Amongst the buildings removed to make way for George IV. Bridge were
those of a short blind alley in the Lawnmarket, called the Old Bank
Close. Composed wholly of solid goodly structures, this close had an
air of dignity that might have almost reconciled a modern gentleman to
live in it. One of these, crossing and closing the bottom, had been the
Bank of Scotland—the _Auld Bank_, as it used to be half-affectionately
called in Edinburgh—previously to the erection of the present handsome
edifice in Bank Street. From this establishment the close had taken
its name; but it had previously been called _Hope’s Close_, from its
being the residence of a son of the celebrated Sir Thomas Hope, King’s
Advocate in the reign of Charles I.
[Illustration: House of Robert Gourlay.]
The house of oldest date in the close was one on the west side,
of substantial and even handsome appearance, long and lofty, and
presenting some peculiarities of structure nearly unique in our city.
There was first a door for the ground-floor, about which there was
nothing remarkable. Then there was a door leading by the stair to the
_first floor_, and bearing this legend and date upon the architrave: