north side. These were not actually removed till 1817. "Long before their destruction," says Mr. Chambers, "the booksellers at least had found the cabined space' of six or seven feet too small for the accommodation of their fast-increasing wares, and removed to larger spots in the stupendous tenements of the square. . . . One of the largest of these booths, adjacent to the north side of the New or High Street, and having a second story, was occupied, during a great part of the last century, by Messrs. Kerr and Dempster, goldsmiths. The first of these gentlemen had been member of Parliament for the city, and was the last citizen who ever held that office. Such was the humility of people's wishes in those days respecting their houses, that this respectable person actually lived, and had a great many children, in the small space of the flat over the shop, and the cellar under it, which was lighted by a grating in the pavement of the square. The subterraneous part of his house was chiefly devoted to the purposes of a nursery, and proved so insalubrious in this capacity, that all his children died successively at a particular age, with the exception of his son Robert, who, being born much more weakly than the rest, had the good luck to be sent to the country to be nursed, and afterwards grew up to be the well-known author of the 'Life of Robert Bruce,' and other works." (Traditions of Edinburgh.) Before the destruction of some old houses, where part of the Advocates' Library now stands, the shop of old George Heriot the goldsmith once stood-the wealthy old man, who built the Hospital named after him, and who plays so prominent a part in Scott's 'Fortunes of Nigel.' It was only seven feet square! From the above sketch the reader will easily see that there is no part of Edinburgh more likely to be rich in indications of the past and the present, than this central portion of the High Street and its adjacent openings. But we must pass on, and pursue our ramble eastward towards Holyrood.

next adjoining to Blackfriars Wynd, was a house
which, just before the Reformation, was occupied by
the Abbot of Melrose; the garden behind it reached
down to the Cowgate. The house was afterwards
occupied by Sir George Mackenzie in the time of
Charles II., and in the eighteenth century by Lord
Strichen. Blackfriars Wynd was
a very centre of
genteel houses two or three centuries ago. At the
junction of it with the High Street stood the house
of Lord President Fentonbarns.

There is a little knot of narrow wynds, near the east end of the south side of High Street, whose history would be well worth examining, if we could know all the changes which have been there witnessed. These include Tweeddale's Close, Foulis Close, and Hyndford's Close. All of them, narrow and insignificant as they now seem, once contained houses for the great and high-born: nay, some of those houses still remain, though much lowered in the rank of their occupants. If we enter Hyndford's Close, a cul-de-sac, we there see a house that has something about it which speaks of aristocratic families in by-gone times: in this house once lived the Earl of Hyndford; then the Earl of Selkirk; and afterwards Dr. Rutherfordwho was Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh, and uncle to Sir Walter Scott. Tweeddale Close, now Tweeddale Court, contains the mansion once occupied by the Marquis of Tweeddale, whose garden extended thence down to the Cowgate. How changed since!--The British Linen Company's Bank afterwards occupied the mansion; and the extensive publishing firm of Oliver and Boyd now occupies both mansion and gardens: the printing-press gives life to a spot where courtly usages were once prevalent. In Foulis Close is a house, once occupied by Lord Foulis ; there is also an old weather-beaten kind of paperwarehouse, where the Waverley Novels were first printed: the window of a room lies invitingly for inspection, where Sir Walter is said to have revised the

found secresy was observed as to the name of the author.

As at present existing, the portion of the High-proof-sheets of his earlier novels, at a time when prostreet from the High Church to the Canongate is broken by the two wide and beautiful openings of the North Bridge and the South Bridge, extending respectively over the two valleys lying on either side of the central ridge. But in older times there were no such wide openings. Nothing occurred but narrow wynds and closes. There were upwards of sixty of these closes in the small distance here indicated: rather more numerous on the northern than on the southern side of the way. The greater part of these, indeed, still remain, but marvellously changed in respect to their inhabitants. Mean and dirty as they now appear, these are the closes which actually lodged the gentry of Edinburgh in past times; while the High Street itself was also occupied by the better classes. fact, there was hardly any saying where the line was drawn between the rich and the poor; for a man of birth and family would often occupy the upper flats of a house, the lower part of which was in very humble hands. At the corner of Strichen's Close,

In

We might linger among these old closes and wynds for days (though the present inhabitants might wonder what on earth we could be about), and still find something new, or rather something old, to say about them. To proceed, however. We find, nearly opposite the closes last described, a jutting bulk of houses which narrow the street considerably. This narrowed portion, extending from the High Street to the junction with the Canongate at Leith Wynd, forms the Nether bow, where was formerly the Netherbow Port, a city gate separating Edinburgh proper from the burgh of Canongate. At the west end of this Netherbow is John Knox's Corner,' where the stern old Reformer is said to have held forth to the people. Let those who wish to obtain a last glimpse of John Knox's house, speed thither forthwith. Its days are numbered. A free kirk' is about to be built on the spot; and Knox's house, with some others adjoining it, are to be levelled with the dust!

