scenes of numerous secret meet- 
 ings and deliberations preceding the final 
 ratification of the treaty. A picturesque 
 summer-house still stands in its terraced 
 garden, adorned with quaint old lions, whither 
 tradition tells that the chancellor and other 
 unionists withdrev/ to place their signatures to 
 one of the final documents by which the union 
 of the two kingdoms was ratified. But the 
 ever-watchful mob got news of the proceedings 
 in time to set them to flight, and the deed was 
 at length accomplished in a laigh shop, or 
 cellar, on the north side of the High-street, 
 still popularly known as the " Union Cellar." 
 On the 25th of March, 1707, the treaty of 
 Union was ratified by the estates, and on the 
 22nd of April following, the parliament of 
 Scotland adjourned, never again to meet as a 
 national assembly. " The lord chancellor 
 Seafield," says Dr. Wilson, '' the chief agent in 
 this closing scene of our national legislature, 
 exclaimed on its accomplishment, with heart- 
 less levity, ' There is the end of an auld sang ; ' 
 but the people brooded over the act as a 
 national indignity and wrong ; and the legiti- 
 mate line of their old Scottish kings anew 
 found favour in their eyes, and became the 
 centre of hope to many who mourned ovel 
 Scotland as a degraded province of her old 
 southern rival."
 
 PRINCE CHARLES. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PRINCE CHARLES. 
 
 It was -well for Scotland that the popular 
 clamour proved unavailing to prevent the 
 union of the two kingdoms, though the distrust 
 and opposition of the people were amply 
 justified by the corrupt means employed for 
 securing many of the votes by which the 
 measure was carried that put an end to the 
 deliberations of the Scottish parliament. The 
 immediate results flowing from it were, more- 
 ever, little calculated to diminish the odium 
 with which it Avas universally regarded, and 
 this was peculiarly the case in Edinburgh, 
 where trade suffered ; the rank and character 
 of society were deteriorated, and the last ties 
 were broken which bound the Scottish nobility 
 to the ancient capital of the kingdom. The 
 general discontent and irritation produced by 
 this measure received fresh stimulus shortly 
 after by the appearance of English tax- 
 gatherers, and other government officials — all 
 of whom were looked upon its aliens and 
 extortioners; so that it became the universal
 
 26 3I0DERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 custom to ascribe all grievances, from what- 
 ever source they sprang, to the odious Union. 
 The copestone was put on all these grievances 
 by the fact that the Scottish members met 
 with a very different reception in the British 
 parliament from what they had been accus- 
 tomed to in their own national assembly. All 
 these causes united to aid the movements of 
 the party which had never ceased secretly to 
 cherish the hope of seeing the banished Stuart 
 liing resume his throne. Former evils were 
 forgotten or slighted when compared with those 
 under which they were at present suffering, 
 and thus the thoughts of a large and increasing 
 portion of the people were gradually directed 
 anew to the exiled family of the Stuarts. 
 
 Edinburgh had no share in the first rising 
 against the house of Hanover in 1715. The 
 magistrates anticipated the movement, and took 
 effectual measures I'or the defence of the city. 
 The walls and gates Avere repaired and forti- 
 fied ; the sluice at the east end of the North 
 Loch was dammed up, and trenches were dug 
 at the most accessible points. Equally efficient 
 means were pursued for providing an effective 
 force to man the walls ; so that Avhen a party 
 of the insurgents marched towards Edinburgh, 
 they found it so Avell defended that they aban- 
 doned the attempt to assault it, and retreated 
 to the citadel at Leith, from whence they were 
 soon after driven, and the whole ill-concerted 
 and feeble effort of rebellion was effectually 
 suppressed. It was only twenty years after this
 
 PlilNCE CHARLES. 27 
 
 3ast occiirrence, that that remarkable riot took 
 place, so widely known as the Porteous mob. 
 
 The Edinburgh city guard, which consti- 
 tuted at that period its sole police, consisted 
 principally of discharged veterans, whose duty 
 it was to preserve the public peace, and sup- 
 press any attempt at tumult, such as was 
 then so easily raised among the excitable 
 populace. No portion of the citizens had 
 learned to look on these guardians of the town 
 with much respect, and to its rabble they were 
 objects of mingled derision and fear. No 
 opportunity was missed of showing the feeling 
 entertained towards them, and the numerous 
 indignities they suffered did not tend in any 
 degree to mollify the moroseness of their tem- 
 pers. This state of feeling continued to be 
 cherished as long as this corps of veterans were 
 retained in the service of the city ; and Dr. 
 Wilson has sketched the following lively pic- 
 ture of one of their annual field-days in 
 his " Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden 
 Time :" — 
 
 " Among the more homely associations of 
 the old Parliament Close, the festivities of the 
 king's birthday demand a special notice, as 
 perhaps the most popular among the long- 
 cherished customs of our ancestors, which the 
 present generation has beheld gradually expire. 
 It was usual on this annual festival to have a 
 public repast in the Parliament-hall, where 
 tables were laid out at the expense of the city, 
 covered with wine and confections, and the
 
 28 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 magistrates, judges, and nearly all the chief 
 citizens, assembled for Avhat was styled * the 
 drinking the king's health.' On the morning 
 of this joyous holiday, the statue of king 
 Charles was gail}'' decorated with flowers by 
 the ' aidd callants,'' as eleves of Ileriot's Hospital 
 are still termed, who claimed this office by long 
 prescription, and their acknowledged skill in 
 the art of royal decoration, acquired in the 
 annual custom of decking their own founder's 
 statue. This formed one of the chief attrac- 
 tions to the citizens throughout the day, as 
 well as to their numerous rustic visitors, who 
 crowded into the capital on the occasion. 
 Towards the afternoon, tlie veteran corps of the 
 city guard was called out to man the eastern 
 entrance into the Parliament Close, while the 
 guests were assembling for the civic entertain- 
 ment, and then after to draw up in front of the 
 great hall, and announce Avilh a volley to the 
 capital at large each loyal toast of its assem- 
 bled rulers. Never did forlorn hope undertake 
 a more desperate duty. The first volley of 
 these unpopular guardians of civic order was 
 the signal for a frenzied assault on them by 
 the whole rabble of the town, — commemorated 
 in Fergusson's lively address to the muse on 
 ' The King's Birthday.' Dead dogs, cats, and 
 every oftensive missile that could be procured 
 for the occasion, were now hurled at their 
 devoted heads, and when at last they received 
 orders to march back again to their old citadel 
 in the High-street, the strife became furious ;
 
 PRINCE CHARLES. 29 
 
 the rough old veterans dealt their blows right 
 and left with musket and lochaber axe, wielded 
 by no gentle hands ; but their efforts were hope- 
 less against the spirit and numbers of their 
 enemies, and the retreat generally ended in an 
 ignominious rout of the whole civic guard. 
 All law, excepting mob law, was suspended 
 during the rest of the evening, the windows of 
 obnoxious citizens were broken, the effigies of 
 the most unpopular men frequently burnt ; 
 and for more than half a century, the notorious 
 Johnny Wilkes^ the editor of the * North 
 Briton,' and the favourite of the London ap- 
 prentices, was annually burnt in %i^gj at the 
 Cross, and other prominent parts of the town, — 
 an incremation hardly yet altogether fallen 
 into desuetude." 
 
 Such was the town guard of Edinburgh, in 
 which John Porteous, a man of low origin and 
 profligate character, filled the office of captain. 
 One of the special duties devolving on the 
 body which he commanded, was to surround 
 the scaffold on the occasion of public execu- 
 tions ; and it was at one of these, as is w^ell 
 known, that Porteous committed the outrage 
 for which he paid the penalty of his life. 
 
 The criminal on the occasion referred to 
 commanded the sympathy of the populace, 
 because his offence was against the odious 
 excise laws, which they looked upon as one of 
 the treasonable fruits of the Union ; and their 
 commiseration had been greatly increased by 
 the generous courage displayed by him in
 
 30 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 securing the escape of his accomplice. On 
 these grounds it was very generally thought 
 that an attempt would be made to rescue the 
 prisoner, and preparations were accordingly 
 devised for resisting it. One of these, the 
 introduction of a detachment of infantry into 
 the city, was looked upon by Porteous as an 
 insult to his own corps, and helped to increase 
 the irritation of his naturally surly and brutal 
 temper. Awed, most probably, by the prepara- 
 tions for opposing any resistance to the execu- 
 tion of the criminal, the mob remained passive 
 until the fatal work was accomplished ; but the 
 dead body had not hung long upon the gibbet 
 when the mob became excited, assailed Porte- 
 ous and his men with stones and other missiles, 
 ond at length one of the most venturous of 
 them sprang on the scaffold, and cut the rope 
 by which the criminal had been suspended. 
 
 It was at this stage of the proceedings, when 
 the execution had been effected, and the re- 
 sistance to the mob Avas, according to the 
 usages of the period, greatly less required, that 
 Porteous seized the musket of one of the guards, 
 and giving the Avord to his men to fire, he at 
 the same moment discharged the piece and 
 shot a man dead on the spot. Several others 
 were killed and wounded by the fire of his 
 men ; but an Edinburgh mob in those days 
 was not easily scared. The attack on the guard 
 continued with redoubled fury. Several more 
 fell under a second volley, including some 
 peaceful spectators who chanced to be watching
 
 PRINCE CHARLES. 81 
 
 the scene from some of the neighbouring win- 
 dows ; but the assailants still continued to press 
 on the hated guard, and the tumult was only 
 brought to a close when they had compelled 
 them to retreat to their guard-house in the 
 High-street. 
 
 Captain Porteous was brought to trial for 
 murder, in consequence of his share in the 
 proceedings, and the High Court of Justiciary 
 sentenced him to be executed. The ordinary 
 antipathy of the populace to this civic func- 
 tionary had risen to a feeling of the most deadly 
 vengeance in consequence of his wanton and 
 fatal recklessness, the consequences of which 
 had led to his own condemnation ; and when 
 the day appointed for his execution arrived, it 
 was welcomed as a special season of just ven- 
 geance, no less than of popular triumph. This 
 feeling, however, was doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. Efficient influence had been employed 
 on his behalf at court, and her majesty queen 
 Caroline had been induced to grant him a 
 reprieve for six weeks, with the intention of 
 probably commuting his sentence to some much 
 milder punishment, if not of entirely pardoning 
 him. This, in the state of popular feeling 
 at the time, was looked upon as another of the 
 wrongs inflicted on Scotland by those who had 
 robbed her of independence. The crowd Avhich 
 had assembled to witness the execution of its 
 expected victim, slowly dispersed amidst the 
 suppressed mutterings of disappointed revenge. 
 But no violence was attempted ; and so com-
 
 32 MODERN EDINBUKGII. 
 
 plete was tlic confidence of Porteous in Lis 
 final escape, that he invited a party of his boon 
 companions to join him in the Tolbooth, and 
 the evening of his reprieve was devoted to the 
 coarse orgies only too well suited to that abode 
 of misery and vice. 
 
 Such was the occupation of the reprieved 
 criminal as the night set in ; but its darkness 
 was about to introduce another set of actors in 
 the strange drama. It was in the month of 
 September, when the nights had already en- 
 croached largely on the shortening day ; and 
 as soon as it was dark enough to conceal the 
 persons of the conspirators, a drum was heard 
 beating to arms through the principal streets, 
 and the populace hastened from every court 
 and alley to join the gathering throng. Though 
 only a few hours had elapsed since the e-^ent 
 which originated this movement, it was marked 
 by all the characteristics of a well-concerted 
 scheme. As the number of the mob increased, 
 they separated into diiTerent parties, and took 
 possession of the gates and other important 
 points in the city, posting sentinels at each of 
 them, so as effectually to prevent any interfer- 
 ence with their further proceedings. Tliey 
 then surrounded the city guard, disarmed the 
 force, and having possessed themselves of their 
 weapons, they were thus doubly prepared for 
 commanding the uncontrolled mastery of the 
 town during the night. The magistrates find- 
 ing themselves thus utterly deprived of any 
 civic force to oppose to the mob, and being
 
 PRINCE CHARLES. 33 
 
 precluded from all commimication beyond tlie 
 gates, attempted to obtain assistance from the 
 castle ; but tins also had been looked to, and a 
 vigilant band of insurgents effectually pre- 
 vented all intercourse with the garrison. 
 
 Porteous was in the height of his ill-timed 
 festivities in the prison of the old Tolbooth, or 
 Heart of Midlothian, when the rioters, at length 
 satisfied of the efficiency of the preliminary 
 steps we have described, made their appearance 
 before the prison door. The glare of their 
 torches revealed the excited multitude to the 
 wretched man, as he gazed on them through 
 the prison-bars, which seemed now to offer his 
 only chance of safety. He well knew the 
 hatred with which he was universally regarded, 
 and had been triumphing in the idea of having 
 outwitted such a host of determined foes. 
 " Surely," he had said, "the bitterness of death 
 is past," and now all hope of escape seemed gone, 
 for he well knew the determined character of 
 an Edinburgh mob. Sledge-hammers and 
 crowbars had been plied in vain against the 
 massive prison-door ; but fire soon found them 
 a way through its solid oak, and the wretched 
 man was dragged from his hiding-place, where 
 he had scrambled up the chimney, and laid 
 hold of the iron bars inserted there on purpose 
 to cut off any possibility of escape in that 
 direction. Hurried along by the road to the 
 usual place of execution, the rioters stopped 
 their victim in the old West Eow, while they 
 deliberately forced their way into a shop where 
 
 B
 
 34 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 ropes were sold, and left on the counter a 
 guinea to pay for the one which they carried 
 off for the purpose of his execution. A dyer's 
 pole, only a few yards from the site of the 
 gallows, supplied its want. With the utmost 
 coolness and deliberation all the preparatory stops 
 were gone through, and the deed of stern ven- 
 geance resolved on having been carried out by 
 the suspension of the unhappy man from the 
 dyer's pole, he was watched until all possibility 
 of his rescue in life was at an end, and then 
 the actors in this bold deed of lawlessness 
 threw away the weapons of which they had 
 possessed themselves, and quietly dispersed. 
 
 Such was the Porteous mob, one of the most 
 remarkable civic tumults on record, and which, 
 though got up within a few hours after the 
 cause of popular indignation had transpired, 
 was managed with such secresy, that none of 
 the offenders were ever discovered, though the 
 magistrates used their most strenuous efforts, 
 and the government offered tempting rewards 
 to induce some of their accomplices to reveal 
 the ringleader, in what may with much more 
 propriety be styled a daring conspiracy, than 
 the mere act of a conmion mob. 
 
 The ordinary magistrates of the city resumed 
 their power on the morroAv, not without trem- 
 bling at the late experience of the fragility of 
 its tenure. To march troops into the city, 
 and commence a severe inquiry into the trans- 
 actions of the preceding night, were the first 
 marks of returning energy which they dis-
 
 rniNCE CHARLES. CO 
 
 played. But these events had been conductc"! 
 on so secure and Avell-concocted a plan ol' 
 safety and secresy, that there was little or 
 nothing learned to throw light upon the 
 authors or principal actors in a scheme so 
 audacious. An express was despatched to 
 London with the tidings, where they excited 
 great indignation and surprise in the council of 
 the regency, and particularly in the bosom of 
 queen Caroline, who considered her own 
 authority as exposed to contempt by the 
 success of this singular conspiracy. Nothing 
 was spoken of for some time save the measure 
 of vengeance that should be taken, not only on 
 the actors of this tragedy, so soon as they 
 should be discovered, but upon the magistrates 
 who had suffered it to take place, and upon 
 the city which had been the scene where it 
 was exhibited. On this occasion, it is still 
 recorded in popular tradition, that her majesty, 
 in the height of her displeasure, told the cele- 
 brated John, duke of Argyll, that sooner than 
 submit to such an insult, she would make 
 Scotland a hunting-field. " In that case, 
 madam," answered that high-spirited noble- 
 man, with a profound bow, "I will take leave 
 of your majesty, and go down to my ovm 
 country to get my hounds ready." 
 
 The idea of wreaking the vengeance of 
 mortified authority on the city and its civic 
 rulers was no empty threat. The lord provost 
 was imprisoned, and not admitted to bail for 
 three weeks, and a bill brought into parliament
 
 36 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 was carried through the House of Lords, in" 
 capacitating him from holding any magisterial 
 office in Great Britain, and condemning him to 
 imprisonment fur a year. Still further, it was 
 provided that the Nether Bow Port, the chief 
 gate of the city, should be demolished, and the 
 town-guard disbanded ; the last a proceeding 
 which seemed rather like a reward than a 
 punishment of the rioters. In the House of 
 Commons, however, a wiser moderation pre- 
 vailed, and the whole affair ended in the city 
 having to pay the sum of £1,500 to Porteous's 
 widow. 
 
 Such was the curious condition of society, 
 and the unsettled state of public feeling in 
 Edinburgh, in the earlier part of the eighteenth 
 century. The union with England was re- 
 garded with a jealousy and distrust similar to 
 that with which we have seen the Irish union 
 regarded in our own day by some of the Irish 
 people. The state of things we have described 
 abundantly accounts for what so speedily fol- 
 lowed. Only nine years had elapsed since the 
 deeds of the Porteous mob had been productive 
 of such commotion throughout the kingdom, 
 when the news reached Edinburgh that prince 
 Charles Edward had landed, and was on his 
 march thither. To the great majority of the 
 citizens the news was neither unexpected nor 
 unwelcome. Steps, however, were t.dcen for 
 the defence of the capital. A portion of the 
 royal forces were marched into the neighbour- 
 hood ; the city guard was increased, the walls
 
 PRINCE CHARLES. 37 
 
 were hastily repaired, and ditches throv;n up 
 for additional defence. 
 
 The prince had crossed the Forth above 
 Stirling, and the king's troops, along with the 
 city guards, were posted at Corstorphine and 
 Coltbridge, to the west of the city, to repel his 
 advance. A volunteer force was also raised 
 among the citizens ; but the utmost lukewarm- 
 ness, added to an undefined dread of the 
 approaching Highland host, prevailed ; and 
 when they did at length present themselves, 
 the whole force fled precipitately, and com- 
 municated such a panic to the citizens, that 
 scarcely any could be found even to encourage 
 the idea of shutting the city gates, and stand- 
 ing on the defensive. While the citizens were 
 still undetermined as to the ultimate line of 
 policy they should pursue, the Nether Bow 
 Port was unwarily opened to give egress to a 
 carriage — not, however, as was shrewdly sus- 
 pected, without the secret connivance of the 
 lord provost, whose Jacobite leanings were 
 but thinly disguised. A party of Highlanders 
 who had been waiting outside the gate, imme- 
 diately rushed in, took possession of the city, 
 seized and disarmed the guards, and compelled 
 the heralds to publish at the Cross the com- 
 mission of regency which the prince held from 
 his father, with all the wonted ceremonies 
 attending royal proclamations. 
 
 The young cavalier speedily followed the 
 advanced guard of his faithful Highland force. 
 His army encamped in the royal park, on the
 
 38 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 eastern and southern slopes of Arthur's Seat, 
 and the j^rince, after passing a night at Dud- 
 dingston, advanced on the folloAving day, and 
 took pos^es^yon of the royal palace of his 
 ancestors. All the cruel miseries inflicted on 
 Scotland by the Stuart race, and the pro- 
 tracted years of misgovernment, treacher}^, and 
 oppression which they had endured — almost 
 from the union of the two crowns on the 
 death of queen Elizabeth, to their forfeiture by 
 the grandfather of the prince who had now 
 returned to occupy his palace — were forgotten. 
 The inhabitants flocked in multitudes from the 
 city to the neighbouring camp, and mixed in 
 friendly familiarity with the clansmen ; while 
 the palace was crowded with numbers of the 
 higher classes of the citizens, who hastened to 
 pay their homage to the prince, and to testify 
 their fidelity to the exiled family. 
 
 The battle of Preston Pans followed, and the 
 prince was victorious on the field, Avhere the 
 noble Christian soldier, colonel Gardiner, fell. 
 The dragoons of sir John Cope fled igno- 
 miniously, leaving their baggage, artillery, and 
 military chests to the victors. The prince 
 returned to Holy rood Palace in triumph ; and 
 revived once more, in its long deserted halls, 
 festive scenes which had been wont to grace 
 them in the olden times, when Scotland was a 
 distinct kingdom, and Edinburgh was the seat 
 of a royal court and a national parliament. 
 
 Even in the prince's brief hour of triumph, 
 however, there were not wanting those who
 
 PRINCE CHARLES. 39 
 
 clearly discerned, through the popular glare of 
 a false nationality, and the exaggerated esti- 
 mate of present grievances, that the fruit to 
 be looked for from the overthrow of the Hano- 
 verian famil}^, Avas the restoration of a race of 
 popish princes, ^vho had so signally failed in 
 all the duties which kings owe to their people. 
 After the victory of Preston Pans, the prince 
 issued a proclamation, giving the ministers of 
 the city full liberty to continue the usual 
 religious services on the following Sunday, 
 and only making the moderate stipulation, that 
 in praying for the royal family, no name 
 should be mentioned. One only of the city 
 clergy availed himself of the permission, bur- 
 dened by this condition, and lectured in the 
 forenoon in the Tron Church ; but St. Cuth- 
 bert's, an extra-mural parish, was then filled 
 by an incumbent, the rev. Neile M' Vicar, 
 famous in his day, and still commemorated 
 among the faithful pastors of the church of 
 Scotland, as one whom no dread of personal 
 danger could deter from fullilling his duty as 
 a minister of Christ. This- worthy successor 
 of the faithful band that sufTcred to the death, 
 rather than submit to the tyranny of Charles 
 and James ir., gave public notice that he would 
 continue the regular services of the day, and 
 proceeded to the pulpit, accordingly, as usual. 
 The church was crowded with an imusually 
 numerous auditory, attracted thither by various 
 motives, and among them he recognised many 
 Jacobites, as well as a considerable number of
 
 40 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 the Highland soldiers, led to attend from the 
 report of the intentions, and the knowledge of 
 his intrepid character. Nothing daunted by 
 such an assembly, Mr. M'Vicar prayed, as 
 usual, for king George, by name, desiring for 
 him every temporal and spiritual blessing ; the 
 establishment of his throne in righteousness, 
 and the upholding of it against every foe ; and. 
 then he added : "As for this young man 
 who has come among us seeking an earthly 
 crown, we beseech Thee that he may obtain 
 what is far better, a heavenly one!" No evil 
 consequences followed on this bold and faithful 
 exercise of duty. The prince would have 
 been ill-advised, indeed, to have revived the 
 memory of dark days so recently gone by, by 
 rekindling the spirit of religious persecution at 
 such a time. On the worth}' minister's prayer 
 being reported to him, he is said to have 
 smiled, and expressed himself highly pleased 
 at the courage and charity he had displayed. 
 
 What followed on these events forms no part 
 of the history of Edinburgh. In less than six 
 months, the duke of Cumberland returned 
 from the field of Culloden, where the last 
 hopes of the ill-fated Stuart had perished, and 
 occupied the same apartments in the palace of 
 Holyrood, which had so recently been the 
 scene of festivities, graced by an enthusiasm 
 that, however unwise and ill-founded, was as 
 hearty and sincere as the reception of the 
 victor of Culloden was hollow and distrustful. 
 And so, may we say, ended the old honours of
 
 PxRINCE CHARLES. 41 
 
 Holy rood, and the royal pageants of the 
 Scottish capital. The next of our British 
 sovereigns Avho appeared there, to revive the 
 ancient glories of the palace and capital of the 
 Stuarts, was George iv., and his ■welcome 
 lacked no feature that could serve to testify the 
 hearty loyalty of the people towards the younger 
 line of the royal family, through whom the 
 rights of Malcolm Canmore and St. Margaret, 
 and the privileges and honours of jMary Stuart, 
 have descended on her loved and honoured 
 descendant, queen Victoria, who, as is w^ell- 
 known, has added her name to the associations 
 of the ancient palace of Plolyrood, 
 
 b2
 
 42 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IlISE OF THE NEW TOWN. 
 
 In 1679, James, duke of Albany, (afterwards 
 James ii. of England,) was received Vv^ith all 
 the pomp of a royal visitation, on bis coming 
 to Edinburgh in the capacity of king's com- 
 missioner to the Scottish parliament — a sort of 
 honourable banishment devised for him while 
 the famous Exclusion Bill still hung in sus- 
 pense. His duchess, Mary D'Este of Modenn, 
 and the princess, afterwards queen Anne, ac- 
 companied him, and the festivities at Plolyrood 
 iiad almost the effect of a restoration. It was 
 during this temporary revival of the old 
 Scottish court, that the first project of the 
 neAv town was devised, although nearly a 
 century elapsed before even the foundation 
 stone of the North Bridge was laid. 
 
 In accordance with the more absolute powers 
 of the period, James granted to the city in 
 perpetuity, for the purpose of carrying into 
 effect the project of an extended royalty and 
 North Bridge, thus early devised, such rights 
 as even parliament would now enact only for
 
 mSE OF THE NEW TOWN. 43 
 
 a very limited period. In this charter, James 
 bestows on the citizens this, among other 
 privileges — " That Avhen they should have 
 occasion to enlarge their city, by purchasing 
 ground without the town, or to build bridges or 
 arches, for 'accomplishing the same, not only 
 are the proprietors of such lands obliged to 
 part with the same on reasonable terms, but 
 these, when acquired, are to be erected into a 
 regality in favour of the citizens." Unfor- 
 tunately, for Edinburgh at least, her royaJ 
 guest departed with all his court and retinue, 
 after a stay of only two years and a half; and 
 when, as the first-fruits of the Union, the privy 
 council, the parliament, and, as a natural con- 
 sequence, nearly the whole of the nobility 
 left also, all prospect of further extension 
 seemed at an end. 
 
 In 1720, Allan Kamsay, in one of his 
 earliest poetical effusions, entitled " Edin- 
 burgh's Salutation to the marquis of Carnar- 
 von," who was then on a visit to the city, thus 
 represents her addressing her noble guest, — 
 
 "Lang syne, my lord, I had a court. 
 
 And nobles filled my cawsy ; 
 But since I have been fortune's sporty 
 
 I look nae half sae gawsy. 
 Oh that ilk worthy British peer, 
 
 Wad follow your example, 
 :My auld grey head I yet wad rear. 
 
 And spread my skirts mair ample." 
 
 But more desponding is the picture which 
 Maitland draws of the Canongate, so late as 
 the middle of the eighteenth century. " This 
 place," he says, " has suffered more by the
 
 44 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 union of the kingdom than all the other parts 
 of Scotland ; for having been, before that 
 period, the residence of the chief of the Scottish 
 nobility, it was then in a flourishing condition ; 
 but being deserted by them, many of their 
 houses are fallen down, and others are in a 
 ruinous condition. It is a piteous case." 
 
 The first stone of the new bridge, which was 
 to form the connecting link between the ancient 
 city and those long-coveted fields, on which the 
 new town was destined to arise, was laid on 
 the 21st of October, 1763 ; and four years 
 later, Mr. James Craig, architect, a nephew of 
 the illustrious poet of the " Seasons," submitted 
 to the approving town council the plan 
 adopted for the intended city ; along with a 
 host of competing designs from rival architects 
 and amateurs. To the original engraving of 
 Craig's plan, its author appended the following 
 lines from his uncle's poem of " Liberty :" — 
 
 " August, around, what public works I see ! 
 Lo, stately streets ! lo, squares that court the breeze ! 
 See long canals and deepened rivers join 
 Each part with each, and with the circling main, 
 The whole enlivened isle." 
 
