Towns > Edinburgh > 1867-1870 - New Edinburgh, Leith, and county (business) directory > 1869-1870

Canongate
GUIDE.
Canongate
XXXV
^vay indicates where St John's Cross, the ancient | now a newsvender's shop, No. 177 High _Street,
eastern boundary of tlie capital formerly stood,
and where Charles I., at his ceremonial entry into
Edinburgh in 1633, knighted the provost.— A little
further down, on the same side, entering through
an archway, is
St John Street, an aristocratic quarter of the
last century, begun in 1768. In a house at the
head of the street, facing the Canongate, the Earl
of Hopetoun resided in 1788; and in the first
floor of the same building on the west side of the
street, Smollett, the novelist, resided in 1766, with
his sister, Mrs Telfer of Scotstown. No. 13, on
the east side of the street, was the residence of
Lord Monboddo, and his lovely and accomplished
daughter. Miss Burnet, who died prematurely of
flonsumption on the 17th of June 1790, and whom
Burns, who was a frequent guest of her father's,
describes so glowingly in his "Address to Edin-
burgh," and whose early death he has so touchingly
commemorated. No. 10, on the same side, was
the residence of -Tames Ballantyne, Scott's confi-
■dential critic and partner ; and here those select
dinners took i^lace, that Ballantyne was in the
habit of giving occasionally to his choice literary
allies and personal friends, that he might read to
them a chapter or two from some forthcoming
romance of Scott's. Scott himself, Lockhart, who
so graphically describes the scenes, Erskine, Terrv,
Sir William Allan, C4eorge Hogarth, W.S., Mrs
Ballantyne's brother, and the author of a history
of music, &c., were frequent guests. The first
house, on the west side, a few jDaces south of the
archway, was the meeting place of the Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge of Free Masons, where Burns
was made a member and poet -laureate of the
lodge. A house a little to the south of this, witli
its gable to the street, and a garden to the south,
was the residence, in 1780, of the Earl of Wemyss.
Exactly opposite St John Street, there is a large
and lofty stone land which has had for occupants
the Countess of Egiinton, David Hume, who wrote
most part of his history here, and others of like
note. — To the east of this, on the opposite side, is
'S/Lora.y ISouse, a large and conspicuous edifice,
originally erected by the Countess of Home in 1628,
from whom it jjassed, in 1645, to the noble house of
Moray, whose town mansion and property it re-
mained for two hundred years. Oliver Cromwell
resided here in 1648, and held his levees in the
principal rooms. Two years later, the mansion
was the scene of much festivity and rejoicing on
the occasion of the marriage of the Earl of Moray's
eldest daughter to Lord Lorn. The day of the
marriage happened to be the day on which the
great Marquess of Montrose was dragged a prisoner
up the Canongate uiJon a hurdle, and the principal
wedding guests, along with the bride and bride-
groom, so far forgot their dignity as to step out on
the stone balcony in front to witness the sight and
to jeer at their old enemy in his degTadation.
Two days afterwards Montrose perished on the
scaffold, 'and eleven years later, that same Lord
Lorn, known to fame as the Marquess of Argyll,
was beheaded by the " maiden." At the time when
IMoray House was in the temporary occupancy of
Lord Chancellor Seafield, many confidential deli-
berations, in connexion with the Treaty of Union
in 1707, took place within its walls ; and it was in
the little summer-house which adorned the stately
old terraced gardens behind (now shorn of its
original pleasant appearance), that the Commis-
sioners met to sign the Articles, when the violence
of the enraged mob compelled them to desist. The
subscription was afterwards completed in a cellar.
After having been occupied for some time by the
British Linen Company's Bank, this old residence
was, in 1847, transformed into the Free Church
Normal School, and the fine garden became the
playground of children. — Afewi^aces further east,
on the left, is
Canongate <JaiI and Court-House, which
is regarded as a good exami^le of Scottish architec-
ture of the time of James VI. It is surmounted
by a small s^jire, and displays a projecting clock.
A portion of the street flat is now used as a poUce
station, over the door of which is ^Jlaced the burgh
armorial bearing, with the motto — " SIC ITUR Ai>
ASTRA " — verily a strange way indeed to the stars !
The old Court-house is now occupied as the Regis-
tration Oflfice for the district. By the side of the
wall, eastward of the entrance to the police station,
is the ancient market cross, which formerly stood
in the centre of the roadway. — A few steps east-
ward bring us to
The Canongate Church, erected in 1688,
from funds bequeathed by one Thomas Moodie
in 1649. It is a i^lain-looking structure with a
painted front, surmounted by an ornamental model
of a stag's head. The well-known Dr Hugh Blair,
and the late Principal Lee, were at one time parish
ministers here. In the surrounding graveyard
lie the remains of Ferguson, the i5oet whose tomb-
stone, raised at the expense of Robert Burns,
" directs pale Scotia's way
To pour her sorrows o'er her Poet's dust ; "
Dr Adam Ferguson, historian of the Roman Re-
public; Dugald Stewart, Professor of Moral
Philosophy ; Adam Smith, the well-known author
of the "Wealth of Nations;" David Allan, the
artist ; Dr Burney, author of the History of
Music, &c.
A little further down, on the same side, is No.
129, Panmure Flose, which gave access to
Panmure House, the residence of the Earls of
Panmixre. Here also Adam Smith resided for the
last twelve years of his life. — On the opposite side
within an enclosure, is No. 90, Milton House,
built and occupied as a town mansion by Andrew
Fletcher of Milton, Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland
in 1724. — Further down, on the right, is
Queensberry House, a huge ungainly pile,
with centre and projecting wings, now used as a
House of Refuge for the Destitute. It was built
in the time of Charles II. by the first Duke of
Queensberry, the cruel and unprincipled minister
of the last two Stuarts. The most distinguished
occupant of the house, however, was the wife of
the third Duke, the beautiful and accomplished
Lady Catherine H3''de, the j)atroness of the poet
Gay, and whose sprightliness and wit have been
sung in the poetry of Pope, Swift, and Prior.
Gay, who accompanied the Duke and Duchess to
Scotland in 1729, resided here for a short time ;
and tradition points out an old house on the oppo-
site side, which was formerly an alehouse kept by
one Janet HaU, — Jenn^ Ha's, as it was called —
where the poet is said to have s^Dent some of his time
in the company of Allan Ramsay and a few other
choice spirits of the city.
On the left, entered by Galloway's Entry, is
Whiteford House, built by Sir John White-
ford, and latterly occupied by Lord Bannatyne,
who died here in 1823. A little further down
is No. 31, Whitehorse Close, which con-
tains the Whitehorse Inn, an ancient hostelry
erected in 1623, and which Scott, in "Waver-
ley," makes the resort of the cavaliers of Prince