tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47684452827170867992024-03-05T08:31:25.640-08:00Georgian EdinburghColinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-91905131353403493282013-08-08T02:57:00.000-07:002013-08-08T03:04:37.344-07:00Lord Daer: an obituary<div style="background-color: white; padding: 3px 0px 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basil William Douglas-Hamilton, Lord Daer (1764-1794) was far from a typical Scottish aristocrat. Whilst in France in 1789 he was deeply impressed and inspired by the revolutionaries; on his return to Scotland took up the radical cause. Daer joined the corresponding societies then advocating radical political reform and became an important figure in the movement before his early death of tuberculosis. The following lines were written in his honour by his fellow radical Robert Burns:</span><br />
<pre style="color: #434343; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 466px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then from his Lordship I shall learn,
Henceforth to meet with unconcern
One rank as weel's another;
Nae honest, worthy man need care
To meet with noble youthful Daer,
For he but meets a brother.</span></pre>
<pre style="color: #434343; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 466px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following obituary appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine, May, 1795.</span></pre>
<pre style="color: #434343; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 466px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Lord Daer, died of a consumption; at Ivy-Bridge, Devon; and was buried at Exeter. To those unacquainted with his Lordship, it is not easy to convey an adequate idea of his character. Though heir-apparent of a princely fortune, he had never listened to the siren voice, nor tasted the intoxicating cup, of Pleasure. His active mind, eagerly engaged in the pursuits of business, submitted with impatience to that repose which was necessary to preserve its vigour. Nothing could equal the felicity with which he conceived the ardour with which he pursued, and the judgment he displayed in accomplishing, the multifarious objects which occupied his attention, Of every subject which had fallen under his notice he had a complete and thorough acquaintance; and, as the sphere of his observation was enlarged, his knowledge was not only accurate but extensive. In that public business, which more immediately concerned the two counties in which his father’s estate was situated, his Lordship had a large and important share. His zeal and fidelity in the discharge of every public duty secured the esteem and approbation of all. In tracing out the line of’ a. new road, or improving the direction of an old one, the ability of his Lordship was unrivaled. Of his superiority in this respect, the counties of Wigtown and Kirkcudbright afford many decisive monuments.</span></pre>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Disinterested and patriotic, his sacrifices to public convenience were worthy of public gratitude. He spared not his choicest fields when a road could be improved by traversing them. Of almost every institution formed to extend the limits of human knowledge, or to promote the interests of mankind, his Lordship was a member; and to every public undertaking his subscriptions were liberal and exemplary. Over his political character, while the minds of men are heated by party spirit, it may be proper to throw a veil. Though his prudence was justly called in question, yet the purity of his intentions was superior to suspicion. In every enterprize he embarked with invincible zeal; and when the object was inexpedient, it was some time before he could discover his mistake. As a public speaker, his matter was judicious, his meth6d conspicuous, and his manner insinuating and persuasive. Though you were not dazzled by the splendour of his eloquence, you were convinced by the masculine strength of his arguments, and the clearness with which he treated his subject. In his intercourse with the world he was modest, courteous, and easy. He could descend from the dignity of his rank, without impairing the dignity of his character. In every social and domestic relation, his private virtues shone with a mild and attractive lustre. Nothing could discompose the tranquillity of his temper, or sour the natural sweetness of his manners. A correspondent says he has reason to believe that the late Lord Daer broke off all connexion with the men he had formerly acted with, as soon as he discovered their motives to be less pure and patriotic that his own; and that, for some time before his death, he had renounced all communication with Democrats. How glorious it would be for men, who act from principles thus to abjure their errors as soon as discovered, and not continue a mischievous connexion through false pride and shame.'</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Gentleman’s Magazine for Nov. 1794 had contained the following short notice of Lord Daer’s death:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lately on his way to the island of Madeira for the recovery of his health, in the 29th year of his age, Basil William Lord Daer, eldest son of the Earl of Selkirk, and late a member of the Edinburgh Convention.</span></div>
Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-28961710125748402542013-07-26T06:16:00.001-07:002013-07-27T02:00:50.808-07:00Three Edinburgh BucksJohn Kay (1742-1826) was a Scottish caricaturist and engraver of striking originality whose quirky observations offer insights into the culture of Edinburgh in the Georgian period. The city certainly seems to have had no shortage of eccentric characters, and this blog has already featured a few. Pictured below is his engraving 'Three Edinburgh Bucks' showing three well-known Edinburgh 'worthies', The Daft Highland Laird, John Dhu, and Jamie Duff.<br />
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The figure on the left holding a walking stick topped by a carving of his own head is James Robertson of Kincraigie, better known locally as The Daft Highland Laird. This gentleman was said to have gone mad whilst incarcerated in the Tolbooth as a supporter of the Jacobite cause, and he was released when the authorities decided he was harmless. Supported by a grant from his family, he lived on in Edinburgh until 1790. One of this man's eccentricities was to carve a series of walking sticks featuring the heads of well-known local people. In the caricature below Kay portrays him showing a stick with two such heads, those of James Graham (a quack doctor) and Edinburgh University's Principal Robertson, to one Dr Glen, who seems little impressed, it has to be said.</div>
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In the 'Three Edinburgh Bucks' engraving (top image) the figure in the centre is John Dow or Dhu, Corporal of the Edinburgh Town Guard. This organisation was the only means of policing in the city during the eighteenth century and was comprised mainly of veteran highlanders retired from the military. They were equipped with muskets by day and halberds (see another Kay depiction of John Dhu below) by night. Sir Walter Scott described John Dhu as one of the fiercest-looking fellows he had ever seen. Despite their ferocious aspect and formidable weaponry, apparently the Town Guard were the object of widespread ridicule. It cannot have helped their effectiveness that many of the Town Guard could speak only Gaelic. The formation of a city police force in 1805 rendered the Town Guard obsolete, and they were disbanded.</div>
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In the 'Three Edinburgh Bucks' engraving the figure on the right is that of Jamie Duff, another local eccentric and street-dweller. Known far and wide as Daft Jamie, the most conspicuously unusual aspect of this character was his obssessive habit of 'crashing' funerals. Scottish funerals were very often occasions when, after the deceased was laid to rest, whisky was imbibed, and it may be surmised that Jamie was perhaps not quite as daft as many believed. According to one contemporary "no solemnity of that kind could take place in the city without being graced by his presence... by keeping a sharp look-out for prospective funerals, Jamie succeeded in securing almost all the enjoyment which the mortality of the city was capable of affording." ¹ Another nickname Jamie enjoyed was Baillie Duff, referring to the mock chain of office he sometimes wore on the streets; a baillie was a civic officer in Scottish burghs, and perhaps Jamie felt that his brass chain elevated his lowly status. Below is another Kay engraving of this man, who died in 1788.</div>
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Notes<br />
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1. Kay's Originals (1838),Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-80477518707018448222013-06-25T12:58:00.001-07:002013-06-27T11:24:15.197-07:00Thomas Muir: First President of the Scottish Republic<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The title of this post is mischevious, as of course Scotland did not become a republic at any time. However, in the late eighteenth century there were many Scots who desired that political outcome, and the man they wanted for their first president was Thomas Muir of Huntershill.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Thomas
Muir was born in Glasgow in 1765, the only son of a successful
merchant. He was afforded the best education that was available, and
after matriculating at Glasgow University at the age of twelve he
took up a study of Divinity. He graduated M.A. in 1782 aged
seventeen, and subsequently came under the influence of John Millar
of Millheugh, Professor of Civil Law. The next year, abandoning
Divinity, he was accepted as a student in Millar's classes on Law and
Government.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">John
Millar deserves far wider fame today than he enjoys. A pupil of Adam
Smith, David Hume and Lord Kames, he was regarded in his day as
Scotland's supreme public lecturer, and this in an age where Scotland
did not lack men of genius. In politics Millar was a Republican
Whig and one of the most scathing critics of the so-called
‘benevolent despotism’ of Henry Dundas. His profound influence on
the young Thomas Muir is quite evident.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
young Muir's fiery democratic leanings first came to notice in 1784,
when Muir excluded himself from the University on principle, over the
mistreatment of an esteemed member of staff. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At
the beginning of the new academic year, Muir with the assistance of
Professor Millar, obtained a place at Edinburgh University under the
Whig Professor of Law, John Wylde. Here he completed his studies and
having passed his Bar examinations was admitted to the Faculty of
Advocates in 1787 at the age of 22.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">After
championing his local congregation in Cadder, who resented the
efforts of the local landowner to install his own choice of minister,
Muir acquired a reputation as a 'man of the people', a man of
principle who would willing adopt the cause of the underdog against
the powerful elites in Scotland, especially those within government.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
year 1789 saw the outbreak of the French Revolution, and Thomas Muir
like so many Britons of a liberal persuasion had great hopes that in
time all of Europe's monarchies would follow the course first
established in America and become popular democracies. Clubs and
societies were born across the country to promote the cause of
political reform, and a broad-based movement was established. In
Scotland, Thomas Muir helped to draw up a framework for an umbrella
organisation to bring these groups together, and in July 1792 the
Scottish Association of the Friends of the People was born. On the
21st November, Muir, having been elected Vice-President of the
movement at the Edinburgh monthly meeting, called for a General
Convention of the corresponding societies of England and Ireland to
be held there in December. This development troubled the British
government deeply; the Edinburgh General Convention was seen as a
direct threat to the established order in Britain. Government spies
were directed to penetrate the proceedings, and only days after the
Convention closed Thomas Muir among others was arrested on a charge
of sedition.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Muir
refused to answer the officiating magistrate's questions and was
bailed, and then journeyed to London to report on the plight of the
Scottish radicals to their colleagues there. It was at this point
that word arrived of the planned execution of Louis XVI, and Muir
agreed to journey to Paris as part of a delegation aimed at
dissuading the French revolutionaries from their course. Arriving too
late to prevent the king's death, Thomas Muir was nevertheless
welcomed and toasted by the leading members of the Convention. Word
of his whereabouts had obviously reached the Scottish Lord Advocate,
Robert Dundas, for Dundas now forwarded the date for Muir's trial by
two months, making a timely appearance impossible for him. On his
return to Scotland he was arrested at once, and became the principal
victim of a series of show trials in Edinburgh that became notorious
examples of the political abuse of the judicial process.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Before
the Scottish version of Judge Jeffries, the cynical Lord Braxfield,
and a carefully chosen jury of fervid anti-reformers (their selection
was possible under Scots law), the outcome of the trials were never
in doubt. Muir's crime was that he had dared to suggest that there
might be ways to improve the British system of government, namely by
widening the franchise to include men of less privileged classes than
Braxfield's own. Muir's eloquent and thoroughly convincing defence
was dismissed, and he was sentenced, with others, to fourteen
years deportation to New Holland, virtually a death sentence at that
time.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In
a disgraceful show trial in Edinburgh in 1794, Thomas Muir was found
guilty of the charge of sedition and sentenced to fourteen years
transportation to New Holland. Muir was moved temporarily to a Royal
Navy vessel, for fear of attempted rescue, before being sent on to
the notorious prison hulks at Woolwich and then the even more
infamous Newgate. In May he and other Scottish radical 'martyrs' were
embarked upon a vessel named 'Surprise' (no, not that one) and sent
on the six month voyage to Australia. Arriving in reasonable health,
Muir managed to avoid the worst of the dreadful conditions there by
obtaining a small holding of land away from the main colony, where
disease carried so many away. Muir did not lack supporters worldwide,
and his status enabled him to escape in February 1796 by boarding an
American trading vessel, the 'Otter'.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It
is sometimes speculated that the Otter's presence at new Holland was