 The regular array of formal parallelograms, 
 says the author of the " jMemorials of Edinburgh," 
 "thus sketched out for the future city, was 
 received by the denizens of the old town with 
 raptures of applause. Pent up in narrow and 
 crooked wynds, its broad, straight avenues 
 seemed the heau ideal of perfection, and the 
 more sanguine of them panted to see the mag- 
 nificent design realized. Some echo of their
 
 RISE OF THE NEW TOWN. 45 
 
 enthusiastic admiration," adds the memo- 
 rialist of Old Edinburgh, " still lingers among 
 us, but it waxes feeble and indistinct. The 
 most hearty contemners of the dingy, smoky 
 old town, now admit that neither the formal 
 plan, nor the architectural designs of the new 
 town, evince much intellect or inventive genius 
 in their contriver; and, perhaps, even a pro- 
 fessed antiquary may venture to hint at the wis- 
 dom of our ancestors, who carried their road 
 obliquely down the steep northern slope, from 
 Mutrie's-hill to Silver-mills, instead of de- 
 vising the abrupt precipitous descent from 
 where the statue of George iv. now stands 
 to the foot of Pitt-street — a steep which strikes 
 the stranger with awe, not unmingled with 
 fear, on his first approach to our modern 
 Athens from the neighbouring coast. When, 
 some two or three centuries hence, the new 
 town shall have ripened into fruit for some 
 twenty- second century imp7'ovement commission, 
 their first scheme will probably lead to the 
 restoration of Gabriel's-road, and its counter- 
 part from Charlotte-square to Pitt-street 1 " 
 Such are a modern critic's remarks on the 
 plan which appeared so faultless to the previous 
 generation ; and it must be confessed, that 
 however admirably the streets which cross the 
 new town from north to south serve for 
 opening magnificent vistas, stretching away 
 beyond the Forth to the highland hills, they 
 are certainly planned without the slightest 
 consideration of the requisites for a public
 
 46 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 thoroughfare. A Londoner, accustomed to 
 complain of the dangers of Holborn-hill or 
 Snow-hill, would stand aghast if placed for the 
 first time at the foot of Pitt-street, surmounted 
 in the fav distance with the statue of George 
 IV., and the beautiful S23ire of the Assembly 
 Hall behind it ; and would also think it a feat 
 of danger to guide a horse up such a steep. 
 Both men and horses, however, are well accus- 
 tomed to such feats in the northern capital ; 
 and few things are more likely to attract a 
 stranger's attention at first, than the apparent 
 recklessness with which hackney-coach and 
 cabmen drive swiftly down these precipitous 
 streets, esjDecially if the stranger chance to be 
 inside the flying vehicle. Accidents, however, 
 are probably of as rare occurrence there as on 
 the nearly level thoroughfares of London. 
 
 The new town, though not yet numbering 
 as such more years than some of its oldest sur- 
 viving inhabitants, has nevertheless its ancient 
 associations and traditional memorials also. Li 
 the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, indeed, 
 are preserved more than one primitive cinerary 
 urn, discovered in the process of excavating 
 for the foundations of its modern structures, 
 and carrying the imagination back to that dim 
 pre-historic era of our island's story, before the 
 Iloman legionary had come as the bloody mis- 
 sionary of civilization ; and paved the way for 
 the more glorious conquests of the gospel of 
 peace and glad tidings to the poor skin-clad 
 barbarians of Caledonia. In the "Pre-historic
 
 RISE OF THE NEW TOWN. 47 
 
 Annals of Scotland," also, tolerably conclusive 
 evidence is adduced in proof of the fact, that a 
 Koman colonia existed on the site of Edinburgh, 
 and that one of the great Roman militar)'- roads 
 passed to the westward through the north-east 
 quarters of the new town. Then, too, it has 
 its traditionary associations linking it with the 
 media3val era ; and, like most other expanding 
 cities, the local antiquary detects in some of 
 its modern names the sole survivinaj memorials 
 of old suburban villages, once distant from the 
 close-piled city, gathered within its walls on 
 the castled steep ; and to which its older 
 citizens can still remember their summer ram- 
 bles through green fields, and by hedge and 
 rustic stile. — 
 
 "But Caledonia's queen is changed. 
 Since on her dusky summit ranged. 
 Within its steepy limits pent, 
 By bulwark, line, and battlement, 
 And flanking towers, and laky flood, 
 Guarded and garrison'd she stood. 
 Stern then, and steel-girt was thy brow : 
 Dun-Eedin ; oh, how altered now ! 
 When safe, amid thy mountain court 
 Thou sitt'st, like empress at her sport. 
 And liberal, unconflned, and free, 
 Flinging thy white arms to the sea." 
 
 In this progress sea-ward, the village of 
 Greenside, willi its old Leper hospital, its 
 cross and well, and its interesting associations 
 with some of the earliest scenes of the down 
 of the Scottish reformation — already described 
 in another volume of this series;* the vilhige 
 of Silver-mills ; the village and Barony of 
 * " Old Edinburgh," p. 73.
 
 48 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Broughton, celebrated in the annals of witch- 
 craft; with other precursors of the new town, 
 exist now only in name. Even the name of 
 " Mutrie's Hill " has entirely disappeared from 
 the local nomenclature, superseded by its 
 modern title of St. James's-square, though 
 here a village had arisen in the latter end of 
 the seventeenth century, and become the resort 
 of so many industrious non-freemen, that the 
 jealous burgesses, in the year 1700, actually 
 succeeded in inducing the magistrates to close 
 the nearest city port, at the foot of Halker- 
 ston's-w^nd, so as to cut off these rival traders 
 from their intercourse with the chartered cus- 
 tomers of the burghal corporate trades. 
 
 On the small area surrounding the central 
 spot now occupied by St. James's-square, the 
 local historian can indeed recover the traces 
 of many successive waves which have left their 
 ripple-marks as time went by. The name of 
 Moutray's, or IMutrie's-hill, is derived from an 
 ancestor of the earls of Galloway, as old as the 
 famous Flodden-field. On its north side a 
 broad modern street, bearing the name of 
 Picardy- place, occupies the site of a hamlet 
 reared there by a body of French Protestant 
 refugees, who fled thither on the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, and settling on 
 the open common which then lay betwixt the 
 vilhige of Broughton and the old capital, at- 
 tempted to establish a silk manufactory. A 
 large plantation of mulberry trees is said to 
 have been planted by them on the slope of
 
 RISE OF THE NEW TOWN. 49 
 
 IMutrie's-liill ; but doubtless the poor refugees 
 found too many reasons for contrasting pain- 
 fally the difference between our bleak northern 
 climate, and their own native province of 
 Picardy, in the sunny valley of the Somme. 
 
 On the southern side of Mutrie's-hill, and 
 still nearer the old town, stood an ancient for- 
 talice, called Dingwall's Castle, as is believed, 
 from John Dingwall, provost of Trinity College, 
 and archdeacon of Caithness, who was nomi- 
 nated one of the original judges of the Court of 
 Session on the spiritual side, at the institution 
 of the College of Justice in 1532. He is 
 referred to in Knox's *' History of the Eeforma- 
 tion" in no very flattering terms. The last 
 remains of the old castle only disappeared on 
 the erection of Shakspeare-square, a portion of 
 its walls being indeed believed to be still extant 
 in one of the cellars there. 
 
 Immediately beyond this, and nearly on the 
 margin of the old Nortli Loch, was erected the 
 Orphans' Hospital, a valuable and wisely con- 
 ducted charitable institution, which attracted 
 the special notice of Howard, when other esta- 
 blishments of the old city, and especially the 
 ancient Tolbooth, excited only his commisera- 
 tion for their wretched inmates. The celebrated 
 AVhitefield also took a deep interest in its suc- 
 cess, and an exceedingly characteristic portrait 
 of that eminent preacher now hangs in the 
 hall of the hospital, in evidence of the estima- 
 tion in which his valuable services to the in- 
 stitution were held. The long green slope
 
 60 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 extending from Mutrie's-bill to the hospital, 
 derived from it the name of the Orphans' Park; 
 and here, during the earlier visits of Whitefield 
 to Edinburgli, he was wont to address the con- 
 gregated thousands who gathered from the 
 neighbouring city to Hsten to those soul-stir- 
 ring appeals, which were made the means of 
 fiwakening so many to a sense of their lost state 
 as sinners, and leading them for the first time 
 believingly to comprehend and embrace the 
 grand scriptural doctrine of justification by 
 faith in the atoning blood and spotlesss righte- 
 ousness of Christ. Whitefield is reported to 
 have expressed peculiar delight at the evi- 
 dences of a Divine blessing so manifestly fol- 
 lowing his labours. The feelings of the preacher 
 may be conceived when, on returning to the 
 city for the first time after the extension of the 
 royalty, and proceeding to the spot which had 
 been, as it were, consecrated by the seals of his 
 ministry, he found a theatre in the process of 
 erection on the very spot. The name of the 
 great English dramatist was bestowed on the 
 surrounding buildings ; but the honour was a 
 very questionable one, for their occupants have 
 been for the most part such as are usually 
 found to congregate around a playhouse, giving 
 only too unequivocal evidence of the demoraliz- 
 ing effects of the modern stage. 
 
 The Calton-hill subsequently supplied White- 
 field Avitli an undesccrated place of worship, 
 when visiting Edinburgh in his later evangelical 
 tours. It Avould seem, however, as if such
 
 IIISE OF THE NEW TOYfN. 51 
 
 consecrated spots were doomed here to special 
 desecration. A hollow on the higher ground 
 formed a sort of natural amphitheatre, pecu^ 
 liarly well adapted for the purpose in view, 
 There Whitefield's later addresses were deli- 
 vered ; and there, also, during three successive 
 visits to Edinburgh, the no less celebrated 
 Eowland Hill preached, as was computed on 
 one of the occasions, to upwards of twenty 
 tliousand people. But the most conspicuous 
 portion of this new arena was selected, in 1816, 
 as the site for a new county jail, destined to 
 supersede the old Tolbooth, or " Heart of 
 Midlothian." 
 
 The Orphans' Park, where Whitefield's evan- 
 gelical labours were so abruptly superseded, 
 lay at the northern end of the new, or North 
 Bridge, and was consequently one of the earliest 
 areas built upon. But at a very early period 
 the single communication supplied by the 
 bridge, which spanned the valley and the loch, 
 was looked upon as insufficient; and Chambers 
 is probably right in ascribing to a suggestion 
 of the oldest historian of Edinburgh, the origiri 
 of the lumpish deformity which now furnishes 
 another link between the old town and the new. 
 The question of extending the city to the fields 
 on the north side of the loch was being strongly 
 agitated when Maitland wrote in 1750, though 
 a long time elapsed before the talk resulted in 
 action. With most cities, indeed, expansion is 
 so gradual and imperceptible that no date 
 could be affixed to their commencement of the
 
 52 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 movement. But old Edinbnrgli was like a 
 princess shut up in some enchanted castle, for 
 whom escape was impossible, till some knight 
 was found gallant and chivalrous enough to 
 break the spell. This knight appeared at 
 length in provost Drummond, one of the greatest 
 benefactors the city has ever known. He was 
 seven times chosen as lord provost of Edin- 
 burgh ; and his services in one single, but 
 most important charity, are thus commemorated 
 on the pedestal of a marble bust of this good 
 citizen, which stands in the hall of the Royal 
 Infirmary : — " George Drummond, to whom this 
 country is indebted for all the benelits which it 
 derives from the Royal Infirmary." To him, 
 also, as we have said, v/as due the carrying out of 
 the oft-projected North Bridge ; but JNIaitland's 
 older suggestion was more easily accomplished. 
 " There has of late," says he, in his history of 
 Edinburgh, published in 1753, " been much 
 talk about erecting a bridge across the North 
 Loch, for a communication with the country 
 on the northern side ; which, or something 
 better, may easily be accomplished at little 
 expense, by obliging all builders and others to 
 shoot their rubbish, made at the building or 
 repairing of houses, into such a part of the 
 said loch as shall be agreed upon; whereby in 
 a few years a ridge or earthen bank might be 
 raised to the required height, which woidd 
 answer other good ends besides that of a 
 bridge." This suggestion, IMr. Chambers re- 
 marks, " seems to have given the hint for the
 
 RISE OF THE NEW TOWN. 53 
 
 creation of that hideous deformity, the Earthen 
 Mound, which sir Walter Scott has well termed 
 the greatest and most hopeless error that has 
 been fallen into in the course of these improve- 
 ments." Since sir Walter Scott thus wrote, 
 the mound itself has been subjected to im- 
 provements. A railway tunnel has pierced it, 
 and somewhat relieved its lumpish tameness ; 
 and now the larger portion of its surface has 
 been levelled as a platform whereon to erect a 
 suite of galleries for paintings, with such archi- 
 tectural decorations as must in some further 
 degree help to alleviate the deformity of this 
 *' hopeless error." Since then, too, the eastern 
 portion of the bed of the old loch, which, in sir 
 Walter Scott's time, still lay an unreclaimed 
 waste, has been converted into a beautiful 
 public garden ; and on the broad level of its 
 )iorthern terrace noAv stands the graceful Gothic 
 monument erected to the memory of sir Walter 
 himself.
 
 54 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN. 
 
 The great hindrance to the extension of the 
 city over the long-coveted fields beyond the 
 North Loch, was the want of a proper and con- 
 venient mode of access ; that however being 
 provided by the new bridge, there was no very 
 remarkable symptom of haste among the citi- 
 zens to enter on the possession of their new 
 conquest. It may be questioned, indeed, whe- 
 ther the prospect of crossing the Atlantic, and 
 settling on the unoccupied wastes of the new 
 world, excited half so much trepidation in the 
 minds of some adventurous youths, as did the 
 idea of emigration to these ncAv fields across 
 the North Loch in the minds of the staid old 
 citizens of Edinburgh seventy years ago. They 
 had been so long accustomed to nestle in their 
 old dwellings sheltered in the narrow closes, 
 
 " Piled deep and massy, close and high," 
 that they seemed to regard the exposure to 
 open streets and broad thoroughfares pretty 
 much as some etiolated hot-house exotic might 
 be supposed to reflect on its being turned out 
 to the open garden.
 
 FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW 'mWN 55 
 
 Edinburgh is well known for the ample share 
 it enjoys of strong westerly gales, and keen 
 easterly winds, with the varying seasons of the 
 year, to which its elevated site so peculiarly 
 exposes it. But were we to judge from many 
 of the accounts, and even from some more 
 substantial evidence preserved, it might be 
 presumed that the crossing of the North Bridge 
 exposed the adventurer to hurricanes of a 
 character somewhat akin to those which the 
 mariner encounters in the Bay of Biscay, and 
 that some remarkable meteorological improve- 
 ments must have taken place since the era of 
 such dangerous navigations of this middle pas- 
 sage. Arnot, the historian of Edinburgh, writing 
 in 1779, after enlarging on the advantages of 
 the site, the regularity and beauty of the place, 
 and the magnificence of the prospects of the 
 New ToAvn, adds : " It is, however, in a special 
 manner, exposed to very violent winds, which 
 rage in Edinburgh with incredible fury. Houses 
 blown down, large trees torn up by the roots, 
 people carried off their feet and beat down 
 upon the pavement, are no uncommon circum- 
 stances in Edinburgh. It will hardly be cre- 
 dited, that on Saturday, the 3rd of January, 
 1778, the Leith guard, consisting of a serjeant 
 and twelve men of the 70th regiment, were all 
 of them blown off the Castle-hill, and some of 
 them sorely hurt." The equinoctial gales espe- 
 cially are still known not unfrequently to do 
 considerable damage ; but certainly some por- 
 tion of the newly discovered terrors for the
 
 56 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 gales of Edinburgh, must be ascribed to the 
 novelty of new town breezes to those whom cus- 
 tom had long reconciled to its old town odours. 
 ]\Iany amusing notices of the inconveniences 
 experienced by these gales are preserved in 
 some of the old satirical poetry of the day. 
 It was scarcely possible, however, for a sa- 
 tirist to exaggerate his picture of the appre- 
 hensions seriously entertained. Citizens not yet 
 past the meridian of life, can remember when 
 a stone wall existed along the ridge of the 
 Earthen. Mound, with a paving on either side, 
 that the passenger might be able to make his 
 choice according to the direction of the wind, 
 while passing this treacherous "Hellespont;" 
 and the north bridge still retains the stone 
 slabs placed against its originally open balus- 
 trades, for the purpose of providing for the 
 wayfarer a similar screen. Still further to 
 illustrate this state of things, Mr. Chambers 
 observes, wdth reference to one of the first 
 houses in Prince's-street, erected as a building- 
 speculation so early as 1769: "It was pur- 
 chased by Mr. Shadrach JMoyes, secretary of 
 customs, who, before he concluded his bargain, 
 had the builder bound to erect another house 
 to the right, in order to shelter him from the 
 luesterbj vjinds. "What a mass of stone and 
 lime, and streets and squares," adds the author 
 of the " Traditions of Edinburgh," "would Ze- 
 phyrus have now to penetrate before he could 
 reach this tenement!" 
 
 Tliis may account, in part at least, for the
 
 FIEST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN 57 
 
 tardiness with which the completion of tlie long 
 projected bridge was followed by any decided 
 steps towards the erection of the ne^v town ; 
 and also for the minuteness of the information 
 which has been preserved regarding the first 
 proceedings of those who were bold enough to 
 lead the forlorn hope in so hazardous an enter- 
 prise. A premium of twenty pounds was 
 offered by the magistrates to the first person 
 who should build a house in the extended 
 royalty, and was awarded to a Mr. John Young, 
 who erected a house there in 1766. " When 
 it was erected," says Mr. Chambers, " the New 
 Town was hanging m cliibio, and it Avas un- 
 certain if it would ever be more than a retired 
 rural villa ; wherefore the interest excited on 
 its foundation was very great, and an immense 
 concourse of people was gathered to witness the 
 ceremony." Older houses than this, however, 
 still exist, which were once solitary mansions 
 in the country, to which their owners Avithdrew 
 as to quiet retreats far removed beyond the 
 reach of civic noise or cares, though now they 
 are hemmed in by acres crow^led only with 
 streets and squares stretching away for miles 
 on every side before the first suburban glimpse 
 of country is reached. 
 
 The first edifice for which ground w^as 
 fenced, after the plans for the new town were 
 completed, is the large building immediately 
 to the west of the Register Oflice, now occupied 
 as the Crown Hotel ; and to which the privilege 
 pertains, by special grant of the magistrates.
 
 58 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 in consideration of this priority, that it is for 
 ever exempted from the payment of all burghal 
 taxes. This favoured edifite has a higher 
 interest from the associations connected with 
 it, as having long been occupied as the premises 
 of Messrs. Constable and Co., the well-known 
 booksellers ; whither was transferred, from the 
 old shop at the Cross, " that labyrinth of rooms 
 which formed the extensive back-settlements 
 of that celebrated publishing-house." This 
 was the haunt of a great many distinguished 
 men of letters, Avhose names still linger among 
 the associations of the northern capital, like a 
 literary halo surrounding its classic heights. 
 But, as has before been said, the new town has 
 alread}'- its obsolete memories and traditions, 
 as well as the old, pertaining to a state of 
 things now entirely of the past. 
 
 St. Andrew-square, which formed one of the 
 main features of Mr. James Craig's plan, was 
 the earliest of all the improvements to be com- 
 pleted. Escaping from the confined and strait- 
 ened accommodation of the old town, it Avas 
 an additional feature to the broad avenues of 
 the new town to erect mansions around a wide 
 unoccupied area of some five hundred and 
 twenty feet square — wide enough, as it seemed, 
 to accommodate half the population of Edin- 
 burgh, according to its time-honoured mode of 
 building. 
 
 According to the accounts of old citizens, 
 the intercourse of neighbours, arising from the 
 facilities of such close vicinage as the old town
 
 FinST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN. 59 
 
 alleys afforded, was made fully available. The 
 mere opening of their windows sufficed to 
 bring the faniiU(?s, on opposite sides of some of 
 its most fa.shionable closes, within easy distance, 
 for the most familiar tete-a-tete; and many a 
 conversation over a cup of tea was thus carried 
 on, without the ladies needing to leave their 
 own parlours. Nor were the gentlemen a whit 
 behind their partners in availing themselves of 
 the facilities which their proximity to their 
 neighbours afforded for a friendly chat. Thus 
 ?ilr. Chambers describes the gentlemen of the 
 long robe as being in the habit, after an early 
 breakfast, of leaning over their parlour win- 
 dows, while waiting till the neighbouring bell 
 of St. Giles's announced the daAvn of the legal 
 daij, and discussing the morning's news with 
 a neighbouring advocate, or even a judge of 
 the supreme court, on the opposite side of the 
 alley. " In this manner, the Advocates-close, 
 or even one less filled with the sons of Themis, 
 AYOuld sometimes ]-esemble a modern coffee- 
 room more than anything else." It is not easy 
 to conceive of a much more abrupt social 
 change than that which transferred these 
 iiiuiiliar neighbours to the great new toAvn 
 square, where nothing short of a telescope 
 could enable them to recognise the dwellers in 
 the opposite houses. 
 
 No wonder is it, when once the move had 
 begun, that St. Andrew-square became an 
 aristocratic quarter of the city ; though even 
 after so brief an interval, the time has already
 
 60 JrODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 arrived ^vhen it seems little less strange to 
 conceive of noblemen residing in St. Andrew- 
 square, than in Niddry's-wynd, or the old 
 Mint-close. Here, about 1775, resided the 
 earls of Buchan, Haddington, and Leven, 
 lord Aukerville, lord Dreghorn, the countesses 
 of Dalhousie and Errol, sir John Whitefoord, 
 sir James Stirling, and sundry other citizens 
 of note, including Andrew Crosbie, the advo- 
 cate, David Hume, the historian, and Henry 
 Brougham, the future lord chancellor. 
 
 The corner house on the north side of the 
 square, looking into St. Andrew-street, was the 
 residence of the ingenious but eccentric earl of 
 Buchan, and there, in 1780, the Society of Anti- 
 quaries of Scotland was founded, and its first 
 meetings were held. The house of Andrew Cros- 
 bie, an eminent advocate, now forms Douglas's 
 Hotel ; while at the head of South St. David- 
 street in the angle corresponding to that of the 
 carl of Buchan, is the house where the great 
 sceptical philosopher and historian passed the 
 latter years of his life, and where that final death- 
 l:)ed scene took place, as recorded by his friend 
 Dr. Adam Smith, when he passed away to the 
 experience of those unseen realities of an 
 eternal world, which all the profoundness of 
 his philosophical speculations had failed to 
 reveal to him. The apparent calmness of his 
 last moments, though unexpected by many, 
 was perha])s even more terrible to reflect upon 
 than the ravings of the awakened conscience, 
 in the last struggles of unavailing remorse.
 
 tiRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN. 61 
 
 Surely this great philosopher died '' as the 
 fool dieth ;" and all that his wisdom had 
 taught him, was to believe of his soul as no 
 more immortal than the beasts that perish. 
 How truly has St. Paul said, " The world by 
 wisdom knew not God. — For the Jews require 
 a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : but 
 we preach Christ crucified, imto the Jews a 
 stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolish- 
 ness ; but unto them which are called, both 
 Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, 
 and the wisdom of God." 
 
 Among the distinguished circle of literary men 
 which then adorned the Scottish capital, Hume 
 moved on the most friendly terms ; and on the 
 4th of July, 1776, a circle of his acquaintances 
 assembled in his house in St. David-street, in- 
 vited by him to a farewell dinner; the last, as he 
 truly anticipated, which he Avas ever to partake 
 of with them. This mournful festival was 
 attended by lord Elibank, Dr. Blair, Dr. 
 Black, the celebrated chemist, Adam Smith, 
 professor Fergusson, and John Home, the 
 author of " Douglas." 
 
 Not the least remarkable among the build- 
 ings in the old town, is the huge square pile, 
 rising story above story, which meets the eye 
 of the wondering stranger, as he traverses the 
 Mound on his way from the new to the old 
 town. Here, among the numerous dwellings 
 into which its floors were economically sub- 
 divided, was the residence of Boswell, when he 
 received and entertained Paoli, the patriot
 
 62 JrODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Corsican chief, in 1771 ; and the still more 
 illustrious Dr. Johnson, when he visited Edin- 
 burgh in 1773, on his way to the Western 
 Isles. Thither, in the month of August, 
 Boswell conducted the great object of his 
 devoted veneration, from the White Horse Inn 
 in the Canongate, where he had found the 
 doctor in a violent passion with the waiter, for 
 having sweetened his lemonade without the 
 ceremony of a pair of sugar-tongs. The doctor, 
 in his indignation, threAv the lemonade out of 
 the window, and seemed inclined, it is added, to 
 use the waiter with equal violence. In St. 
 James's-court he met with the most assiduous 
 attention from the e lite o{ Edinburgh, society ; and 
 after reserving his attentions almost exclusively 
 for Margaret, duchess of Douglas, who formed 
 one of Mr. Boswell's party, he has described 
 her as " an old lady who talks broad Scotch 
 with a paralytic voice, and is scarce understood 
 by her own countrymen." Lord Stowell, who 
 was Johnson's travelling companion on this 
 visit, related that the doctor was treated by 
 the Scottish literati with a degree of deference 
 bordering on pusillanimity ; but he excepted 
 from that observation JNIr. Crosbie, the cele- 
 brated advocate, already referred to, whom he 
 characterized as an intrepid talker, and the only 
 man who w\as disposed to meet Dr. Johnson in 
 argument. 
 
 In this once fashionable and aristocratic 
 quarter, David Hume also resided, from 1762 
 till the completion of the house erected b}'- him
 
 FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN. 63 
 
 in winch he died. In 
 Hume's day, the North Loch hiy beneath in the 
 valley directly below his house, with gardens 
 extending to its southern margin, while the 
 site of the modern city was then farms and 
 green fields, stretching away uninterruptedly to 
 the sea. Even now, though the huge pile has 
 been so long deserted by its once aristocratic 
 occupants, the upper windows of James's-court 
 command a view such as few dwellings in any 
 other city in Europe could parallel. This inte- 
 resting and curious locality of the old town is 
 thus described by a recent writer: — " Entering 
 one of the doors opposite the main entrance, 
 the stranger is sometimes led by a friend wish- 
 ing to afford him an agreeable surprise, doAvn 
 flight after flight of the steps of a stone 
 staircase ; and when he imagines he is descend- 
 ing so far into the bowels of the earth, he 
 emerges on the edge of a cheerful, crowded 
 thoroughfare, connecting together the old and 
 new town, the latter of which is spread before 
 him ; a contrast to the gloom from which he 
 has emerged. When he looks up to the build- 
 ing containing the upright street through which 
 he has descended, he sees that vast pile of tall 
 houses standing at the head of the Mound, 
 which creates astonishment in every visitor of 
 Edinburgh. This vast fabric is built on the 
 declivity of a hill, and thus one entering on the 
 level of the Lawn Market is at the height of 
 several stories from the ground on the side 
 next the old town. " I have ascertained,"
 
 64: MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 adds Mr. Burton, " that by ascending the 
 western of the two stairs facing the entry of 
 James's- court to the height of three stories, we 
 arrive at the door of David Hume's house, 
 which, of the two doors on that landing-place, 
 is the one towards the left." 
 
 From the windows of this lofty dwelling, the 
 historian looked down on the green slopes 
 whereon the design of the architect, James Craig, 
 was about to be sketched out ; and so recent 
 is this marvellous change, that the author of 
 this little volume has often conversed with an 
 elderly lady, who had a familiar recollection of 
 strolHng in her rare country walks to drink 
 warm milk at Wood's farm-house, which then 
 stood amidst its ploughed fields, in what is 
 now the west end of Queen-street; while citizens 
 still living can remember when the greater part 
 of the area now crowded with the streets and 
 squares of the new town, changed from spring 
 to autumn under the rich tints of its ripening 
 crops of grain. David Hume brooded, as it 
 were, over the incipient new town, of which 
 he had nearly a literal bird's-eye view from 
 his airy height, and at length overcoming his 
 dislike to change, he fixed on, as already 
 pointed out, the corner site betv/een St. David- 
 street and St. Andrew-square. 
 
 Directly opposite to Mr. Hume's house, is 
 one forming the corner of North St. David- 
 street, which will possess an interest as long as it 
 stands, as that in which Henry lord Brougham 
 was born. The house remains in the Cowgate,
 
 FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN 65 
 
 wliere tAe elder Brougham first dwelt, and 
 married. From this, however, he soon after- 
 wards removed to the new town, and on the 
 upper flat of the building referred to — for so 
 early was the old town fashion of common 
 stairs, or " perpendicular streets," transferred 
 to the new — the future chancellor first saw 
 the light. From thence, as a boy, he pro- 
 ceeded daily to the old High School, and shared, 
 with characteristic vivacity and eagerness, in 
 the wild sports which then marked the juvenile 
 pastimes of that ancient seminary. 
 
 " ' Tis sixty years since." Of such a lapse 
 of time are we now speaking ; and uneventful 
 as that period has been in any great internal 
 convulsions, how marvellous are the changes 
 which impress the mind, even in looking 
 round the modern, trim, New-Town-square. 
 Since the beginning of these sixty years, art 
 and architecture have wrought a marvellous 
 revolution upon it. Its old aristocratic occu- 
 pants have one and all disappeared, to give 
 place to banks, insurance offices, hotels, and 
 Avarerooms ; yet, with this altered occupation, 
 the architectural adornments of the sons of com- 
 merce have so greatly exceeded those of the 
 old gentry, that the few mansions of the latter 
 still intact, appear as ungainly intruders among 
 their showy and beautiful neighbours. The 
 British Linen Company's Bank is specially 
 worthy of a stranger's visit. Externally, its 
 disengnged columns, each surrounded by a 
 colossal emblematic statue, cannot tail to attract
 
 QQ MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 the eye; while internally, its beimtiful Lirge 
 banking-room, decorated with polished red 
 granite columns, with bronze capitals, and other 
 decorations to correspond, conveys an idea of 
 taste such as vividly illustrates the prosperity 
 of Scotland, and its rapid strides in commerce, 
 arts, and manufactures, during the last half- 
 century. 
 
