Scotland > 1868, 1878 - Slater's (late Pigot & Co.'s) Royal national commercial directory and topography of Scotland > 1878 > Part 1

DIRECTORY.
LASSWADB.
EDINBURGHSHIRE.
MISOELLANEOUS.
AitchiBon & Co. engineers and ironfounders,
Loanhead
Baillie Andrew, coacli hirer, Loanhead
Bird Robert, coacli hirer, Bonnyrigg
Bryce George, millwright, Roslin
Cow6 Robt.-sewing machine agent, Lasswado
CribbesWilliam.supervisor of inland revenue,
Rosemount, Bonnyrigg
Henderson William, engineer, Polton bank
Hill John, factor to R. B. W. Ramsay, of
WhitehiU, Lasswade
Kay William, corn merchant, Prospect bank,
Bonnyrigg
Law William & Son, cartwiights, Roslin
Lessel John, architect, EoBlin
M'Gregor Alexander, watchmaker, Lasswade
Reid Helen, fruiterer, Lasswade
Small W. & Sou, carters, Bonnyrigg
Stewart W. land steward, Dalhousie Castle
Straiten Estate Co. Limited, manufacturers
of bricks, fire-clay goods and mineral oils,
lirae-burners and fi'eestone quarry owners,
Straiton — Robert Young, manager; office,
13 Castle st, Edinburgh
Street George, auctioneer, Sunnyside
Young John, consulting gas engineer, Mary-
field, Bonnyrigg
Public BuUding:s, Offices, dec.
PLACES OF WORSHIP
and their ministeks.
Established Chchches: —
Cockpen— Rev. D. W. L. Wallace
Gilmerton— Rev. David T. Walker
Lasswade — Rev. J. A. Bardon
Libertou— Rev. John Stewart
Rosewell— Rev. John Hunter
Roslin —Vacant
Free Churches: —
Bonnyrigg— Vacant
Loanhead— Rev. Alexander Kay
Roslin— Rev. D. Barnetson
Stenhouse— Rev. David Guthrie
Episcopalian Chapel, Roslin— Rev. Alex-
ander Thomson Grant
Reformed Presbyterian Church, Loan-
head— Rev. John M'Donald
United Peesbyterian Chapel, Lasswade—
Rev. William C. Brodie
Cameronian Chapel, Loanhead— Rev. Jolm
M'Donald
Bonnyrigg Water Go. Limited— John Philip,
clerk and treasm-er
Bowhug Club, Bonnyrigg— Thomas Steven,
president
BowUngClub,Lasswade--W.Trotter,treasurer
Burgh of Bonnyrigg- John Philip, Thomas
Steven, andD, J. Somervaill, magistrates;
James Mitchell, clerk; Robert Paterson,
treasurer & collector
Inspectors of Poor — Cocn-pen, John Davidson,
Bonnyrigg; Lasswade, George M'Donald;
Liberton, William Cochrane, GreenenJ
'Lasswade & Bonnyrigg Gas Co. Lasswade —
William Young, treasurer & secretary
Liberton Water Co. — William Christie, sec
Public Halls Co. Limited, Bonnyrigg— David
J. Bomorvaill, treasurer; George Forsyth,
secretary
Registrars of Births, Deaths & Marriages—
/ Cof/^j3C/i, Peter Mitchell; Lasswade, ^ViUiam.
Brunton; Liberton, William Cochrane,
Greenend; Roslin, Edward A. White
School Board, Cockpen — Peter Forbes, clerk
School Board, Lasswade — R. Brunton, Loan-
head, clerk & treasurer
OMNIBUSES.
To EDINBURGH, Croall's Omnibuses, from
Lasswade, four times a day (Sunday ex-
cepted); also by the same proprietors, an
Omnibus four times daily thi-ough Loan-
head, and three times daily through Gil-
merton and Greenend
CONVEYANCE BY RAILWAY,
ON THE NORTH BRITISH LINE.
Station^ Bonnyrigg — John Douglas, station
master
Station, Broomieknowe— Robert Noble,
station master
Station, Gilmerton— Rohert Carruthers,
station master
Station, Lasswade— Donald Macfarlane,
station master [master
Station, Roslin— Charles Lorimer, station
CARRIER.
To EDINBURGH & LEITH, Robert Brown,
from:Lasswade, as required
M
MUSSELBURGH AND FISHERROW,
WITH THE PABISHF.S AND VILLAGES OF INVEEBSK, MONKTON-HALL, EEUNSTANE, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.
USSELBURGH, a town of great antiquity, a burgh of regality,
aud now represented in parliament, is in the parish of Inveresk;
six miles e. from Edinburgh; situated on the shore of the Firth
of Forth, at the mouth of the Esk. It occupies a low site on a
fiat expanse, between the eminence on which the church of Inver-
esk is placed and the sea, on the east bank of the river Esk, the
suburb of Fisherrow lying on the opposite side. The Esk at its
junction with the Forth is of considerable breadth, but is very
shallow, and meanders over a gravelly bed; in dry seasons con-
taining little water, but in rainy seasons rising with irresistible
force from the sources and tributaries in the interior districts,
and on such occasions the appearance ^f the river is grand.
Musselburgh derived its name from the mussel banks near the
shore. The place is noticed in the seveutli century as the Eske-
miUhe of the Northumbrian Saxons, which may probably refer
merely to the river — the name Esk signifying water, and mvcr the
mouth. For centuries afterwards filusselburgh was a paltry
village, though it gave its name to the adjacent district, which
in old charters is designated Musselbuiyhshire, and a locality on
the river below the parish church is still known as the Shire
road from Edinburgh to Berwick and London. Parallel to
the High street is the Will hill, which leads from the Esk to
the London road, at the entrance to the Links and Loretto grounds.
A street known as Newbigging extends south from nearly the centre
of the town opposite the cross, and leads directly to Inveresk, a
quarter of a mile inland. The town contains a few minor streets
and alleys, "f he only pobUc edifice is the Town Hall, occupying an
angle in" the High-street, a substantial and commodious eclifl.";">
including an assembly room and a council room. Connected with
the Town HaU is the gaol, now used since the passing of the Prison
Act as a temporary place of conttnenient for petty oflenders. This
prison is said to have been erected about 1590 from the materials of
the ruinous chapel of Loretto, lor which act of sacrilege the bur-
gesses, it is alleged, were annuaUy excommunicated at Rome till
the end of the eighteenth century, when the progress of the French
revolution finished such harmless denunciations. The gaol displays
a diminutive and homely elated spire, the clock-dial of which has
the date 1496, and the machinery is said to have been sent from
Holland. The cross, a pillar resting upon a pedestal, surmounted
by the Unicorn sitting with a shield, on which is the towns
Haugk. After the erection of the priory of Dunfermline into a I arms, i.s in front of the Town HaU. Behind the cross is the only
Benedictine Abbey by David I., tlie town until the Reformation j inn in the town, called the " Musselburgh Arms." The town is
was a burgh jf regality belonging to that abbey. James VI. , lighted with gas by a company established in 1831, who have erected
granted the superiority to Lord Chancellor Maitland, of Tliirle- 1 works on the Links at the mouth of the Esk. The Esk is crossed
stane, with whose descendants, tlic Earls of Lauderdale, it re- J by two stono, and the same number of wooden bridges. The new
mained till 1709, wTien it was purchased by Anne, Duchess of i bridge, an elegant structure erected in 1806-7 fi'om a design
Buccleuch, and the Duke of Buccleuch is now lord of the regaUtv. by Eennie, consists of five elliptical arches, and the old
It is said that Musselburgh received its first charter from Don.ald, bridge, a clumsy though venerable edifice of threa
Earl of Marr, in 1340, as an acknowledgement for the attention arches ; the roadway, high and nanow, and only nsed by foot
sliown by the inhabitants to his cousin, the celebrated Randolph, passengers is a short distance further up the river. This bridge,
Earl of Murray, Regent of Scotland, the nephew of King Robert erroneously supposed to be of Roman origin, was built by Lady Jane
Brace. The Regent died at Musselburgh in 1332, in a homely tene- Hepburn, wife of the then Lord Seton, an ancestress of the Earls of
ment, then the best in the place, wliich stood on the south "side of Winton, and grand-aunt of the notorious Earl of Bothwell, asao-
the High street, near the enclosures of Pinkie House, and now : ciated with the history of the unhappy Queen Mary. The Scot-
represented by a plain house of two stories, used as a school and iish army crossed this bridge after the fatal battle of Pinkie, in
masonic lodge. 5IaiT,w^o succeededEarl Randolphin the regency, ; September, 1547, when Lord Graham, eldest son of the Earl of
conferred on Musselburgh the appellation of the "honest town," > Montrose, and others were killed on it by cannon shot from ihe
which it still retnms, and tire motto is Sonestas. But the most English fleet at the mouth of the Esk. The lower wooden bridge
ancient charter ui-'a extant is that bearing date the 11 tb of Decern- is maintainedfor pedestrians to or from Fisherrow and Musselburgh;
ber, 156!?, in the r.-i^'n of Queen Mary, which was obtained from : and the upper wooden bridge, above the old bridge, is the exclusive
Robert Pitcairn, coi/imendator of Dunfermline, and was confirmed property of the North British Katiway Company, leading directly
by subsequent cha: tors and Acts of Parliament — more particularly to the Musselburgh branch station of the Hawick branch of that
by one from John, iJuke of Lauderdale, dated 1670, in which all th"e line, which diverges at Niddrie, upwards of a mile inland. The
ftucient rights and irivileges are acknowledged. In the year 1632 station house of this branch, which is the terminus, is on the Mus-
it was erected ipto a royal burgh by charter under the great seal, selburgh side of the Esk, close to the old bridge, and is a very
which excited the jealousy of the magistrates of Edinbm-gh, who handsome and commodioas edifice. The manufactures and most
contrived to obtain a reduction of the charter that year. Mussel- prominent branches of business in Musselburgh and Fisherrow
burgh, which municipally includes Fisherrow, is governed by a are the malring of sail cl<>fh, herring nets, starch, oil cake and
provost, three bailies, a treasurer, and seven councillors, elected earthenware^ tanniitgand brewing; and chemical ^rorks. Thepatent
according to the provisions of the Burgh Reform Act. The burgh herring net manufacture was introduced about the period above'
unites with Leith, Newhaven aud Portobello in returning one mem- mentioned by Mr. James Paterson. who invented looms of an ingen-
ber to parliament. The magistrates are empowered to hold a court ious and novel construction, from which superior and cheaper
of record, and to grant enfeolfments. Their jurisdiction extends articles are produced than those formerly in use. Branches of the
t*o and a half miles along the sTiore, fi-om the Magdalen bridge Royal Bank, the Commercial Bank of Scotland and the National
rivulet on the west to Ravenshaugh streamlet on the east, which Bank of Scotland are established in Musselburgh, and there are
at that locality is the boundary with Haddingtonshire, aud in the several benevolent and religious societies. Inland, Musselburgh is
centre of which is the burgh and its suburb of FisheiTOw ; but the sun-ounded by a rich agricultural country, and by a number of coal
magistrates possess no jurisdiction over Inveresk village, which is mines, in active operation. The places of worship in Inveresk
included within the county. The town consists of two streets in parish, including Musselburgh and Fisherrow, &c., are detailed in
the direction nearly east and west ; the main, or High street, a list appended to the Directory of the town. The parish church
extends from the bridge over the Esk on the west to the beautiful , occupies the right of the hill of Inveresk, and is a largo square
enclosures of Loretto and Pinkie on the east, and is on the great edifice without any architectural pretensions; it is a conspicuous
1.1 202