[52] Raised to the Bench with the title of Lord Kerse.
[53] The lintel bearing this legend is preserved in a doorway at the
top of the staircase of the Free Library, George IV. Bridge. The
Cowgate portion of the Library building (1887-89) occupies the site of
Sir Thomas Hope’s house.
[54] While King’s Advocate, Sir Thomas Hope had the unique experience
of pleading at the Bar before two of his sons who were judges—Lord
Craighall and Lord Kerse. There is a tradition that when addressing the
Court he remained covered, and that from this circumstance the Lord
Advocates still have this privilege, although they do not exercise it.
Probably the custom introduced by Sir Thomas Hope originated in his
being an officer of state, which entitled him to sit in parliament
wearing his hat, and he claimed the same privilege when appearing
before the judges.
[55] See a Memoir by Sir Archibald Steuart Denham in the publications
of the Maitland Club.
[56] The site of Chiesly’s house is that occupied by the Episcopal
Church Training College in Orwell Place.
[57] In _The Domestic Annals of Scotland_ the place of his execution is
given as Drumsheugh, and Sir Walter Scott says he was hanged near his
own house of Dalry.
[58] This was the first High School, built in 1578 in the grounds
of the Blackfriars’ Monastery, of which David Malloch, or Mallet,
was janitor in 1717. The building faced the Canongate. In 1777 it
was replaced by the building now facing Infirmary Street and used in
connection with the university. It is this later building that is
associated with Sir Walter Scott, Lord Brougham, Lord Jeffrey, Lord
Cockburn, and other eminent men of the last quarter of the eighteenth
and first quarter of the nineteenth century.
[59] The Mechanics’ Library was discontinued when the Free Library was
opened. Bailie Macmoran’s house is now used as a university settlement.
[60] After being the residence for a time of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik
and other notable citizens, it was latterly occupied by the widow (the
seventh wife) of the Rev. David Williamson—‘Dainty Davie’—minister of
St Cuthbert’s Church at the time of the Revolution.
[61] The house is marked No. 21. Its back windows enjoy a fine view
of the Firth of Forth and the Fife hills. The registration of his
lordship’s birth appears as follows: ‘Wednesday, 30th September 1778,
Henry Brougham, Esq., parish of St Gilles (_sic_), and Eleonora Syme,
his spouse, a son born the 19th current, named Henry Peter. Witnesses,
Mr Archibald Hope, Royal Bank, and Principal Robertson.’ The parts of
the New Town then built belonged to St Giles’s parish.