Before James’s Court was built, its site was occupied by certain
closes, in one of which dwelt Lord Fountainhall, so distinguished as an
able, liberal, and upright judge, and still more so by his industrious
habits as a collector of historical memorabilia, and of the decisions
of the Court of Session. Though it is considerably upwards of a century
since Lord Fountainhall died,[45] a traditionary anecdote of his
residence in this place has been handed down till the present time by a
surprisingly small number of persons. The mother of the late Mr Gilbert
Innes of Stow was a daughter of his lordship’s son, Sir Andrew Lauder,
and she used to describe to her children the visits she used to pay to
her venerable grandfather’s house, situated, as she said, where James’s
Court now stands. She and her sister, a little girl like herself,
always went with their maid on the Saturday afternoons, and were shown
into the room where the aged judge was sitting—a room covered with
gilt leather,[46] and containing many huge presses and cabinets, one
of which was ornamented with a death’s-head at the top. After amusing
themselves for an hour or two with his lordship, they used to get each
a shilling from him, and retire to the anteroom, where, as Mrs Innes
well recollected, the waiting-maid invariably pounced upon their money,
and appropriated it to her own use. It is curious to think that the
mother of a gentlewoman living in 1839 (for only then did Miss Innes
of Stow leave this earthly scene) should have been familiar with a
lawyer who entered at the bar soon after the Restoration (1668), and
acted as counsel for the unfortunate Earl of Argyll in 1681; a being of
an age as different in every respect from the present as the wilds of
North America are different from the long-practised lands of Lothian or
Devonshire.
The judicial designation of Lord Fountainhall was adopted from a
place belonging to him in East Lothian, now the property of his
representative, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. The original name of the place
was Woodhead. When the able lawyer came to the bench, and, as usual,
thought of a new appellative of a territorial kind—‘Woodhead—Lord
Woodhead,’ thought he; ‘that will never do for a judge!’ So the name of
the place was changed to Fountainhall, and he became Lord Fountainhall
accordingly.
[1868.—The western half of James’s Court having been destroyed by
accidental fire, the reader will now find a new building on the spot.
The houses rendered interesting by the names of Blair, Boswell,
Johnson, and Hume are consequently no more.]