 The central and most conspicuous ornament 
 of St. Andrew-square is Melville's monument, 
 an elegant column, one hundred and thirty-six 
 feet high, surmounted by a colossal statue of 
 the earl of Melville, who acquired a somewhat 
 unenviable notoriety by means of the impeach- 
 ment brought against him for supposed tamper- 
 ing with the public funds. He was, however, 
 greatly esteemed by a numerous circle of 
 friends, added to which, the influence he long 
 exerted in the disposal of most of the govern- 
 ment patronage in Scotland, secured for him 
 many keen political adherents, by whom this 
 beautiful structure was reared in 1822. 
 
 in the centre of the east side of the square, 
 sx handsome edifice, now occupied as the lioyal 
 Bank of Scotland, was originally built for a 
 private mansion, by sir Lawrence Dundas of 
 Kerse, long the representative of the city in 
 parliament. In front of this building now stands 
 the monument of James, earl of Ilopetoun, the 
 friend and companion in arms of sir John Moore. 
 It is an equestrian statue, of colossal propor- 
 tions, in bronze, representing the earl standing 
 beside his horse, and is justly admired as a
 
 FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE NEW TOWN. 67 
 
 work of great beauty. The house of the ear], 
 while yet he lived among the aristocratic 
 citizens of old Edinburgh, still stands on the 
 south side of the Canongate, at the head of 
 St. John-street.
 
 68 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HAUNTS OF THE TOETS. 
 
 The highest part of the new town, exclusive 
 of the Cal ton-hill, is St. James's- square, oc- 
 cupying what of old was called Mutrie's-hill. 
 It changed its name, however, for a more popu- 
 lar title, about the time when its old heights 
 wore first invaded by the encroaching city. 
 The fiunous battle of Bunker's-hill was fought 
 on the 17th of June, 1775, and the date of the 
 same year, carved on the house in the south-east 
 corner of the square, was contemporary with 
 that memorable event. The first stone of this 
 house, as old Edinburgh traditions record, 
 was lai4 on the very day when the news of 
 the battle reached the city. The laying of 
 the foundation stone, even of a private build- 
 ing, is still, by a custom which it were well 
 to permit to full into desuetude, celebrated by 
 some " drink silver " being distributed among 
 the workmen. It so happened, that the enter- 
 tainment in honour of this first foundation on 
 the heights of Mutrie's-hill was accompanied 
 with such excesses that the builders beciune
 
 HAUNTS OF THE TOETS. GO 
 
 considerably excited, and some cause of mis- 
 understanding having followed, a quarrel ensued, 
 which at length ended in a general battle. The 
 conspicuous scene attracted many spectators, 
 some of whom joined in the affray; and the 
 news of the contest on the shores of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay being then the most prominent 
 subject of the day, this squabble received the 
 name of the " Battle of Bunker's -hill." 
 Trifling as was the circumstance, this epithet 
 adhered to the' locality, and among older 
 citizens of the last generation, the name of 
 Bunker's-hill was most frequently applied to 
 St. James's-square. 
 
 The range of houses, of which the first was 
 founded under such curious circumstances, is 
 built, like other edifices both of the old and 
 new town, on the steep side of a hill, though 
 now the tall houses in Leith-street effectually 
 conceal their true height from view. The 
 most southerly house on the west side of the 
 square possesses a peculiar interest, as having 
 been the lodging of the poet Burns during 
 part of the period he resided in Edinburgh. 
 It was then occupied by Mr. Cruikshanks, one 
 of the masters of the High School, and is 
 specially described by the poet in one of his 
 letters to Mrs. McLehose, the lady with whom 
 he carried on a romantic correspondence under 
 the name of Sylvander, while he addressed her 
 by that of Clarinda. Pier residence was in a 
 venerable, but now sorely decayed mansion, 
 which still preserves some memorials of the
 
 70 JIODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 characters with which its history is associated, 
 and is thus linked in its latter traditions with 
 the newer edifices of the modern city. 
 
 The visitor to Edinburgh, who finds a guide 
 to such antiquated memorials of the past, will 
 follow his cicerone from the new town by the 
 Mound and George the Fourth's Bridge, until, 
 continuing in the same course, he has nearly 
 reached the point of junction of Bristo-street 
 with Potter-row ; when, if he be at all a lover 
 of the picturesque, he will hardly fail to bo 
 struck with a building turning its crow-steppea 
 gable to the street, while along its southern 
 front appear a range of sculptured dormar 
 windows, and other architectural ornaments 
 in the highly decorated style of the seventeenth 
 century. Pleraldic devices and monograms 
 ornament its front, and a curious sundial, 
 which has only very recently disappeared, bore 
 the quaint, punning inscription, " We shall die 
 all:' 
 
 Should the visitor be tempted by these 
 traces of former grandeur to pursue his inves 
 tigations further, he will find that the old 
 edifice encloses a little, irregular, and desolate- 
 looking court of antique buildings, called 
 General's Entry. Tradition has long assigned 
 this as the residence of general i\Ionk, during 
 his command in Scotland under Oliver Crom- 
 well. Its name, however, is not derived from 
 the hero of the Commonwealth, but from John, 
 second earl of Stair, who served under Marl- 
 borough, and was promoted to the rank of
 
 HAUNTS OF TOE POETS. 71 
 
 lieutenant-general after the bloody battle of 
 Malplaqiiet. His arms and initials are sculp- 
 tured on the house, and on one of the floorfi 
 into which the quadrangular group of buildings 
 Avas subdivided in later days, lived the Clarinda. 
 of the poet Robert Burns, in 1788. The 
 letters of both contain allusions to the missives 
 which then passed between St. James's-square 
 and General's Entry, and to the visits paid by 
 the poet to the latter. 
 
 The haunts of two other distinguished 
 Scottish poets lie in the same neighbourhood. 
 In an equally humble and obscure localit}^, 
 Alison-square, Potter-row, Thomas Campbell 
 lived, while engaged in the composition of tliG 
 Pleasures of Hope ; and to the same residence 
 we believe the poet of " Hope " refers, in the 
 following pleasing reminiscences of James 
 Grahame, the author of the " Sabbath:" — 
 
 " One of the most endearing circumstances 
 which I remember of Grahame was his singing. 
 I shall never forget one summer evening that 
 we agreed to sit up all night, and go together 
 to Arthur Seat to see the sun rise. We sat, 
 accordingly, all night in his delightful parlour 
 • — tlie seat of so many happy remembrances. 
 We then went out and saw a beautiful sunrise. 
 I returned home with him, for I was living in 
 his house at the time. He was unreserved in 
 all his devoutest feelings before me ; and from 
 the beauty of the morning scenery and thQ 
 recent death of his sister, our conversation 
 toolc a serious turn, on the proof of infiiiito
 
 72 MODERN EDINBURGH. ■ 
 
 benevolence in the creation, and the goodness ^ 
 of God. As I retired to my own bed I over- ' 
 heard his devotions — not his prayer, but a \ 
 hymn of praise which he sang, and with a 
 power and inspiration beyond himself; and 
 beyond anything else. At that time he was a ] 
 strong-voiced and commanding man. The re- \ 
 membrance of his large, expressive features, j 
 when he climbed the hill, and of his organ-like : 
 voice in praising God, is yet fresh and ever I 
 pleasing in my mind." 
 
 There is something exceedingly delightful in i 
 this glimpse of the young Christian poet in his j 
 hours of relaxation, while yet his muse was 
 only pluming its wings for flight. At this i 
 time he was studying the law ; but from his i 
 subsequent pursuits we may infer that he did j 
 not seek " the priest's office for a morsel of < 
 bread," but that he entered on the sacred office | 
 of the Christian ministry with a deep sense of ! 
 the momentous responsibility thenceforth to | 
 rest on him as " an ambassador of Christ," and j 
 accounting it his highest privilege to proclaim 
 the gospel message, " God so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- • 
 soever believeth in him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." 
 
 Old Edinburgh is rich in the haunts of the 
 poets. The various localities associated with 
 the memory of Allan Kamsay, the author of i 
 the " Gentle Shepherd," have already been no- j 
 ticed in our volume entitled " Old Edinburgh;" 1 
 and there also we have referred to the early
 
 HAUNTS OF THE FOETS. 73 
 
 poets Dunbar, Gawin Douglas, and sir David 
 Lindsay, all of them long resident in Edinburgh, 
 and intimately associated with its early history. 
 In the Canongate, the old mansion of the dukes 
 of Queensberry was also the residence of the 
 poet Gay, the favourite of lady Catherine Hyde, 
 duchess of Queensberry, the beauty of the 
 court of George i., whose uprightness and wit 
 have been commemorated in the lines of Pope, 
 Swift, and Prior, and whom Horace Walpole, 
 earl of Orford, celebrated in his old age'. 
 Time, however, has wrought strange changes 
 on the ducal mansion ; for after various vicis- 
 situdes, the abode of the eccentric beauty, and 
 the retreat of the poet, is now converted into 
 the " House of Refuge for the Destitute." 
 
 The name of Goldsmith is associated with 
 the College- wynd, whe.re the author of " The 
 Deserted Village" lodged while studying medi- 
 cine at the university of Edinburgh ; and at 
 the head of the same wynd, sir "Walter Scott 
 was born. 
 
 The fine old cavalier poet, Drummond of 
 Hawthornden, is also intimately connected with 
 the history of Edinburgh and of its university ; 
 and Dr. Wilson has pointed out, in his " Me- 
 morials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time," the 
 house of his uncle William Fowler, also a poet, 
 and the son of the author of " The Triumph of 
 Death," which still stands in the Anchor-close, 
 High -street. He was secretary to Anne of 
 Denmark, the queen of James i., and his sister 
 was the mother of Drummond of Hawthornden, 
 c2
 
 74 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 one of the sweetest of the minor poets of 
 Scothmd. 
 
 Like Ben Jonson, Drummond, and even 
 Milton, Fowler was employed in arranging the 
 court masks and pageants, which formed so 
 grave and serious a feature in all holiday pro- 
 ceedings of that age. On the occasion of the 
 baptism of prince Henry, the son of James vr., 
 the preparation of the pageants, with " deep 
 moral meanings," was committed to Fowler, 
 though he was not allowed to finish so import- 
 ant a commission without the aid of his sapient 
 master, the moral interludes of Neptune being 
 expressly recorded as the fruitful product of 
 his majesty's own royal brain. On this occa- 
 sion, queen Elizabeth despatched the young 
 earl of Sussex to represent her at the baptism 
 of the young prince, committing to his care a 
 letter of congratulation and advice, in which 
 she thus writes : — *' I make a note of my happy 
 destiny, my good brother, in beholding my 
 luck so fortunate as to be the baptizer of both 
 father and son." 
 
 It is not unworthy of note here, that the 
 original manuscripts, both of Drummond of 
 Ilawthornden, and of Fowler, are preserved in 
 the library of the Society of Antiquaries of 
 Scotland. From these the following sonnet of 
 Drummond, in praise of Edinburgh, is not un- 
 suitable for insertion here. Its local allusions 
 still hold true, after the lapse of upwards of 
 two centuries; the seat of justice being now, as 
 of old, in the Parliament House, in the heart of
 
 HAUNTS OF THE POETS. 75 
 
 tlie metropolis ; -while the old abbey of the 
 Holyrood, ^vhich served the poet as his symbol 
 of religion, remains, though in rnins ; and 
 IMars's lofty towers surmount, as of yore, the 
 western steeps which terminate the ridge occu- 
 pied by the old town : — 
 
 " Install'd on hills, her head neai' starry bowers, 
 Shines Edinburgh, proud of protecting powers. 
 Justice defends her heart ; Religion cast 
 With temples; JMars with towers doth guard the west; 
 Fresh Nymphs and Ceres serving', wait upon her, 
 And Thetis, tributary, doth her honour. 
 The sea doth Venice shake, Rome Tiber beats, 
 "SVhile she but scorns her vassal water's threats. 
 For sceptres nowhere stands a town moi'e fit, 
 Nor place where town, world's queen, may fairer sit ; 
 But this thy praise is, above all most brave. 
 No man did ere defame thee but a slave." 
 
 The original of this highly flattering encomium 
 on Edinburgh is a Latin poem by the celebrated 
 scholar, Dr. Arthur Johnstone. 
 
 The melancholy associations with Fergusson, 
 the poet, have already been referred to; but by 
 far the moct interesting memorial of him which 
 remains is that wliich so intimately connects 
 him with his more gifted successor, Eobert 
 Burns. To Fergusson, Burns undoubtedly owed 
 some slight obligations for the suggestive influ- 
 ence which his poems exercised on his mind. 
 But his estimate of such obligations was such 
 as only the exaggerating modesty of true genius 
 could entertain. He thus wrote of him at the 
 time to which we now refer : — 
 
 *' O thou, my elder brother in misfortune. 
 By far my elder brother in the muses, 
 With tears I pity thy unhappy fate ! " 
 
 Influenced by such feelings, the Ayrshire poet;
 
 / G MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 on his first arrival in Edinburgh, sought out 
 the grave of his brother poet, and found it 
 altogether undistinguished from the many 
 " mouldering heaps" of a croAvded urban 
 churchyard. He thereupon addressed a letter 
 to the managers of the Canongate churchyard, 
 in which he remarked: — 
 
 " I am sorry to be told that the remains of 
 Eobert Fergusson, the so justly celebrated poet, 
 a man whose talents for ages to come will do 
 honour to our Caledonian name, lie in your 
 churchyard among the ignoble dead, unnoticed 
 and unknown. 
 
 " Some memorial to direct the steps of the 
 lovers of Scottish song, when they wish to shed 
 a tear over the * narrow house ' of the bard 
 who is no more, is surely a tribute due to 
 Fergusson's memory — a tribute I wish to have 
 the honour of paying. I petition you, then, to 
 permit me to lay a simple stone over his revered 
 ashes, to remain an inalienable property to his 
 deathless fame." 
 
 The monument erected by the poet in fulfil- 
 ment of his design was a very simple one ; but 
 it is not too much to say of it, that it is a far 
 more interesting memorial of himself than even 
 the fine Grecian temj)le erected -to his memory, 
 within sight of the lowly grave of Fergusson, 
 on the neighbouring heights of the Calton- 
 hill ; and is one of those relics of the past 
 which the tourist will not be ungrateful for 
 having pointed out to him. The inscription 
 on the stone is as follows : —
 
 HAUNTS OF THE POETS. 77 
 
 " Here lies Robert FEnoussox, Poet. 
 '« Born September 5th, 1751.— Died I6tli October, 1774. 
 ** No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay, 
 * No storied urn, nor animated bust ; ' 
 This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way 
 To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust." 
 
 A few years since, this stone having fallen into 
 decay, and become displaced, it was restored 
 by subscription, with such additions as give it 
 a more fitting prominence, and now direct 
 attention to the brother poet in whose genero- 
 sity it had its origin. 
 
 The period of Burns's connexion with Edin- 
 burgh is that on which we can look back with 
 feelings least mingled with the sadness which 
 clouds the remembrance of him who once 
 
 " Walk'd in glory and in joy. 
 Following his plough along the mountain side." 
 
 A prospect of virtuous independence seemed 
 opening before him ; and it appeared as if the 
 author of " The Cotter's Saturday Night" might 
 eventually realize at his own fireside some of 
 those scenes of piety and moral worth which 
 he had witnessed under his parents' roof, and 
 which he has so beautifully depicted in that 
 noble poem. Alas ! how sad are those later 
 scenes in the gifted poet's life, which supply us 
 with a warning instead of an example ! The 
 poet's Edinburgh abode, during the brief period 
 of his brightest hopes and prospects, is thus 
 described by his latest biographer : — 
 
 " Tlie house was composed of the two upper 
 floors of a lofty building, in an airy situation 
 in the new town — then marked No. 2, now 30,
 
 7-3 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Bt James's-square. The poet's room had a 
 window overlooking the green behind the lle- 
 gister House, as well as the street entering the 
 square. It was by far the most agreeable place 
 in which he had ever had more than the most 
 temjDorary lodging. "We are told by the his- 
 torian of the High School, that Mr. Cruikshank 
 V/as regarded as a person of no mean acquire- 
 ments. He had a daughter, Janet, a young 
 girl of much promise as a pianist. To her the 
 poet was indebted for many pleasant hours in 
 listening to his favourite Scottish airs. Dr. 
 Walker says : * About the end of October, 
 1787, I called on him at the house of a friend, 
 whose daughter, though not more than twelve, 
 was a considerable proficient in music. I found 
 him seated by the harpsichord of this young 
 lady, listening with the keenest interest to his 
 own verses, which she sang and accompanied, 
 adjusting them to the music by repeated trials 
 of the effect. In this occupation he was so 
 totally absorbed, that it was difficult to draw 
 his attention from it for a moment.' " 
 
 The poet celebrated the fair little songster 
 in more than one poem, under the title of 
 the " Eose-bud." 
 
 One other spot, associated with poetical 
 memories, must, however, be noticed before 
 closing this chapter. In passing along George- 
 street, we arrive at Castle-street, upon the east 
 side of wdiich is the town residence of sir Walter 
 Boott — " The Dear Thirty-nine^'' as he himself 
 termed it ; a place associated with some of the
 
 HAUNTS OF THE POETS. 79 
 
 happiest, and also Avith some of the most 
 mournful years of his life ; and ^vhich he 
 finally left under such mournful circumstances 
 in 1826. It was remarked of it by an intel- 
 ligent foreigner, on being directed to look for 
 No. 39, that *' a more appropriate number 
 could not have been devised to distinguish the 
 dwelling of such a man ; as the first figure 
 represented the number of the Graces^ and the 
 last that of the Muses.''' * 
 
 * Varied emotions must fill the mind in visiting the mansion 
 of this remarkable and most amiable man, whose character is 
 thus ably drawn by a modern writer : — 
 
 " Combined with many excellences, there were, however, in 
 his, as in every human character, some striking and mournful 
 dv-fects. Regarding him merely with reference to this pre- 
 sent life, he would seem to have been the victim of one great 
 and ruinous mistake. Had he rested content with the fame 
 and the station— and they were of the highest— which his 
 acliicvemcnts in literature, together with the successful pur- 
 suit of an honourable profession, could confer upon him, his 
 earthly career had been in all probability far happier, and its 
 close less clouded, than it proved. But the strange, almost 
 unaccountable, perversity of the bias of his mind was this— 
 tliat while far from bein;? insensible to, he niade compara- 
 tively little, after all, of literary or professional renown ; while 
 li'j most sedulously desired and endeavoured to be celebrated 
 with the comparatively paltry honour of being the possessor 
 of an extensive estate, the founder of a wealthy and distin- 
 guished family — the head, in short, of a clan like those of 
 whom he wrote— of being, in a word, sir Walter Scott of 
 Abbotsford. Surely, in this there is a melancholy instance 
 of the obliquity of even the most gigantic mind when not 
 primarily directed towards and governed by Him without 
 whom the world's best wisdom, even as such, is utter folly — 
 a proof of how, in such case, the heart's purpose, like the 
 arrow from an ill-strung bow, strays altogether wide, not 
 only of the object at which it ought to have been aimed, but 
 also of that at which it would seem to have been actually 
 directed : for utterly, in this respect, has his life's object 
 failed. The fame which ne did not seek, at least did not 
 primarily seek, he has achieved; while the stranger's footfall 
 echoes sadly through the halls of Abbotsford: the grave 
 amidst the ruined cloisters at Dryburgh is scarcely more 
 mournful to look upon ; and the family which ho was to have
 
 80 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 founded, within a few brief years after his death has become 
 extinct. The two childless sons and orphan daughters, each 
 in the prime of life, soon followed the fond, proud father to 
 the tomb.— • Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is 
 A'anity ! ' 
 
 " The great vital defect, however, in the character of sir 
 "Walter Scott, as exemplified in his bioo;raphy, would seem to 
 have been the absence of personal, intiuential religion. He 
 knew, indeed, and respected the truths of the gospel ; he was 
 strict in his own attendance, and in requiring that of his 
 family, upon the public ordinance of sabbath worship; and 
 liis desire, dining his last illness, for the reading to him of 
 the word of God, and his apparent appreciation of its con- 
 tents, leave us (though it is an awful thing to risk the in- 
 terests of eternity on such a slender issue) not without a hope 
 that he may have been savingly impressed by them before he 
 passed into the world of spirits. The nature of his illness 
 afforded, however, but little opportunity for evidence of his 
 actual state of mind; and during life and health, we look, 
 alas ! in vain for any proof of that habitual realisation of the 
 hopes and prospects of eternity which supplies its possessors 
 with the motives and affections of a new and a better state of 
 being. Had he been through life possessed of such, we can- 
 not doubt but that its course would have been far happier, 
 and its close less clouded, than it proved. Tribulation, bank- 
 ruptcy, bereavement, he might have experienced ; but amidst 
 them all, he would have possessed the peace which the world 
 cannot take away — the joy with which the stranger may not 
 intermeddle; while his dying bed would have been illumined 
 \>ilh a light, and his memory encircled with a glory, such as 
 genius, integrity, and amiability, however rare and excellent, 
 are utterly inadequate to bestow."
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The medical schools and other educational 
 institutions of Edinburgh may be said to be 
 the elements of its prosperity, as much as the 
 cotton mills of Manchester and Glasgow, or the 
 cutlery and metal -works of Birmingham and 
 Sheffield, are the sources of wealth to those busy 
 towns. Education may, indeed, be designated 
 one of the staple manufactures of Edinburgh, 
 and the raw materials on which it operates 
 undergo a change no less marvellous and per- 
 manent than the cottons and steel of the manu- 
 facturing phices which we have just named. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the Colleges of Surgeons 
 and Physicians, and the extra-Academical 
 Medical School, are distinct from the university. 
 All, however, are linked by certain common 
 ties, and they are now becoming more closely 
 connected by the general enlargement of the 
 various educational institutions of the country, 
 and the necessity of adapting the schools of 
 Edinburgh to the less restricted system of 
 education which the establishment of the 
 London University College, and the Queen's
 
 82 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Colleges of Ireland, along -with other kindred 
 institutions, has thrown open to nearly all classes 
 of the community. 
 
 Robert Ecid, bishop of Orkney, is justly 
 regarded as the first founder of the University 
 of Edinburgh. He was a man of great learning 
 as well as an accomplished politician, and as 
 such was selected as one of the commissioners 
 despatched to France to Avitness the marriage 
 of the youthful queen Mary with the Dauphin, 
 in 1558. From this embassy the bishop never 
 returned, having died at Dieppe on the 14th 
 day of September, Avhen on his Avay home. He 
 bequeathed by his will the sum of eight thou- 
 sand marks (as mentioned in a former volume 
 of this series*) towards founding a college in 
 Edinburgh for the education of youth ; but 
 this, it is believed, formed only a very small 
 portion of the destined bequest. According to 
 the historian of the Sutherland family, he left 
 a great sum of money for building the college 
 he designed to be founded in the Scottish capital, 
 but the greater portion of it the earl of Morton 
 converted to his own use, and the remainder 
 was squandered and lost. It was not, there- 
 fore, till 1581 that the university was actually 
 founded, and its progress, amidst the political 
 and religious convulsions of that eventful period, 
 was very slow. 
 
 It is not a little to the credit of the citizens 
 of Edinburgh, that from the very first its 
 
 * See "Old Edinbursjli," one of tlie volumes of the 
 Monthly Series.
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 83 
 
 university has OAred its progress to their foster- 
 ing care, and to the liberality of the civic cor- 
 poration. ^Vith the exception of the bishop of 
 Orkney, no ecclesiastic of any note bore a share 
 in its foundation, and the chief opponents of its 
 institution were the archiepiscopal chancellors 
 of St. Andrew's and Glasgow, and the ecclesi- 
 astical dignitaries connected with the see and 
 university of Aberdeen, all of whom, not un- 
 naturally, watched with a jealous eye the 
 establishment of a rival college and school of 
 learning. 
 
 In 1581, the magistrates of Edinburgh ac- 
 quired the site of the church of St. INIary in the 
 Fields, with the collegiate buildings attached 
 thereto, celebrated as the scene of lord Darnley's 
 mysterious murder. The area also included the 
 ducal mansion of the Hamilton family, built from 
 the ruins of older ecclesiastical structures soon 
 after the burning of Edinburgh by the English 
 army, in 1547 ; and this appears to have sup- 
 plied the chief accommodation for the infant 
 university. When Rollock, the first professor 
 of divinity, began his lectures, in 1583, it Avas 
 " in the low^er hall of Hamilton House." Nor 
 did the college ever assume any architectural 
 symmetry, or imposing external magnificence, 
 until the erection in our own day of a noble 
 quadrangular structure, not yet entirely com- 
 pleted according to the original design. 
 
 In 1580, Mr. Clement Little, advocate, be- 
 queathed his extensive library for the use of 
 the citizens, and this the magistrates imme-
 
 84 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 diately npprojn'iated to the service of tlieir 
 rising college. To this collection the poet 
 Drummond made many valuable additions, and 
 thus the infant seminary was provided at a very 
 early period with the important requisite of a 
 good library. 
 
 Dr. Wilson points out, in his " Memorials 
 of Edinburgh in the Olden Time," a highly 
 picturesque building, still standing at the foot of 
 the Castle-hill, as the ancient dwelling of Bar- 
 tholomew Somerville, merchant burgess, " the 
 most conspicuous among those generous citi- 
 zens, to whose liberality we are mainly indebted 
 for the establishment of the University of Edin- 
 burgh on a lasting basis. He, as Craufurd says, 
 having no children, mortified [bequeathed] to 
 the college twenty thousand marks, to be em- 
 ployed for maintenance of a professor of divinity, 
 and six thousand marks for buying sir James 
 Skeen's lodging and yard for his dwelling." 
 
 In 1617, James iv., with ostentatious con- 
 descension, assumed the foundership of the 
 university, which its unpretending civic insti- 
 tutors had already brought into practical 
 working order, and by his majesty's command 
 it received the name of " The College of King 
 James." To this he added what he called " a 
 royal God-bairn gift," in the shape of certain 
 lands and tithes in the counties of Fife an/ 
 Lothian. ' Cromwell, who always took a lively 
 interest in such institutions, bestowed upon it 
 an annuity of £200 sterling ; and William iir. 
 Ibllowed his example, l)y endowing it with a
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 85 
 
 yearly revenue of £300, to be paid out of his 
 treasury and bishops' rents in Scotland. These 
 royal gilts, ho\vev<ir, have been either maimed 
 or entirely withdrawn by the successors of 
 their royal donors, and the University of 
 Edinburgh continues to receive its chief sup- 
 port from its civic patrons. 
 
 From this cause have sprung certain pecu- 
 liarities of the university, which have exercised 
 no inconsiderable influence on its history. The 
 exclusive patronage of the greater number of 
 its chairs is in the hands of the civic corpora- 
 tion ; the lord provost of Edinburgh is, ex 
 officio, lord rector ; and on many important 
 points the magistrates, as patrons of the uni- 
 versity, claim and exercise an important influ- 
 ence even in the internal management of the 
 university. Some of the more modern chairs 
 have, however, been founded by the crown, 
 and the patronage of these is exercised by the 
 queen's ministers, generally through the lord 
 advocate for Scotland. One recent bequest 
 also, that of general Keid, founding a chair of 
 music, left the patronage, as well as the manage- 
 ment of the funds, entirely in the hands of the 
 senatus ; and this body being now composed 
 of regius professors, nominated by the crown, 
 as well as professors deriving their appoint- 
 ments in part, or entirely, from other sources 
 than the civic corporation, ver}'' considerable 
 jealousy has been of late evinced at the claims 
 of superiority by the magistrates, and more 
 than one costly lawsuit has resulted from such
 
 86 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 differences and rivalry. In every case, how- 
 ever, the magistrates have been successful in 
 establishing their claims as superiors ; nor has 
 their mode of exercising the important riglits 
 to which they thus successfully lay claim, fur- 
 nished, hitherto, any just grounds for regretting 
 that such a trust should have devolved on the 
 successors of those to -whose enlightened zeal 
 and liberality the foundation of the university 
 is mainly due. 
 
