[193] This historic building was demolished many years ago. Its main
front faced the Cowgate, and to the north and east were extensive
gardens.
[194] In this house, too, Queen Mary was entertained at a banquet given
by the citizens. ‘Upon the nynt day of Februar at evin the Queen’s
grace come up in ane honourable manner fra the palice of Holyrudhouse
to the Cardinal’s ludging in Blackfriars Wynd, ... and efter supper the
honest young men in the town come with ane convoy to her,’ and escorted
her back to Holyrood.—_Diurnal of Occurrents._
Before the opening of the original High School in the grounds of the
Blackfriars’ Monastery the pupils were temporarily accommodated in
Beaton’s palace.
[195] The title ‘Ambassador Keith’ is usually applied to Sir Robert’s
father, who, after several minor diplomatic appointments on the
Continent, was the representative of Great Britain at the court of St
Petersburg. An interesting sketch of him, under the title of ‘Felix,’
by Mrs Cockburn, is appended to the volume of that lady’s _Letters_,
edited by Mr T. Craig Brown. Miss Keith, known to Edinburgh society as
‘Sister Anne,’ was Scott’s ‘Mrs Bethune Balliol’ of the _Chronicles
of the Canongate_. This gentleman was absent from Edinburgh about
twenty-two years, and returned at a time when it was supposed that
manners were beginning to exhibit symptoms of great improvement. He,
however, complained that they were degenerated. In his early time, he
said, every Scottish gentleman of £300 a year travelled abroad when
young, and brought home to the bosom of domestic life, and to the
profession in which it might be his fate to engage, a vast fund of
literary information, knowledge of the world, and genuine good manners,
which dignified his character through life. But towards the year 1770
this practice had been entirely given up, and in consequence a sensible
change was discoverable upon the face of good society. (See the _Life
of John Home_, by Henry Mackenzie, Esq.).
[196] It is curious to observe how, in correspondence with the change
in our manners and customs, one trade has become extinct, while
another succeeded in its place. At the end of the sixteenth century
the manufacture of offensive weapons predominated over all other
trades in Edinburgh. We had then cutlers, whose _essay-piece_, on
being admitted of the corporation, was ‘ane plain finished quhanzear’
or sword; gaird-makers, whose business consisted in fashioning
sword-handles; Dalmascars, who gilded the said weapon; and belt-makers,
who wrought the girdles that bound it to the wearer’s body. There were
also dag-makers, who made hackbuts (short-guns) and dags (pistols).
These various professions all became associated in the general one
of armourers, or gunsmiths, when the wearing of weapons went into
desuetude—there being then no further necessity for the expedition
and expediency of the modern political economist’s boasted ‘division
of labour.’ As the above arts gave way, those which tended to provide
the comforts and luxuries of civilised life gradually arose. About
1586 we find the first notice of locksmiths in Edinburgh, and there
was then only one of the trade, whose essay was simply ‘a kist lock.’
In 1609, however, as the security of property increased, the essay
was ‘a kist lock and a hingand bois lock, with an double plate lock;’
and in 1644 ‘a key and sprent band’ were added to the essay. In 1682
‘a cruik and cruik band’ were further added; and in 1728, for the
safety of the lieges, the locksmith’s essay was appointed to be ‘a
cruik and cruik band, a pass lock with a round filled bridge, not
cut or broke in the backside, with nobs and jamb bound.’ In 1595 we
find the first notice of shearsmiths. In 1609 a heckle-maker was
admitted into the Corporation of Hammermen. In 1613 a tinkler makes
his appearance; Thomas Duncan, the first tinkler, was then admitted.
Pewterers are mentioned so far back as 1588. In 1647 we find the first
knock-maker (_clock-maker_), but so limited was his business that he
was also a locksmith. In 1664 the first white-iron man was admitted;
also the first harness-maker, though lorimers had previously existed.
Paul Martin, a distressed French Protestant, in 1691, was the first
manufacturer of surgical instruments in Edinburgh. In 1720 we find the
first pin-maker; in 1764, the first edge-tool maker and first fish-hook
maker.
[197] The Highland appellative of Lord Lovat, expressing _the son of
Simon_.
[198] _Quarterly Review_, vol. xiv. p. 326.
[199] First door up the stair at the head of the wynd, on the west
side. The house was burnt down in 1824, but rebuilt in its former
arrangement.
[200] [The window-tax was first imposed in 1695, and repealed in 1851.]
[201] An old domestic of her ladyship’s preserved one of her shoes as a
relic for many years. The heel was three inches deep.
[202] [The view of the famous ‘Douglas Cause,’ affirmed in the House of
Lords in 1771.]
[203] Mrs Grant of Laggan held another opinion of General Simon
Fraser. A pleasing exterior covered a large share of the paternal
character—‘No heart was ever harder, no hands more rapacious than
his.’