A word or two concerning these 'Free Churches.' | could have known what a figure of fun would have The religious ferment which has agitated Scotland for been made of him three centuries afterwards on the the last five or six years, and which is so little under- walls of his own house. Whether this painting and stood in England, is covering the land with new places brightening have been often repeated, we do not know; of worship. When several hundred ministers of the but the effigy, the window, the inscription, the steps, Scotch Church retired from their churches, their the house itself-all look ruinous enough now; and manses, and their stipends, a few years ago, on account very soon they will all be numbered among things of of religious scruples concerning lay patronage, their the past. congregations, or such of them as sympathized in opinions with the outgoing ministers, subscribed to build them new churches and provide them with new stipends. With such earnestness has this work been carried on within the last few years, that new churches are springing up in every quarter. A feeling of pride, or perhaps of affection towards the minister, has in most cases led to a wish that the new church should be as near as practicable to the old one from which the minister seceded. The process has gone far towards doubling the number of churches in Edinburgh: and not only churches, but all the other buildings pertaining to a particular denomination of Christians. There are already, or are to be, a Hall of Assembly, a College, and a Normal School, belonging to the Free Church in Edinburgh, all similar in their general character to the analogous institutions belonging to the old or established Scotch Church, but kept wholly in the hands of the new or Free Church. The religious or moral effects of this last among the many secessions from the Church of Scotland, we have nought here to do with the architectural effects have been to add considerably to the public buildings of Edinburgh; the specimens being in some cases very pretty.

John Knox's house, then, is about to come down. A strange old building it is. There are nooks and corners in the front, salient and re-entering angles, gables sticking out in all directions, windows large and small, which seem to have no sort of order in their arrangement. There is a flight of stone steps leading up outside to what an Englishman would call the firstfloor; there is a sort of shop by the side of these steps, and a shop-cellar under the steps. Over the principal entrance is an inscription, which it is now no easy matter to read, running thus:-" LUFE. GOD. ABOVE. AL. AND YOUR. NICHBOUR. AS. YOUR. SELF." The house is said to have been inhabited by the Abbot of Dunfermline before the Reformation; but when Knox became preacher at the High Church, he came hither to reside. At the extreme corner of the house is stuck up a very rudely-executed effigy of the great Reformer, as if holding forth to the people in the street. About thirty years ago the person who then rented the house, and who carried on the profession of a barber, bedizened up this figure to a degree of smartness quite unparalleled. A red nose, black eyes, white Geneva bands for a cravat, a black gown, a beautifully fringed canopy over his head, bright sunny rays, dark green clouds-all were painted with a very Chinese degree of minuteness. It is said that Knox used to preach to the people from a window near this effigy; but the stern old man would have been rather shocked if he

At a few yards eastward of Knox's house is the north and south avenue, formed by Leith Wynd and St. Mary's Wynd, the former extending to the north valley, and the latter to the south. These marked the eastern limit of the old royalty of Edinburgh; beyond them eastward commenced the Canongate. This Canongate is not so interesting at the present day as the High-street it has suffered a greater depth of fall from the days of its prosperity. The poor houses are many, and the poor people are many. It has not so much bustle as the High Street, and what it has is formed mostly by a working population. Yet is it a place not to be passed over without notice. Altered as its houses now are in appearance, many of them are really the old houses inhabited once by the nobility and clergy of Edinburgh. Here was a house once belonging to Lord Balmerino; there was the Mint of Scotland, afterwards occupied as a residence by the Duchess of Gordon; at one spot stood the house of Wedderburne, afterwards Lord Loughborough; and at another that of the Duke of Queensberry.

Leitch Ritchie gives a capital description of a regular, thorough-going, old-fashioned Edinburgh house, such as the High Street, the Canongate, and the Wynds yet exhibit :-"In these vast edifices, as in Paris, each story forms one or more dwellings, all accessible by a single spiral staircase-Scoticè, a 'turnpike-stair." The floor nearest heaven, called the garret, has the greatest number of subdivisions; and here roost the families of the poor. As we descend, the inmates increase in wealth or rank; each family possessing an outer door,' answering to the street-door of those who grovel on the surface of the earth. The ground-floor is generally a shop or other place of business; and the underground floor is also devoted, not unfrequently, to the same purpose, but in a lower sphere of commerce. . . . The Scottish turnpikes,' like those of Paris, were, and frequently are, dirty in the extreme. The water was carried up on men's shoulders, which may partly account for its scarcity; and besides, as the stair belonged to no one in particular, it was neglected by all; while its convenient obscurity rendered any sins against cleanliness likely to pass without discovery. The various families, thus continually thrown into contact by the necessity of passing and repassing each other's territories, were necessarily well acquainted. To inhabit the same 'land' gave one a sort of right to be known to his neighbour. Besides, the difficulty of access to the street kept up a constant series of borrowings and lendings, which drew still closer the bond of intimacy. Moreover, if you fancy a bevy of from half-a-dozen to a dozen serving lasses

T.

meeting constantly on a common staircase, you may | VIII., frustrated in his plan of marrying the young imagine that no great mystery could be long preserved, as regarded the affairs of the different families."(Scott and Scotland.)