Ramsay’s, St Mary’s Wynd.
Boyd’s, Head of Canongate.
‘Two coaches went down the Canongate to Leith—one hour in going, and
one hour in returning.’
[236] Removal.
[237] ‘At a former period, when the Canongate of Edinburgh was a more
fashionable residence than at present, a lady of rank who lived in one
of the closes, before going out to an evening-party, and at a time when
hairdressers and peruke-makers were much in demand, requested a servant
(newly come home) to tell Tam Tough the hairdresser to come to her
immediately. The servant departed in quest of Puff, but had scarcely
reached the street before she forgot the barber’s name. Meeting with a
caddy, she asked him if he knew where the hairdresser lived. “Whatna
hairdresser is ’t?” replied the caddy. “I ha’e forgot his name,”
answered she. “What kind o’ name wus ’t?” responded Donald. “As near
as I can mind,” said the girl, “it was a name that wad neither _rug_
nor _rive_.” “The deil ’s in ’t,” answered Donald, “but that’s a tam’d
tough name.” “Thank ye, Donald, that’s the man’s name I wanted—_Tam
Tough_.”’—[_From an Edinburgh Newspaper._]
[238] The inscription is now removed.
[239] With the exception of Lord Kames’s house, all the others
referred to have been swept away by the North British Railway and the
Corporation Gasworks, which at one time occupied the eastern side of
the street.
[240] Although it was outside the wall, the city authorities
claimed jurisdiction over the Canongate as far as St John’s Cross,
notwithstanding that the Canongate was a separate burgh, which
it continued to be till the middle of the nineteenth century.
Proclamations were made at St John’s Cross as well as at the Mercat
Cross in the High Street, and at it the Canongate burgh officials
joined the city fathers when paying ceremonial visits to Holyrood.