[176] The Canongate seems to have been paved about the same time. In
1535 the king granted to the Abbot of Holyrood a duty of one penny upon
every loaded cart, and a halfpenny upon every empty one, to repair and
maintain the causeway.
[177] George Lockhart of Carnwath lived here in 1753. Afterwards he
resided in Ross House, a suburban mansion, which afterwards was used as
a lying-in hospital. The park connected with this house is now occupied
by George Square. While in Mr Lockhart’s possession Ross House was the
scene of many gay routs and balls.
The Lords Ross, the original proprietors of this mansion, died out in
1754. One of the last persons in Scotland supposed to be possessed
by an evil spirit was a daughter of George, the second last lord. A
correspondent says: ‘A person alive in 1824 told me that, when a child,
he saw her clamber up to the top of an old-fashioned four-post bed
like a cat. In her fits it was almost impossible to hold her. About
the same time, a daughter of Lord Kinnaird was supposed to have the
second-sight. One day, during divine worship in the High Church, she
fainted away; on her recovery, she declared that when Lady Janet Dundas
(a daughter of Lord Lauderdale) entered the pew with Miss Dundas, who
was a beautiful young girl, she saw the latter as it were in a shroud
gathered round her neck, and upon her head. Miss Dundas died a short
time after.’
[178] Both facts from Moyses’s _Memoirs_.
[179] In the house to the north of this was a shop kept by an eccentric
personage, who exhibited a sign bearing this singular inscription: