The church, which in its restored form we should hardly recognise as
being of great antiquity, was erected into a collegiate church by
James III. in honour of the Holy Trinity, and was endowed by the two
succeeding monarchs. James V. placed here a dean, nine prebendaries,
and two singing boys. It was John Sinclair, Dean of Restalrig,
that married Queen Mary to Lord Darnley in Holyrood Chapel in July
1564. By that time the building itself had suffered sadly from the
effects of the Reformation. It was demolished by order of the General
Assembly in 1560, and many of the stones were taken to build the new
port or gate just inside the Netherbow, which was erected during the
siege of the Castle of Edinburgh in 1571. We have no description,
plan, or representation to furnish us with any idea of what the
collegiate church was like. Such ruins as remained were restored in
1836; and the eastern window and wall of the present church formed
part of the old chancel. The huge mound resembling a mausoleum,
which stands on the south side, though generally called the family
vault of the Logans, was undoubtedly attached to the church, either
as a chapter-house, or as St. Triduan's Chapel. It has internally
a beautiful groined roof, springing from a single pillar in the
centre. Of late years it has certainly been used as a burial-place,
and some of the Logans, as well as the Balmerinos, their successors,
lie here. Among them is "Lady Janet Ker, Lady Restalrig, quha
departed this life 17th May 1526." The tomb now belongs to Lord
Bute; and Wilson in his _Reminiscences_ quotes an incident told him
by Charles Sharpe respecting it, which shows how often political
animosity outlives the grave:--"Application was made to him (Lord
Bute) to allow Miss Hay, whom I well knew,--daughter of Hay of
Restalrig, Prince Charles's forfeited secretary,--to be buried in the
vault. This was refused; and she lies outside the door. May the earth
lie light on her! old lady, kind and venerable." In the last century
Restalrig churchyard was a favourite resting-place of the non-juring
Scottish Episcopalians, as the burial service was then forbidden to
be read in the city burial grounds. Several bishops of the Scottish
Church lie here.
After leaving the church, we turn first north, then eastwards,
along a road running between very high walls; and pass a tall
gloomy-looking villa called Marionville. It was built in the last
century by the Misses Ramsay, whose milliner's shop was on the east
side of the old Lyon Close. There they made a fortune, out of which
they built Marionville. It was locally known as "_Lappet Ha'_," in
derision of their profession. In later years it was the residence of
Captain Macrae, whose unfortunate duel (in 1790) with Sir George
Ramsay of Bamff on Musselburgh Links, and its fatal consequences,
made him an exile for the remainder of his life.[50] Beyond
Marionville a road to the right leads to a small sheet of water
called Lochend.
[50] See Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_.
[Illustration: _Lochend_.]
The modern villa, standing among trees immediately behind
Craigentinnie, is now called Restalrig House, but the old castle
of the Logans crowned the rocky bank which rises abruptly from
Lochend; and parts of it may still be distinguished in the more
recent building which has been engrafted on it. These powerful barons
possessed Restalrig from the 14th century. They came to an end with
Robert Logan, who was mysteriously mixed up in the Gowrie Conspiracy.
He had before that been deeply involved in the treasonable
projects of Francis, Earl of Bothwell; but his share in the Gowrie
Conspiracy remained unknown till nine years after his death, when
the correspondence between him and Lord Gowrie was discovered in
the possession of Sprot, a notary at Eyemouth. Their intentions had
been, after seizing the king's person at Gowrie House, to hurry him
into a boat on the Tay, and carry him by sea to Logan's inaccessible
fortress of Fast Castle (which he had acquired by marriage with
the heiress, a Home), and there await the decision of the other
conspirators as to his ultimate fate. It is a matter of history how
completely their schemes failed; but every one who had been concerned
in the plot, to the smallest degree, suffered for it. Sprot was
executed merely for possessing the treasonable letters. Logan's dead
bones were brought into court, to have the following sentence passed
on them: "That the memory and dignity of the said umqle Robert Logan
be extinct and abolisheit, his arms riven and deleted from all books
of arms, and his goods escheated."[51]
The lands of Restalrig next passed into the hands of the
Elphinstones, Lords Balmerino. They lost them from too faithful a
devotion to their exiled king. The Hays followed them in acquisition
and forfeiture, and now the property is all broken up.
[51] The Logans of Restalrig quartered the arms of Ramsay of
Dalhousie with their own. They bore 1st and 4th, or, three piles
issuing from a chief, and conjoined in base, sable, for Logan; 2nd
and 3rd, argent, an eagle displayed with two heads sable, beaked and
membered gules, for Ramsay.
We are now close to the outskirts of Leith, so we will turn back and
take the first road to the right, which soon brings us out on the
London Road, not far from Abbeyhill.