 It was long felt that the college buildings 
 were imworthy of its reputation, and inade- 
 quate to its requirements, before any efficient 
 steps were taken to effect the requisite im- 
 provements. In 17G8, a proposal for rebuild- 
 ing the entire fabric on a uniform plan was 
 entertained, but the American war arrested the 
 project, and nearly twenty years elapsed before 
 anything further was done. The magistrates 
 then set on foot a public subscription for 
 erecting a new college ; designs were prepared 
 by the celebrated architect Adams ; and in 
 1789, the foundation stone of the present 
 edifice was laid with masonic honours. Not- 
 withstanding the great liberality of the citi- 
 zens, and other contributors, the extent of 
 building required was such as could not be 
 accomplished from the sources of private gene- 
 rosity and munificence ; and the plans, as sub- 
 sequently modified by Playfair, have since been 
 completed, with the exception of a dome de- 
 signed to surmount the principal front, chiefly 
 by parliamentary grants from the public funds.
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 87 
 
 The principal objects of attraction to stran- 
 gers are the university museum and library. 
 The former was founded by sir Andrew Bal- 
 four in 1694, but was afterwards so entirely 
 neglected, that on professor Jamieson succeed- 
 ing to the chair of natural history in 1801, he 
 found its remains in a state of miserable decay. 
 From its contents he carefully selected all that 
 was worth preserving, and to this he generously 
 added his own private collections. A few years 
 afterwards it was further enriched by the 
 valuable mineralogical cabinet of the late Dr. 
 Thomson of Naples. The museum being thus 
 placed on a satisfactory basis, adequate accom- 
 modation was provided for it in the new 
 building, and it has since received such 
 numerous and valuable additions, that though 
 one side of the large quadrangular building is 
 entirely devoted to its use, it has outgrown 
 this, and must speedily be provided with much 
 more extensive rooms, if it is to be allowed to 
 expand in a degree commensurate with the 
 progress of science and the liberality of the 
 graduates and friends of the university. The 
 present museum consists of two great rooms, 
 each ninety feet long and about thirty feet 
 wide, with galleries, and smaller side rooms. 
 It is particularly rich in its ornithological col- 
 lection ; and, botli in mineralogy and concho- 
 log}', its cabinets present treasures well deserving 
 of study by the intelligent investigator of 
 science. The cases in the upper gallery con- 
 tain a magnificent collection of birds purchased
 
 88 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 for the college from M. Dufresne of Paris ; 
 and under the indefatigable superintendence 
 of professor Jamieson, its cases have been annu- 
 ally enriched, during the last half century, by 
 contributions sent from every quarter of the 
 globe. 
 
 The accommodation of the university library 
 in a suitable building, is of considerably more 
 recent date than that of the museum, though 
 it has been of so much longer standing, and 
 has at all times been an object of care and 
 general interest. It contains between seventy 
 and eighty thousand volumes, including some 
 of considerable rarity and value. Special 
 interest attaches to some of the earliest speci- 
 mens of Scottish typography, from the press of 
 Chapman, by whom, indeed, the printing-press 
 was first introduced into Scotland. The ex- 
 treme rarity of some of these makes them 
 receive a higher value than many manuscripts. 
 One of the most valued examples of this class 
 is an entire copy of the "Aberdeen Breviary," 
 which was the second book printed in Scotland. 
 A few finely illuminated missals, and several 
 oriental and other manuscripts, are also much 
 prized, but the library is by no means rich in 
 such treasures. The visitor who is curious in 
 regard to historic documents cannot fail to look 
 with special interest on two such preserved 
 here: — a protest sent to the Council of Con- 
 stance against the burning of John Huss, in 
 1417, and to which the seals of one hundred 
 and fifty noblemen of Bohemia and Moravia
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 89 
 
 are attached ; and the original contract of 
 marriage of queen Mary ^vith the dauphin of 
 France. 
 
 The library buildings form the south side of 
 the college quadrangle, and the principal apart- 
 ment is without question the finest library hall 
 in Scotland, not excepting that of the writers 
 to her majesty's signet, adjoining the Parlia- 
 ment House, though that also will not fail to 
 excite the stranger's admiration by its beauty, 
 as well as its convenient adaptation to the pur- 
 poses for which it is designed. The stranger 
 who visits for the first time the venerable library 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge, rich with all 
 the associations which concentrate around the 
 memory of Newton, looks with feelings more of 
 surprise than of sympathy on the marble 
 statue of the poet Byron, which there termi- 
 nates the vista. The surprise can scarcely be 
 less in looking for the first time on Flaxman's 
 marble statue of Robert Burns, forming the 
 central point of attraction as he glances along 
 the lofty pillared gallery of the Edinburgh 
 University library, measuring nearly one hun- 
 dred and ninety feet in length. The statue 
 originally occupied the classic monument dedi- 
 cated to the poet's memory on the south- 
 eastern slope of the Calton-hill ; but the difiiculty 
 attendant on securing public access to it with- 
 out, risk to the statue, has led to the introduc- 
 tion of the peasant bard into those halls of 
 learning in the advantages of which while 
 living he had uo share.
 
 90 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Edinburgh is chiefly celebrated for its medi- 
 cal school ; students of law and divinity, how- 
 ever, swell considerably the number of pupils 
 at the university. The anatomical museum, 
 which is entirely apart from that of natural 
 history, possesses considerable attraction to 
 those interested in the branch of study which 
 it illustrates ; but a much more extensive and 
 valuable museum of anatomical and surgical 
 preparations is preserved in the museum of the 
 Koyal College of Surgeons. 
 
 The building in which the college of sur- 
 geons is accommodated is an exceedingly 
 handsome classical structure, in the vicinity of 
 the university buildings, and its museum is, 
 with becoming liberality, rendered easily ac- 
 cessible to strangers. By this body, surgeons' 
 diplomas are granted, and it also licenses cer- 
 tain lecturers, who constitute an efficient aid 
 to the staiF of university professors, and add 
 to the advantages of Edinburgh as a medical 
 school. 
 
 The Royal College of Physicians was the 
 first of all the learned bodies to desert the 
 ancient haunts of the metropolis for the broad 
 thoroughfares of the new town. Incorporated 
 so early as 1681, by a charter of Charles ir., 
 the college had acquired considerable wealth ; 
 and so soon as the current set in towards the 
 newly chosen site on which Craig's favoured 
 plan was to be carried out, the physicians 
 secured a spot in George-street, and in 1775 
 erected a handsome and chaste hall, adorned
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 91 
 
 ^vitll a Corinthian portico, after a design by 
 James Craig. Directly facing it, on the oppo- 
 site side of the street, St. Andrew's Church 
 was erected, and as their porticoes thus formed 
 a fine architectural centre to the fa9ade of the 
 eastern division of the street, they were re- 
 garded with no slight degree of admiration in 
 the earlier days of the rising city. Time, 
 however, has already wrought many changes 
 on the new town, and among the rest, this 
 physicians' hall has partaken of the influences 
 which have converted the adjoining mansions 
 of St. Andrew-square from the residences of 
 nobles and landed gentry into the marts of 
 commerce. The Commercial Banking Company, 
 one of the most important monetary corpora- 
 tions in Scotland, having long been in search 
 of a suitable site for a new bank, at length 
 negotiated the purchase of the Physicians' 
 Hall, and its fine Corinthian portico is now 
 replaced by one of greatly larger proportions, 
 surrounded by a pediment, filled with a bold 
 and highly effective group of sculpture from 
 the chisel of Alexander Handyside Ritchie, a 
 native artist, who studied under the Danish 
 sculptor Thorwaldsen. 
 
 The new Hall of the College of Physicians 
 is in the east division of Queen-street. Its 
 front is adorned with colossal statues of Galen, 
 Harpocrates, and the goddess Hygeia ; and it 
 contains a seletit library, a good museum, and 
 a fine hall for the meetings of the fellows. 
 
 The Veterinary College of Edinburgh has
 
 92 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 acquired well-merited distinction of late years, 
 and its diplomas are higlily valued as evidences 
 of sound professional attainment in veterinary 
 surgery. 
 
 To these various schools of learning may 
 also be added, the theological institutions of 
 the different Scottish Presbyterian bodies, all of 
 •which are located in Edinburgh. Their students, 
 however, freely partake in the advantages of 
 the university ; no tests or restrictions of any 
 kind being allowed to interfere with the attend- 
 ance even on the classes of those professors 
 who are specially appointed for the training of 
 students of divinity of the established church. 
 The United Presbyterians have their hall and 
 library in Queen-street, nearly adjoining the 
 Physicians' Plall, where lectures on divinity, 
 church history, and other kindred topics, arc 
 delivered by their own professors. 
 
 The college erected by the Free Church of 
 Scotland is a much more extensive building, 
 occupying a prominent site at the head of the 
 mound, and presenting a gothic fepade towards 
 Prince's-street, surmounted by three towers. 
 The architecture is, however, considered by 
 some to be unsuccessful ; and the heavy 
 pinnacles which crown the towers contrast 
 ungracefully with the fine details of the 
 Assembly Hall tower, seen beyond. The 
 interior quadrangle is more successful in 
 design, but only a part of the original plan 
 has been carried out. In this college, Dr. 
 Chalmers lectured during the closing years of
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 93 
 
 his life, and a marble statue of him now in 
 course of execution, by Mr. John Steel, is 
 destined to adorn the hall. 
 
 The preparatory institutions for the educa- 
 tion of youth form no unimportant branch of 
 the scholastic institutions of Edinburgh. Of 
 these, the early history of the Pligh School has 
 already been traced in the volume devoted to 
 " Old Edinburgh," and its successive changes 
 are there noted, from its location in the old 
 archiepiscopal palace at the foot of Black- 
 friars-wynd, about the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, till its transference in 1829 to the 
 beautiful classic building on the Calton-hill 
 Avhich it now occupies. Another most im- 
 portant seminary for youth is the New 
 Academy, which was projected to supply the 
 wants of the higher classes in the new town, 
 while the High School was still located on the 
 site of the ancient Blackfriars INIonastery, near 
 the Kirk of Field. The Edinburgh Academj'-, 
 as it is styled, is accordingly situated at the 
 northern extremity of the 'New Town, Avhere 
 the boundary of the water of Leith has served, 
 like some artificial dam, to arrest its further 
 progress in that direction for a time. 
 
 The building, which is a comparatively plain, 
 yet tasteful structure, in the Grecian Doric 
 style of architecture, was erected at a cost of 
 £12,000. The institution is superintended by 
 a board of directors. In its general plan it is 
 copied from that of the High School, each (>f 
 the institutions having a rector and four
 
 94 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 classical masters, with the addition of teachers 
 of modern languages, mathematics, writing, 
 and arithmetic. The class fees are considerably 
 higher than those of the High School, and a 
 certain degree of rivalry between the two 
 establishments supplies a wholesome stimulus 
 to both. The position taken by pupils of the 
 Edinburgh Academy, not only in the Scottish 
 Universities, but in those of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, has already won for that institution 
 a just distinction among the educational 
 institutions of the country. The stranger 
 who may be desirous of examining more 
 closely the arrangements of the various edu- 
 cational institutions referred to, and the system 
 pursued in them, will find little difficulty in 
 obtaining access to them on application.
 
 LELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS 95 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 It would require mucli ampler space than a 
 single chapter of this little volume, to convey 
 any adequate idea of the many schemes of 
 Christian zeal and philanthropy of which 
 Edinburgh is the centre ; but no sketch of its 
 modern history would be complete without 
 some allusion to these. The eldest of all its 
 religious institutions is the Society for Propa- 
 gating Christian Knowledge, the old " local 
 habitation" of which, immediately below John 
 Knox's house, at the Nether Bow, is. still 
 marked by the name of Society Close, applied 
 to the alley which formed the approach to its 
 hall. It had its origin in the desire of some 
 pious individuals, towards the close of the 
 seventeenth century, to adopt more effectual 
 measures than they had yet been enabled to 
 do, for rooting out the seeds of Popery, which 
 had been planted anew under the maHgn 
 influence of Charles ii. and his popish suc- 
 cessor. The history of its rise is no less 
 interesting to us, as disclosing one of the very 
 earliest traces of the dawn of that missionary
 
 96 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 spirit ^vhich ■vvc linve witnessed in the full 
 blaze of its later effulgence, re-animating the 
 Christian church, and renewing the glorious 
 commission given by its Divine founder to his 
 apostles, " Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature." 
 
 In the year 1701, the design was at length 
 matured for framing a Society, having for its 
 object "the propagation of Christian knowledge, 
 the raising subscriptions for planting schools in 
 the Highlands, for instructing children in 
 reading and writing, and in the principles of 
 our religion ; for rooting out the errors of 
 Popery, and for converting of foreign and pagan 
 nations''' This Society Avas erected into a body 
 corporate by queen Anne, with powers to them 
 to receive subscriptions, and to hold lands, etc., 
 not exceeding the yearly value of £2,000. 
 The powers of the Society were greatly ex- 
 tended at a later date, and it continues to 
 exist, and to maintain an extensive agency, 
 especially in the Highlands, devoted to the 
 o])jects of education and the propagation of 
 Christian knowledge. 
 
 Among the religious institutions of more 
 recent origin, few have exercised a more 
 beneficial effect than the Edinburgh Bible 
 Society, and the stand which it took during 
 the famous " Apocrypha Controversy," tended 
 to give it a very great celebrity. The leading 
 champions for the distribution of the pure 
 word of God, unadulterated by any spurious or 
 apocryphal additions, were Dr. Chalmers,
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 97 
 
 Mr. Robert Haldane, and Dr. Andrew 
 Thomson — the last, long one of the most popu- 
 lar of Scottish preachers, and the minister of 
 St. George's Church, the dome of ^Yhich ter- 
 minates the vista of George's-street, towards 
 the west, as the IMelville Column does towards 
 the east. 
 
 The churches and chapels of Edinburgli 
 serve, as in other towns, to indicate to some 
 extent the relative strength and number of the 
 different religious bodies. When Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson visited Edinburgh in 1773, the retreat 
 of the old non-juring episcopacy, deposed at 
 the revolution settlement, was in an humble 
 building, still used as a place of Christian 
 worship in Carrubbers-close ; while the loyal 
 and constitutional adherents of episcopacy 
 found refuge in an equally humble structure, 
 founded by the lord chief baron Smith, in 
 1722, at the foot of Blackfriars-wynd. Here 
 it was that Dr. Johnson attended worship 
 during his visit to Edinburgh, at a time when 
 this homely building was probably attended by 
 a greater array of rank and fashion than any 
 that now assembles in Edinburgh. A little 
 above its old site, on the opposite side of the 
 narrow wynd, a simple memorial of the piety 
 of a former age appears in the inscription 
 carved over the lintel of a doorway : — 
 
 THE FEIR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGYNNING OF AL 
 VISDOME. 
 
 Two new episcopal chapels "were founded
 
 98 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 about the year 1746, to accommodate the 
 increasing numbers of this communion ; and 
 in these the ministers withdrew from the 
 Jacobite church of non-jurors, and took the 
 requisite oaths to government. The various 
 chapels thus scattered about in mean and 
 narrow wynds were small and inconvenient, 
 and while accommodating very limited con- 
 gregations, each necessarily required its own 
 minister. The evils resulting from this state 
 of things led to a plan for erecting a suitfible 
 place of worship to accommodate the whole, in 
 consequence of which a large church was com- 
 menced in 1771, on a piece of ground on the 
 south side of the Cowgate, purchased from 
 the Royal College of Physicians, and was 
 opened for public worship in 1774, although 
 the original design was left incomplete, by the 
 omission of a range of pillars and pediment, 
 designed for its principal front. This chapel 
 was designed according to the taste of the 
 period, with a degree of splendour unknown 
 since the restoration of episcopacy by Charles i. 
 The chancel on the east side of the chapel was 
 entrusted to Runciman, a native artist of high 
 repute, to adorn with suitable subjects for an 
 altar piece ; including the Ascension, Christ 
 talking with the woman of Samaria, and the 
 Prodigal Son. In the last of these the painter 
 introduced the portrait of the poet Fergusson as 
 the prodigal. 
 
 At this period, the new town was scarcely 
 dreamed of as a thing ever to be realized, and
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 99 
 
 the Cowgate was regarded as a locality well 
 suited for the accommodation of the most 
 fashionable congregation in town. Since then, 
 however, the Cowgate chapel has been forsaken 
 for a more costly Gothic edifice in the new 
 town, and it is now the property of a dissent- 
 ing Presbyterian congregation, by whom the 
 paintings of Eunciman have been suffered to 
 remain. The structure, therefore, forms the 
 one singular exception in Great Britain of 
 a Presbyterian place of worship being decorated 
 with an altar-piece, and adorned with pictured 
 rejiresentations of Scripture subjects. The 
 senior clergyman of the Cowgate Episcopal 
 Chapel at the j^eriod above referred to Avas 
 Dr. Myles Cooper, formerly principal of the 
 College of New York, from which he had been 
 compellpd to flee in consequence of his fidelity 
 to the British interests, as opposed to those of 
 the colonial insurgents. 
 
 Among the distinguished men who have 
 since occupied the pulpits, and officiated in the 
 services of that communion, one stands pre- 
 eminent, the rev. Archibald Alison, author of 
 the Essays on the Principles of Taste — the 
 friend and adviser of the poet Campbell, and 
 the intimate associate of the most distinguished 
 literary men during the most remaikable 
 epoch of Scottish literature. He was the 
 senior minister of St. Paul's Chapel, in York- 
 place, where a tasteful marble monument from 
 the chisel of Steel has since been erected to 
 his memory.
 
 100 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 In the year 181G, a beautiful Gothic structure, 
 designated St. John's Chapel, was erected at the 
 west end of Princes-street Gardens, by the 
 Episcopal congregation over which, according 
 to the primitive practice of Scottish episcopacy, 
 the bishop presided. Close to this well-chosen 
 site there had existed from the earliest intro- 
 duction of Christianity to the Lothians, a 
 church dedicated to the old Saxon saint, St. 
 Cuthbert. Patched, and renovated from age 
 to age, this venerable structure had at length 
 become so hampered and insecure as to be no 
 longer capable of accommodating the parish- 
 ioners, and the last relics of the ancient edifice 
 were swept away, to give place to what has, in 
 point of architectural merit, not inaptly been 
 styled the hiigest ham in Scotland. It is said 
 that when the heritors determined upon remov- 
 ing their place of worship, they pitched upon 
 the architect whose estimate was least expen- 
 sive, and who excluded from his plan the un- 
 necessary ornament of a steeple ; but after 
 getting time to contemplate the ground cum- 
 bered by an enormous oblong barn, with huge 
 disproportioned windows, they regretted the 
 error which they had sanctioned, and en- 
 deavoured to repair it by building a steeple, 
 in a style of ornamented and florid architec- 
 ture, as if the finery of such an appendage 
 could relieve the heaviness of the principal 
 building, which it only rendered more deformed 
 by the contrast. In truth, however, even the 
 steeple is by no means burdened with any
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 101 
 
 excess of ornament, though, from its large pro- 
 portions and prominent situation, it forms a 
 marked and not unpleasing feature in some of 
 the finest general views of the city. The two 
 ecclesiastical edifices thus oddly contrasting 
 together have not inaptly been compared to an 
 ornate Dutch toy, with the clumsy packing- 
 case out of which it has just been taken. 
 
 It is not our purpose to enumerate the 
 various churches and chapels which abound in 
 every quarter of the city. Eeckoning all the 
 places of worship of the various evangelical 
 denominations, there is an unusually large 
 amount of church accommodation. But un- 
 happily also, wretchedness, vice, and an utter 
 regardlessness of the sabbath and all its 
 sacred privileges exist, as in most large towns, 
 and often bid defiance to the most zealous 
 labours of benevolence and Christian zeal. 
 One humble and obscure place of worship, 
 however, has a claim to our notice, such as 
 pertains to none of the costly and ornate struc- 
 tures of the new town. The heart of the great 
 and good Dr. Chalmers was filled with the 
 deepest anxiety and alarm, at the evidences of 
 increasing infidelity, dissipation, vice, and pro- 
 fanity of every kind, which he saw coming in 
 like a flood, and threatening to sweep before it 
 the whole body of the lower classes of the 
 people. He accordingly resolved on one great 
 experimental effort to deal practically with this 
 mass of '•' nnexcavated home heathenism," and 
 selecting the West Port, one of the lowest and
 
 102 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 most wretched districts of the old town, he 
 began his generous work. Here it was that, 
 only a few years before, the horrid atrocities of 
 Burke and Hare had been committed. Intem- 
 perance abounded ; violence, profanity, and 
 neglect of all the decencies of life, were the 
 common characteristics of the district, and 
 seemed enough to appal the stoutest heart, and 
 fill it with hopeless despondency. Such, how- 
 ever, was the fittest field for the veteran Chris- 
 tian warrior who had resolved to encounter 
 vice and godlessness in their stronghold. Au 
 humble attic w^as hired, where the great divine, 
 who could command eager thousands of the 
 magnates of the land, was to be seen week 
 after week preaching to an increasing audience 
 of ragged outcasts of society, the great majority 
 of whom had never entered a place of worship, 
 or heard before the word of life, though living 
 in a Christian land, and within the sound of 
 a sabbath bell. 
 
 The eager missionary had no difficulty in 
 enlisting a phalanx of zealous coadjutors. 
 The district was subdivided. Tract distri- 
 butors went from house to house, and soon the 
 homely upper room became too straitened for 
 the crowds who sought admission. The co- 
 operation of the wealthy was now invited, and 
 soon money enough was contributed to build 
 a plain, but neat and commodious chapel, and a 
 large school-house. A minister was chosen 
 whose heart was in the work, and the *' Chal- 
 mers Territorial Church " of the West Port
 
 RELiaiOUS INSTITUTIONS. 103 
 
 still continues to produce its abundant fruits, 
 though he into whose large heart God put it 
 to devise this scheme has gone to his rest. 
 Truly he " rests from his labours, and his works 
 do follow him." The change which has been 
 produced on that wretched locality has been 
 altogether remarkable, and the means which 
 continue to be employed are alike varied and 
 judicious. Besides the week-day and sabbath 
 schools, the services of the sabbath, and 
 weekly meetings for prayer, laymen have been 
 induced to help in the good cause, by means 
 of lectures on useful and attractive subjects. 
 By these and similar means, it has been found 
 that dissipation is most effectually assailed, 
 fresh incentives to virtue are supplied, a taste 
 for instructive reading is developed, especially 
 among the young ; and thus a great experi- 
 ment has been carried out with such success 
 as abundantly to encourage others to go and 
 do likewise. 
 
 It would be impracticable, as we have already 
 said, to attempt to convey to our readers, 
 in a limited chapter, anything like a full 
 description of the various schemes of Christian 
 usefulness carried on in connexion with the 
 metropolis of Scotland. There exist many 
 which we cannot even attempt to name ; 
 while in its pulpits there is a large body of 
 faithful evangelists, who preach in all their 
 simplicity and fulness the doctrines of the 
 everlasting gospel, warning the sinner of his 
 lost and ruined state by nature ; of the neces-
 
 104 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 sity of his regeneration by the Holy Spirit^ 
 before he can see the kingdom of heaven ; and 
 pointing him to the Saviour, as the way, the 
 truth, and the life.
 
 BENEVOLENT AND CnAPwlTABLE INSTITUTIONS. 1 05 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BENEVOLENT AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Amidst all the remarkable and striking attrac- 
 tions of Edinburgh, few of its features make a 
 stronger impression on a stranger than the 
 number and architectural beauty of its hospitals. 
 This peculiarity is thus happily depicted by Dr. 
 Guthrie, in his eloquent " Plea for Ragged 
 Schools," which mainly contributed to the 
 adding of these to the other useful charities of 
 the town. " On approaching Edinburgh," says 
 he, " from the west, after the general features 
 which distance presents, — dome, and spire, and 
 antique piles of buildings, the castle standing 
 in the foreground, while Arthur's Seat raises its 
 lion-like back between the city and the sea, — 
 the first object which attracts the eyes of a 
 stranger is a structure of exquisite and sur- 
 passing beauty. It might be a palace for our 
 queen: — it is a hospital. Near by, embowered 
 in wood, stands an edifice of less pretensions, 
 but also of great extent :--it is another hospital. 
 Within a bow-shot of that again, some fine 
 open towers rise from the wood over a fair 
 D 2
 
 106 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 structure, witli its Grecian pillars and graceful 
 portico: — it is another hospitiil. Now in the 
 city, and wheeHng round nigh to the base of 
 the castle rock, he drives on bj^ Lauriston. 
 Not far away, on the outskirts of the town, 
 pleasantly planted in a beautiful park, bor- 
 dered with trees, stands an old-fashioned build- 
 ing: — it is another hospital. In his way along 
 Lauriston, within a stone-cast of him, his eye 
 catches the back of a large and spacious edi- 
 fice, which looks beautifully out on the mea- 
 dows, the low Braid hills, and the distant 
 Pentlands : — it is another hospital. A few 
 turns of the wheel, and before him, within a 
 fine park, or rather ornamental garden, stands 
 the finest structure of our town, — a master- 
 piece of Inigo Jones, with a princely revenue of 
 £15,000 a year: — it is another hospital. The 
 carriage now jostles over a stone ; the stranger 
 turns his head, and sees only some hundred yards 
 away, a large Dutch-like structure, stretching 
 out its long lines of windows, with the gilded 
 ship (the sign of commerce) for weather-vane, 
 on its sunmiit: — that is another hospital. Our 
 friend," adds the depictor of this singular, yet 
 unexaggerated delineation — " our friend con- 
 cludes, and not without some reason, that 
 instead of ' Modern Athens,' Edinburgh might 
 be called the City of Hospitals." 
 
 Donaldson's Hospital, the first in the above 
 enumeration, may well be described as fit to 
 be a palace for the queen. It was founded by 
 the late James Donaldson, esq., whose fortune
 
 BENEVOLENT AND CHARITABLE INi5TITUTI0NS. 107 
 
 was acquired as a printer and publislier in 
 Edinburgh, and the building alone has cost 
 nearly a hundred thousand pounds. It was 
 designed by its founder to be applied as nearly 
 as possible to the same ends as the older insti- 
 tution founded by George Heriot, the celebrated 
 goldsmith of James VL ; but the administrators 
 of the funds have wisely exercised their discre- 
 tionary powers by requiring that one-half of 
 the inmates shall be the deaf and dumb, and 
 for these well-instructed teachers have been 
 provided. 
 
 The older institution, which has served as 
 the model for this and so many other charita- 
 ble institutions, not of Edinburgh alone, but 
 ■throughout Scotland, has, as above stated, the 
 princely revenue of £15,000 a year ; and of 
 this sum, upwards of £3,000 is now annually 
 expended in the maintenance of free schools, 
 which have been erected in the poorer districts 
 of the city, where the children of the trades- 
 man and mechanic enjoy the advantages of an 
 excellent education, under the superintendence 
 of teachers of high standing. 
 
 The other hospitals enumerated above, in 
 the order in which they are introduced to the 
 stranger's notice, include John Watson's Insti- 
 tution, the Orphan Hospital — already particu- 
 larly referred to in a former chapter ; Gillespie's 
 Hospital, an alms-house for decayed and aged 
 burgesses; the Merchant Maiden Hospital; and 
 Watson's, or the Merchant Company's Hos- 
 pital — the "large Dutch-like structure, with
 
 108 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 the gilded ship, the sign of commerce, for 
 weather-vane, on its sunnnit," -which concludes 
 the enumeration by Dr. Guthrie of his " Cit}^ 
 of Hospitals." The list, however, is not com- 
 plete. Another pair of rich Gothic towers has 
 since risen beyond the Dean-bridge, pointing 
 out Stuart's Hospital, an institution destined to 
 provide board and education for poor children ; 
 while large funds, left by sir AVilliam Fetters, 
 who died in 1836, are now in the hands of 
 trustees, for the purpose of erecting and en- 
 dowing a kindred institution; and another body 
 of trustees have to carry into effect the will of 
 Chalmers, a plumber, who, dying the same 
 year, left the sum of £30,000, to accumulate 
 for the establishment of a hospital for the 
 sick and hurt. It is to be noted, however, in 
 regard to these, and other hospitals not enu- 
 merated, that the majority of them assume a 
 metropoHtan character, and are accessible, like 
 the Koj^al Infirmary, to suitable objects for 
 benevolence and charity from every part of 
 Scotland. Under wise and judicious manage- 
 ment, therefore, there can be no difficulty in 
 rendering such foundations a source of great 
 good to the country. 
 
