[40] From whom it got its name—James’s Court.
[41] A ‘land’ still standing (1912) as it was when Hume lived there. It
was also the residence of the Countess of Eglinton when she left the
Stamp Office Close in the High Street. See p. 192.
[42] Burton’s _Life of Hume_, ii. 173.
[43] Formerly called Blair’s Close (p. 19). The name was altered to
Baird’s Close when the Gordon property passed into the possession of
Baird of Newbyth.
[44] Mrs Cockburn, writing to Miss Cumming at Balcarres, describes ‘a
ball’ she gave in this house. ‘On Wednesday I gave a ball. How do ye
think I contrived to stretch out this house to hold twenty-two people,
and had nine couples always dancing? Yet this is true; it is also true
that we had a table covered with divers eatables all the time, and
that everybody ate when they were hungry and drank when they were dry,
but nobody ever sat down.... Our fiddler sat where the cupboard is,
and they danced in both rooms. The table was stuffed into the window
and we had plenty of room. It made the bairns all very happy.’—_Mrs
Cockburn’s Letters_, edited by T. Craig Brown.
[45] His lordship died September 20, 1722 (Brunton and Haig’s
_Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice_).
[46] A stuff brought, I believe, from Spain, and which was at one time
much in fashion in Scotland.