no coincidence, and even that it was there on President Washington's
express instructions. Whilst there has been no evidence found to
support these claims, it is certainly true that the vessel's master,
one Ebenezer Dodd, put himself at risk in taking him away. A Royal
Navy frigate, from which the slow-sailing Otter would not have been
able to escape, was at nearby Port Jackson.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Muir's
escape and subsequent adventures read like something from the pages
of Forrester or O'Brian. By night, Muir and his two convict servants
paddled a dinghy silently past the frigate, under the noses of the
watch, and then at length to the Otter. A long voyage across the
Pacific followed, to Nootka Sound near Vancouver Island, an area then
claimed by Spain. Encountering a Spanish vessel there, Muir learned
from her captain that another Royal Navy vessel, the Providence, was
in those waters, actively searching for him. He persuaded the
Spaniard to take him aboard, and arrived eventually at Monterrey in
Mexico, then another Spanish possession, where the Governor welcomed
him and housed him in his own palace. However, Muir's request to be
permitted to pass through Spanish territories to the United States
was turned down by the Viceroy, who no doubt feared creating an
international incident. Instead, he was led away to Mexico City,
where he was detained under guard. The Viceroy decided at length to
send Muir to Spain, so that the responsibility for any decision made
would not be his.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Muir
reached Vera Cruz on Mexico's east coast in October 1796, and was
taken to Havana, Cuba, to await transportation. Here he attempted to
escape into the hands of visiting American ships, but was discovered
and imprisoned in the dungeons of the military fortress for three
months. Eventually he was put onto a Spanish ship, the Ninfa, bound
for Cadiz in Spain. Reaching that port in March 1797, it was
discovered that it was being blockaded by a detachment of British men
o' war, who quickly confronted the Ninfa. After a three hour chase,
during which a companion Spanish ship was deliberately scuttled in
order to avoid its cargo of bullion falling into British hands,
Muir's vessel was forced to turn and fight. The Ninfa was badly
damaged in the battle and was forced to strike its colours, and in
the action Muir was severely wounded by a cannonball which shattered
his face and damaged both his eyes. The British ships, learning of
his presence, hunted for Muir among the survivors, but perhaps
because of his injuries he was not recognised and he was allowed
ashore with the other wounded seamen.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Thomas
Muir was put ashore at Cadiz in April 1797 and spent months
languishing there, awaiting word from the Spanish authorities on his
fate. Eventually, in September, they acceded to representations from
the <i>Directoire </i>that he be allowed to travel to
revolutionary France. Weakened by his injuries, he journeyed overland
via Madrid, reaching Bordeaux in early November. His arrival there
was celebrated with great enthusiasm, for by now news of his survival
after so many adversities had reached the radical liberals and
democrats of Europe, who hailed him as a 'Hero of the Revolution'. He
reached Paris in the following February, where public acclaim and
celebrations reached new heights.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">When
word of Muir's arrival in Europe reached Scotland, the effect in his
homeland was electrifying. By now the Scottish radicals, and
especially the virulent and growing clandestine radical organisation
the United Scotsmen, had come to regard him as their movement's most
prominent and able leader, and their most famous martyr. 1797 was the
year the Scottish radicals conspired with the republican leaders of
Europe in a scheme that might have changed European history had it
come about. The plan was for nothing less than the landing of 50,000
troops of the Batavian Republic in lowland Scotland. The Dutch fleet
assembled in the Texel was ready to transport them, and with the
Royal Navy in disarray at that time, the subject of mutinies at the
Nore and Spithead, there were high hopes of their getting across the
North Sea to the Firth of Forth. The troops were to land and seize
the capital, initiating a general rising across Scotland, a very
realistic prospect with the Militia Act of that year creating
outbreaks of resistence in even the country districts. The United
Scotsman planned to create a Scottish Republic with Thomas Muir as
its first President, and the Revolution would be carried into Ireland
and then England thereafter. Bad weather delayed the scheme, and in
the event the Royal Navy under Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch
fleet, against all the odds, at the Battle of Camperdown in October
1797, and the invasion plans were placed on hold.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Learning
of the strength of radicalism in Scotland after reaching Paris, Muir
began consulting with Scottish exiles and emissaries there. However,
his health had never recovered from the devastating injuries he
incurred off Cadiz. He fell into decline, and died suddenly in
Chantilly on 26 January 1799, alone in his cottage whilst awaiting
his political colleagues. <span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">A
monument to Thomas Muir and the other Scottish radical 'martyrs', so
notoriously victimised in a series of rigged show trials in the
1790s, was erected in the Calton cemetery in Edinburgh in 1844
and can be seen there today. The other men celebrated there are
Thomas Fyshe Palmer, William Skirving, Maurice Margarot and Joseph
Gerrald.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">©
Colin Macaulay 2013</span></span></span></div>
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Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-1210866781889600582013-06-18T04:03:00.003-07:002013-06-18T04:03:50.952-07:00Old Calton Cemetery; memorials to philosophers and political martyrsCalton was a village lying on the western slopes of Calton Hill in what is now central Edinburgh. Before 1718 its villagers buried their dead at South Leith Parish Church, the only graveyard available to them and some 3km distant. In that year half an acre of ground close by the village was purchased from feudal superior Lord Balmerino by the Society of the Incorporated Trades of Calton to create a graveyard, and this was gradually expanded throughout the eighteenth century.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Old Calton Cemetery</span><br />
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In the early nineteenth century Edinburgh was growing and developing rapidly. A new road, named Waterloo Place after the contemporary Allied victory, was built between 1815 and 1819 which cut through the graveyard, forcing the removal of graves and human remains to the New Calton Cemetery a short distance to the east. Perhaps surprisingly, this process was carried out with some sensitivity, the remains being carefully extracted and wrapped before reburial and many of the larger headstones relocated.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> The Hume mausoleum</span><br />
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Today a small section of the Old Calton Cemetery remains on the north side of Waterloo Place, cut off by the new road, and many of the older headstones survive in the main part. The cemetery has been closed to burials since 1869, but it is now in the care of the City of Edinburgh Council and is permanently open to the public. It is perhaps not the safest place to visit after dark (being at those hours the frequent refuge of various somewhat antisocial types!) but a daylight visit is recommended as full of historical interest. Among the memorials you will find those of the philosopher David Hume, the publisher William Blackwood, civil engineer Robert Stephenson, actors Charles Mackay and William Woods, architect John Burn, clergyman Dr Robert Candlish and mathematician John Playfair.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Captain Gray's memorial</span><br />
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One of the most interesting stones is that of Captain John Gray, erected about 1760 in memory of his parents. It is inscribed with his name and then a carved anchor, beneath which is a carving of a 3-masted ship, flying the ensign, shown in bold relief. Down the left side of the stone is a skull and bearded, male head wearing a cap (his father). From the mouth spill two ribbons, that link symbols of death: a scythe crossed with another implement (not recognisable) and crossed bones. Down the right side is a female head, wearing a bonnet (his mother). Ribbons from the bonnet link again to symbols of death: a spade crossed with a coffin, and again crossed bones (specifically thigh bones).<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Scottish-American soldiers monument</span><br />
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An impressive memorial to the Scottish-born fallen of the American Civil War, crowned by a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, stands in a focal point in the graveyard. This was erected in 1893, the first statue of an American president erected outside of the United States. Of even more interest to this blogger however is the monument to the Scottish political martyrs Thomas Muir, Thomas Fyshe-Palmer, William Skirving, Maurice Margarot, and Joseph Gerrald. These men were sentenced to be transported to the New South Wales penal colony in 1793 for daring to express their political beliefs. Their crime in the eyes of the judges was advocate universal suffrage, and the rights of the common man to control his destiny, i.e. voting rights for all, not just landowners. Most of these men did not survive their exile, which at that time amounted to a death sentence, and the injustice dealt to these men by a Scottish court was recognised by the Friends of Parliamentary Reform in England and Scotland who built this huge obelisk in 1844.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Martyrs' Monument, with Nelson Monument in background</span><br />
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For more on the Scottish political martyrs, especially Thomas Muir, see earlier posts on this blog.<br />
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<br />Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-41915733590350444932013-03-06T03:10:00.003-08:002013-03-06T03:16:53.864-08:00The Execution of Robert Watt, 1794<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Robert Watt was a political radical who was found guilty of high treason by the Edinburgh authorities in 1794 after a revolutionary plot to capture the capital cities of Scotland, Ireland and England was uncovered.¹ The following is a transcription of an account of his execution in Edinburgh published in the Scots Magazine for that year. ²</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">"EXECUTION OF ROBERT WATT"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">"Robert Watt, convicted of high treason, was executed at the west end of the Luckenbooths</span><span style="line-height: 20px;">, pursuant to his sentence. About half past one o'clock, the two junior Magistrates,</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"> and the Rev. Principal Baird walked from the Council Chambers to the Castlehill, preceded by the city constables, and town officers, and the city guard. When they reached the Water-house (the limits of the burgh), they were met by the procession from the Castle, which was in the following order: Two Chief Constables of the shire of Edinburgh, in black, with batons, two county constables, with batons. The Sheriff-Depute and Sheriff-Substitute, dressed in black, with white gloves and white rods. Six county constables, two and two, with batons The hurdle painted black (drawn by a white horse), in which were seated the executioner, dressed in black, with the axe in his hand, and the criminal drawn backwards, and tied to the hurdle. Six under constables on each side of the hurdle - twelve on the outside of them, and twenty in the rear. Two hundred of the Argyleshire fencibles keeping off the mob, walking the dead march from the Castle to the Water-house."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">"Having entered the Tolbooth, the criminal, soon after, attended by the Sheriffs and Magistrates, came out upon the scaffold, where he was assisted in his devotions by Principal Baird. About a quarter before three, he ascended the platform: but craving some longer indulgence, he came down, and kneeling, prayed with much fervency, for a short time, when he again mounted, and having dropped a handkerchief as the signal, the platform dropped, about three o'clock."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">"When the body had hung about thirty-two minutes, it was cut down lifeless, and placed on a table The executioner then came forward with a large axe, and in two strokes severed the head from the body. The head having been received in a basket prepared for the purpose, was afterwards, in the usual form, held up by the executioner, who pronounced 'This is the head of a traitor.'"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">"This execution was conducted with much regularity, and the procession in particular was highly solemn and impressive. Watt himself exhibited a picture of the most abject dejection. He was wrapt (sic) up in a great coat, a red nightcap, which on the platform he exchanged for a white one, with a round hat, his stockings hanging loose, and his whole appearance wretched in the extreme The croud (sic) on this occasion was slow in collecting, and though numerous at last, scarcely amounted to what has appeared at former remarkable executions."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Notes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">1. For a fuller account of Watt, see the blog post "Robert Watt: radical or government spy?" below, dated 28 March 2012.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">2. The Scots Magazine, January 1794.</span></div>
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Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-8030590732918125232013-01-04T06:40:00.000-08:002013-01-04T06:40:01.844-08:00Harry the Ninth, King of ScotlandFollowing the political settlement of the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland lost its political identity whilst retaining only three social institutions that distinguished it from the rest of Britain; church, law and education. In political terms Scotland after 1707 was run very much as a county of England, with a representation in parliament less than that of Cornwall. Yet the particular problem posed by Scotland was understood well at Westminster, and during the eighteenth century the running of the country was effectively devolved to an oligarchy of law lords, and at times even to a single man. Under the premiership of William Pitt the Younger this supreme power fell upon Henry Dundas, created Viscount Melville in 1804. For over thirty years this man held all political power in Scotland, and all office and preferment came through him; judges, senior legal offices, sheriffs, Customs and Excise officials, university professors, and clergy all held their places through his approval. In this period Dundas was familiarly known in his fiefdom as 'Harry the Ninth'.<br />