 It was felt, however, by the benevolent cler- 
 gyman above referred to, as well as by many 
 others, that there still existed a large and niost 
 important class, lying altogether beyond the 
 range of Edinburgh's numerous charities. The 
 author of " A Plea for Kagged Schools " thus 
 represents his stranger-companion addressing
 
 BENEVOLENT AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 109 
 
 him, after he has gone the round of the citj^'s 
 palace-hospitals : — " You have splendid hos- 
 pitals, -where children are fed, and clothed, and 
 educated, whose parents, in instances not a 
 few, could do alf that for them ; you have beau- 
 tiful schools for the gratis education of the 
 children of respectable tradesmen and me- 
 chanics ; ^Yhat provision have you made for 
 those children of crime, misery, and misfortune? 
 Let us go and see the remedy Avhich this rich, 
 enlightened, Christian city has provided for 
 such a crying evil." And what is the remedy ? 
 After describing a child found by him begging 
 on the street, at midnight, the fatherless orphan, 
 Avho helped to keep a drunken mother by such 
 means, the writer adds, of such as these : 
 *' Nevertheless, they might get education, and 
 secure some measure both of common and 
 Christian knowledge. But mark how and 
 where. Not as in the days of our blessed 
 Saviour, when the tender mother brought her 
 child for his blessing. The jailor brings them 
 now. Their only passage to school is through 
 the police-office ; their passport is a conviction 
 of crime ; and in this Christian and enlightened 
 city, it is only within the dark walls of a prison 
 that they are secure either of school or Bible. 
 When one thinks of their own happy boys at 
 home, bounding free on the green, and breathing 
 the fresh air of heaven, — or of the little fellow 
 that climbs a father's knee, and asks the oft- 
 repeated story of INIoses or of Joseph,— it is a 
 sad thing to look in through the eyelet of a cell
 
 110 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 door, on the weary solitude of a child spelling 
 its way through the Bible. It, makes one sick 
 to hear men sing the piaises of the fine educa- 
 tion of our prisons. How much better and 
 holier were it to tell us of an education that 
 would save the necessity of a prison-school ! 
 I like well to see the life- boat, with her brave 
 and devoted crew ; but with far more plea- 
 sure, from the window of my old country 
 manse, I used to look out at the Bell Rock 
 Tower, standing erect amid the stormy waters, 
 where in the mists of day the bell was rung, 
 and in the darkness of the night the light was 
 kindled ; and thereby the marin^ers were not 
 only saved from the Avreck, but saved from being 
 wrecked at all. Instead of first punishing 
 crime, and then, through means of a prison 
 education, trying to prevent its repetition, we 
 appeal to men's common sense, common in- 
 terest, humanity, and Christianity, if it were 
 not better to support a plan which would re- 
 verse this process, and seek to prevent, that 
 there may be no occasion to punish?" 
 
 Happily this description has ceased to be 
 true. Dr. Guthrie having taken this good 
 cause in hand, rested not till the Edinburgh 
 Eagged Schools — or Dr. Guthrie's Schools, as 
 they are more frequently styled — were esta- 
 blished ; and a visit to no institution is calcu- 
 lated to afford the benevolent stranger greater 
 gratification than to this, which is situated on 
 the Castle-hill. Another institution of the 
 same kind, termed the Industrial School, has
 
 BENEVOLENT AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. Ill 
 
 been established by Roman Catholics for the 
 instruction of destitute children of their creed. 
 
 Besides the hospitals and schools enumerated 
 above, Edinburgh is not behind other cities in 
 the number of its charitable associations main- 
 tained by private subscription. Of these it 
 may suffice to mention the House of Refuge, 
 the House of Industr}-, the Blind Asylum, the 
 Deaf and Dumb Institution, and the Night 
 Asylum for the Houseless ; all of which pos- 
 sess large claims of interest and sympathy on 
 the benevolent, and are well Avorthy of in- 
 spection by the stranger. Among those whose 
 operations alone make their presence felt, may 
 be mentioned the Society for the Relief of Indi- 
 gent Old Men, which possesses a peculiar 
 interest from its having originated in the 
 juvenile charities of the pupils of the High 
 School ; being still maintained, to a large 
 extent, by those whose common bond of union 
 is their former connexion with that venerable 
 scholastic institution. This excellent and well- 
 managed charity, originally set on foot by a 
 few schoolboys, has since served as the model 
 of various similar societies in other towns, both 
 of Scotland and England.
 
 112 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MODERN ART. 
 
 In the centre of tlie nortli end of the Mound, 
 with its main front to Prince's-street, stands 
 the Roj'al Institution, one of tlie handsomest 
 modern buildings in Edinburgh, and which has 
 been mainly devoted to the requirements of the 
 students of art in Scotland. Here the annual 
 exhibition of the works of modern artists 
 takes place, in the months of February, March, 
 and April ; and during the remainder of the 
 year the suite of galleries affords space for a 
 small, but very fine collection of the works of 
 ancient masters — the nucleus, it is to be hoped, 
 of a future national gallery for Scotland. 
 
 The incorporated body of Scottish artists, 
 now established with a royal charter, under the 
 name of the Royal Scottish Academy, have 
 established a native school of art, amidst the 
 greatest difficulties and discouragements, and 
 already assume a position highly creditable to 
 the country, and calcuhited to prove of tlie 
 very highest value from its influence on Jthe 
 decorative arts and ornamental manufactures, 
 on which prosperity so much depends. The
 
 MODERN AKT. 113 
 
 ivorks of sir William Allan, the late president 
 of the Academy, are known and admired for 
 their high and varied excellence, not in this 
 country only, but throughout Europe. And, 
 since his decease, other painters of distin- 
 guished ability honourably co-operate in main- 
 taining the rising reputation of the Scottish 
 school of painting, -while in sculpture also, the 
 artists of Edinburgh claim a distinguished 
 place. 
 
 It is to an earlier period, however, and to 
 other sources than the proceedings of the Scot- 
 tish Academy of Artists, that the development 
 of the latent powers of Scottish artistic genius is 
 due. After the last unfortunate rebellion of 
 1745, in which so many of the Scottish nobles 
 and landed gentry risked their all in the vain 
 struggle to restore the Stuart line to the throne 
 of their royal ancestry, the forfeited estates 
 were placed in charge of a body of trustees 
 appointed by the crown, to be expended in the 
 encouragement of Scottish manufactures and 
 fisheries. Under the management of this 
 board, a school was instituted for instruction in 
 drawing and the arts of design ; and the office 
 of teacher, or director of the School of Design, 
 as it is now termed, constituted the first go- 
 vernment appointment directly contributing- to 
 the patronage of art in Scotland. It has been 
 successively filled by Alexander Runciman, 
 David Allan, sir AVilliam Allan, Thomas Dun- 
 can, and Ivobert Scott Lander ; and has num- 
 bered among its pupils sir David Wilkie, sir
 
 114 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Henry Raeburn, John Burnet, David Roberts, 
 David Scott, William D)'ce, William Calder 
 INlarshall, and many others whose names are 
 now honourably distinguished among the artists 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 By the expenditure of the funds placed at 
 the disposal of the Scottish Board of Trustees, 
 a collection of casts from the antique, as well 
 as of some of the finest examples of medigeval 
 art, has been formed. There are also selections 
 from the works of Michael Angelo, Lorenzo, 
 Ghiberti, Benvenuto Cellini ; and from Thor- 
 wald.sen, Canova, and Fliixman. Its collection 
 of busts from the antique, including many of 
 the finest historical portraits, is believed to be 
 without a rival in the kingdom. 
 
 Another valuable collection is the Gallery of 
 Paintings, derived from various sources, and 
 already forming a national collection of such 
 importance that government have been induced 
 to co-operate with the board of trustees in 
 providing more ample accommodation both for 
 ancient and modern art ; and accordingly a fine 
 building, now in progress on the Earthen 
 IMound, imder the architectural superintendence 
 of Playfair, is to constitute a National Gallery, 
 divided, like that in Trafalgar-square, London, 
 l)etween the Koyal Academy and the collection 
 of ancient and modern masters. 
 
 This Scottish National Gallery includes pic- 
 tures acquired for the purpose, and now secured 
 to the nation, by a body of noblemen and gen- 
 tlemen styled the Eoyal Institution for the
 
 MODERN ART. 115 
 
 Encouragement of Arts ; and also a small, but 
 valuable collection, bequeathed to the University 
 of Edinburgh by sir James Erskine of Tory. 
 To these the Royal Scottish Association for the 
 Encouragement of Arts have added several 
 modern works. 
 
 One specimen of Scottish art, although not 
 in this exhibition, is worthy of being specially 
 referred to here. David Scott, a painter of 
 great genius, which was marred in some degree 
 by a certain amount of eccentricity in the prac- 
 tice of his art, produced various pictures, prov- 
 ing the possession of great artistic powers. He 
 is in some degree known to the lovers of art by 
 a series of highly vigorous illustrations to Cole- 
 ridge's " Ancient Mariner." He has also illus- 
 trated an edition of the " Pilgrim's Progress." 
 But his chief work was a painting of colossal 
 proportions, representing Vasco de Gama, the 
 celebrated Portuguese navigator, passing the 
 Cape. The traditions of his age represented 
 him as opposed in his passage by the Spirit of 
 the Cape, with all the fury of the tempests 
 which procured for the southern promontory of 
 Africa its older name of the " Cape of Storms." 
 'J'his the painter availed himself of; and the 
 deck of Vasco de Gama's ship is seen in the 
 midst of the tempest, with his crew quailing 
 around him at the visible manifestation of the 
 Spirit of the storm. This picture was pur- 
 chased by public subscription, and placed in 
 the Trinity House at Leith, where it now hangs. 
 The last hours of the dyinp- artist were cheered
 
 116 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 (if the empty gratification of fame at such an 
 hour can be said to deserve the name of con- 
 solation,) by learniiig, after a series of heavy 
 discouragements, this evidence of the inibHc 
 appreciation of his work ; but he was Laid in 
 his grave, in the beautiful Dean Cemetery, on 
 the banks of tlie water of Leith, to the north- 
 west of the city, before the purchase coukl be 
 completed, and the transference of the picture 
 to its destined resting-place effected. 
 
 In the same cemetery where the painter of 
 the " Vasco de Gama" now lies, are also de- 
 posited the remains of lord Jeffrey, sir William 
 Allan, and other distinguished citizens recently 
 deceased ; and that taste which distinguishes 
 the modern cemetery from the old unsightly 
 and weed-grown churchyard, is here greatly 
 aided by the natural beauties of the Dean- 
 haugh, a steep sloping bank, as its name im- 
 ports, above the water of Leith, and covered 
 with venerable trees, which once surrounded 
 the fine old mansion of the Nisbets of the Dean, 
 an ancient Scottish family now extinct. The 
 beauty of this cemetery renders it a favourite 
 resort in summer ; and this circumstance has 
 already co-operated with other causes to induce 
 an attention to the tastefulness and architectural 
 effect of sepulchral monuments, which had been 
 nearly universally neglected for upwards of a 
 century and a half.
 
 THE CEMETERIES. 117 
 
 CHAPTEll XI. 
 
 THE CEMETERIES. 
 
 It is not without a just, though at first sight, 
 perhaps, a remote connexion, that we pass on 
 from the consideration of the fine arts of the 
 Scottish capital to its cemeteries. Only a very 
 few years since, its churchyards and burial- 
 grounds were, like those of most other large 
 cities, as devoid of all taste or architectural 
 adornment as it was well possible they could 
 be. Crowded with the accumulated mortality 
 of many generations, and constantly disturbed 
 for fresh interments, some of them became at 
 length such unsightly and pestiferous scenes 
 of rank corruption, as to awaken a reasonable 
 alarm in the minds of many. Added to this 
 was the usual fruit of monopoly, greatly 
 aggravating the sufferings of the poor by the 
 costly fees demanded of them at a time when 
 the mourning survivors feel with peculiar 
 acuteness any such pressure. 
 
 Influenced b}' the conviction of these cry- 
 ing evils, a number of liberal and philan- 
 thropic citizens united together a few years
 
 118 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 since, and formed themselves into a company, 
 for the purpose of establishing one or more 
 cemeteries to supply the wants of the com- 
 munity. The result of this was the establish- 
 ment of the Warriston Cemetery, on a well- 
 chosen site to the north-east of the city, and 
 this proved so successful, even as a pecu- 
 niary speculation, that the example of its 
 originators was followed with impatient eager- 
 ness. Cemeteries started up, to the east, west, 
 north, and south of the city, and rival com- 
 panies hastened to purchase ground in a rash 
 spirit of speculation, which ended in consider- 
 able loss to the shareholders. The result, 
 however, has been the benefit of the public. 
 The cost of funerals and interments has been 
 greatly reduced, and not only are the new 
 cemeteries adorned with a tasteful display of 
 flowers and bowering trees, which add to the 
 beauty of these last resting-places of the dead, 
 without detracting from the solemnity which 
 is so appropriate to them, but their example 
 has been followed ; and the old city church- 
 yards, which a few years since were filled only 
 with rank hemlock and nettles, are now laid 
 out and tended with judicious care. 
 
 The Grange Cemetery, lying to the south of 
 the city, is visited by many strangers, as well 
 as citizens, to view the last earthly resting- 
 place of Dr. Chalmers, alongside of whom lie 
 two distinguished citizens, who adorned a high 
 position in life by th(^ practical evidences of 
 the influence which Christian principle can
 
 THE CEMETERIES. 119 
 
 exert in every social rank. The name of 
 sheriff Spiers will long be had in remembrance 
 as one Avho adorned the Christian profession, 
 ■while faithfully and zealously fulfilling his 
 duties as a judge. That of sir Andrew Agnew 
 is too ^Yell and widely known to need any 
 eulogium. The sphere of Christian duty to 
 Avhich he devoted himself with such untiring 
 zeal is happily commemorated on the massive 
 granite monument, erected over his tomb by 
 public subscription, and bearing the appro- 
 priate motto, " Remember the Sabbath day, 
 to keep it holy." 
 
 Such of the attractions of the other modern 
 cemeteries as are specially deserving of notice 
 have already been recorded ; nor have some of 
 the others — such as the grave of the poet 
 Fergusson, in the Canongate churchyard — 
 escaped our notice. In the same old cemetery 
 lie the remains of Dr. Adam Smith, author of 
 the "Wealth of Nations;" lord Cromarty, the 
 last of a noble Scottish line, who was attainted 
 for his share in the rebellion of 1745 ; and provost 
 Drummond, whose civic worth and local cele- 
 brit}'' have already been referred to, in con- 
 nexion both with the projection of the new 
 town, and the establishment of the Royal 
 Infirmary. 
 
 But the great cemetery of Edinburgh — at 
 once the Westminster Abbey and the Pere la 
 Chaise of the Scottish capital — is the Gr«^y- 
 friars churchyard. No stranger should visit 
 Edinburgh without devoting an hour to explore
 
 120 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 its eloquent memorials of the past, and amid its 
 monuments and mouldering heaps, to reflect on 
 the transitory nature of all earthly things, and 
 the necessity of having our treasure, not here 
 en earth, but laid up Avhere neither moth nor 
 rust can corrupt, nor thieves break through 
 and steal. 
 
 In the days of queen Mary, the citizens 
 appear to have had nearly the same evils to 
 complain of in relation to the ancient cemetery 
 around their mother church of St. Giles, as 
 their successors in our own da}'' suffered under 
 until the model ornamental cemeteries were 
 provided. For a period, the commencement of 
 which probably dates as far back as the first 
 introduction of Christianity to the Lothians, 
 the area around St. Giles's church had been 
 used as a burying-ground. As the population 
 increased, various devices were from time to 
 time resorted to, for the purpose of meeting 
 the wants of the community in the last rites of 
 the dead. One of these w^as the apportioning, 
 as the Laigh churchyard, a large area to the 
 south of the church, on the slope of the hill, 
 where now the law courts stand. Another 
 provision, at a later date, was the prohibiting 
 the use of oaken coffins, which from their 
 durability gave to the dead a perpetual right 
 in possession of their final resting-place. In 
 the year 1800, as appears from a notice in the 
 *' Edinburgh I\Iagazine," the decorated gateway 
 of this ancient cemetery, wdiich had long sur- 
 vived after it ceased to be the portal to the
 
 THE CEMETERIES. 121 
 
 tomb, was at length rudely demolished. Its 
 destruction is thus recorded : — " A long stone, 
 on which was curiously sculptured a group re- 
 sembling Holbein's Dance of Death, was some 
 months ago discovered at the head of Forrester's- 
 wynd, which in former days was the western 
 boundary of St. Giles's High churchyard. This 
 relic was much defaced and broken in two, by 
 being carelessly tossed down by the workmen." 
 
 There is at all times something touching and 
 suggestive to the thoughtful mind in the con- 
 templation of an ancient burial-ground, whether 
 its mouldering heaps and monumental stones 
 gather under the shadows of the ancient yew 
 trees surrounding some venerable parish church, 
 or lie crowded and jostled among the abodes of 
 the living in the centre of the busy mart. 
 There the wicked of countless generations 
 have ceased from troubling, and there the 
 weary have at length found rest. " There," too, 
 *' the prisoners rest together; they hear not the 
 voice of the oppressor. The small and the 
 great are there ; and the servant is free from 
 his master." There, also, the loved and the 
 lost ones, most deeply mourned, are laid to rest 
 in their long homes ; while to the Christian 
 mourner, " the grave and gate of death " are 
 associated with the triumph of Him who hath 
 said, " I am the resurrection and the life ; he 
 that believcth in me, though he were dead, yet 
 shall he live ; and he that liveth and believeth 
 in me shall never die." 
 
 The crowded cemeteries have other, and
 
 122 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 most frequently less pleasing associations than 
 the "clover sod" of the country churchyard ; 
 but even more eloquent than either to the 
 contemplative topographer is the sight of an 
 extinct churchyard, where, unheeded and un- 
 distinguished, beneath the thronging mart, 
 sleep the countless generations of the past, until 
 that morn come when " all that are in the 
 graves shall come forth." Such is now the 
 condition of the old churchyard of St. Giles at 
 Edinburgh, though we have trustworthy autho- 
 rity for affirming that for eight hundred yeara 
 at the least it was the burial-ground of the 
 citizens. 
 
 The author of the " IMemorials of Edin- 
 burgh in the Olden Time " has thus pictured 
 some of the changes which it has undergone : — 
 " The Parliament Close, which lies to the 
 south of St. Giles's church, has passed through 
 a series of stranger and more remarkable 
 vicissitudes than any other portion of the old 
 town. Could an accurate narrative now be 
 given of all the circumstances accompanying 
 these successive changes, it would suffice to 
 associate this narrow spot with many of the 
 most memorable events in Scottish history, till 
 the adjournment of its last parliament there, 
 on the 22nd of April, 1707, never again to 
 assemble. While St. Giles's w^as the snuiJl and 
 solitary parish church of the ancient unwalled 
 town, there was the burial-place for * the rude 
 forefathers of the hamlet,' and so it continued 
 to the very end of the sixteenth century. In
 
 THE CEilETERIES. 123 
 
 the Nether kirkyard, between St. Giles's 
 church and the Cowgate, stood the ancient 
 chapel of the Holy Rood, till the Reformation, 
 Avhen it appears to have been demolished, and 
 its materials used in building the new Tolbooth. 
 Doubtless the erection of the latter building, 
 \vhere all the great civic and national assem- 
 blies of the period took place, must have had 
 considerable influence in leading to the abandon- 
 ment of the old churchyard of St. Giles as a 
 place of burial. While its area continued 
 enclosed with ecclesiastical buildings, and stood 
 apart from the great thoroughfares of the 
 town, it must have been a peculiarly solemn 
 and fitting place of sepulture. ' But when tha 
 readiest access to the new Tolbooth was through 
 the open churchyard, and instead of the old 
 monk or priest treading among its grassy 
 hillocks, it became the lounge of the grooms 
 and lackeys waiting on their masters during 
 the meetings of parliament, or of quarrelsome 
 litigants, and the usual retainers of the law, 
 during the sessions of the College of the 
 Justice, all idea of sacredness must have been 
 lost ; such appears to have been the case, from 
 the fact that no record exists to show any 
 formal abandonment of it as a churchyard. 
 Queen Mary granted the gardens of the Grey- 
 friars monastery to -the citizens in the year 
 1566, to be used as a cemetery, and from that 
 period the old burial-place seems to have been 
 gradually forsaken, until the neglected sepul- 
 chres of the dead were at length paved over,
 
 124 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 and the citizens forgot that their Exchange was 
 built over their fathers' graves." 
 
 After glancing at various incidents of which 
 the old churchyard was the scene, the author, 
 quoted above, goes on to illustrate the rapid 
 succession of changes which this nucleus of 
 old Edinburgh has undergone, by noticing 
 some of the most remarkable of them in chro- 
 nological order. In the year 1496, the provost 
 of St. Giles's church granted to the citizens the 
 northern part of his manse, with the glebe, for 
 augmenting the cemetery. In 1528, Walter 
 Chapman, the celebrated printer, founded and 
 endowed a chaplaincy in the chapel of the 
 Holy Kood, in the Nether kirkyard ; in 1562, 
 the chapel was demolished, to supply materials 
 for building the new Tolbooth or Parliament 
 House; having been, there can be little doubt, 
 spoiled and broken down in the Reformation 
 tumults of 1559. In 1572, the assembled 
 nobles and citizens committed to St. Giles's 
 churchyard the venerated remains of him whom 
 Beza has not inaptly styled " The apostle of 
 the Scots," and the regent Morton pronounced 
 over the grave of John Knox the brief, but 
 eloquent requiem, " There lies he who never 
 feared the face of man." It Avas, perhaps, too 
 characteristic of the age that even the grave of 
 Scotland's greatest reformer could not rescue 
 the old churchyard from secularization. In 
 1617, on king James's return to his Scottish 
 capital, so entirely had all traces of its use for 
 centuries been erased from the churchyard,
 
 THE CEMETERIES. 125 
 
 that it was selected as the scene of a magni- 
 ficent civic banquet, with which the magistrates 
 welcomed their sovereign back to his native 
 city; and, not to be too minute in our chrono- 
 logical reminiscences, it may suffice to add, 
 that in 1685 the equestrian statue of king 
 Charles ii. was erected in the Parliament Close, 
 and, as certain traditions would seem to aiErm, 
 above the very grave of the reformer — cer- 
 tainly as strange a monument as could well be 
 selected to place on such a spot. 
 
 The Greyfriars' monastery, situated on the 
 south side of the Grassmarket, has been re- 
 ferred to among the ancient features of the 
 capital in the previous volume of this series 
 devoted to Old Edinburgh. Its gardens occu- 
 pying the southern slope beyond, and granted 
 as above mentioned to the citizens by queen 
 Mary for the purposes of a cemeter}'-, constitute 
 now a scene of peculiar interest. The old 
 Greyfriars' church, as it was styled, though 
 only built in the seventeenth century, was 
 suddenly destroyed by a fire which broke out 
 on the morning of Sunday, the 19th of January, 
 1845, and presented to the astonished parish- 
 ioners a blazing mass of ruins as they assem- 
 bled for the services of the day. 
 
 The old church, thus destroyed, had no 
 architectural beauties to reconniiend it. It 
 was a clumsy, inconvenient, and ungainly edi- 
 fice ; with no other historical associations to 
 make its destruction be regretted, excepting its 
 having been the scene of the signing of the
 
 126 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Covenant adopted by the leaguers in 1638, and 
 the place of captivity, along with the nt-ighbour- 
 iug churchyard, of the insurgent Covenanters 
 afterwards taken in arms at Bothwell Bridge. 
 
 Around the walls of this extensive cemetery 
 are a number of beautiful and richly sculptured 
 monuments of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries, in the ornate style of the period, 
 many of them quaintly adorned with emblems 
 and ingenious devices, representative of mor- 
 tality, the resurrection, hope, etc., as well as 
 with heraldic decorations, monograms, etc. To 
 these the touch of time has added additional 
 riches, and the effect of the whole is exceed- 
 ingly striking, when we look on these monu- 
 ments as the memorials of distinguished men 
 whose graves lie crowded around. 
 
 The general view "from this ancient cemeter}' 
 will also repay the visitor, commanding as it 
 does some of the most picturesque masses of 
 the old town, and the castle, rising boldly 
 from the intervening valley on its abruptly 
 precipitous rock. Like other great cemeteries, 
 this old burial-ground has supplied the last 
 peaceful resting-place of rival statesmen and 
 politicians, and of many others famous in their 
 day, " when a large space little sufficed for 
 those who now poorly fill their few feet of 
 earth." Here mingle the ashes of the cele- 
 brated historian and Latin poet, George Bu- 
 chanan, the preceptor of James vi. ; George 
 Ileriot, the father of the royal goldsmith ; 
 Alexander Henderson, famous among the great
 
 THE CEMETERIES. 12t 
 
 men who guided the strnggles for liberty in 
 the seventeenth centur}-, und whose monument, 
 after being destroyed at the Restoration, was 
 replaced at the Revolution ; sir George Macken- 
 zie, the founder of the Advocates' Library ; 
 sir James Stewart ; princip;d Carstairs ; sir 
 John de Medina, the painter ; Allan Ramsay ; 
 Colin Maclaurin ; and many others, distin- 
 guished in their age for rank or genius. 
 
 But far more than all these, a simple monu- 
 ment, though on a somewhat large scale, styled 
 " The ^Martyrs' Tomb," forms the chief object 
 of unfailing popular interest. A small com- 
 partment of this burial-ground was set apart 
 in former days for the interment of malefac- 
 tors. Thither the martyrs of the Covenant 
 were brought, after they had suffered death at 
 the hands of the public executioner in the 
 adjacent Grass market; and their mangled and 
 mutilated remains were crowded into this little 
 spot, until from being the degraded burial- 
 place of outcast criminals, it became, in the 
 estimation of the citizens, holy ground. Here 
 accordingly a monumental memorial was erected 
 soon after the Revolution, and again renewed 
 at a later date when suffering from decay. 
 
 The central tablet of the martyrs' monu- 
 ment is occupied with a metrical inscription of 
 some length ; while a Bible, sculptured on the 
 lower moulding, stands open at these words in 
 the book of Revelation : — 
 
 " And when he had opened the fifth seal, I 
 saw under the altar the souls of them that were
 
 128 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 slain for the word of God, and for the testi- 
 mony which they held : and they cried with a 
 loud voice, saying. How long, O Lord, holy and 
 true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood 
 on them that dwell on the earth ? And white 
 robes were given unto every one of them ; and 
 it was said unto them, that they should rest 
 yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants 
 also and their brethren, that should be killed 
 as they were, should be fulfilled. 
 
 " These are they which came out of great 
 tribulation, and have washed their robes, and 
 made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
 give thee a crown of life." 
 
 Along with these appropriate inscriptions is 
 the following brief summary of the sufferings 
 in the cause of faith and truth, which the 
 monument is designed to commemorate : — 
 
 *' From May 27th, IGGl, that the noble 
 marquis of Argyle suffered, to the 17th Feb- 
 ruary, 1G88, that Mr. James Eenwick suffered; 
 were executed at Edinburgh about one hundred 
 noblemen, gentlemen, ministers, and others ; 
 noble martyrs for Jesus Christ. The most 
 part of them lie here." 
 
 This ancient cemetery has shared in the 
 improvements which the movements of late 
 years have introduced into the public burial- 
 grounds. It is now planted and laid out with 
 considerable taste ; and monuments of modern 
 style mingle and contrast with those of the 
 olden time, including some dedicated to men
 
 THE CEMETERIES. 129 
 
 not unworthy to mingle their dust with those 
 already named ; such as Adam, the architect^ 
 and Dr. McCrie, the biographer of John 
 Knox. The spot is, indeed, one well calculated 
 to excite in the thoughtful reader emotions of 
 a chastened and solemnizing character. 
 
 "Life's vain pursuits and time's advancing pace 
 Appear with death-bed clearness face to face," 
 
 as we wander amid the silent resting-places of 
 so many generations of the human family. The 
 martyr-patriot, the scholar, the statesman, the 
 noble, and the obscure burgher, here alike share 
 a common repose, and await the summons of 
 the resurrection morn. They have departed to 
 the scenes of truth and reality ; and as we 
 linger by their tombs, the language of Chrysos- 
 tom seems to fall with weighty cadence upon 
 the ear : — " The present state of things is only 
 a theatrical show ; the business of men a play ; 
 wealth and poverty, the ruler and the subject, 
 and such like ihings, are representations. But 
 when the day shall have passed, then that fear- 
 ful night will have come — rather, I should say, 
 the day will have come, for night it indeed will 
 be to the wicked, but day to the righteous — 
 when the theatre will be closed, the masks 
 thrown off, when each one shall be tried and his 
 works; not each one and his wealth — not each 
 one and his office — not each one and his dignity 
 — not each one and his power — but, each one 
 and his works 1 " 
 
 "Blessed" — and they only — '''are the dead 
 which die in the Lord."
 
 130 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 
 
 The old name of the Parliament House is still 
 retained in use, though a century and a half 
 have elapsed since the last parliament assem- 
 bled in the Scottish capital, to close for ever 
 that ancient guardian of the national inde- 
 pendence. The name, though strictly applicable 
 only to the old Parliament Hall — the West- 
 minster Hall of Scotland — is applied to the 
 whole group of buildings, including the court 
 houses, law libraries, and all the accommoda- 
 tion requisite for the civil and criminal judica- 
 ture of the country. 
 
 The present hall was built in 1640, at an 
 expense of £11,000 sterling, and was designed 
 for the meetings of the three estates of the 
 Scottish parliament, which always sat toge- 
 ther. Here, accordingly, they continued to 
 a'ssemble from that time till their dissolution 
 at the Union, and thus the fine hall lias asso- 
 ciations of a highly interesting character to the 
 stranger. The author of the " Memorials of 
 Edinburgh" remarks of it : — " To a stranger 
 visiting the Scottish capital, no one of its public
 
 THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 131 
 
 buildings is so calculated to excite a lively 
 interest as the scene of its latest legislative 
 assemblies ; for while it shares with the de- 
 serted palace and the degraded mansions of 
 the old town in many grand and stirring 
 associations, it still forms the hall of the College 
 of Justice, founded by James v. — at once the 
 arena of the leading Scottish nobles and states- 
 men of the last two centuries, and the scene of 
 action of many of the most eminent men of our 
 own day. 
 
