The goldsmiths of those days were considered a superior class of
tradesmen; they appeared in public with scarlet cloak, cocked hat,
and cane, as men of some consideration. Yet in their shops every one
of them would have been found working with his own hands at some
light labour, in a little recess near the window, generally in a very
plain dress, but ready to come forth at a moment’s notice to serve a
customer. Perhaps, down to 1780, there was not a goldsmith in Edinburgh
who did not condescend to manual labour.
As the whole trade was collected in the Parliament Close, this was of
course the place to which country couples resorted, during the last
century, in order to make the purchase of silver tea-spoons, which
always preceded their nuptials. It was then as customary a thing in the
country for the intending bridegroom to take a journey, a few weeks
before his marriage, to the Parliament Close, in order to buy the
_silver spoons_, as it was for the bride to have all her clothes and
stock of bed-furniture inspected by a committee of matrons upon the
wedding eve. And this important transaction occasioned two journeys:
one, in order to select the spoons, and prescribe the initials which
were to be marked upon them; the other, to receive and pay for them. It
must be understood that the goldsmiths of Edinburgh then kept scarcely
any goods on hand in their shops, and that the smallest article had
to be bespoken from them some time before it was wanted. A goldsmith,
who entered as an apprentice about the beginning of the reign of
George III., informed me that they were beginning only at that time to
keep a few trifling articles on hand. Previously another old custom
had been abolished. It had been usual, upon both the occasions above
mentioned, for the goldsmith to adjourn with his customer to John’s
Coffee-house,[82] or to the Baijen-hole,[83] and to receive the order
or the payment, in a comfortable manner, over a dram and a _caup_ of
small ale; which were upon the first occasion paid for by the customer,
and upon the second by the trader; and the goldsmith then was perhaps
let into the whole secret counsels of the rustic, including a history
of his courtship—in return for which he would take pains to amuse his
customer with a sketch of the city news. In time, as the views and
capitals of the Parliament Close goldsmiths became extended, all these
pleasant customs were abandoned.[84]