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Henry Dundas was born in Dalkeith, Midlothian in 1742, the fourth son of Robert Dundas, Lord President of the Court of Session. The Dundas family had already held senior judicial and political offices for some generations; Henry's great-great-grandfather Sir James Dundas had governed Berwick-Upon-Tweed under King James VI and I. Henry's early career was conventional for his status and times. He attended the Royal High School and Edinburgh University, became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in the city in 1763 and then through family influence was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland in 1766. However his legal career was largely relinquished after his appointment as Lord Advocate in 1775. The Dundas family were high Tories, and under the political system of the day Henry as Lord Advocate had no trouble running Scotland exactly as the Tory leadership desired. The franchise was restricted to males of a certain established income (Scotland's electorate remained below 5,000 until the Reform Act of 1832), and it was not difficult to ensure that all Scottish MPs would toe the family line.<br />
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Under Dundas's jurisdiction there was in fact no representation of the people. With Town Councils self-elected and self-perpetuating, the Church of Scotland established and without rival, juries invariably voting according to the direction of the county sheriffs, and prosecuting counsels picked by judges for their likely submission to the establishment, all was imposed from above. There were no political meetings, and had any been attempted official revulsion would have seen them quickly dispersed. The press was restricted to a handful of journals. The long-established <i>Caledonian Mercury, Scots Magazine</i> and <i>Courant </i>carefully observed the establishment line, and those few new publications which failed to do likewise, such as the <i>Gazeteer </i>which reported the activities of the Friends of the People in 1792, were quickly suppressed. The fate of the Friends of the People and its leaders are dealt with elsewhere in this blog under the posts on Thomas Muir of Huntershill, but it is worth mentioning here that Dundas's suppression of this peaceful movement included brute force, show trials, rigged juries and Draconian sentences, all easily arranged under a system he controlled absolutely. The state suppression of political dissent in Britain eventually led to political radicalism being driven underground, and resulted in the development of fully blown revolutionary organisations such as the United Irishmen and United Scotsmen in the late 1790s. In Scotland the absolute control of the state was seen to be struggling with widespread popular discontent by 1806, even within the political establishment, when Lady Minto wrote:<br />
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<i>'Scotland will be a thorn in the side of government till it is newly represented. This whole country considers Lord Melville [ie Henry Dundas] as its chief; and well they may, after 30 years' reign and entire power.'</i>¹<br />
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During this 30 year reign 'King Harry' held a number of political appointments, beginning with Member of Parliament for Midlothian in 1774. He was a loyal supporter and close confidant of Pitt the Younger, becoming Home Secretary in 1791, War Secretary in 1794, and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1804. However, suspicion fell upon Dundas in his role at the Admiralty, and he was impeached in 1806 for the misappropriation of public monies. Although the result was an acquittal, Dundas never again held public office. He had been begging Pitt for some years to be allowed to retire on health grounds, and died in 1811 aged 69. A monument to Dundas, loosely modelled on Trajan's Column in Rome, stands in the centre of St Andrews Square in Edinburgh, completed in 1828.<br />
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¹ Lady Minto to Lord Minto, 30 May 1806,<i> Life & Letters of Gilbert Elliot, 1st Earl of Minto, from 1751 to 1806</i> (London, 1874), III, 383f.<br />
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<br />Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-6478269772098477142012-11-17T13:12:00.001-08:002012-11-17T13:17:51.772-08:00 Edinburgh's Theatre Royal in the Georgian periodEighteenth century Edinburgh was late in welcoming the theatre, considering its worldwide reputation even then as a centre for learning and the arts. Early attempts to stage dramatics within the city's limits fell foul of the authorities, spiritual as well as temporal, as theatre was considered by the Church of Scotland as a low, immoral enterprise likely to lead towards sin. It was not until 1767 that permission was granted to an actor/manager named David Ross to erect a purpose-made venue in the aptly-named Shakespeare Square at the eastern end of Princes Street. This building was eventually demolished in 1859 to make way for the new General Post Office (now Waverley Gate, home of Creative Scotland), but in the ninety years of its life the Theatre Royal played a central role in the society of Georgian Edinburgh.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Edinburgh's first theatre, the Theatre Royal</span></div>
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James Boswell wrote a prologue on the occasion of the first theatrical performance in 1769, in which he made clear where the blame lay for the late arrival of this event:</div>
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<i>In every distant clime Great Britain knows,</i></div>
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<i>The Thistle springs promiscuous with the Rose,</i></div>
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<i>While in all points with other lands she vied,</i></div>
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<i>The stage alone to Scotland was denied;</i></div>
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<i>Mistaken zeal, in times of darkness bred,</i></div>
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<i>O'er the best minds its gloomy vapours spread:</i></div>
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<i>Taste and religion were suppos'd at strife,</i></div>
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<i>And 'twas a sin - to view this glass of life!</i></div>
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<i>When the Muse ventur'd the ungracious task,</i></div>
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<i>To play elusive with unlicens'd mask,</i></div>
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<i>Mirth was restrain'd by statutory awe,</i></div>
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<i>And tragic greatness fear'd the scourge of law.</i></div>
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David Ross lacked the financial resources to stage plays in the style then current in London, but his successors gradually built a large and appreciative theatre-going public. Samuel Foote showed the potential on 1770 by making over a thousand pounds in a single winter season, despite vast expenditure on scenery and high quality actors. Thereafter the theatre's long-term success was assured, though not all visiting Thespians found the audiences easy to win over. In May 1784 the darling of London audiences, Sarah Siddons, made her first appearance on the Edinburgh stage. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Portrait of Sarah Siddons, by Gainsborough (1785)</span></div>
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Edinburgh's citizens, in contrast to those of London and other long-established centres of theatre-going, traditionally held back their applause until they had determined that that it was fully merited. For some time the lady performed to total silence, as if, as she said later, she were speaking to stones. At length, in a particularly moving speech, she threw herself into it heart and soul. She ended, and paused. The audience was still silent... then suddenly a single voice was raised: 'That's no bad!' A gale of laughter convulsed the house, followed by storms of applause. ¹</div>
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In 1794, at the height of the political turmoil generated by the French and American Revolutions and the rise of popular democracy, the Theatre Royal became the venue of scenes that staid Edinburgh had not seen since the Porteous Riots of 1736. A performance of a play titled King Charles the First (probably based upon Perinchief's hagiographical work) was interrupted when a group of hecklers began hissing any sentiment in favour of the monarchy and wildly applauding any that opposed it. At length some others in the audience caused the theatre band to play the national anthem, thus requiring everyone present to stand bareheaded. The hecklers would not comply and though they were at length ejected, for several successive performances the theatre was attended by large numbers of political radicals and revolutionaries, some of them apparently Irish medical students; the United Irishmen were then on the ascendancy, and a similar organisation was in the process of taking root in Scotland. There to meet them were similarly large numbers of constitutionalists and Tories, also armed. One of the latter was the young advocate Walter Scott, still with no idea of his destiny as a novelist, who was directly involved in the brutal fighting which took place in the theatre on the Saturday of the final performance, in which many men were injured and which continued for some time in the street outside.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Sir Walter Scott, by Raeburn (1822)</span></div>
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Yet such events were rare enough, and for most Theatre Royal performances the drama was confined to the stage. Some idea of the nature and variety of the plays produced at the Theatre Royal in the early nineteenth century can be gained by browsing the National Library of Scotland's Playbills of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh: <a href="http://digital.nls.uk/playbills/index.html">http://digital.nls.uk/playbills/index.html</a></div>
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¹ Cockburn, Henry, Lord, <i>Memorials of his Time</i>, Edinburgh, 1874.</div>
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Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-59273434035875078682012-10-31T08:08:00.001-07:002012-10-31T08:08:27.996-07:00John Rennie and the Construction of Leith DocksLeith throughout the medieval and early modern periods was the port of Scotland's capital city and consequently of vital importance to the Scottish economy. Leith was the principal gateway in and out of the country. It was the main point of export for eastern Scotland's goods and manufactures, including wool, fish, glass, iron and metal wares, as well as the place where wines, timber, hemp and tar arrived from abroad. Trade increased dramatically in the later 18th century, mainly as a result of the demand created by the nascent Industrial Revolution, and in addition to the vessels devoted to trade there were many involved in the fishing and whaling industries. By 1794, it was recorded that there were 144 vessels belonging to the port of Leith, with a gross tonnage of 15, 504, and by this time it had become abundantly clear that the facilities offered by the port were utterly inadequate to handle the business passing through it.<br />
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At this date Leith had no dock at all; the harbour consisted of the narrow quayed confines of the mouth of the Water of Leith, the vessels tying up to the quays to load and unload, often three-deep on either bank with the goods passing across two strange decks to reach their destinations. In addition, the river brought silt down to the bar across the mouth of the port, so that access for any but the smallest vessels was restricted to the hours immediately on either side of high tide. As if these problems were not enough, boat-building yards occupied the upper part of the harbour, further restricting access.<br />
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In recognition of the need for the improvement of the port's maritime accommodation, locally-born civil engineer John Rennie was asked by Edinburgh's city fathers to design a new dockyard on the most advanced principles. Rennie had already become known for the construction of important canals, including the Lancaster Canal and the Kennet and Avon. His design at Leith was for what became known as the Old East and West Docks, and included the first wet docks to be built in Scotland as well as two dry docks. The work was begun in 1800 and was carried out in two phases, being completed in 1817. The result was a modern, permanently accessible dockyard with accommodation for at least 150 vessels of the size then generally employed at Leith, ie from about 100 to 200 tons. A good impression of the general scheme can be gained from this map dated 1840 (below).<br />
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Rennie had also drawn up plans to extend the docks to the west in the direction of Newhaven by land reclamation, but this idea was not realised until the far more recent development of the area at the close of the 20th century. Rennie firstly built the 10.4 m wide, 44.2m long and 7m deep entrance lock with a 4m sill depth and and the East Dock, which measured 228.6m by 91.4m. Between 1810 and 1817 the West Dock was built with the same dimensions.<br />
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The development saved Leith from extinction as a major Scottish port, and after the hiatus of the Napoleonic Wars trade continued to boom during the 19th century, so much so that further improvements at Leith followed. Both the Eastern and Western Piers were considerably extended between 1826 and 1829, and the Victoria Dock was added between 1846 and 1852. About 1850, Rennie's original wooden swing bridge at the East Dock entrance was replaced by an iron structure which can still be seen, but the Old East and West Docks were filled in during later development work.<br />
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John Rennie went on to design build the Royal Ireland Canal which linked Dublin with the Shannon, the Crinan Canal, Waterloo Bridge, London Bridge (completed after his death), Southwark Bridge and Old Vauxhall Bridge as well as the docks at Hull, Liverpool,Greenock and the East India and West India Docks in London. He was also responsible for the breakwater at Plymouth Sound, which measures over a mile in length and was built in 20m of seawater, almost certainly the most colossal civil engineering project of the Georgian period. Rennie died aged 60 in London in 1821 and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-25042208684195750802012-08-15T06:17:00.000-07:002012-08-16T12:51:23.122-07:00Sir Walter Scott: Inventor of the Scotland of Romance<br />