 " Beneath the old roof the first great move- 
 ments of the civil war took place, and the 
 successive steps in that eventful crisis were 
 debated Avith a zeal commensurate with the im- 
 portant results involved in them, and with as 
 fiery ardour as characterized the bloody strug- 
 gles which they heralded. Here Montrose 
 united with Rothes, Lindsay, Loudon, and 
 others of the covenanting leaders, in maturing 
 the bold measures that formed the basis of our 
 national liberties ; and within the same hall, 
 only a few years later, he sat with the calm- 
 ness of despair, to receive from the lips of his 
 old compatriot Loudon, the barbarous sentence 
 which was executed with such savage rigour." 
 
 After the overthrow of the Scots at the 
 battle of Dunbar, new scenes were enacted 
 within the same Parliament Hall, where Crom- 
 well had established his quarters in Edinburgh. 
 Nicoll, the contemporary diarist, tells of " sun- 
 dry English troopers who openly taught there;" 
 and it is even said that general Cromwell
 
 132 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 himself occasionally laid aside the temporal 
 for the spiritual sword, and preached within 
 the same august arena, to the no small scandal 
 of the Presbyterian citizens, who were horrified 
 to find that " men were not ashamed to take 
 upon them the functions of the ministry, with- 
 out a lawful calling." 
 
 The Kestoration introduced new changes, and 
 the " Laigh Parliament House," as the apart- 
 ments under the great hall were termed, be- 
 came the place of assembly of the Scottish Star 
 Chamber, where James, duke of Albany, after- 
 wards king James ii., presided, along with 
 Claverhouse, Dalziel, and others, at the cruel 
 torturings of the confessors of the Covenant. 
 In 1680, the duke was entertained by the city 
 at a grand banquet provided for him in the 
 Parliament House, at which the lady Anne, 
 afterwards queen iVnne, and the principal Scot- 
 tish nobles, were present. The next public 
 dinner in the same hall was in 1788, when the 
 Scottish Revolution Club gave a grand enter- 
 tainment, presided over by the lord provost, 
 to celebrate the centenary of that grand po- 
 litical change by which James ii. was banished 
 from the British throne ; and in 1822 the next 
 royal visitor, George iv., was welcomed to 
 Scotland by another civic banquet in the same 
 place. 
 
 Such are some of the leading associations 
 with the past, which give a historical interest 
 to the old Parliament House ; we shall now 
 glance at it in its modern aspect, as the Scottish
 
 THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 133 
 
 "Westminster Hall. As a mere ball, the " Outer 
 House" is not destitute of attractive features. 
 Its open timber roof is a fine specimen of the 
 latest style of carved oaken rafters, prior to the 
 final abandonment of a fashion recently revived 
 in our own day. Forming as it does the daily 
 and favourite promenade, during the legal 
 terras, of all connected with the law courts, this 
 hall has been chosen as the appropriate site for 
 various beautiful monumental statues of dis- 
 tinguished members of the legal profession. 
 A remarkably characteristic and vigorous statue 
 of Duncan Forbes, of Culloden, from the chisel 
 of Itoubilliac, represents that distinguished 
 patriot and statesman in the exercise of his 
 judicial faculties as lord president of the Court 
 of Session. At the south end of the hall, 
 another fine statue of lord president Blair, the 
 son of the poet, is from the chisel of Chantry. 
 Two other works by the same sculptor are 
 also erected here — a colossal statue of the cele- 
 brated lord Melville, and another of Dundas, of 
 Arniston. To these are speedily to be added 
 other statues in marble, now being executed by 
 Steel, of lord Jeffrey, and lord justice clerk 
 Boyle ; so that the artistic attractions of the 
 old hall will of themselves form a source of 
 interest and gratification to the visitor. 
 
 On both sides of the principal entrance of the 
 hall are recesses, each with a raised bench, and 
 enclosing seats, where formerly the judges of 
 the " Outer House," as it is still called, were 
 wont to hear and determine causes in the midst
 
 134 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 of a noise and commotion that rendered them 
 totally inaudible to a listener at a single 3'ard 
 off. Court rooms, recently provided, have 
 removed this unseemly exhibition, and now the 
 hall is used exclusively as the legal promenade. 
 Here, accordingly, the stranger who visits it in 
 Term time finds himself suddenly ushered into 
 a spacious and lofty hall, the floor of Avhich is 
 crowded with an eager and greatly diversified 
 throng. Lawyers, in gown and wig, promenade 
 with agents, writers, or clients, gravely dis- 
 cussing knotty points of law. Young advo- 
 cates, with little more of the lawyer than 
 the gown and wig, amuse themselves, with 
 other loungers and legal expectants, equally 
 destitute of professional cares. Clerks and 
 messengers hasten in search of agents and 
 pleaders, bearing bundles of papers and parch- 
 ments professionally filed and secured with red 
 tape ; and while the hall rebounds with the 
 buzz of numerous voices mingling in a mono- 
 tonous siisurnts, like the sound of flowing 
 waters, the sameness is relieved at intervals 
 by the entrance of one of the court criers, who, 
 mounting a desk at the end of the hall, 
 announces the names of the parties and counsel 
 in some case just coming into court, and 
 changing the marks on an index-table beside 
 him, withdraws. The shrill summons breaks 
 upon one or more of the knots of loungers, 
 ■who hasten to the adjoining court- rooms, and 
 the rest of the promenaders proceed as before. 
 Time has removed some of the most remark-
 
 THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 135 
 
 able characters that only a few years since 
 gave so deep an interest to this busy spot. 
 Here was the daily resort of sir Walter Scott, 
 as one of the clerks of session, for many years ; 
 and here, till very recently, the acute and 
 vigorous lord Jeffrey animated the scene. At 
 no time, however, can it be without its attrac- 
 tions to the intelligent visitor, exhibiting as it 
 does the most learned and influential body of 
 men congregated together which can be seen in 
 Scotland. 
 
 The various members of the legal faculty, 
 with the judges of the supreme, civil, and 
 criminal courts, constitute what is styled the 
 College of Justice, an institution of nearly four 
 hundred years' standing. Churchmen con- 
 tinued to form a part of the court of session, 
 and to exercise judicial functions, till the reign 
 of James vi. ," while the greatly more objection- 
 able practice of noblemen or courtiers, nomi- 
 nated at pleasure by the king as extra-judges, 
 under the title of extraoixlinary lords, and 
 taking their seats on the bench and voting 
 when they thought proper, continued in prac- 
 tice till the reform of the courts after the 
 accession of the house of Hanover. The 
 judges are styled lords of session, and as such 
 have the title of lord, the head of the two 
 divisions of the court being severally entitled, 
 the lord chief justice-clerk, and the lord presi- 
 dent, and the whole body of judges having the 
 additional title of senators of the College of 
 Justice.
 
 136 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 The Faculty of Advocates, corresponding to 
 tlie English barristers, conduct all oral plead- 
 ings, both in the civil and criminal courts. 
 They constitute the body from whence the 
 judges are selected, including not only those in 
 the supreme courts, but also the sheriffs who 
 preside in the local courts of the various 
 districts or sheriffdoms throughout the country. 
 They thus constitute an important and influ- 
 ential class ; and as the passing at the bar, as 
 it is styled, is a necessary qualification for 
 many lucrative appointments under the crown, 
 as well as a sort of literate degree, fully 
 equivalent in value as evidence of scholarship 
 to that of Master of Arts in the English uni- 
 versities, many gentlemen become members of 
 the faculty who have no intention of practising 
 at the bar. " Advocates," says Mr. Chambers, 
 " prepare all written pleadings, or, at least, are 
 understood to do so ; as every paper, whether 
 composed by themselves or by inferior prac- 
 titioners, must at least be sanctioned by their 
 signature. They also give opinions upon 
 written statements of cases presented to them 
 by the agents, both in their earlier and latter 
 stages ; and they are sometimes employed as 
 arbiters, in deciding such cases as the parties 
 may join in desiring to withhold from the 
 court. They alone have the right of inter- 
 course with the judges, whether by written or 
 viva voce discussion ; and it may be said that 
 they occupy the most advanced rank in the 
 grand battle-array of a process, the other prac-
 
 THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 137 
 
 titioners being only the second's prompters, or 
 esquires, to these chief men-at-arms." 
 
 The class next to this in the legal body bears 
 the title of Wiuters to her INIajesty's signet ; 
 owing to their possessing the exclusive privi- 
 lege of signing writs of summons and arrest- 
 ment, bearing the royal signet — the king, 
 according to a fiction of the Scottish supreme 
 courts, being supposed to originate and sanc- 
 tion all such proceedings. The reader will 
 remember that the flither of sir Walter Scott 
 was a member of this honourable legal frater- 
 nity. Nearly similar to this body in most 
 respects — though destitute of some of their 
 privileges, and especially of that of executing 
 the mandates of the royal signet — is the society 
 of solicitors before the supreme courts, who 
 unite with the other bodies already named in 
 constituting w^hat is called the College of 
 Justice. 
 
 At the end of Prince's-street, facing the 
 stranger as he crosses the North Bridge from 
 the Old Town, stands the Register Office, 
 which derives its name from the circumstance 
 of it being the spot where deeds and other 
 legal documents are registered — an admirable 
 system, by which the intending purchaser of 
 landed property can at once perceive whe- 
 ther it has been burdened by any previous 
 charges. 
 
 e2
 
 13^ MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 To the traveller or the tourist who visits Edin- 
 burgh, its attractions are very naturally 
 regarded as extending far beyond the limits 
 of its old mural boundaries, or even of the 
 small county -which bears its name. The three 
 Scottish shires which are united under the 
 common denomination of the Lothians, form a 
 district apart, and may truly be regarded as 
 the rural suburbs of the Scottish capital. A 
 very large proportion of the landed proprietors 
 have their mansions in town, and spend a con- 
 siderable portion of the year in Edinburgh ;• 
 and very few indeed, even among the most 
 ancient and exclusive of the nobility, fail to 
 bear some occasional part in the proceedings 
 of the old capital. Nor are the associations 
 which add an interest to many of the pictu- 
 resque attractions of the environs of Edinburgh 
 in any degree inferior to those which confer 
 so peculiar a charm on the faded or crumbling, 
 though still substantial fabrics in the closes and 
 wynds of the old town. We shall now direct
 
 THE EN^^RONS OF EDINBURGH. loD 
 
 attention to some of the most remarkable 
 features which are deserving of notice in the 
 surrounding districts, arranging these in such 
 a way as that, while the}' may gratify the 
 taste of the general reader, and supply de- 
 sirable information to the local student, they 
 may also serve the practical purpose of a guide 
 to those who may be tempted by our descrip- 
 tions to explore some of the picturesque beau- 
 ties of the Lothians. 
 
 Leaving Edinburgh by the south, the tra- 
 veller passes along the edge of Bruntsfield 
 Links, the small remnant of the ancient Borough 
 Moor, which once extended for several miles 
 on every side, and with its ancient forest of 
 oaks formed a harbour for the daring outlaw, 
 and a muster-ground whereon the Scottish 
 army was wont to marshal at the summons of 
 its kings. It sAveeps away to the south Avard, 
 gradually rising towards the heights of the 
 Pentland Hills, which, with their outlying 
 spurs, the Braid and Blackford Hills, bound the 
 rich landscape to the south and west. Now, 
 however, the ancient moor is crowded with 
 villas, orchards, gardens, and cultivated farms; 
 and we must fall back on the glowing, yet most 
 truthful description of the author of " Mar- 
 mion," if we would realize the former condition 
 of this rich historic ground, of which Scott so 
 truly says, 
 
 " And I could trace each step they trode : 
 Hill, brook, nor dell, nor rock, nor stone, 
 Lies on the path to me unknown.
 
 140 JIODEUN EDINBUliGIJ. 
 
 Much might it boast of storied lore; 
 But passing such digression o'er, 
 Suftice it that their route was laid 
 Across the furzy hills of Braid. 
 They passed the glen and scanty rill, 
 And climb'd the opposing bank, until 
 They gain'd the top of Blackford Hill. 
 
 Blackford ! on whose uncultured breast 
 Among the broom, and thorn, and whin, 
 A truant-boy, I sought the nest. 
 Or listed as I lay at rest. 
 
 While rose on breezes thin 
 The murmur of the city crowd, 
 And, from his steeple jangling loud, 
 
 St. Giles's mingling din. 
 Now, from the summit to the plain, 
 Waves all the hill with yellow grain ; 
 
 And o'er the landscape as I look, 
 Nought do I see unchanged remain. 
 
 Save the rude cliffs and chiming brook : 
 To me they make a heavy moan. 
 Of early friendships past and gone." 
 
 The poet tlien pictures tlie scene, wliicli his 
 descriptions have made familiar to the ima- 
 ginations of man}^, ^vhen the Scottish host 
 marshalled on these plains, under their de- 
 voted leader, the gallant James iv., preparatory 
 to their march to the fatal field of Flodden. 
 It is impossible for the student of history to 
 gaze on the spot, changed as it now is, -without 
 recalling some of the associations of that scene, 
 and of the many results which followed as its 
 consequences, so important in their enduring 
 influence both on Scottish and English history. 
 Drummoud, the old poet and historian, who 
 wrote in the reign of Charles i., describes the 
 Borough Moor as " a field spacious, and de- 
 lightful by the shade of many stately and aged 
 oaks." The adornment of modern parks and 
 pleasure-grounds is again contributing in some
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 141 
 
 degree to reclothe its surface with such um- 
 brageous honours. 
 
 In the valley, or rather the narrow glen 
 which skirts the base of the Braid Hills, lies 
 the hermitage of Braid, the property of J. Gor- 
 don, Esq., of Clunie, a place of wild, romantic 
 beauty, well worthy of a visit. Through the 
 rocky clefts of a narrow and thickly wooded 
 dell, a small rivulet called the Braid Burn 
 strays. Beautiful walks lead up and down in 
 every direction through the shady glen ; and 
 the wanderer, while almost within sound of 
 St. Giles's bells, might fancy himself a hundred 
 miles away from any of the populous habita- 
 tions of men. The estate of Braid belonged of 
 old to the family of Fairly, and one of the 
 lairds of Braid, in the sixteenth century, was 
 the personal friend and zealous defender of 
 John Knox. The hermitage, however, as it is 
 called, is a building of the last century, and 
 most of the artificial aids which have helped to 
 increase, or to render more accessible the 
 natural beauties of this romantic glen, are the 
 fruits of modern taste. 
 
 Between this and the city rises the heathy 
 ridge of Blackford Hill, with its noble pros- 
 pect, which so filled the mind of young Scott 
 with admiration of its beauties and fine histo- 
 rical associations, as to lead at length to the 
 production of that glowing passage, which has 
 given to the scene an interest for all times. 
 On the northern side of the hill, a chosen point
 
 142 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 of view has been fixed upon as lord Afarmion's 
 site, Avliere 
 
 " Still on the spot lord ilarinion stay'd. 
 For fairer scene he ne'er surveyed. 
 "When sated with the martial show, 
 That peopled all the plain below, 
 The wandering eye could o'er it go. 
 And mark the distant city glow 
 With gloomy splendour red ; 
 
 "But northward far, with purer blaze, 
 On Ochil mountains fell the rays ; 
 And as each heathy top they kiss'd. 
 It gleam'd a purple amethyst. 
 Yonder the shores of Fife you saw ; 
 Here Preston Bay, and Berwick Law ; 
 
 And broad between tliem roU'd, 
 The gallant Frith the eye might note. 
 Where islands on its bosom float, 
 
 Like emeralds chased in gold." 
 
 The visitor who sees this fine view on a 
 bright day, with the distant Frith burnished 
 by the beams of tlie sun, shining through a 
 clear northern sky, will not think that the 
 fancy or enthusiasm of the poet has betrayed 
 hirn into the slightest exaggeration. 
 
 Beyond this, the road leading southward 
 passes on the left the Buck Stone, a large 
 monolith of. red sand-stone, the memorial of 
 some ancient memorable deed — older perhaps 
 than the dawn of Britain's history — in the 
 landing of the legions of Julius Caesar on the 
 southern shores of our insular home. On this 
 ancient memorial stone the proprietor of the 
 barony of Pennycuich, Avhich lies a few miles to 
 the south, is bound by ancient charter to place 
 himself, and to wind three blasts of a horn,
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 143 
 
 when the king shall visit the Borough Moor. 
 In. accordance with this ancient tenure, the 
 Clerks of Pennycuich — of whom the present 
 representative is sir George Clerk, bart. — bear 
 as their crest a man winding a hunting-horn, 
 with the motto, F'ree for a blast. 
 
 Pennycuich House is a fine paladian man- 
 sion, built during the last century, and has its 
 principal room decorated with a series of paint- 
 ings from the poems of Ossian, by Alexander 
 Eunciman, already referred to, and celebrated 
 in his day as a painter of distinguished ability. 
 Ossian's Hall, as it is termed, is well deserving 
 of a visit, and possesses a special interest, 
 being a work unsurpassed in the comprehen- 
 siveness of its purpose, or the vigorousness of 
 its designs, by any modern production of 
 Scottish art. Pennycuich House is also inte- 
 resting on another account. It was the seat 
 of baron Clerk, one of the most distinguished 
 of Scottish antiquaries, and the patron of 
 Gordon, the famous " Sandy Gordon," and the 
 author of the " Itinerarium Septentrionale." 
 The collections of baron Clerk are preserved 
 as precious hereditary heir-looms of the ftmiily. 
 Thry comprise a valuable collection of Roman 
 antiquities, chiefly from the ancient Roman 
 seaport of Alaterva, which lay on the shores 
 of the Forth, where its site is now occupied by 
 the humble little fishing village of Cramond, a 
 favourite holiday resort of the citizens of Edin- 
 burgh. Even now, after the lapse of some 
 fifteen or sixteen centuries, the traces of its old
 
 144 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Eomaii masters are not entirely obliterated, 
 and the imperial eagle, sculptured by some le- 
 gionary sculptor, may be seen on the " Hunter's 
 Crag," a solitary rock on the sea-shore, imme- 
 diately to the west of the embouchure of the 
 river Almond. 
 
 This, there is every reason to believe, was 
 the most important Eoman seaport on the 
 east coast of Scotland. The remains of the 
 Eoman mole can still be traced. Altars have 
 been dug up ; one dedicated to imperial Jove; 
 another to the local field deities; and a third 
 to Neptune, the patron presiding over this 
 harbour of the Eoman fleets. The first of 
 these altars is dedicated, by the fifth cohort of 
 the Gaulish legion, to Jupiter, " the best and 
 greatest;" and Stuart remarks of it, in his 
 " Caledonia Eomana:" — " The fiither of Olym- 
 pus, propitiated on the shores of the Forth by 
 the CeltEe of Belgium or of Aquitaine — his 
 altars smoking there with the incense of out- 
 poured libations ; sprinkled perhaps with the 
 wines of Spain and the blood of our Caledonian 
 bulls — forms a singular picture to look back 
 upon through all the changes Avhich have from 
 first to last involved the condition of this 
 island : yet here is the proof of its reality, and 
 the stone in question as truly records the fact 
 as if we saw it even now lit np with the sacred 
 fire, and the priest bending over it in his sacer- 
 dotal robes, with the sacrificial pato'a in his 
 hand." The picture is, indeed, a striking one, 
 and well calculated to awaken many interest-
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBUiiGII. 145 
 
 ing reflections in the thoughtful mind. By 
 these altars, found in the neighbourhood of 
 Edinburgh, we have impressively placed before 
 us the fact, that in the second and third cen- 
 turies of the Christian era, the native Briton 
 was still offering up vain prayers to the Dii 
 campestres, the vague creations of his dark- 
 ened mind ; while the Roman legionary, who 
 had perchance followed the eagles of Titus, 
 and witnessed the terrible consummation of 
 long-foretold prophecies in the desolation of the 
 holy city, bowed down to stocks and stones, 
 and worshipped the impure objects of pagan 
 idolatry. Britain was then one of the obscur- 
 est and remotest of the islands of the sea. 
 The apostles of our Lord had sped on their 
 glorious mission from land to land, and thou- 
 sands had already bowed their knee at the 
 name of Jesus, and witnessed for him a good 
 confession. Yet still darkness brooded over 
 our land, and gross darkness over its people ; 
 though even then the forerunners of the glo- 
 rious gospel were there ; for these pagan legions, 
 Avho, on the shores of the Forth, ignorantly 
 worshipped and poured out their libations to 
 an unknown god, were making ready the way 
 for the missionaries of Divine truth, and pre- 
 paring for them a people among whom its 
 glad tidings of great joy should find a welcome. 
 Yet when v/e think on what Eome w^as then, 
 and what she is now, it well becomes us to 
 pause, and to reflect what Britain may be- 
 come — nay, Avhat she must become, should she
 
 146 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 be found deserving of that rebuke which, ere 
 her candlestick had been set up, or the candle 
 of Divine truth lighted in her midst, was said 
 of one of the first churches planted by the 
 apostles, *' Thou hast left thy first love ! Ee- 
 member, therefore, from Avhence thou art 
 fallen, and repent, and do the first works ; or 
 else I will come unto thee quickly, and Avill 
 remove thy candlestick out of his place, except 
 thou repent." 
 
 Returning to our glance at the traveller's 
 route by the road to the south, over the rising 
 ground that sweeps awa}' from the outskirts of 
 Edinburgh to the Pentland Hills, suburban 
 seats, and rural cottages and farms, pleasantly 
 diversify the scene. Colington, a village de- 
 lightfully situated in a covered glen at the 
 base of the Pentlands, is a fine specimen of a 
 rustic village ; while the well-wooded grounds 
 beside it enclose Colington House, the seat of 
 lord Dunfermline. Rising gradually among 
 the heights of the Pentlands, the traveller 
 reaches Woodhouselee, pleasantly associated 
 with more than one Scottish song, and more 
 recently rendered memorable by its connexion 
 with the name of the Scottish historian, Tytler 
 of Woodhouselee. The ruins of the ancient 
 house of Woodhouselee lie on the banks of the 
 Esk. It was the property of Hamilton of 
 Bothwellhaugh, but was forfeited for his share 
 in the battle of Langside, and having been 
 bestowed by the regent Murray on sir James 
 Bellenden, one of his favourites, he proceeded
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 147 
 
 to ■ take possession of it with such hasty and 
 barbarous violence, that he turned out lady 
 Bothwellhaugh, who then lay in child-bed, 
 naked on a cold night into the open fields, 
 where before next morning tradition tells she 
 became a maniac. 
 
 Hamilton vowed vengeance against the 
 regent as the originator of his wrong, and 
 watching for an opportunity to strike the 
 meditated blow, he at length shot the regent 
 dead as he rode through Linlithgow, on his 
 way from Stirling to Edinburgh. Hamilton, 
 after the accomplishment of this unhallowed 
 deed, escaped to France, and was welcomed 
 there by the Guise>, as one who had avenged 
 the cause of their niece, queen Mary, upon her 
 step-brother. The character of the Scottish 
 refugee was, however, mistaken at the French 
 court, and De Thou has recorded that au 
 attempt was made to engage his services for the 
 assassination of the famous Huguenot leader, 
 admiral Coligny ; but Hamilton scorned the 
 proposal, which imputed to him the character 
 of a mercenary trader in blood, and rejected 
 the advances of the court agents with indigna- 
 tion and contempt. He had no authority, he 
 said, from Scotland to commit murder in France ; 
 he had avenged his own just quarrel ; but 
 he would neither for favour nor prayer 
 undertake that of another man, be he king or 
 churl. 
 
 The ruins of the mansion, which Bothwell- 
 haugh acquired by right of the Avife who was
 
 148 .MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 thus cruelly driven forth from its shelter, are 
 still to be seen in the wooded glen above the 
 Esk. 
 
 Bej'ond the mansion of Woodhouselee, a 
 road leads among the hills to Habbie's Howe, 
 one of the most favourite holiday resorts of the 
 citizens of Edinburgh. A sequestered valley 
 is here entered, amid which is the old peel 
 tower of Logan House, once the resort of a 
 hardy freebooter, who was safe in his mountain 
 fastnesses from all ordinary dangers of pursuit. 
 The Logan water winds through the valley, 
 and following up its stream to the head of the 
 valley, the rambler is delighted to come on a 
 fine cascade, which has long been associated 
 with Allan Ramsay's pastoral poem of " The 
 Gentle Shepherd ;" and although critical 
 annotators have contradicted this, and con- 
 tended that neither the appearance of the 
 scenery, nor the localities specially described in 
 the poem, countenance the popular idea, yet 
 the poem and the locality have now become 
 so intimately associated in the poinilar mind, 
 that he must be a fastidious critic indeed who 
 would desire to divorce them. 
 
 The true seat of the famous Scottish pas- 
 toral is believed to be Newhall, in the vici- 
 nity of Fennycuich, which, in the poet's time, 
 was the property of a cousin of the cele- 
 brated lord president Forbes of Culloden. 
 The scenery of the spot has nothing of that 
 wild grandeur so conunon in the Scottish 
 landscape. Tt is ju-t that quiet pastoral beauty
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 1-19 
 
 which consorts with the character of the poem ; 
 but such is the influence of genius, that thesji 
 ideal associations with this quiet landscape hava 
 conferred on it a lasting interest, and give it 
 attractions altogether wanting to thousands of 
 wild and mnjestic scenes, whose awe-inspiring 
 charms no poet has yet sung into fame. 
 
 On the road which leads to Newhall and 
 Pennjcuich, a scene associated with remem- 
 brances of a very different character meets the 
 eye. Passing by the high road which leads to 
 Woodhouselee, after crossing Logan AVater, or, 
 as it is there more commonly styled, Glencorse- 
 burn, we reach the House- oi-Muir, near which 
 is the scene of a struggle with a party of the 
 oppressed and persecuted Covenanters, on the 
 28th of November, 1666. Sir James Turner, 
 one of the agents in the infamous persecutions 
 of Charles ii.'s I'eign, was employed to levy 
 the arbitrary fines imposed on the Scottish 
 Presbyterians, for their refusal to attend on the 
 worship which was then attempted to be im- 
 posed on them by penalties, personal sufferings, 
 and death. Added to these cruel exactions for 
 conscience sake, they had now to endure the 
 brutal outrages of a ruffianly soldiery, and the 
 cruelties too often sanctioned and encouraged 
 by their leaders, who regarded the resolute 
 adherence by the Scottish Presbyterians to 
 their faith and mode of worship, as obstinate 
 fanaticism and rebellion against constituted 
 authority. Thus goaded beyond the limits of
 
 150 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 endurance, the persecuted Presbyterians at 
 length took to arms in self-defence. They 
 surprised and seized the person of sir James 
 Turner, disarmed his soldiers, and finding they 
 had taken an irretrievable step, they resolved 
 to march towards Edinburgh, in the hopes of 
 being there joined by their friends, and obtain- 
 ing as a concession to their demands Avhat had 
 hitherto been refused, notwithstanding every 
 prayer and remonstrance they made as helpless 
 suppliants. The rising, however, was onl)- the 
 unpremeditated movement of men driven to 
 despair. Their numbers, instead of increasing, 
 soon diminished by the desertion of the timid 
 and lukewarm. They drew up on the Pent- 
 land Hills, at a place called Rullion Green, and 
 here they w^ere attacked by the relentless 
 general Dalziel, with a powerful body of 
 cavalry. They had arranged themselves with 
 considerable skill in a strong and well-chosen 
 position, and they gallantly withstood several 
 charges of the cavalry ; but at length their ranks 
 were broken and utterly dispersed ; upAvards 
 of fifty were hewn down by the soldiers, and 
 many more were taken prisoners, to await a 
 more cruel fiite. A rude stone, inscribed with 
 stanzas commemorative of the sufferers, now 
 marks the spot where the victims of persecution 
 were interred ; and many an annual pilgrimage 
 is made to the place by those who still delight 
 to look back with an honest and a virtuous 
 satisfaction on fathers, whose firm suffering in
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 151 
 
 the cause of liberty of conscience achieved such 
 a birthright for their sons : — 
 
 "The life and death of martyrs, who sustain'd 
 With will inflexible those fearful pangs 
 Triumphantly displayed in records left 
 Of persecution and the Covenant— times 
 Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour." 
 
 Of all the rare attractions which the environs 
 of the Scottish capital present, none is more 
 frequently visited by its citizens than the 
 village of Eoslin, with the fine old castle of the 
 St. Glairs perched on its rocky site, above the 
 murmuring Avaters of the North Esk, and the 
 far-famed Roslin Chapel on the higher banks 
 above. The vale of lloslin is one of those 
 beautiful, sequestered dells which are met with, 
 often most unexpectedly, alike in the low 
 country and among the highlands of Scotland. 
 By the shortest road from Edinburgh, leading 
 past the old village of Liberton and its finely 
 situated church, looking down from its lofty 
 site on the city, the tourist passes along one of 
 the least interesting of all the approaches to 
 Edinburgh. Travelling by this route, a dis- 
 tance of about seven miles, he arrives at a 
 village in no way remarkable for its rural 
 attractions or picturesque beauty, and present- 
 ing no object visible either in art or nature to 
 tempt to such a journey ; for even the fine chapel 
 lies out of sight. To the admirer of gorgeous 
 sculptiu'e, and all the quaint and beautiful 
 eccentricities of the most elaborate mediaeval 
 architecture, however, Roslin Chapel presents 
 attractions sufiicient to reward a much longer
 
 152 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 journey. Though small, it is not surpassed in 
 beauty or interest by any architectural relic 
 in the country. ItMvas founded in 1446 by 
 William St. Clair, e;irl of Orkney, and lord 
 of Eoslin. Legend and story combine to add 
 romantic interest to its fine architectural fea- 
 tures. The " Prentice Pillar," with wreathed 
 foliage, so skilfully sculptured, has a legend 
 which lends fresh attractions to its exquisite 
 v.'orkmanship, as the master-piece of its archi- 
 tect's successful rival. The master-builder, it 
 is said, being unable to execute a design of 
 adequate beauty, proceeded to Italy that he 
 might inspect a column in one of the churches 
 there, which was reported as a fit model for 
 the crowning piece of workmanship in this 
 gorgeous edifice. During his absence on this 
 journey, his apprentice had the boldness to 
 undertake the work, and executed the beautiful 
 pillar, which, according to the popular tale, 
 commemorates his genius and his fate. On 
 the master's return with the designs he had 
 obtained in his travels, he found the " Prentice 
 Pillar" completed as it now stands ; and stung 
 with envy at an achievement so far surpassing 
 his best endeavours, he seized a mallet, and 
 with a blow on the head killed his successful 
 rival on the spot. Three of the corbel heads 
 from which the ribs of the roof spring are 
 usually pointed out by the cicerone of the 
 chapel as those of the master, the apprentice, 
 and the mother of the latter. Upon the archi- 
 trave, extending from th^ Prentice Pillar to an
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 153 
 
 adjacent one, is inscribed this concise inscrip- 
 tion, derived from tlie apocryphal book of 
 Esdras : — 
 
 " Forte est viiium, fortior est rex, fortiores sunt 
 mulieres ; super omnia vincit Veritas^ 
 
 Another legend tells, that on the night before 
 the death of the heir of Roslin, the chapel 
 appears wrapped in flames, a popular belief 
 which has been turned to fine account in Scott's 
 beautiful ballad of " Rosabelle," — 
 
 *♦ O'er Roslin, all that dreary night, 
 
 A wond'rous blaze was seen to gleam ; 
 'Twas broader than the watch-fire's light, 
 And redder than the bright moon-beam. 
 
 It glared on Roslin's castled rock, 
 
 It ruddied all the copse-wood glen ; 
 'Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak. 
 
 And seen from caverned Hawthorndeu. 
 
 Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud. 
 Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffiu'd lie, 
 
 Each baron for a sable shroud, 
 Sheathed in his iron panoply. 
 
 Seem'd all on fire, within, around. 
 
 Deep sacristy, and altar's pale; 
 Shone every pillar foliage-bound, 
 
 And glimmered all the dead men's mail. 
 
 Blazed battlement and pinnet high- 
 Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair ! 
 
 So still they blaze, when fate is nigh 
 The lordly line of high St. Clair." 
 
 Elegant, however, as is the chapel founded 
 as a collegiate church by the old St. Clairs, 
 it would form a less seductive attraction if 
 removed from the rich natural beauties which 
 lie in its immediate vicinity. The road to 
 Eoslin, we have said, is one of the least attrac- 
 tive of all those around Edinburgh ; and this
 
 154 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 contributes not a little to the wonder an( 
 delight with which the stranger, on passing 
 down a steep lane behind the village, and 
 traversing a singularly picturesque rural burial- 
 ground, embosomed in old trees, suddenly finds 
 himself in a sequestered dell, the Eoslin dean, 
 abounding with all the romantic beauties of 
 rocky cliffs, ivied turrets and precipices, rich 
 copse-wood and waterfall. The castle is situ- 
 ated on a peninsular rock overhanging the 
 Esk, and the clustering ivy, climbing from the 
 glen below, has covered both rocks and ruined 
 walls, adding new charms to its rugged beauty. 
 The castle was one of great strength ; but its 
 position, surrounded on every side by higher 
 grounds, rendered it peculiarly exposed to the 
 destructive effects of artillery, Avhen that later 
 invention had been brought to sufficient per- 
 fection. It was spoiled and burned in 1544 by 
 the English army, under the earl of Hertford; 
 and finally reduced to ruins by general Monk, 
 in 1G50 ; though a picturesque restoration of 
 part of its own quadrangle, executed soon after, 
 still stands, and afforded a lodging to the heirs 
 of Roslin till the line expired in the person of 
 William St. Clair, the last of his race, about 
 the middle of last century. The present earls 
 of Roslin have no connexion with the ancient 
 line. 
 
 Passing along the embowered walks which 
 lead through Roslin woods and glens, the wan- 
 derer conies on the caves of CTorton, situated 
 in the front of a high cliff on the south side of
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 155 
 
 the stream, and celebrated as the shelter of 
 some of the Scottish patriots in the reign of 
 David ir. Still lower down the stream, and 
 amidst scenery of undiminished beauty, are the 
 ancient and modern mansions of Hawthornden 
 — the former the classic haunt of the poet 
 Drummond, the friend of Shakspeare and Ben 
 Jonson ; and the latter still occupied by the 
 descendants of the poet. The whole scene is, 
 indeed one of exquisite beauty, and we cannot 
 better close this chapter than by recording the 
 impressions of the spot formed by a modern 
 writer : — 
 
 " The river winds far below over a bed of 
 rock ; and such is the nature of its course and 
 its banks, that you never see more than a few 
 broken and far-off glimpses of its clear waters 
 at the same time. On the side on Avhich we 
 stood, the banks consist of green and woody 
 knolls, whose inextricable richness and pomp 
 of verdure is carried down, deepening as it 
 descends quite to the channel of the stream. 
 Opposite, there shoots up a majestic screen of 
 hoary rocks, ledge rising square and massy 
 upon ledge, from the river to the horizon — but 
 all and everywhere diversified with fantastic 
 knots of copsewood, projecting and clinging 
 from the minutest crannies of the cliffs. Far 
 as the eye can reach down the course of the 
 stream, this magnificent contrast of groves and 
 rocks is continued — mingling, however, as they 
 recede from the eye, into one dim magnificent 
 amphitheatre, over which the same presiding
 
 156 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 spirit of soothing loneliness seems to hover like 
 a garment. The castle itself is entirely ruined, 
 but its yellow mouldering walls form a fine 
 relief to the eye, in the midst of the dark foliage 
 of pines and oaks which everywhere surround 
 it. We passed over its airy bridge, and through 
 its desolate portal, and descending on the other 
 side, soon found ourselves treading upon the 
 mossy turf around the roots of the cliff on 
 which it stands, and within a few yards of the 
 river. From thence we pursued our walk — 
 sometimes springing from stone to stone, along 
 the bed of the stream — sometimes forcing our- 
 selves through the thickets which drop into its 
 margin — but ever and anon reposing ourselves 
 on some open slope, and gazing with new de- 
 light from every new point of view, on the 
 eternal, ever- varying grandeur of the rocks, 
 woods, and sky. 
 
 " The whole party, however, were congregated 
 where the river washes the base of the caverned 
 rocks of Hawthornden — the most beautiful in 
 itself, and, in regard to recollections, the most 
 classical point of the whole scenery of the Esk. 
 The glen is very narrow here, even more so 
 than at Eoslin, and the rocks on the right rise 
 to a still more magnificent elevation. Such, 
 indeed, is the abruptness of their sheer ascent, 
 that it is with some difficulty the eye can de- 
 tect, from the brink of the stream, the pic- 
 turesque outlines of the house of Hawthornden, 
 situated on the summit of the highest crag. 
 The old castle in which Drummond received
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 157 
 
 Ben Jonsou, has long since given way ; but 
 the more modern mansion is built within the 
 dilapidated circuit of the ancient fortress ; and 
 the land is still possessed, and the hall occupied, 
 by the lineal descendants of the poet. I know 
 not that there is any spot in Britain, made 
 classical by the footsteps of such a person as 
 Drummond, one's notions respecting which are 
 thus cherished and freshened by finding it in 
 the hands of his own posterity, bearing his own 
 name. We climbed the steep banks by some 
 narrow paths cut in the rock, and entered at 
 various points that labyrinth of winding caves, 
 b}' which the interior of the rock is throughout 
 perforated, and from which part of the name of 
 tlie place has, no doubt, been derived. Nothing 
 can be more picturesque than the echoing 
 loneliness of these retreats — retreats which 
 often afforded shelter to the suffering patriots of 
 Scotland."* 
 
 * Peter's Letter*?, vol. iii., pp. 124-128.
 
 158 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH, CONTINUED. 
 
 From Hawtliornden it is not uncommon for 
 the tourist to pass to Dalkeith, a busy country 
 town, the centre of a rich agricultural district, 
 and the seat of the duke of Buccleugh. Dal- 
 keith Palace was built by the duchess of 
 Buccleugh and Monmouth, the widow of the 
 unhappy son of Charles ii., on the site of the 
 ancient strongholds of the earls of Morton and 
 Buccleugh. Since the union of the crowns, 
 Dalkeith Palace has been the temporary resi- 
 dence of three British sovereigns. Kii^g 
 Charles I. resided in it for a time during his 
 return to his native country in 1633; George iv. 
 occupied apartments here on his visit to Scot- 
 land in 1822 ; and her present majesty, queen 
 Victoria, also made it her temporary residence 
 in 1842. Externally the architectural decora- 
 tions of the ducal dwelling are little deserving 
 of the character of palatial. The interior, 
 however, is fitted up with taste and splendour, 
 suited to the rank of its noble occupants ; and 
 the fine collection of pictures which adorn the 
 walls is well calculated to reward the visitor.
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 159 
 
 The extensive park which surrounds the pidace 
 is also exceedingly beautiful and diversified ; 
 with the mixture of the richest floral garden- 
 ing, and the wildness of natural beauty. The 
 North Esk, after passing through the beautiful 
 glen of Roshn and Hawthornden, and the pretty 
 village of Lasswade — in the vicinity of which 
 sir Walter Scott spent the earliest and happiest 
 years of his wedded life — unites with the South 
 Esk, a little below the ducal mansion, and the 
 river thus augmented to a stream of some im- 
 portance, passes on by the village of Inveresk 
 — the scene of interesting discoveries of Roman 
 remains at various periods — to the ancient 
 burgh of Musselburgh, where it joins the sea. 
 
 All along the banks of the Esk, richly 
 wooded grounds, and fine mansions, diversify 
 the scenery. At Auchindinny, the wanderer 
 comes upon the still perfect arch of a Roman 
 bridge, amid its clustering Avoods ; and near 
 Lasswade is the modern castle of Melville, 
 erected by the celebrated Henry Dundas, the 
 first viscount Melville. In the vicinity of the 
 latter was the homely rural retreat of the 
 young poet, Walter Scott ; and the deep im- 
 pression made on his mind by the beauty of 
 the surrounding scenery, is apparent from his 
 frequent and minute references to its charms, 
 and to the favourite legends and traditions of 
 its more noted localities. The various scenes 
 to which we have referred along the banks of 
 the Esk, are thus happily referred to in his 
 verse : —
 
 160 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 "Sweet are the paths— oli, passing sweet! — 
 By Esk's fair streams that run, 
 O'er airy steep, through copse-woods deep, 
 Impervious to the sun. 
 
 From that fair dome where suit is paid. 
 
 By blast of bugle free, 
 To Auchindinny's hazel glade. 
 
 And haunted Woodhouselee. 
 
 Who knows not Melville's beechy grove, 
 
 And Roslin's rocky glen, 
 Dalkeith, which all the virtues love, 
 
 And classic Hawthornden?" 
 
 The Nortli British Eailway affords ready 
 access to Dalkeith, and the means of returning 
 to town, when the tourist has followed the 
 route we have described, and made his way 
 from Eoslin to Dalkeith. A few miles beyond 
 this, the same line of railway passes over the 
 Lammermoors, and affords the traveller equally 
 ready access to the fine ancient castles of 
 Crichton and Borthwick in the vale of the 
 Tyne. Both of these fine old strongholds have 
 been particularly referred to in our former 
 volume on Old Edinburgh ; they are intimately 
 associated with important events in Scottish 
 history, and present many attractions to the 
 admirer of mediaeval architecture, as well as to 
 the lover of picturesque beauty. The valley 
 of Borth-\vick is a secluded and peaceful rural 
 spot, with its ancient castle and church — still 
 beautiful in ruin and decay — occupying a 
 peninsula nearly surrounded by the winding 
 stream. In the aisle of the ancient church, 
 two beautiful recumbent figures of a lord and 
 lady of the adjacent castle still remain, in good
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. IGl 
 
 preservntion. The modern cluircli has no pre- 
 tensions to beauty ; but with the adjoining 
 manse, farmhouses, and scattered cottages, the 
 whole group presents a pleasing and sequestered 
 scene of rural life. In this pleasantly situated 
 Scottish manse, Dr. Robertson, the celebrated 
 historian, was born. 
 
 Returning to the immediate vicinity of 
 Edinburgh, the traveller will not fail to explore 
 all the winding paths of Arthur's Seat and the 
 Salisbury Crags, the banks of the lovely little 
 loch, and the picturesque village of Dudding- 
 ston, where prince Charles rested the night 
 before he entered Edinburgh in triumph. The 
 old church still retains traces of the decorations 
 of more than one early age. Its chancel arch 
 and south doorway are romanesque work of 
 the eleventh century, and its north transept is 
 in the style of the fifteenth century. At the 
 gateway of the churchyard may also still be 
 seen hanging the iron chain and collar, styled 
 the joitgs, which formed in Scotland the com- 
 mon substitute for the English stocks. 
 
 On the height immediately to the south of 
 Duddingston Loch, rises the fine, picturesque 
 ruin of Craigmillar Castle, forming a remark- 
 ably striking feature in the landscape. This 
 ancient ruin is well deserving of a visit on 
 many accounts. The great hall of the castle, 
 where the Scottish kings and queens must 
 often have feasted and entertained their noble 
 guests, is still so perfect, that the frescoed 
 decorations on its walls have not been effaced 
 
 F
 
 162 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 by the waste of centuries. The old castle- 
 chapel also remains ; and the view from the 
 summit commands a panorama, which includes 
 in its foreground the adjacent loch and fine 
 hills, and beyond these the city and castle, 
 with all the noble landscape of Forth, and 
 wooded parks, and distant hills, terminated in 
 the far distance by the Highland mountains — 
 not always deprived of their snowy covering 
 even in the leafy month of June. 
 
 The eminence on which Craigmillar Castle 
 stands is surrounded by some fine old trees, as 
 well as by woods of more recent planting. The 
 original builder of the castle is unknown, and 
 the fine structure, as it now stands, evidently 
 includes the work of many different periods. 
 The rampart which surrounds the keep and 
 forms the outworks of the castle, appears from 
 the date upon it to have been erected in 
 1427. This, however, is evidently one of the 
 most recent additions to the fortalice ; though 
 very extensive repairs must have been made 
 subsequently to the burning of the castle in 
 1555; and still more recently a mansion-house 
 in the picturesque Scottish style of the seven- 
 teenth century has been added to the original 
 structure. The castle of Craigmillar was ac- 
 quired by sir Simon Preston, in 1374, from 
 John de Capella, an old baron of Norman 
 descent ; and a curious rebus, in the fashion 
 prevalent in the fifteenth century, is sculptured 
 over the principal gateway in commemoration 
 of the Preston family. This quaint device
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBUIIGH. 16S 
 
 consists of a, screw-j^ress, and a toJi or barrel, 
 thereby indicating, in the simple hieroglyphics 
 of the age, the name of Preston to all who 
 should pass beneath the guarded arch, however 
 destitute they might be of the then rare gift of 
 a knowledge of letters. The castle and estate 
 are now possessed by Walter Little Gilmour, 
 esq., the lineal descendant of William Little 
 and sir John Gilmour, both citizens of Edin- 
 burgh, distinguished among the old members 
 of the Scottish bar ; and whose descendants, 
 united by the marriage of the heirs of the two 
 families, now bear the names of both. Of the 
 former of these, Dr. Wilson remarks, in his 
 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, 
 " William Little and his brother Clement may 
 justly be considered, along with James Lawson, 
 the colleague and successor of John Knox, the 
 true founders of * king James's College,' that 
 royal pedant having in reality bestowed little 
 more on the University of Edinburgh than a 
 charter and his name. In 1580, Clement 
 Little dedicated all his books, consisting of 
 three hundred volumes, 'for the heginning of 
 cme librari/' — the undoubted foundation of that 
 magnificent collection which the collep;e nov/ 
 possesses. This generous gift was bestoAved 
 during his lifetime, and the volumes ' were f>ut 
 up in Mr. James Lawson's gallery,' " a part of 
 the lodgings appointed for the ministers of 
 Edinburgh, situated on the site of the Scottish 
 Parliament House and modern courts of law, 
 but which had originally formed the collegiate
 
 1G4 MODERN EDINBUnG IT. 
 
 buildings for the residence of the provost or 
 dean, and the prebends and chaplains of St. 
 Giles's Church ; including its celebrated provost, 
 Gawin Douglas the poet, afterwards bishop of 
 Dunkeld. 
 
 The other ancestor of the modern proprietors 
 of Craigmillar Castle was sir John Gilmour, 
 who, as lord president of the court of session, 
 assumed the judicial title of lord Craigmillar. 
 Sir John Gilmour was nominated lord presi- 
 dent, on the restoration of the Court of Session 
 after the return of Charles ii., and he is worthy 
 of remembrance for the honourable, though 
 ineffectual efforts he made in the Scottish 
 parliament, to s>ive the marquis of Argyle, 
 whom Middleton, and others of the Scottish 
 privy council, had fixed upon as their victim, 
 " to make an example of." He also distin- 
 guished himself at a subsequent period by his 
 endeavours to moderate the violence of the 
 persecutions carried on against the Scottish 
 Presbyterians ; and his name still occupies a 
 prominent place among the older legal authori- 
 ties of the Scottish bar, as the author of the 
 Keports of the Decisions of the Court of Ses- 
 sion, from 1661 to 1666. The family noAv 
 occupies the more modern mansion of the Inch, 
 which stands on the low ground to the west of 
 Craigmillar Castle, and includes work of 
 various periods from the seventeenth century, 
 when the principal part of the house appears 
 to have been built, in the ornate and picturesque 
 style prevalent at the period. The house
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 165 
 
 Includes among its attractions some fine paint- 
 ings, and highly interesting family portraits of 
 the old proprietors of the ruined castle, where 
 John, earl of Mar, the younger brother of 
 James iir., was imprisoned in 1477 ; where 
 James v. often resided in his minority ; and 
 where his unfortunate daughter, queen Mary, 
 frequently sought a brief escape from the 
 turmoil and dangers of the court of Holy- 
 rood. 
 
 In a dungeon of the old castle, a ring and 
 staple are still shown, let into the rock, and to 
 which was attached the limb bone which served, 
 when it was discovered only a few years since, 
 on the opening of the vault, to prove that some 
 Avretched victim of lawless power, whose bones 
 then lay on its floor, had perished there in 
 hopeless misery. In 1813, another human 
 skeleton was found enclosed, in an upright 
 position, in a part of the castle wall, removed 
 in the course of some repairs. 
 
 In other directions around Edinburgh, the 
 tourist finds attractions equally interesting. 
 On the west side of the city, the richly wooded 
 hill of Corstorphine rises, with its variegated 
 slopes spotted over with elegant suburban 
 villas. At its base on the north side, and 
 embosomed in trees, lies the fine old semi- 
 castellated mansion of Craigcrook, celebrated 
 as the dwelling of the late lord Jeffrey. 
 
 This, indeed, is a spot which, like Abbots- 
 ford and other homes of departed genius, will 
 long be invested with classic associations.
 
 166 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 The tourist will, therefore, probably not regret 
 a short pause in his journey, while we linger 
 for a little, and listen to the description of 
 Jeffrey's mode of life at this spot, as given by 
 one who kneAV and loved him well. 
 
 " Jeffrey," says lord Cockburn, whose words 
 we quote, " had left Hatton in the autumn of 
 1814, and in the spring of 1815 had trans- 
 ferred his residence to Craigcrook, where he 
 passed all his future summers. It is on the 
 eastern slope of Corstorphine Hill, about three 
 miles to the north-west of Edinburgh. When 
 he first became the tenant, the house was only 
 an old keep, respectable from age, but incon- 
 venient for a family ; and the ground was 
 merely a bad kitchen-garden, of about an acre, 
 all in paltry disorder. He immediately set 
 about reforming. Some ill-placed walls were 
 removed, while others, left for shelter, were 
 in due time loaded with gorgeous ivy, and both 
 protected and adorned the garden. A useful, 
 though humble addition was made to the house; 
 and by the help of neatness, sense, evergreens, 
 and flowers, it was soon converted into a sweet 
 and comfortable retreat. The house received a 
 more important addition many years after- 
 wards, but it was sufficient without this for all 
 that his family and his hospitalities at first 
 required. But, by degrees, that earth hunger 
 which the Scotch ascribe to the possession of 
 any portion of the soil, came upon him, and 
 he enlarged and improved all his appurtenances. 
 Two sides of the mansion were flanked by
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 167 
 
 handsome bits of evergreened lawn. Two or 
 three western fields had their stone fences 
 removed, and were thrown into one which 
 sloped upwards from the house to the hill, and 
 was croAvned by a beautiful bank of wood ; and 
 the whole place, which noAv extended to thirty 
 or forty acres, was always in excellent keeping. 
 Its two defects were, that it had no stream, and 
 that the hill robbed the house of much of the 
 sunset. Notwithstanding this, it was a most 
 delightful spot ; the best for his purpose that 
 he could have found. The low ground, con- 
 sisting of the house and its precincts, contained 
 all that he could desire for secluded quiet and 
 for reasonable luxury. The high commanded 
 magnificent and beautiful views, embracing 
 some of the distant mountains in the shires 
 of Perth and Stirling, the near inland sea of 
 the Frith of Forth, Edinburgh and its associated 
 heights, and the green and peaceful nest of 
 Craigcrook itself. 
 
 " During the thirty-four seasons that he 
 passed there, what a scene of happiness was 
 that spot. To his own household it was all 
 that their hearts desired. Mrs. Jeffrey knew 
 their genealogy and the personal history and 
 character of every shrub and flower it con- 
 tained. It was the favourite resort of his 
 friends, who knew no such enjoyment as 
 Jeffrey at that place. And, with the exception 
 of Abbotsford, there were more interesting 
 strangers there than in any house in Scotland. 
 Saturday, during the summer session of the
 
 168 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 court?, was always a day of festivity ; chief!}', 
 but by no means exclusively, for his friends at 
 the bar, many of whom were under general 
 invitations. Unlike some barbarous tribunals, 
 which feel no difference between the last and 
 other days of the week, but moil on with the 
 same stupidity through them all, and would 
 include Sunday if they could — our legal practi- 
 tioners, like most of the other sons of bondage in 
 Scotland, are liberated earlier on Saturday; and 
 the Craigcrook party began to assemble about 
 three, each taking to his own enjoyment. The 
 bowling-green was sure to have its matches, in 
 which the host joined Avith skill and keenness ; 
 the garden had its loiterers ; the flowers, not 
 forgetting the wall of glorious yellow roses, their 
 worshippers; the hill, its prospect seekers. The 
 banquet that followed was generous ; the wines 
 never spared, but rather too various ; mirth 
 imrcstrained, except by propriety ; the talk 
 always good, but never ambitious ; and mere 
 listeners in no dispute. What can efface these 
 days, or, indeed, any Craigcrook day, from the 
 recollection of those who had the happiness of 
 enjoying them ?" 
 
 Such was Craigcrook in the palmy days of 
 its intellectual owner. Interesting as is the 
 picture in many respects, the sic transit gloria 
 is too strongly impressed upo^ it for the mind 
 to regard it with unmingled satisfaction ; and as 
 we reflect on that brilliant circle, now for ever 
 dispersed, its festivities silenced, while he who 
 ^■'ave life to all has passed into the eternal world—
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 1G9 
 
 an impressive sense of the evanescence of 
 human enjoyments, even when of the highest 
 literary order, steals across the spirit. 
 
 On the otlier side of the hill is the viUage 
 of Corstorphine, with its fine rural parish 
 church, a work of the fourteenth century, and 
 still retaining, amidst the modern accompani- 
 ments of simple Presbyterian worship, tlie 
 strongly contrasting traces of the ancient 
 Eomish ritual ; while beneath the sculptured 
 recesses in its chancel and aisles repose the 
 recumbent effigies of the old lord Forresters of 
 Corstorphine, an ancient line of barons, who 
 once played a prominent part in Scottish 
 history, and who long bore an active share in 
 the burghal duties of the neighbouring town. 
 Forrester's-wynd, an ancient nook of the old 
 town, in which the mansion of the lord 
 Forresters stood, was demolished to make way 
 for some of the modern structures appended to 
 the courts of law, and the legal libraries 
 attached to them. Hare Castle, also, which 
 stood near the old church, where successive 
 generations of its owners are laid to rest, has 
 been demolished, and only a small fragment of 
 its walls remains to indicate its site. 
 
 Still further beyond this, the Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow Hail way, the first station of which is 
 at Corstorphine, conducts the tourist to the 
 ancient royal town of Linlithgow, the capital 
 of West Lothian. There the man of taste, the 
 student of history, or the mere lover of the 
 F 2
 
 170 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 ancient and the picturesque, will find abundant 
 gratification for the longest summer day. Its 
 ancient castellated palace, still beautiful in its 
 ruins, crowns the heights of a gentle eminence, 
 washed at its base by a small, but extremely 
 beautiful lake, with an island in it, on which, 
 according to the ancient traditions of the burgh, 
 a greyhound of more than mortal mould was 
 discovered tied to a tree. Hence this device of 
 a black greyhound tied to a tree forms the 
 armorial bearings of Linlithgow, and Celtic 
 scholars derive its name from the Gaelic Lin- 
 leath-ces, the Lake of the Greyhound. 
 
 " The situation of Linlithgow," says the 
 author of the ' Border Antiquities,' " is emi- 
 nently beautiful. It stands on a promontory 
 of some elevation, which advances almost into 
 the midst of the lake. The form is that of a 
 square court, composed of buildings of four 
 stories high, with towers at the angles. The 
 fronts within the square, and the windows are 
 highly ornamented, and the size of the rooms, 
 as well as the width and character of the 
 staircases, are upon a magnificent scale. One 
 banquet room is ninety-ibur feet long, thirty 
 feet wide, and thirty-three feet high, with a 
 gallery for music. The king's wardrobe, or 
 dressing-room, looking to the west, projects 
 over the walls, so as to have a delicious prospect 
 on three sides, and is one of the most enviable 
 boudoirs we have ever seen. 
 
 " There Avere two main entrances to Linlith- 
 gow Palace. That from the south ascends rather
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 171 
 
 steeply from the tower, and passes through a 
 striking Gothic archway, flanked b}'- two round 
 towers. The portal has been richly adorned 
 by sculpture, in Avhich can be traced the arms 
 of Scotland, with the collars of the Thistle, the 
 Garter, and St. Michael. 
 
 " The other grand entrance is from the east- 
 ward. The gateway is at some height from 
 the foundation of the wall, and there are oppo- 
 site to it the remains of a iKvron, or ramp of 
 mason-work, which those who desired to enter 
 must have ascended by steps. A drawbridge, 
 which could be raised at pleasure, united, when 
 it was lowered, the ramp with the threshold of 
 the gateway, and when raised, left a gap 
 between them, which answered the purpose of 
 a moat. On the inside of the eastern gateway 
 is a figure, much mutilated, said to have been 
 that of pope Julius ii., the same pontiff who 
 sent James iv. the beautiful sword Avhich makes 
 part of the Scottish regalia." 
 