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Today is the 241st anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter
Scott. A full appraisal of the importance of any author is impossible within the
limits of a blog post, but this is particularly true of Scott. This page will
confine itself to a brief biography, an assessment of his impact on literature,
and some links to other sources.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Scott was born on August 15, 1771 in
College Wynd, Edinburgh. He was the ninth child of Walter Scott, Writer to the
Signet, and Anne Rutherford, but five of his siblings had already died in
infancy, and a sixth, Barbara, was to die when he was five months old. In
infancy Scott contracted polio, the effects of which made him lame in his right
leg for life. In an attempt to cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in
the rural Borders region at his paternal grandparents' farm, where he was
taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and he learned from her the speech patterns
and many of the tales and legends that characterised much of his work. Scott
never lost his early fascination with the folk tales and histories of Scotland’s
outlying places, and travelled the countryside to collect them throughout his
younger adulthood. After returning to Edinburgh for his education at the Royal
High School and the University, Scott qualified as a lawyer, joining the
Faculty of Advocates in 1792.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first sign of Scott’s literary interest in Scottish history
and folk tales came in 1802 with the publication of a three-volume set of
collected ballads, <i>The Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border</i>. This work immediately captured the public imagination and
established its Scott’s reputation as a writer, and it was followed by <i>Marmion</i> in 1808, which contains the
famous lines:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Yet Clare's sharp
questions must I shun<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Must separate
Constance from the nun<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Oh! what a tangled web
we weave<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>When first we practice
to deceive!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>A Palmer too! No
wonder why<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>I felt rebuked beneath
his eye.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Although Scott had attained celebrity through his poetry, he
soon tried his hand at documenting his researches into the oral tradition of
the Scottish Borders in prose fiction – stories and novels. In 1814, in an
innovative and astute action, he wrote and published his first novel, Waverley,
a tale of the Jacobite rising of 1745, and it was followed by a string of other
historical novels with Scottish settings, collectively known now as the
Waverley Novels. These included Guy Mannering (1815), The Antiquary (1816), Rob
Roy (1817), and Ivanhoe (1819), and were published anonymously, as at the time novels
were considered aesthetically inferior to poetry (above all to such classical
genres as the epic or poetic tragedy) as a mimetic vehicle for portraying
historical events. Such was the popularity of these works that by 1827 Scott was happy to abandon anonymity and publish under his own name. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Scott's fame grew as his explorations and interpretations of
Scottish history and society captured popular imagination. Impressed by this,
the Prince Regent (the future George IV) gave Scott permission to search for
the fabled but long-lost Crown Jewels ("Honours of Scotland"), which
during the years of the Protectorate under Cromwell had been squirrelled away
and had last been used to crown Charles II. In 1818, Scott and a small team of
military men unearthed the honours from the depths of Edinburgh Castle. A
grateful Prince Regent granted Scott the title of baronet. Later, after
George's accession to the throne, the city government of Edinburgh invited
Scott, at the King's behest, to stage-manage the King's entry into Edinburgh.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb_qrnwgqvCwt-js311ERfoJ9flW3Son1vRtOQTSd1p9GtJZine68XnclcYKHiMpgdmkXfaqMn8Y4cWqT23eAcXNAeoFOgZTo-DpEs88WriEbK29G9ZKg3_Rq9c3NJDh4LfYtSVQ29Tad/s1600/george_iv_1762__1830-_reigned_as_regent_1811__1820_as_king_1820__1830-_satirical_print_entitled_the_first_laird_in_aw_scotia_etc_unknown_artist_scottish_national_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb_qrnwgqvCwt-js311ERfoJ9flW3Son1vRtOQTSd1p9GtJZine68XnclcYKHiMpgdmkXfaqMn8Y4cWqT23eAcXNAeoFOgZTo-DpEs88WriEbK29G9ZKg3_Rq9c3NJDh4LfYtSVQ29Tad/s1600/george_iv_1762__1830-_reigned_as_regent_1811__1820_as_king_1820__1830-_satirical_print_entitled_the_first_laird_in_aw_scotia_etc_unknown_artist_scottish_national_portrait.jpg" /></a></div>
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With only three weeks for planning and execution, Scott
created a spectacular and comprehensive pageant, designed not only to impress
the King, but also in some way to heal the rifts that had previously
destabilised Scots society. He used the event to contribute to the drawing of a
line under an old world that pitched his homeland into regular bouts of bloody
strife. He, along with his 'production team', mounted what in modern days could
be termed a PR event, in which the rather obese King was dressed in tartan
(worn over pink tights), and was greeted by his people, many of whom were also
dressed in similar tartan ceremonial dress. This form of dress, previously
proscribed after the 1745 rebellion against the English, subsequently became
one of the seminal, potent and ubiquitous symbols of Scottish identity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1825 and 1826, a banking crisis swept through the cities
of London and Edinburgh. The Ballantyne printing business, in which he was
heavily invested, crashed, resulting in his being very publicly ruined. Rather
than declare himself bankrupt, he determined to write his way out of debt. He
kept up his prodigious output of fiction, as well as producing a biography of
Napoleon Bonaparte, until 1831. By then his health was failing. Notwithstanding
this, he undertook a grand tour of Europe, being welcomed and celebrated
wherever he went. He returned to Scotland and, in September 1832, died (under
unexplained circumstances) at Abbotsford, the home he had designed and had
built, near Melrose in the Scottish Borders. Though he died owing money, his
novels continued to sell and the debts encumbering his estate were eventually
discharged.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although he continued to be extremely popular and widely read,
both at home and abroad, Scott's critical reputation declined in the last half
of the nineteenth century as serious writers turned from romanticism to
realism, and Scott began to be regarded as an author suitable for children.
This trend accelerated in the twentieth century, and today he must be one of
the least-read of our 'famous' authors. In his homeland, where to some extent he was
responsible for creating the image of Scotland that still dominates across the
world, he is celebrated today chiefly through the naming of Edinburgh’s Waverley
railway station and the iconic gothic architecture of the Scott Monument in
Princes Street. To many observers, including the author of this blog, this
seems a great pity. Scott’s importance as the inventor of the historical novel
and as the creator of Scotland’s ‘shortbread tin’ romantic imagery is not in
doubt, but several of his greatest works are genuine masterpieces and should be
much more widely read today. He has ‘out of fashion’ for far too long, and very
unfairly. </div>
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The following link leads to G. K. Chesterton’s appraisal of Scott,
and is well worth reading:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/twelve-types/12/">http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/twelve-types/12/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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There follow some other links that the reader may find
useful:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Scott">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Scott</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Walter Scott Digital Archive: <a href="http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/home.html">http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/home.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Encyclopedia Britannica: <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/529629/Sir-Walter-Scott-1st-Baronet">http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/529629/Sir-Walter-Scott-1st-Baronet</a><o:p></o:p></div>
Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-73158502681088216602012-03-28T06:47:00.000-07:002012-03-28T06:47:42.530-07:00Robert Watt: radical or government spy?It is generally appreciated today that Edinburgh in the late eighteenth century was the scene of many new scientific, academic and cultural innovations. The capital was the chief centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and the habitat of a galaxy of famous names associated with learning and the arts; the Adam brothers, David Hume and Adam Smith are only examples from a long list. What is perhaps not so widely appreciated is that Edinburgh was also the scene of certain political developments, including a brand of fiery radicalism that caused the political authorities of the day deep concern. The victory of the United States of America over monarchical Britain in 1783 and the outbreak of the French Revolution six years later helped inspire a new republican enthusiasm in many parts of Britain, but nowhere more than in Scotland. In the early 1790s this movement took the form of 'corresponding societies', groups of individuals who favoured radical political reform and who met openly to debate and exchange ideas. In October 1793 the Scottish 'Friends of the People' society held a British Convention in Edinburgh which was attended by delegates from other corresponding societies in England, as a result of which a manifesto was approved and published which praised the principles of the French Revolution and called for universal male suffrage as well as annual parliaments.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivpwP-Jd4WAVb9mm8XUShLgnRSlX3GhLztsyTF9KJWODmbTdQBKuzmdwIssbeMBsAbU-N8khYao9kYB90K6d5j3ohz60JeEtTRB1c3hWRjhI1_631aRKyPG7FYtW3D4IXATYhNgi4Cgdm1/s1600/LCS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivpwP-Jd4WAVb9mm8XUShLgnRSlX3GhLztsyTF9KJWODmbTdQBKuzmdwIssbeMBsAbU-N8khYao9kYB90K6d5j3ohz60JeEtTRB1c3hWRjhI1_631aRKyPG7FYtW3D4IXATYhNgi4Cgdm1/s320/LCS.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">James Gillray, 'London Corresponding Society alarm'd' (1798), a pro-government view of the radicals.</span></div>
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The reaction of government was harsh and authoritarian. The leading Scottish radicals were arrested, tried for the new crime of 'sedition' and transported to New Holland for fourteen years. The writings of republican authors such as Tom Paine were proscribed, political assemblies prohibited, and in England, <i>habeus corpus</i> was suspended. These measures forced the radical movement underground, and turned what had been a peaceful movement for reform into a network of secret societies with revolutionary aims. In order to undermine the radicals government had pursued a policy of recruiting paid informers to penetrate their ranks and identify their leaders, and in Edinburgh a man named Robert Watt approached lord advocate Robert Dundas with the offer of informing upon his fellow radicals in 1792. Watt's business as a wine merchant had failed after Britain's declaration of war upon France, and presumably he meant to salvage his fortunes by betraying his fellow radicals. His reports from this period relate to political activities in Perth, Dundee and Glasgow as well as Edinburgh, written in a close, spidery hand; the documents have survived and are held in the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh. Watt's reports are thoroughly alarmist, exaggerating the threat to the existing order in order to encourage government's further interest. In April 1793 Watt wrote offering the lord advocate information from two unnamed persons who demanded £100 for their services; Watt was given £30 but no useful information was forthcoming, and thereafter Dundas appears to lose interest in his informer. These are not trifling amounts, for £100 in the 1790s would be the equivalent of about £8,000 today.¹<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">John Kay, 'Robert Watt' (1794). Kay was Edinburgh's foremost caricaturist in the period.</span></div>
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By 1794 Robert Watt appears to have given up his attempts to wheedle more cash from the authorities and to have returned to his former political activities, for in May of 1794 a search of his house for property belonging to a bankrupt revealed the presence of several pikes and copies of a printed handbill which was designed to suborn the loyalties of the soldiery in Edinburgh Castle. Watt was immediately arrested, and a subsequent search found more pikes at a local blacksmith's. Details emerged of a plot to seize the Castle, the post office, the banks and the industrial works of the city, and to remove the existing authorities and replace them with a provisional republican government, though how close to realisation this scheme was, or indeed how realistic, remains open to question. Watt had been part of a seven man 'Committee of Ways and Means' which had dreamt up the plot, and another man, an Edinburgh silversmith named David Downie, was arrested with him. Both men were charged with high treason, and the trials took place in Edinburgh in the August and September of 1794.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Public execution in Edinburgh. 'The Execution of Deacon Brodie' by Alexander Hay Ritchie.</span></div>
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Watt's counsel conducted Watt's defence on the basis of his contention that he was acting as agent provocateur for the civic authorities, but with the city authorities testifying that he had received no encouragement from them to do so, and with most of his fellow conspirators turning King's evidence against him, the result was a foregone conclusion. He and Downie were both found guilty, the jury recommending mercy. In the case of Downie, this was agreed to, and the death sentence was commuted to permanent transportation to New Holland. Watt, now universally detested on both sides of the political divide, was not so fortunate. The sentence passed by the court was that 'you... be taken from the bar to the place from whence you came, and from thence to be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck, but not till you are dead; for you are then to be taken down, your heart to be cut out, and your bowels burned before your face, your head and limbs to be severed and held up for public display.'² This sentence was carried out on 15th October 1794.<br />