 The church of Linlithgow is no less attractive 
 than its castle. It is a work, chiefly of the 
 early part of the fifteenth century, of great 
 beauty, and unusually large dimensions. In 
 coming to Linlithgow from Edinburgh, the two 
 buildings are seen grouped together, and the 
 towers and pinnacles of both rise out of the 
 encircling clusters of trees, so as to form 
 altogether a most impressive scene, full of 
 dignity and fine poetic grandeur, 
 
 Edinburgh, indeed, is surrounded by similar 
 remains of ancient feudal magnificence and
 
 172 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 ecclesiastical power. To the west, and near 
 the shores of the Forth, is the beautiful littlo 
 •village of Dalmeny, with its Norman church, 
 one of the choicest specimens of ecclesiastical 
 architecture of so early a date to be found in 
 the kingdom. It lies in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of Queensferry, an ancient, but 
 decayed Scottish borough. 
 
 The old church of Dalmeny is an especial 
 object of attraction to students of mediEeval 
 architecture. It has this further attraction to 
 the tourist, that it lies in a district surrounded 
 by objects abundantly calculated to gratify every 
 taste. From the old Roman site, now occupied 
 by the village of Cramond, the noble park of 
 the earls of Roseberry stretches all the way 
 along the banks of the Forth to Queensferry, 
 enclosing in its varied scenery the fine old castle 
 of Barnbougle, as well as the modern Tudor 
 mansion of the earls. Beyond Dalmeny lies 
 the old castle, and the fine park of Dundas, one 
 of the oldest families in Scotland. Queensferry 
 itself has the picturesque ruins of a monastery 
 of the Carmelites, to attract the lovers of such 
 hoary remains of the past ; while beyond this 
 is the magnificent modern mansion of the earls 
 of Hopetoun, with its surrounding park and 
 pleasure-grounds — scarcely surpassed in beauty 
 of situation, or fine variety of art and nature 
 combined, by any ground of equal extent in 
 the kingdom. Amid such varied scenes of 
 interest and beauty, many a bright and happy 
 day is passed by the citizens of Edinburgh ;
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 173 
 
 and the stranger, -whose more limited time must 
 compel him to select, while he may regret that 
 he should have to leave any of them unseen, will* 
 find that in choosing from among them he can 
 scarcely err, where all are worthy of a visit. 
 
 The increased facilities supplied by the 
 numerous railways recently constructed, have 
 of course greatly extended the opportunities 
 for visiting the surrounding country. In 
 London, not only Dulwich, and Hampstead, and 
 Greenwich are now regarded among the places 
 of its near neighbourhood, but Woolwich, and 
 Richmond, Hampton Court, and even Windsor, 
 form the objects of a morning's excursion ; so 
 also Edinburgh has become the centre of 
 widely extended environe. The North British 
 railway enables its citizens to embrace within 
 the easy compass of a summer's day the beauti- 
 ful ruins of Dirleton Castle, with its village, 
 not unjustly regarded as one of the neatest 
 and most tasteful of model Scottish villages, and 
 the ruins of North Berwick Abbey, and of Tan- 
 tallon Castle, perched on its lofty promontory, 
 near the entrance of the Firth of Forth. 
 Beyond it, amidst the ever-sounding waves, 
 stands the singular detached stronghold of the 
 Bass, an ancient castle, celebrated in later 
 days as the prison of the persecuted Cove- 
 nanters, during " the persecution times," — as 
 the last bitter years of Stuart rule in Scotland 
 are still commonly styled. 
 
 The Bass Rock has peculiar attractions for 
 the naturalist, as one of the very few breeding
 
 174 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 places of the solan goose, which is here found 
 as wild, and yet seemingly as fearless of man. 
 'as the feathered tribes met with by some of 
 the first visitors to strange and uninhabited 
 isles. 
 
 Such are some of the far-famed beauties 
 which the environs of the Scottish capita] pre- 
 sent, to lure its citizens forth from the busy 
 mart, and to tempt the traveller to bend his 
 steps towards Edinburgh, as the centre of so 
 many attractions. Tastes the most varied may 
 all find an abundant gratification amidst the 
 diversified features of town and country which 
 have been glanced at in the preceding pages. 
 The explorer of its memorials of the past ; its 
 quaint, old-fashioned wynds and closes ; the 
 decayed grandeur of its old town thoroughfares ; 
 its grim fortress, and the ivied ruins of its 
 royal abbey — may richly enjoy the relics of 
 other days. Admirers of another class have 
 no less abundant sources of interest in the new 
 town ; while the lover of nature has on every 
 hand a rich choice of her most varied charms, 
 diversified, without being injured, by their 
 alliance with the creations of modern art, and 
 of ancient historical associations. Edinburgh, 
 indeed, owes not a few of its attractions to its 
 singular and commanding site ; and the tra- 
 veller who fiiils to explore its environs, leaves 
 undiscovered the larger half of those singular 
 characteristics, by which the Scottish capital 
 continues to retain its hold on the fancy 
 and the affections of all who have dwelt
 
 THE ENVIRONS OF EDINBURGH. 175 
 
 within the charmed circle of its associations, 
 even after they have seen the beauties of 
 Genoa, Naples, and Constantinople shining 
 and glittering under the brighter sunshine 
 of their more genial climates, and pure, cloud- 
 less skies.
 
 176 MODERN EDINBUUGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In the preceding chapters, the rise and progress 
 of modern Edinburgh, and the peculiar charac- 
 teristics of her legal, literary, scientific, and 
 religious institutions, have been traced with 
 some minuteness and care. When it is con- 
 sidered that even now aged citizens still 
 live, who can recal to their remembrance the 
 time when the site of the modern city was a 
 verdant slope, and the lines of its busy 
 thoroughfares were marked only by hedge- 
 rows, and the furrows of the plough, Ave can 
 be at no loss to appreciate the energy and 
 public spirit by which so great a change was 
 elFected by a single generation. We are accus- 
 tomed to marvel at the rapid rise of cities among 
 the clearings of American forests, where only 
 a few years before the Ked Indian savage 
 roamed free and undisturbed beneath the leafy 
 shade ; but there is in reality something far 
 more marvellous in a city such as modern Edin- 
 burgh rising up in a single generation, un- 
 deterred by the impediments of ancient habits
 
 CONCLUSION. 177 
 
 and customs, the feudal tenures of land, the 
 vested interests and conflicting prejudices, and 
 all tlie difficulties which a long-established 
 civilization interposes in the way of great or 
 sudden change. The wonder is not diminished 
 ■when we come to inspect the modern town, and 
 explore its varied details, as we have done in 
 the preceding chapters. Its public edifices and 
 private structures betray no traces of the haste 
 with which this new city has arisen alongside 
 of the ancient Scottish capital ; but, on the 
 contrary, the buildings exhibit substantial 
 characteristics altogether unknown in the 
 British metropolis. Their builders have reared 
 for posterity, and have adorned many of them 
 with architectural features well calculated to 
 charm their future inheritors, and arrest the 
 arm of destruction, which, guided by the inno- 
 vating spirit of local improvement, has swept 
 so ruthlessly through much that w-as pictu- 
 resque and venerable among the ancient build- 
 ings of Edinburgh. 
 
 In many respects the Scottish capital is 
 remarkable for peculiarities altogether sin- 
 gular, and these have not been diminished by 
 its modern transformers. The first and most 
 prominent source of its peculiarities is its 
 remarkable site ; perched upon a group of 
 hills, and occupying the intervening valley, 
 while bridges spun these lower grounds, with 
 arches laved only by the thronging floods of 
 wayfarers beneath. Around the city, reared on 
 so singular a site, stretches a noble panorama
 
 178 jrODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 of hill, and dale, and sea, bounded at length 
 in the far distance bj the mountain peaks of 
 the Highlands, or by the blue line of the far 
 horizon on the German ocean. 
 
 It is to some of the most striking features ot 
 art and njiture, blended together in the remark- 
 able landscape thus described, that Edinburgh 
 owes its later title of modern Athens. This 
 comparison is thus referred to by Mr. Kobert 
 Chambers : — " That Edinburgh resembles 
 Athens, was first pointed out by the Athenian 
 Stuart, whose opinion has been confirmed by 
 various succeeding travellers. Dr. Clarke speaks 
 decidedly to the same effect, and finely adds, 
 that the neighbourhood of Athens is just the 
 Highlands of Scotland, enriched with the splen- 
 did remains of art. One of the later travellers, 
 Mr. H. W. Williams, whose beautiful drawings 
 of the scenery and ruins of Attica have lately 
 furnished by far the most exquisite specimen 
 of the arts ever produced in Scotland, in 
 various parts of his travels, confirms the state- 
 ments of his predecessors, and says, moreover, 
 that " suppose the lakes of Scotland were 
 plains, he knows no country so like illustrious 
 Greece." This Avriter has also said, " The dis- 
 tant view of Athens from the ^gean Sea is 
 extremely like that of Edinburgh from the 
 Eirth of Forth, though certainly the latter is 
 considerably superior." 
 
 It is not, however, mere local prejudices and 
 provincial vanity which have led writers such 
 as those referred to, after drawing a comparison
 
 CONCLUSION. 179 
 
 between ancient Athens and Edinburgh, to give 
 the preference to the latter. The climate, 
 indeed, must always be excepted in any such 
 preference, for the refined Greek would have 
 viewed with dismay the dark fogs and chill 
 east winds which deform so large a portion of 
 the year to its modern rival. In the year 1829, 
 the eminent Scottish artist, sir David Wilkie, 
 was entertained at a public dinner by the 
 magistrates of Edinburgh, and in the speech 
 which he then made, he remarked : — " What 
 the tour of Europe was necessary to see else- 
 where I now find congregated in this one city. 
 Here are alike the beauties of Prague and 
 of Salzburgh ; here are the romantic sites of 
 Orvietto and Tivoli ; and here is all the magni- 
 ficence of the admired bays of Genoa and 
 Naples ; here, indeed, to the poetic fancy, may 
 be found realized the Roman Capitol and the 
 Grecian Acropolis." 
 
 The ruins of Athens revealed to us, indeed, 
 wondrous evidences of the beauty and magni- 
 ficence of her temples ; but they tell us little 
 of the private dwellings of her citizens, or how 
 far private comforts, and the true interests of 
 the people, were sacrificed for the objects 
 deemed of chief public importance. In her 
 private edifices, and all the structures devoted 
 to commerce and trade, to private hospitality 
 and beneficent charity, there can be little doubt 
 that modern Athens outrivals her ancient proto- 
 type. On this subject Mr. Chambers remarks, 
 in his "Walks in Edinburgh :"—" When
 
 180 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 distance lends enchantment to the view, even 
 the mud walls of Athens assume features of im- 
 portance, and the modern city appears almost 
 worthy of the Acropolis which ornaments it. 
 It is when seen under this advantage, that the 
 likeness of Edinburgh to Athens is most strik- 
 ingly apparent. 
 
 *' There are several points of view on the 
 elevated grounds near Edinburgh, from which 
 this resemblance is almost complete. From 
 Torphin in pai-ticular, one of the low heads of 
 the Pentlands, immediately above the village 
 of Colinton, the landscape is exactly that of 
 the vicinity of Athens as viewed from the 
 bottom of Mount Anchesmus. Close upon the 
 right, Brilessus is represented by the mound of 
 Braid ; before us, in the abrupt and dark mass 
 of the castle, rises the Acropolis ; the hill 
 Lycabetus, joined to that of the Areopagus, 
 appears in the Calton ; in the Firth of Forth, 
 we behold the iEgean sea ; in Inch Keith, 
 ^gina; and the hills of the Peloponnesus are 
 precisely those of the opposite coast of Fife. 
 Nor is the resemblance less striking in the 
 general characteristics of the scene ; for akhough 
 we cannot exclaim, ' These are the Groves of 
 the Academy, and that the Sacred Way ! ' yet, 
 as on the Attic shore, we certainly here 
 behold — 
 
 *A country rich and gay, 
 Broke into hills with balmy odours crown'd, 
 And joyous oaks and groves, mountains and streams, 
 And clustering towns, and monuments of fame, 
 And scenes of glorious deeds, in little bounds.'
 
 CONCLUSION. 1 8 1 
 
 " It is, iiideecl, most remarkable and astonish- 
 ing, that two cities, placed so differently in every 
 political and artificial circumstance, should 
 naturally be so alike. Were the national 
 monument to be erected upon the site of the 
 present barracks in the Castle, an important 
 additional feature of resemblance would be 
 conferred upon the landscape, that being the 
 corresponding position of the Parthenon in the 
 Acropolis." 
 
 It would, indeed, have added largely to the 
 picturesque beauties of the ancient fortress of 
 Scotland, had the space occupied by the bar- 
 racks just named been appropriated to a 
 structure of a more tasteful character. The 
 old castle, however, notwithstanding the 
 incongruity of this portion of it with its 
 other parts, must be acknowledged to be one 
 of the most romantic objects that can be 
 found among the capitals of Europe. To use 
 the language of one writer : " From what- 
 ever side you approach the city — whether by- 
 water or by land — whether your foreground 
 consist of height or of plain, of heath, of trees, 
 or of the buildings of the city itself — this 
 gigantic rock lifts itself high above all that 
 surrounds it, and breaks upon the sky with the 
 same commanding blackness of mingled crags, 
 cliffs, buttresses, and battlements. These, in- 
 deed, shift and vary their outlines at every 
 step, but everywhere there is the same un- 
 moved effect of general expression — the same 
 lofty and imposing image, to which the eye
 
 182 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Kirns with the same unquestioning worship. 
 Whether you pass on the southern side, close 
 under the bare and shattered blocks of granite, 
 where the crumbling turrets on the summit 
 seem as if they had shot out of- the kindred 
 rock in some fantastic freak of nature — and 
 where, amidst the overhanging mass of dark- 
 ness, you vainly endeavour to descry the 
 track by which Wallace scaled — or whether 
 you look from the north, where the rugged 
 cliffs find room for some scanty patches of 
 moss and broom, to diversify their barren grey 
 — wherever you are placed, and however it 
 is viewed, you feel at once that here is the 
 eye of the landscape, and the essence of the 
 grandeur. 
 
 '' Neither is it possible to say under what sky 
 or atmosphere all this appears to the greatest 
 advantage. The heavens may i>ut on what 
 aspect they choose, they never fail to adorn it. 
 Changes that elsewhere deform the face of 
 nature, and rob her of half her beauty, seem 
 to pass over this majestic surface only to dress 
 out its majesty in some new appai'el of mag- 
 nificence. If the air is cloudless and serene, 
 what can be finer than the calm reposing 
 dignity of those old towers — every delicate 
 angle of the fissured rock, every loop-hole and 
 every lineament seen clearly and distinctly in 
 all their minuteness ? or, if the mist be 
 wreathed around the base of the rock, and 
 frowning fragments of the citadel emerge only 
 here and there from out the racking clouds
 
 CONCLUSION. 183 
 
 that envelope tliem, the mystery and the gloom 
 only rivet the eye the faster, and the half-baffled 
 imagination does more than the work of sight. 
 At times, the -whole detail is lost to the eye — 
 one murky tinge of impenetrable brown wraps 
 rock and fortress from the root to the summit 
 • — all is lost but the outline ; but the outline 
 makes up abundantly for all that is lost. — The 
 cold glare of the sun, plunging slowly down 
 into a melancholy west beyond them, makes 
 all the broken labyrinth of towers, battericv*, 
 and house-tops paint their heavy breadth in 
 tenfold sable magnitude upon that lurid 
 canvass. — At break of day, how beautiful is 
 the freshness with which the venerable pile 
 ap[)ears to rouse itself from its sleep, and look 
 up once more vv'ith a bright eye into the sharp 
 and dewy air ! — At the " grim and sultry hour " 
 of noon, with A\diat languid grandeur the broad 
 flag seems to flap its long weight of folds above 
 the glowing battlements ! When the daylight 
 goes down in purple glory, what lines of gold 
 creep along the hoary brow of its antique 
 strength ! When the whole heaven is deluged, 
 and the winds are roaring fiercely, and ' snow 
 and hail, and stormy vapour,' are let loose to 
 make war upon lus front, with what an air of 
 pride does the veteran citadel brave all their 
 well-known wrath, ' cased in the unfeeling 
 armour of old time ! ' The Capitol itself is but 
 a pigmy to this giant. 
 
 " But here, as everywhere, moonlight is the 
 best. Along all the spacious line of Prince's-
 
 184 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 street, the micliiight sliadows of the castle rock 
 for ever spread themselves forth, and Avrap the 
 ground in their broad repose of blackness. Ifc 
 is not possible to imagine a more majestic 
 accompaniment for the deep pause of that 
 hour. The uniform splendour of the habita- 
 tions on the left opening every now and then 
 broken glimpses up into the very heart of the 
 modern city — the magnificent terrace itself, 
 with its staple breadth of surface— ^the fcAV 
 dying lamps that here and there glimmer 
 faintly — and no sound, but the heavy tread of 
 some far-off watchman of the night — this alone 
 might be enough, and it is more than almost 
 any other city could afford. But turn to the 
 right, and see what a glorious contrast is there. 
 The rock sleeping in the stillness of nature — 
 its cliffs of granite — its tufts of verdure — all 
 alike steeped in the same unvarying hue of 
 mystery — its towers and pinnacles rising like a 
 grove of quiet poplars on its crest — the Avhole 
 as colourless as if the sun had never shone 
 there, as silent as if no voice of man had ever 
 disturbed the echoes of the solemn scene. 
 Overhead, the sky is all one breathless canopy 
 of lucid crystal blue — here and there a small 
 bright star twinkling in the depth of ajther — 
 and full in the midst the moon Avalking in her 
 vestal glory, pursuing her calm and destined 
 Avay — and pouring down the silver of her 
 smiles upon all of lovely and sublime that 
 nature and art could heap together, to do 
 homage to her radiance."
 
 CONCLUSION. 185 
 
 The peculiarities of Edinburgh, apart from 
 its romantic beauties, arise from the almost 
 total absence of any of the characteristics of a 
 commercial or manufacturing town ; while it 
 derives a singular aspect from the predomi- 
 nance of the legal profession, owing to its being 
 the seat of legal administration both in civil 
 and criminal cases of importance for the whole 
 of Scotland. Added to this, its university, 
 medical schools, and scholastic institutions, con- 
 fer on it an academic air, not to be met with 
 elsewhere beyond the Avails of Oxford and 
 Cambridge. 13ut besides these sources of pecu- 
 liarity, Edinburgh is the central heart of Pres- 
 byterian Scotland. Thither, in the month of 
 May, flock hundreds of clerical and lay repre- 
 sentatives from every Scottish hill and dale to 
 the great annual gatherings of the church, 
 while thousands of interested and anxious 
 auditors follow in their footsteps. The General 
 Assembly of the Established Church of Scot- 
 land meets amidst the pomp of representative 
 royalty, and all the dignity which gathers 
 around the state church. The Free Church 
 Assembly, with numbers fully equal to the 
 other, adds the attractions derived from the 
 presence of many distinguished men who have 
 borne a prominent part in her recent struggles 
 and sacrifices for independence. The United 
 Presbyterian church has her large annual 
 assenibly also ; and bodies inferior in numbers, 
 but animated by the same spirit, choose the sea- 
 son of IMay for their yearly reumons. Amidst
 
 186 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 the bustle of formal business, and the pomp of 
 royal state, the zeal of Christian emulation is 
 also apparent. The missionaries of the gospel 
 send their representatives from the east and 
 the west, to tell to those at home what has 
 been doing for the Redeemer's kingdom since 
 last these assemblies met in the Scottish metro- 
 polis. The friends of Christian missions, too, 
 are not unfrequently gladdened by the sight of 
 some native convert, come from afar to tell 
 them what Jesus has done for his soul, and to 
 ^'enew the cry which rang not unavailingly in 
 the ear of the great apostle of the Gentiles, 
 " Come over, and help us." 
 
 At this season, when the summer months 
 are thus inaugurated by services not unfitted 
 to recal to "the thoughtful mind the great 
 gatherings to the feast, which annually brought 
 the tribes of ancient Israel up to Jerusalem, all 
 the most important questions of Christian phi- 
 lanthropy are brought under review, and a 
 fresh stimulus is given to the efforts for re- 
 deeming the wretched outcasts of poverty and 
 vice from the fearful destruction which has so 
 long hovered over these pariahs of our great 
 cities. The subject of education, in all its 
 bearings, most frequently engages a large share 
 of attention ; and the claims of charity and 
 benevolence are not overlooked amidst the re- 
 joicings of the season. 
 
 The great assemblies of the Scottish churches 
 having thus fulfilled their several duties, and 
 borne their share in the auxiliary services
 
 CONCLUSION. 187 
 
 which the muster of their members and friends 
 give occasion to, the latter return to their 
 homes; and it may be readily conceived how 
 important must be the influence exerted by 
 such a state of things, which thus concentrates 
 for a time the leaders of Scottish society in the 
 capital, to co-operate in duties such as we have 
 described, and then disperses them over the 
 country, to bear back to their homes the spirit 
 thus awakened or reinvigorated, " Commis- 
 sions," as they are styled, or smaller bodies 
 deputed by these annual church courts, hold 
 periodical and extraordinary meetings at other 
 periods of the year in Edinburgh. 
 
 In a previous portion of this chapter an 
 allusion was made to those features of 
 resemblance in architectural and other respects 
 between the capitals of Scotland and Attica, 
 which have given to the former the title of 
 "Modern Athens." This appellation has been, 
 however at times claimed for Edinburgh upon 
 other grounds — as aptly designating the ckissic 
 character of a city within which so many 
 individuals of distinguished literary attainments 
 have resided at various periods. Without 
 pausing to discuss whether this epithet is of too 
 ambitious a nature, we may fairly claim for the 
 Scottish capital a high reputation, as having 
 comprised within her circle a galaxy of 
 literary and scientific men of European cele- 
 brity. During the early part of the reign 
 of George in., she was particularly rich in 
 genius, and even towards the connnencement
 
 188 5I0DERN EDINBURGH, 
 
 of the present century, the following pictuiti 
 drawn by lord Cockbiirn, could not be con- 
 sidered overcharged: — " There was diffused the 
 influence of a greater number of persons at- 
 tached to literature and science, some as their 
 calling and some for pleasure, than could be 
 found, in proportion to the population, in any 
 other city in the empire. Within a few years, 
 including the period I am speaking of, the 
 college contained principal Robertson, Joseph 
 Black, his successor Hope, the second Munro, 
 James Gregory, John Kobison, John Playfair, 
 and Dugald Stewart ; none of them confined 
 monastically to their books, but all — except 
 Kobison, who was in bad health — partaking 
 of enjoyment. Episcopacy gave us the rev. 
 Archibald Alison ; and in Blair, Henry, John 
 Home, sir Harry MoncriefF, and others, Pres- 
 bytery made an excellent contribution, the 
 more to be admired that it came from a church 
 which eschews rank and boasts of poverty. The 
 law^ — to which Edinburgh has always been so 
 largely indebted — sent its copious supplies ; 
 who, instead of disturbing good company by 
 professional matter — an offence with which the 
 lawyers of every place are charged — were 
 remarkably free from this vulgarity ; and being 
 trained to take difference of opinion easily, and 
 to conduct discussions with forbearance, Avere, 
 without undue obtrusion, the most cheerful 
 people that were to be met with. Lords Mon- 
 boddo, Hailes, Glenlee, Meadowbank, and 
 Woodhouselee, all literary judges, and Kobert
 
 CONCLrsTOl?. 1 89 
 
 Blair, Henry Erskino, and Henry jNIackenzie, 
 senior, were at the earlier end of this file ; 
 Scott and Jeffrey at. the later ; but including a 
 variety of valuable persons between these 
 extremities. Sir William Forbes, sir James 
 Hall, and Mr. Clerk, of Eldin, represented a 
 class of country gentlemen cultivating learning 
 on its own account. And there were several 
 who, like the founder of the Huttonian theory, 
 selected this city for their residence solely from 
 the consideration in which science and letters 
 were here held, and the facilities, or rather the 
 temptations, presented for their prosecution. 
 Philosophy had become indigenous in the place, 
 and all classes, even in their gayest hours, were 
 proud of the presence of its cultivators. Thus 
 learning was improved by society, and society 
 by learning. And, unless when party spirit 
 interfered, which at one time, however, it did 
 frequently and bitterly, perfect harmony and 
 lively cordiality prevailed. 
 
 *' And all this was still a Scotch scene. The 
 whole country had not begun to be absorbed in 
 the ocean of London. There w^ere still little 
 great places — places with attractions quite suf- 
 ficient to retain men of talent or learning in 
 their comfortable and respectable provincial 
 positions ; and which were dignified by the 
 tastes and institutions which learning and talent 
 naturally rear." 
 
 Such was Edinburgh about the year 1800. 
 The author of the passage just quoted seems, 
 however, to lament that ihe glory of the scene
 
 100 MODERN EDINBURGH. 
 
 lias been dimmed, und dreads apparently tlie 
 influence of the English capital upon her 
 northern sister. "At the period 1 am referring 
 to," he observes, " the combination of quiet 
 with aristocracy made Edinburgh the resort, 
 to a far greater extent than it is now, of the 
 iixmilies of the gentry, who used to leave their 
 country residences and enjoy the pleasures 
 which their presence tended to promote. Many 
 of the curious characters and habits of the 
 preceding age, the last purely Scotch age 
 that Scotland was destined to see, still lingered 
 among us. Several were then to be met Avith 
 who had seen the Pretender, with his court 
 and his wild followers, in the palace of Holyrood. 
 Almost the whole official state, as settled at 
 the Union, survived; and all graced the capital, 
 imconscious of the economical scythe which 
 has since mowed it down. All our nobility had 
 not then fled. A few had sense not to feel 
 degraded by being happy at home. The old 
 town was not quite deserted. Many of our 
 principal people still dignified its picturesque 
 recesses and historical mansions, and were dig- 
 nified by them. The closing of the continent 
 sent many excellent English families and youth 
 among us, for education and for pleasure. The 
 war brightened us with uniforms, and strangers, 
 and shows. According to the modern rate of 
 travelling, the capitals of Scotland and of 
 England were then about 2,400 miles asunder. 
 Edinburgh was still more distant in its style 
 and habits. It hud its own independent tastes,
 
 CONCLUSION. 191 
 
 and ideas, and pursuits. Enough of tlie gene- 
 ration that was retiring survived to cast an 
 antiquarian air over the city ; and the genera- 
 tion that was advancing was still a Scotch pro- 
 duction. Its character may be estimated by 
 the names I have mentioned ; and by the fact 
 that the genius of Scott and of Jeffrey had 
 made it the seat at once of the most popular 
 poetry and the most brilliant criticism that 
 then existed. The city has advantages — in- 
 cluding its being the capital of Scotland, its old 
 reputation, and its external beauties — which 
 have enabled it, in a certain degree, to resist 
 the centralizing tendency, and have hitherto 
 always supplied it with a succession of eminent 
 men. But now that London is at our door, 
 how precarious is our hold of them, and how 
 many have we lost ! " 
 
 ^Ye would be sIoav, however, to acquiesce in 
 these forebodings, and would rather cherish the 
 hope that Edinburgh may long possess increas- 
 ing attractions, and advancing prosperity. 
 Certain it is that she still numbers among her 
 citizens a large and influential class, distin- 
 guished for literary and scientific attainments, 
 whose names, at the close of another half- 
 century, will doubtless, in the retrospect of 
 some future chronicler, be mentioned with a 
 respect akin to that with which we now review 
 the brilliant list enumerated by lord Cockburn. 
 
 Literature, art, and science must, however, 
 when beheld through a Christian medium, be 
 regarded as only secondary objects in our
 
 192 MODERN EDINBUncri. 
 
 estimate of the condition either of individuals 
 or communities. When the apostle of old trod 
 the streets of the capital of Attica, amidst her 
 rows of stately temples, her breathing statues, 
 and scenery of surpassing loveliness, his spirit 
 was grieved because " he saw the city wholly 
 given to idolatry." The altar erected to " the 
 unknown God" proclaimed that the Greek, 
 v/ith all his acquirements, was ignorant of that 
 knowledge, without which all other is unavail- 
 ing. Here, happily, any parallel between the 
 ancient and modern Athens fails. 
 
 That God, who was in the one city " igno- 
 rantly worshipped," has been in the other, 
 through the medium of his word, made known 
 in all his great and glorious attributes. The 
 solemn message of his word, that all have 
 sinned and come short of his glory, has been 
 there announced; while the tidings of his grace, 
 that he has so loved us as to give his Son as 
 a propitiation for sin through faith in his blood ; 
 that he is just, and yet the justifier of him 
 who believeth in Jesus, have been with equal ,J 
 fulness announced. 
 
 That Modern Edinburgh may long continue '^ 
 a centre of evangelical light and truth, in- I 
 creasingly diffusing blessings upon the com- i 
 munity of which she is the capital, is the fervent 
 aspiration with which we close these pages. 
 
 "ct-ackbvkx and bu:^t, rRixTEiis, nOLBORK ittr.t, lontos.

 
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