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Notes<br />
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1. <a href="http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/moneyval.htm">http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/moneyval.htm</a><br />
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2. The Trial of Robert Watt, late Wine Merchant in Edinburgh, for High Treason (1794), P.34<br />
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<br />Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-60881457156818949322012-02-03T22:54:00.000-08:002012-11-20T01:15:35.186-08:00John Paul Jones and the building of the Leith FortIn August of 1779, during the height of the American War of Independence, or Revolutionary War as it is more often known in the USA, a flotilla of three vessels of the American Navy under the command of Scottish-born John Paul Jones unexpectedly appeared in the Firth of Forth just off Edinburgh. Jones had come round the north coast of Scotland, thus avoiding the heavy British naval presence in the English Channel. His orders were to provide a diversionary attack on British assets there whilst a French and Spanish invasion fleet launched the main attack on southern Britain. Jones may have been surprised to find the Scottish capital completely undefended against attack from the sea: there were no Royal Navy warships in the Firth at that time, and no coastal battery fired upon the Americans as they cruised around looking for an opportunity.<br />
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<i>Above: the American depiction of John Paul Jones</i></div>
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Ashore, the news of his arrival created panic in the city. Jones had attacked the English port of Whitehaven the year before, and had led a raid upon the Scottish home of the Earl of Selkirk in an attempt to kidnap him. His ferocious, rapacious reputation very nearly won Jones the spoils of the city without a shot being fired, for many of its less impoverished citizens suddenly remembered at this moment that they had relatives elsewhere they must visit in a hurry; in no time there was neither a carriage nor a horse to be seen. Banks were closed, the garrison in Edinburgh Castle closed their their portcullis gates, church bells rang out the invasion alarm. In the event, a gale of wind prevented the Americans from landing, and Jones sailed off south to look for other pickings. The episode underlined the vulnerability of Edinburgh and its port of Leith to such an approach by enemy forces, and the local authorities hurriedly set up a battery of nine cannon on the shore at Leith to cover the approaches to the harbour.<br />
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<i>Above: John Paul Jones as he appeared in British newspapers</i></div>
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This battery was the beginnings of the construction of a fort at Leith, parts of which survive to this day. The site chosen for the first battery was not ideal, being only twelve feet above the high water mark. The intention seems to have been to prevent the landing of boats rather than to deter the more distant approach of larger vessels; Jones had led his previous attacks on Britain in small boats, leaving his ships safely offshore. Edinburgh lacked any suitable overlooking height within range of the anchoring ground called the Roads of Leith where any enemy ships would have to moor, and the battery at Leith could not elevate their guns high enough to hit such ships. It was not a perfect solution to the problem then, but it was far better than nothing and consolidation of the battery's position went ahead, beginning with the construction of a stout defensive casement to protect it from bombardment from the sea. It was still felt to be too vulnerable however, and the designer of the city's New Town, James Craig, was urgently commissioned to draw up plans for further defences in the form of a fort on the site. </div>
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Craig was a civilian planner rather than military architect, and his design reflects this anomaly. The high curtain wall would certainly prevent any casual intrusion, but it was not stout enough to withstand cannon fire and there were no buttresses from which defence of the walls could be properly maintained. Inside the fort, Craig's classical aesthetics produced columned and arcaded stone buildings more suitable for service as schools, libraries or courthouses than as guard blocks and barracks. To the north-east of the fort a terrace of brick-built terrace of houses comprised the officer's quarters, and this became locally known as 'London Row' due to its similarity to the fine Georgian housing then being built in the southern capital. </div>
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<i>Above: soldiers and civilians at Leith Fort, c.1910</i></div>
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The fort was finally completed in 1793 and was garrisoned by Captain Rimmington's blue-coated Royal Artillery company. Apart from a Martello Tower built near the pier at Leith in 1810 the fort remained the only defence of this coastline during the long French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It is perhaps as well that the enemy did not test it, for there is little doubt that in the artillery sense the fort was almost useless. By the mid-1790s, brick buildings had even been allowed to be built directly in front of the battery, thus rendering over half of the cannon quite useless. Had an invasion of Leith taken place by any reasonable force in that period, there could have been no doubt about the outcome. In fact just such an invasion was planned at one time by the French and their allies in the (Dutch) Batavian Republic, but that story deserves a blog post to itself and will appear here in due course.</div>
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<i>Above: Leith Fort before the flats were demolished</i></div>
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Leith Fort continued in active military use until 1955, latterly serving for National Service training. Upon being decommissioned the site was acquired by the City Council who demolished those buildings not legally protected and in the 1960s built several blocks of low-grade tower housing, still surrounded by the incongruous fort walls and guard houses. The development was not a happy one and social problems there brought notoriety to the area. At the present time the flats are being demolished prior to redevelopment of the site. Details of the nature of the plans are available here: <a href="http://www.edinburghnp.org.uk/neighbourhood-partnerships/leith/local-info/fort-house-regeneration/">http://www.edinburghnp.org.uk/neighbourhood-partnerships/leith/local-info/fort-house-regeneration/</a></div>
Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-11716645357374346532012-01-25T06:37:00.000-08:002012-01-25T06:38:17.682-08:00Robert Burns in EdinburghScotland's national bard, Robert Burns, was born in Ayrshire into a struggling tenant farmer's family on January 25th, 1759, exactly 253 years ago. Burns does not lack biographers and it is not intended here to do anything more than offer a brief exploration of his connections with and experience of the city of Edinburgh.<br />
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Dogged by penury and personal difficulties throughout his early life, Robert's fortunes improved in 1786 with the publication In Kilmarnock of his book <i>Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect</i> which met with immediate success. Abandoning his plans to emigrate to Jamaica, a move that had clearly been forced on him by his financial difficulties and which he was glad to escape, Robert was encouraged by his friends to seek a publisher in Edinburgh, the Scottish literary capital, for a second edition. So fired was he by the prospect of further success that in his own words he immediately "...posted for that city, without a single acquaintance, or a single letter of introduction." ¹<br />
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Robert borrowed a pony and set off for Edinburgh on November 27th, 1786. His claim of knowing no one there was not quite accurate, for he took up shared lodgings in Baxter's Close on the south side of the Lawnmarket with a friend named John Richmond that he had known in Ayrshire. Baxter's Close was demolished many years ago but the approximate site of the house is the pub now called Deacon Brodie's Tavern at the junction of the Lawnmarket and Bank Street.<br />
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Edinburgh welcomed Robert with open arms. He found himself the immediate source of attention in a society that must have been quite different to anything the rustic farmer had ever known or aspired to. At that time Edinburgh was one of the greatest centres of learning and the arts in the world, the home of the Scottish Enlightenment. In material fabric it was badly overcrowded, venerable and unhealthy, but in its people and society it was celebrated across the globe. A feature of that society was the way people of different walks of life lived cheek by jowl in the tottering tenements and closes, making for an egalitarian atmosphere which Robert Burns must have fairly fallen in love with; many of his works reflect his strong belief in the essential equality of all individuals and his strong support for the cause of liberty.<br />
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Edinburgh proved a triumph for Robert. From the beginning he was welcomed into the literary and philosophical circles that met in clubs and in private houses, and his poetry together with his quiet, unassuming manner quickly made him the city's darling. One of his earliest champions was Edinburgh author Henry Mackenzie, author of <i>The Man of Feeling</i>, whose newspaper The Lounger famously referred to Robert as "this heaven-taught ploughman", thus establishing the myth that he was a ploughman rather than a farmer. It was Mackenzie too who arranged for the Edinburgh edition of Robert's <i>Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect</i> by his own publisher, William Creech, in March 1787. For the edition Creech commissioned a portrait of the poet by Edinburgh painter Alexander Nasmyth (reproduced above) from which an engraving was made to illustrate the frontispiece of the book.<br />
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Robert Burns had become a freemason in 1781 and some sixty years after his death the artist William Stewart Watson produced the above painting, which depicts Robert being inaugurated as Poet Laureate at an Edinburgh lodge. However it is almost certain that the honour was conferred on him posthumously, so the scene he depicts is entirely imaginary. It is certain however that the poet was the subject of many honours and invitations, joining at their invitation for example the gentrified field sports club Caledonian Hunt and the less exalted gentlemen's drinking club the Crochallan Fencibles, who conducted their 'meetings' in Anchor Close off the High Street. Several of those he met there became lifelong friends, including James Cunningham, 14th Earl of Glencairn, the music seller and song collector James Johnson with whom he shared an enthusiasm for the preservation of old Scottish ballads, and the metaphysician Dugald Stewart.<br />
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A famous meeting took place at the house of the philosopher and historian Adam Ferguson in the Sciennes district of Edinburgh, when Scotland's national poet met her greatest writer. Whilst admiring a print on the drawing-room wall, Robert Burns asked the assembled company if anyone knew who had penned the verse that was attached to the picture. Reluctantly, a quiet youth of fifteen years came forward with the answer, for which he was thanked civilly. That youth was Sir Walter Scott, who wrote with pride of the event many years later. The illustration below shows the painter Hardie's impression of the event.<br />
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It was not only the gentlemen of the city who were enamoured of Robert. It was at a tea-party in Edinburgh in December 1787 that he met Nancy M'Lehose, a married woman who had separated from her husband. Nancy had enjoyed a little education, rare enough among the ladies of the day even in Edinburgh, and she was able to converse with Robert on subjects he had never heard from a woman's lips. The two were extremely attracted to each other, and though it seems doubtful whether their love was ever consummated the two exchanged passionately romantic letters under the pseudonyms 'Sylvander' and 'Clarinda'. There is no doubt whatsoever about the nature of Robert's relationship with Nancy's domestic servant Jenny Clow, who bore him a son, Robert Burns Clow, in 1788.<br />
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His success in Edinburgh brought Robert another consequence, one that took him away from the city for good. The father of Jean Armour, the girl he had begged to marry years before to no avail, now considered him a suitable son-in-law and relented upon his opposition to the match. They were married in 1788 and the couple took up a long lease on Ellisland, a farm on the banks of the River Nith near Dumfries. In common with most 18th century Scottish farms, the soil at Ellisland was exhausted by intensive cultivation over many years, and neither crop growing nor dairy farming provided a living for them. Robert moved his family to Dumfries to work for the Excise Office. It was there that Robert Burns died at the age of 37 in 1796.<br />
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1. R. Chambers, A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1852)Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-13913395109571004172011-12-21T07:38:00.000-08:002011-12-21T11:27:54.738-08:00Two views of Princes Street, Edinburgh in 1814<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Two early views of Princes Street in the second decade of the nineteenth century by John Heaviside Clark offer an excellent visual insight into the life of Georgian Edinburgh. Both views represent divergent prospects from the same spot, at the junction with South St Andrews Street. These works are aquatints, a sophisticated type of print that results from a process using acid-resistant rosin to produce distinctive tonal effects. They were first published in 1814 by printseller Daniel McIntosh, whose premises were located at 16 St Andrews Street. In 1817 McIntosh described his business on his trade card as 'D. McIntosh. English and Foreign Printseller, Carver and Gilder, Ladies fancy Works, Stationery, Water Colours & all Requisites for Drawing'.</div>
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The first of these aquatints is shown above, and looks south-eastwards towards distant Arthur's Seat with the cliffs of Salisbury Crags just below it. On the right can be seen the tall tenements of the Old Town, some at least ten storeys high, with the spire of St Giles Cathedral on the extreme right. On the extreme left the distant Nelson's Monument on Calton Hill can be seen; this was built between 1807 and 1815 to honour the late naval hero, and indeed it has an unfinished look. Below Arthur's Seat in the middle distance the artist shows the North Bridge, and below this what looks like white smoke or steam; this is the site of present-day Waverley Station, but in 1814 railways were undreamed of and there was certainly no station there! Contemporary maps show that at this time there was a slaughterhouse on the spot. On the right in the middle distance is the old Crofts Road connecting with Princes Street. This was later renamed Waverley Bridge after Sir Walter Scott's famous series of novels. Princes Street itself is shown with its south side completely free of the development that would later hide some of this superb view. In the foreground the artist has depicted the fashionable ladies and gentlemen of the New Town taking the air whilst two-in-hand carriages and a heavily laden mail coach rattle over the cobbles.<br />
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The second aquatint looks south-westward towards Edinburgh Castle. Those who are familiar with this view today will note the absence of the Scott Memorial and National Galleries at the foot of the Mound. Whilst the New Town was being built in the late eighteenth century (see blog post of 12 December 2011, below) the 'Earthen Mound' was created by dumping about 1.5 million cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the new buildings in order to create an artificial ramp connecting the Old and New Towns. In the foreground the fashions of the day are shown, and it can be seen from these prints that pantaloons (trousers) are becoming popular with the gentlemen, though some are persisting with breeches and half-boots. A female carrying baskets is probably a street vendor. On Princes Street itself oil lamps can be seen, and fine quality pavement; the stone for this was mined in Caithness in the far north of mainland Scotland. Originally all buildings in Princes Street had the same format: set back from the street with stairs down to a basement and stairs up to the ground floor. Heights were generally three storeys plus an attic. Of this original format only one such property remains in its original form. Through the 19th century most buildings were redeveloped at a larger scale and the street evolved from residential to mainly retail uses.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-6358810216713872202011-12-16T01:04:00.000-08:002011-12-16T01:10:58.634-08:00The Body-snatchersThe University of Edinburgh was an internationally recognised centre for medical science throughout the Georgian period and beyond, but until 1832 the faculty of anatomy suffered from a chronic shortage of cadavers suitable for dissection. The trouble was that until that date the only legal supply, the corpses of executed criminals specifically sentenced to be dissected by the court, was dwindling rapidly. Changes in the law, in the growth of Britain's prisons, and in public opinion meant that the number of executions in the early nineteenth century was falling rapidly. At the same time the number of cadavers needed was rising due to the rapid expansion of the country's medical schools. This crisis led to anatomists offering ever-increasing sums for fresh cadavers; by the late 1820s it was in the order of £10, the equivalent of 1,000 GBP (or 1,500 USD) today. This was enough, in an age when the average worker's annual income was considerably less, to tempt some families to deliver their recently deceased loved ones to the anatomists' dissecting tables.<br />
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It was also enough to tempt others to take up the habit of illegally removing corpses from their graves. These body-snatchers, or resurrectionists as they were sometimes known, were undoubtedly encouraged by the fact that the courts tended to turn a blind eye to the practice, seeing it as a necessary evil. In England body-snatching was technically a misdemeanour at common law, not a felony, but in Scotland a completely distinctive system of law survived the political union of 1707 and under Scottish law it was indeed a crime that could be prosecuted; the fact is though, that very few were. Very few cases ever came to court, and when they did it was usually because the relatives had claimed a stolen body, or because it was felt that an offender had been excessive in his activities. A report in the Glasgow Herald of September 14th 1829 read:<br />
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"On Saturday, Bell the resurrectionist was again brought before Baillie Gray, the Sitting Magistrate, in the Police Court, who asked whether the dead bodies of which we gave an account in our last, had been claimed; and on being answered in the negative, the Magistrate observed, that if they had been owned, the prisoner would have been handed over for trial to the Justiciary Court; but as it was, he must dismiss him at present, with the advice that he should be very careful with regard to his future conduct, as, should he ever be found in connection with such a business again, the present charge would certainly tell most powerfully against him."<br />
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In the light of this level of leniency in the courts, it is scarcely surprising that body-snatching became so widespread. The official attitude was not often shared by the families of the people who were unearthed or by local communities however. There are many instances of body-snatchers caught red-handed in cemeteries and of the subsequent hospitalisation of the culprits. Nor were anatomists exempt from public outrage. The Glasgow Herald of March 3rd 1823 reported:<br />
<i>"Yesterday, between one and two o’clock, a crowd assembled in front of the dissecting room in Duke Street and the doors burst open, and everything contained in it destroyed. The Superintendent and a number of the officers of Police were immediately on the spot, and the appearance of the mob was such that a detachment of the 77th Regiment was sent for. On their approach the crowd dispersed, but in a short time thereafter they assembled in Portland Street, and burst open the outer gate of another dissecting room, when they were immediately checked by Mr Hardie with a party of the 77th. They then made a sortie to a dissecting room in College Street; and finally between seven and eight o’clock they made their appearance in front of Dr Jeffray’s laundry, at the College, suspected to be a dissecting room."</i><br />
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Various means were adopted by local authorities and families to safeguard the remains of the deceased. Mort-safes (illustration above) were grills of heavy iron placed over the graves of the recently deceased by those with the means to pay for them, and are still commonly seen in Scottish graveyards. Communal mort-safes were sometimes purchased with parish funds, and were rented by relatives of the dead and used as a temporary burial place until such times as the body was reckoned to be no longer of potential use to anatomists; only very fresh corpses attracted a fee. Still to be seen too are graveyard watchtowers (illustration below), which were manned at night by the relatives of the recently deceased or by persons employed by them. However, there are records of occasional "gamekeepers turned poachers", and a family usually performed these duties out of love and respect for their late loved one as well as mistrust of the sort of person who would offer to keep watch for them.</div>
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In Scotland the body-snatchers worked mainly in winter, as the cold weather helped preserve corpses and it was dark in the early evening; very often early police forces did not come on duty until 8pm, so between 6pm and 8pm was the prime time for the resurrection men. One method they used was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, digging with a wooden spade as this was quieter than metal. When they reached the coffin they would break it open, put a rope around the corpse and drag it out. The British medical journal The Lancet of 1896 (147 (3777): 185–7) reported another method used in earlier periods. A manhole-sized square of turf was removed 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m) away from the head of the grave, and a tunnel dug to intercept the coffin, which would usually be about 4 feet (1.2 m) down. The end of the coffin would be pulled off, and the corpse pulled up through the tunnel. The turf was then replaced, and any relatives watching the graves would not notice the small, remote disturbance. The article suggests that the number of empty coffins that have been discovered "proves beyond a doubt that... [in the 1820s] body snatching was frequent". Evidence of the extent of the practice is necessarily difficult to obtain, but the number of watchtowers and mort-safes surviving in Scotland to the present day is surely an indication that the threat was considered very real. The Glasgow Herald of March 9th 1829 records a rare contemporary discovery:</div>
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<i>"For a considerable time past there has existed a suspicion that the trade of disinterring bodies from the graves of the burying ground of the parish of Kirkmichael, county of Ayr, has been carried on. On the morning of Thursday the 5th inst., the populace insisted on the right of opening some graves, where recent interment had taken place; the parish minister resisted the attempt, advising a more regular mode of procedure, but the anxiety to ascertain the fate of their friends and companions was too powerful to admit of such delay, and to work they went. In the first instance they were too successful, for the empty coffins realised their fears. This prompted the work of examination, and at the close of the day, there were seventeen graves, where interment had taken place within the last six months, which were robbed of their inmates. Today, the 6th, the work of examination was continued, and four more have been found in the same situation; the scene is melancholy - the empty coffins are brought up, and the dead clothes, fresh and white, exhibited across the graves; the relatives are rushing from every part of the parish to know the fate of their departed friends, and it is not easy to describe the anguish they feel when their removal is discovered. The perpetrators have, in some instances, left the bodies of such as have not suited their purpose in a situation too shocking to describe. I visited the place, and was not a little surprised to see a work of this kind done by a populace, without any leader to direct their movements, with as much calmness and order as if they had been paying the last tribute to those they esteem."</i><br />
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Sometimes the methods employed were ingenious. One successful resurrectionist by night, grave digger by day, would take the body out of the coffin prior to burial and place it in a sack on top. While burying the coffin it was easy to pull the sack up as the soil level rose. At the top of the grave the body would be covered with a thin laver of soil, easily removed when he returned for the body under cover of night. Corpses were also obtained before burial. Snatchers watched the crowded lodging and workhouses in cities, paying careful attention to news of sickness and imminent death. As soon as death struck snatchers could appear claiming to be grieving relatives of the deceased. Merry Andrew, a member of an Edinburgh resurrection gang, would present himself as a relation of the departed and after mourning over the body would depart- ostensibly to arrange the funeral. He would quickly return with a horse and hearse, often accompanied by another gang member called Praying Howard. Howard, dressed as a minister, prayed over the body before the two took their leave with the corpse and with the confidence of the residents.</div>
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In time the practice evolved into its ultimate and most sinister form. William Burke and William Hare are Edinburgh's most infamous suppliers of corpses to the medical fraternity, but they were not body-snatchers. The time, trouble and risk involved was neatly bypassed using the simple expedient of murdering their victims. A fuller account of this pair will appear in this blog in due course, but for now it is enough to note that the notoriety of this case and the outrage it created led directly to the Anatomy Act of 1832, which allowed unclaimed bodies and those donated by relatives to be used for the study of anatomy, and required the licensing of anatomy teachers. This UK act of parliament essentially ended the body snatching trade.</div>
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<br /></div>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-33536831776365990992011-12-12T01:57:00.001-08:002011-12-12T12:23:52.311-08:00The Creation of Edinburgh's New TownMedieval Edinburgh grew up around the defensive strong-point of Castle Rock and the long 'tail' of moraine stretching north-eastwards to Holyrood Abbey which became known as the Royal Mile. This area was eminently suitable for building upon, but it was surrounded by lochs and marshes that were not. The result was that its buildings expanded vertically as the town grew, with the dominant style being blocks of flats or 'tenements' as they tend to be known in Scotland, sometimes seven stories high. By the eighteenth century Edinburgh's growing reputation as the modern, progressive City of Enlightenment was strangely at odds with living conditions in the town. The ancient tottering tenements leaned over dark lanes or 'closes' which rarely saw the light of day; overcrowding and squalor was everywhere. Rich, middling and poor citizens lived cheek by jowl, and Edinburgh's rapid but piecemeal growth and restricted area had led to problems with human sewage in the streets and closes, and the emergent middle class were so unhappy with this environment that there were signs of a 'brain drain' in favour of other cities.<br />
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Faced with these problems, Lord Provost George Drummond decided that a scheme of expansion could not be delayed. First proposed in 1752, the intention was to create a new and spacious cityscape of wide, symmetrical streets, terraced town-houses and open green spaces. Drummond purchased for the City Council extensive lands a little way to the north of the city which were deemed suitable for building. Blocking access to these lands was a stagnant, heavily polluted pool known as the Nor' Loch, occupying the area now under Princes Street Gardens, and he caused works to begin to drain this in 1759. Crossing points over this area were created; the North Bridge in 1772, and excavated material from the New Town was heaped up into an 'Earthen Mound' which would in time carry a road connecting the upper High Street with Hanover Street. Drummond invited plans for the new suburb by means of a competition, held in January 1766. The winning design was a major surprise; twenty-six year old James Craig, an Edinburgh journeyman mason who had never studied architecture, won the prize. Craig's plan is typical of the classical aspirations of the period, a grid pattern of streets with right-angled intersections, inspired by the urban planning of Hippodamus of Miletus in the 5th century BC. In the Georgian period Edinburgh was utterly besotted by the classical achievements of ancient Greece, and Craig's plan fitted the Council's aspirations for the city like a glove.<br />
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The scheme in its original form is utterly simple, and consisted only of the plan, not of the architecture. The principal east-west thoroughfare was to be George Street, with Queen Street parallel to the north and St Giles Street to the south. The names for the streets reflect Provost Drummond's support for both the political Union and the Hanoverian monarchy; St George's Square in the west was balanced by that of St Andrew in the east, and the minor east-west streets were Thistle Street and Rose Street. Intersecting these and running north-south were Castle Street, Frederick Street, and Hanover Street. When he saw the plans King George III rejected the name of St Giles as unsuitable (the district of that name in London had an unenviable reputation) and Princes Street was chosen instead. St George's Square was also renamed Charlotte Square to avoid confusion with George Square elsewhere in the town. </div>
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Craig had proposed that George Street be terminated by two large churches, situated within each square.Sir Lawrence Dundas, the landowner, decided to build his own home here, and commissioned a design from Sir William Chambers. The resulting Palladian mansion, completed in 1774, is now the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland. St Andrews Church had to be built on a site on George Street. The lack of a visual termination at the end of this street was remedied in 1823 with William Burn's monument to Henry Dundas.The first New Town was completed in 1800, with the construction of Charlotte Square. This was built to a design by Robert Adam, and was the only architecturally unified section of the New Town. Adam also produced a design for St. George's Church, although his design was superseded by that of Robert Reid. The building, now known as West Register House, now houses part of the National Archives of Scotland. The North side of Charlotte Square features Bute House, now the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland.<br />
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The New Town was planned purely as a residential suburb for Edinburgh's wealthier citizens; a few shops were thought advisable to cater for local needs, but no more. This first phase of construction ended in 1800, with the completion of Charlotte Square. The illustration below dates from 1789 and shows Edinburgh's Old Town distant on the left and the ordered new streets of the New Town to the distant right. Connecting the two, in centre left, is the North Bridge. Below the Castle in the centre distance is the Earthen Mound.</div>
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After 1800, the success of the first New Town led to grander schemes. Four further extensions to the New Town have been described. The 'Northern New Town' aimed to extend Edinburgh from the North of Queen Street Gardens all the way to the Water of Leith, with extensions to the East and West. These developments took place mostly between 1800-1830. Initial designs followed the original grid orientation of Craig’s First New Town, with entire streets being built as one construction. Building continued on an extended Hanover Street, here named Dundas Street, almost one kilometre to the Water of Leith at Canonmills. Broad streets and grand squares were laid out to either side. The Picardy Place extension (including Broughton Street, Union Street and East London Street) was mostly finished by 1809. To the West of the original New Town, Shandwick Place, an extension of Princes Street, was started in 1805. Development of Melville Street and the area North of Shandwick Place followed in 1825. The Gayfield Estate (Gayfield Square) extension was designed in 1807 and from around 1813 the New Town gradually replaced and developed the older village of Stockbridge. The painter Henry Raeburn bought the Deanhough estate in the Northwest of the New Town and started development in 1813 with Anne Street named after his wife. In 1822 the Earl of Moray, had plans drawn up to develop his estates (including Moray Place) also in the Northwest of the New Town sloping down to the Water of Leith. Below; Register House.<br />
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In order to extend the New Town eastwards, the Lord Provost, Sir John Marjoribanks, succeeded in getting the elegant Regent Bridge built. It was completed in 1819. The bridge spanned a deep ravine with narrow inconvenient streets and made access to Calton Hill much easier and agreeable from Princes Street. Edinburgh Town Council organised a competition for plans to develop the Eastern New Town but the result was inconclusive. Eventually designs by the Architect William Henry Playfair were used to develop Calton Hill and Edinburgh’s Eastern New Town from 1820 onwards. Playfair’s designs were intended to create a New Town even more magnificent than Craig's. Regent Terrace, Calton Terrace and Royal Terrace were built but the developments to the North of London Road were never fully completed. On the South side of Calton hill various monuments were erected as well as the Royal High School in Greek revival style.<br />
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Originally intended purely as a residential suburb, the New Town became in time Edinburgh's most important commercial centre. George Street has long been the centre of Scotland's financial sector, and Princes Street one of the most famous retail thoroughfares in the world.<br />
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<br /></div>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-17661292127506349202011-11-04T03:37:00.000-07:002011-12-21T11:30:31.647-08:00Edinburgh worthies: 'Balloon' TytlerJames Tytler was by any standards a remarkable man, and he deserves to be much more widely known to the public. He was Britain's first aeronaut, as well as an important editor and contributor to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, pharmacist, surgeon, lay preacher, writer, musician, songwriter, political radical and pamphleteer.<br />
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Tytler was born in 1745 in Forfarshire, the son of a Church of Scotland minister. He studied at a local school but was also instructed by his father in Theology, Latin and Greek. Although he was clearly expected to study for the ministry, Tytler had wider interests too and at Edinburgh University he studied medicine. After serving as surgeon in a whaler for a year, he opened a pharmacy in the port of Leith, but this venture was a failure and left him with debts. He married in 1765 but had to flee his creditors the next year and (possibly using his wife's capital; she was the orphan of a successful solicitor) set up another pharmacy in England. He returned to Edinburgh in 1773 with a wife and five children, and tried to make a living by writing and editing. Most of this work was published anonymously, and was very likely to have been poorly paid. He separated from his wife in 1775, in which year he again became bankrupt.<br />
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There seems little doubt that Tytler was addicted to alcohol; the poet Robert Burns, himself no stranger to a glass of whisky, described him as "an obscure, tippling though extraordinary body", and there are other records of his fondness for the bottle. It seems likely that his business failures and familial problems were in part due to his excessive drinking.<br />
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In 1777 Tytler was offered the job of editing the second edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, a momentous task which was to occupy him over the next seven years. During this period he was paid sixteen shillings a week, less than half of the rate paid to his predecessor. Tytler worked at his home in Duddingston, just outside the town, using an upturned washtub as his writing desk. It was whilst engaged in this work that he became fascinated by the articles on hot air ballooning, a new mode of transport that was capturing imaginations the world over. Tytler read of the Montgolfier Brothers' historic ascent of 1783 with enthusiasm, and immediately began work designing his Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon, Despite the huge costs involved this was revealed to the public in 1784.<br />
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<i>Tytler's Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon</i></div>
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At first Tytler had little luck in raising either public interest or his balloon. Early attempts to inflate it were dogged with problems, and before long he was being widely dismissed as a failure. However, on August 27, 1784, at Comely Gardens, an open area north-east of Holyrood in Edinburgh, Tytler inflated his balloon with coal gas and climbed into the tiny wicker basket underneath, wearing a cork jacket for protection. The restraining ropes were released, and to the delight of the small crowd who had maintained faith he ascended some 350 feet, drifting over half a mile before coming to rest in Restalrig village. This was the first balloon flight ever undertaken in Britain. News of the event spread rapidly, and a huge crowd was assembled to see a repeat attempt four days later. It was not quite as successful, reaching only about 100 feet and landing 400 yards away, but the watching public were impressed; Tytler became, briefly, a local celebrity. Later attempts were dogged by the man's customary bad luck and disastrous finances, however, and he was forced to give up his ambitions in the air. Tytler became overshadowed by the brilliant showman balloonist Vincenzo Lunardi, who came to Scotland in 1785 and made five stunning ascents. The flamboyant Italian's daring and good looks created a balloon fad which even influenced the fashions of the day: the 'Lunardi Bonnet' is mentioned by Robert Burns in his poem 'To a Louse'.</div>
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<i>The above sketch by John Kay, entitled 'Fowls of a Feather', shows Tytler (centre left) and other Edinburgh enthusiasts meeting the celebrated balloonist Lunardi.</i></div>
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In 1785 Tytler went bankrupt again, and was obliged to leave Edinburgh. He was sued for divorce in 1787 by his wife, on the grounds that he had lived with Jean Aitkenhead since 1779 and had twin daughters with her. His troubles increased; in 1791 he returned to Edinburgh, but Tytler's outspoken support for the French Revolution and the cause of republicanism saw him condemned by the city magistrates in 1793, and to escape arrest for sedition he fled to Belfast and later to the United States. In Salem, Massachusetts, whilst walking home from a drinking session, Tytler fell into the sea and drowned in 1804.<br />
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<br />Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-62144710650735555192011-10-09T03:05:00.000-07:002011-10-09T03:05:08.753-07:00The Leith Links GolfersScotland is generally regarded as the home of golf, a game which has enthused Scots for centuries, sometimes to the point of obsession. The origins of golf are obscure, but the game was certainly played in the 15th century. King James IV was a keen golfer, and it is recorded that in 1502 he paid 13 shillings (Scots) for a set of clubs. There are further records throughout the 16th century which show that the first golf courses were on the sandy links sites close to the sea in eastern Scotland, and of course this remains the classic golfing territory today.<br />
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It was at Leith Links that Edinburgh golfers indulged their passion. A record of 1522 mentions the "gouff ball makers of North Leith", implying the use of a stitched ball; it is thought that in early versions of the game wooden balls were used. In 1593 the Edinburgh Burgh Records condemned the citizens of the town for playing golf at Leith on Sunday mornings rather than attending church, a criticism that was often heard in later years, and it has been claimed that Charles I was playing on Leith Links when he had news of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. It is not known if the king finished his round!<br />
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Perhaps the most notable claim of Leith in golfing history, however, is that it was here that the first rules of the game were set down. On 2nd April 1744 the first ever golf tournament took place in Leith, officiated by the Gentleman Golfers of Leith, with the prize of a silver club donated by the city of Edinburgh. This became an annual competition, with the winner becoming the Company's captain for the following year. he also had his name engraved upon a silver golf ball which was attached to the club. The image below depicts this trophy being taken to Leith in 1788:<br />
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The rules were set down as follows:<br />
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<tr><td width="79%"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Articles & Laws in Playing at Golf - 7th March 1744. </span></b></td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You must Tee your Ball within a Club's length of the Hole.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Your Tee must be upon the Ground.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You are not to change the Ball which you Strike off the Tee.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You are not to remove, Stones, Bones or any Break Club, for the sake of playing your Ball, Except upon the fair Green & that only within a Club's length of your Ball.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If your Ball comes among Watter or any wattery filth, you are at liberty to take out your Ball & bringing it behind the hazard and Teeing it you may play it with any Club and allow your Adversary a Stroke for so getting out your Ball.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If your Balls be found any where touching one another, You are to lift the first Ball, till you play the last.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">At Holling, you are to play your Ball honestly for the Hole, and, not to play upon your Adversary's Ball not lying in your way to the Hole.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you should lose your Ball, by it's being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the Spot where you struck last, & drop another Ball, And allow your adversary a Stroke for the misfortune.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">No man at Holling his Ball, is to be allowed, to mark his way to the Hole with his Club, or anything else.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If a Ball be stopp'd by any person, Horse, Dog, or any thing else, The Ball so stop'd must be play'd, where it lyes.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you draw your Club in order to Strike & proceed so far in the Stroke as to be bringing down your Club; If then, your Club shall, break, in any way, it is to be Accounted a Stroke.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">He, whose Ball lyes farthest from the Hole is obliged to play first.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Neither Trench, Ditch or Dyke, made for the Preservation of the Links, nor the Scholar's Holes or the Soldier's Lines, shall be accounted a Hazard; But the Ball is to be taken out / Teed / and play'd with any Iron Club.</span></li>
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The course consisted of five holes only, and a plaque on display at Leith records the design:<br />
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As well as being the place where rules of the game were first set down, Leith is the home of the golf caddie. The name derives from the French 'le cadet' , meaning a boy or youth, and like many other French words became current in Edinburgh for the young men who acted as porters and messengers. During the eighteenth century these lads found frequent employment at Leith Links. Golf bags seem not to have been in use:<br />
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In 1768 the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (as they were now known) built a clubhouse, the first in the world and known as the Golf house, on the site of the old Leith Academy building in Duke Street, and they remained at the Links until 1831, when the area became too crowded. Thereafter they removed to Musselburgh, and finally to Muirfield where they exist to this day. Their website contains some interesting notes on the history of the club and the course: <a href="http://www.muirfield.org.uk/page/The_History.aspx">http://www.muirfield.org.uk/page/The_History.aspx</a>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-32725510414986308712011-10-05T12:56:00.000-07:002011-10-05T12:56:08.270-07:00The United Scotsmen and the Militia Act 1797Scotland has been ill at ease with its position within the United Kingdom at various times in the three centuries since the Act of Union (1707), and from time to time serious disturbances have erupted there which threatened the British status quo. In 1715, and 1745, serious armed rebellions broke out in northern Scotland in support of the reinstatement of the Stewart royal family, and were only put down with great difficulty. By the 1790s the focus of trouble had shifted, for the revolutions in America and France found extensive support among the Scottish working classes. Corresponding societies, groups in favour of peaceful but radical constitutional reform, grew in the Scottish lowland cities. The British government was alarmed, and the societies were brutally suppressed (see articles on Thomas Muir elsewhere in this blog).<br />
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The outlawing of the corresponding societies did not bring an end to radical political activity in Scotland, it merely drove it underground. The main secret society which emerged in the wake of this repression was the United Scotsmen. Inspired by events in America and France, and in particular by the formation of a virulent radical movement in Ireland called the United Irishmen, this organisation was to become a major thorn in the side of the establishment in Scotland throughout the period. Although the stated aims of the United Scotsmen were the same as the old corresponding societies, namely universal suffrage and annual parliaments, in fact this was a totally new development in Scottish politics, for it was a truly revolutionary body advocating a French-style armed revolution and the foundation of a Scottish Republic.<br />
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The weakness of the corresponding societies had been their openness and transparency; penetrated by government spies, their compromise had been inevitable. As an illegal organisation, the United Scotsmen had to be careful to maintain secrecy in all its endeavours. The structure was designed to preserve that secrecy. Branches or cells of no more than 16 people made up its membership, each sending anonymous delegates to local meetings where delegates were chosen to attend regional meetings where policy and tactics were discussed, thus minimising the chance of being discovered by the agencies of government, and in the event of discovery limiting the damage that could be caused. From 1795 onwards, the United Scotsmen grew in this organic way, reaching a peak of membership in 1797 of over 3,000. Precise membership figures are not available, since the organisation kept no records at all, in the interests of security. Some estimates of as many as 22,000 have been made by modern historians. The two Fife villages of Strathmiglo and Auchtermuchty alone has over 2,000 members. The membership was comprised overwhelmingly of working men; handloom weavers, artisans, small shopkeepers, and the like.<br />
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The year 1797 was an important one in this story, for in June of that year Parliament passed its Militia Act. Fears of a republican invasion of Britain were at their height, and the Act was part of the attempt to strengthen its home defence forces. It provided for the forcible conscription of 6,000 men, to be deployed within Scotland itself, to defend against any French incursion. This was the first time conscription had ever been used in Scotland, and hostility to the Militia Act was both widespread and immediate. There can be no doubt that the numbers joining the United Scotsmen grew exponentially during that summer, and very little that the many local protests, rebellions and insurrections of 1797 were organised with the help of that body. Perhaps the best known of these is the so-called Battle of Tranent. On August 28th 1797 a large crowd of mine workers and their womenfolk gathered in Tranent, East Lothian, shouting 'No militia' and marching behind a drum. A large detachment of both Cinque Port and Pembrokeshire Cavalry were despatched to restore order, and met with fierce opposition from the protesters. Fighting broke out, and in the following massacre at least 12 civilians, including women and children, were killed.<br />
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In the same year the United Scotsmen seem to have strengthened their contacts with Britain's enemies elsewhere, in Ireland especially but also in France and the newly republican Netherlands. The most interesting outcome of these liaisons was a plan to land 50,000 Dutch soldiers in Scotland, to seize the central belt and effectively detach Scotland from England. Such a force would almost certainly have succeeded had they appeared, given the widespread opposition to the Militia Act. However, when the Dutch fleet eventually left the Texel in October of that year, they were soundly defeated by the Royal Naval North Sea Fleet under Admiral Duncan. A slightly smaller-scale invasion of Ireland by the French had been foiled by bad weather the year before; these were both lucky escapes for the British Government.<br />
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The disastrous attempted uprising by the United Irishmen in 1798 effectively ended the aspirations of both that body and the United Scotsmen, though of course radical politics in Scotland persisted. Any reader interested in learning more could do worse than read 'Popular Disturbances in Scotland 1780-1815' by Kenneth J. Logue (1979)<br />
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<br />Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-29359713050201854042011-10-02T12:36:00.000-07:002011-10-02T12:36:32.755-07:00Edinburgh's BridewellAround the year 1790 the authorities in Edinburgh became aware that the existing facilities for the detention of criminals was not at all in line with the image they wished to project; that of a modern, cosmopolitan, progressive, enlightened city. The main prison was the Tolbooth, a shambling, ancient building with perpetually overcrowded and insanitary conditions, and it was generally seen as a disgrace to the town. It was also incapable of housing the growing numbers of people who were being convicted for political 'crimes' in the wake of the outbreak of the French Revolution. This group posed a particular threat, in that in contact with other prisoners their dangerous ideas on liberty, equality and fraternity were capable of being spread. A solution was sought, and the eminent Scottish architect and designer Robert Adam was commissioned to draw up plans for a new building.<br />
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Adam produced a series of designs, the earliest neoclassical and conventional in style (illustration above). This was to have consisted of a bridge linking the Old and New Towns of the city. However, the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, the English philosopher and social reformer, on the design of 'houses of correction' were passed on to Adam by the Tory politician Reginald Pole Carew. Bentham had hit upon a scheme which he called a 'Penitentiary Panopticon', a building of semi-circular form which allowed for the safe internment of a large number of prisoners who could be kept under the watch of a minimal number of prison staff located in a central gallery. Adam was impressed, describing the concept as "one of the most ingenious plans I ever saw", and set about producing his own version.<br />
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The illustration above is from Adam's improved design and shows the main Panopticon building. His plan was far more extensive than this, but in the end only part of the scheme was implemented, and much changed at that; Adam had conceived extensive exercise yards, a debtor's prison in one wing and a 'bedlam' in another. A less ambitious design was accepted and building was begun in 1791 on a site near the Calton Hill which is now occupied by the monolithic Art Deco bulk of New St Andrews House. Into the foundations were placed two time capsules made of glass and specially commissioned for the purpose, containing coins and copies of local journals, as well as (perhaps predictably) the names of the magistrates and councillors of the city. Presumably these capsules remain under New St Andrews House.<br />
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Building work was completed in 1795 and several illustrations have survived from this period. The two examples shown above date from 1837 and show that Adam's hemispherical design has been altered to one of more angular form incorporating twelve sides. The overall appearance is far less neoclassical than Gothic, and even seems to anticipate the Scottish Baronial school with its trademark crowstep gables and miniature corner turrets.<br />
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The Bridewell (as it became known, after London's more famous early prison) was Scotland's first reformed penitentiary and was a considerable source of civic pride. The institution paid for itself by the sale of the work of its convicts, and Edinburgh's ratepayers heartily approved of this innovation. It is worth noting that the concept of sending people to prison was relatively new. Prisons before this period had been places where people awaited trial, and punishments were more likely to be corporal or capital in nature, or else to involve forcible transportation out of the country. The growing tendency of judges to punish by imprisonment was in part fuelled by distaste for the alternatives, but also by the possibilities afforded by these institutions.<br />
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The purpose of the Bridewell was stated to be the detention of petty thieves, vagabonds and the like, whose crimes required punishment but for whom transportation or flogging seemed inappropriate. However, it is clear that from the first it was the social isolation afforded to inmates that attracted the authorities to the scheme, and that the imprisonment of radicals for lengthy periods, often after a mock trial with rigged jury, continued through the 1790s and early nineteenth century. This notion is lent weight by those parts of Adam's design which alluded to defensive walls, designed to foil "attack from outside". It remains an irony, therefore, that the visionary penitential reforms of Jeremy Bentham, a radical political thinker, were used to suppress those of his persuasion who came to the attention of the authorities during the 1790s and after.<br />
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Edinburgh's Bridewell was remodelled and rebuilt over the course of the nineteenth century, and was eventually demolished in 1935.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-22983046787511091652011-09-23T10:55:00.000-07:002011-09-23T10:55:24.683-07:00Edinburgh Worthies: Lord Monboddo (1714-1799)This blog regularly features profiles of the people who lived in Edinburgh in the late eighteenth century and who contributed to the remarkable flowering of intellectual thought generally referred to as the Scottish Enlightenment. James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, was perhaps one of the most eccentric of these men.<br />
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Monboddo was born in 1714 in Kincardineshire and attended a local primary school before studying in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He was admitted to the Edinburgh Faculty of Advocates in 1737 and in time became an eminent judge. Yet he was more than just a lawyer, and it is his other interests that he is best remembered for today. He was for many years proprietor of the Canongate Theatre at a time when the kirk and the city's authorities thought theatre a shameful business and the acting profession thoroughly disrespectable, despite warnings that his involvement would have an adverse affect on his legal career. The philosopher David Hume was one of the leading actors there, and he and Monboddo were firm friends. Hume and other eminent intellectuals and artists attended Monboddo's 'learned suppers' at his home in St John Street, including Robert Burns, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. At these feasts the assembled diners would debate and discuss each others' ideas, thus creating a productive cross-fertilisation of ideas. Burns was an admirer of Elizabeth Burnett, Monboddo's younger daughter and a famous beauty. Her tragic death at the age of twenty-five drew an elegy from the poet.<br />
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Monboddo was an eager student of linguistics, and besides the Latin and Greek taught at universities at that time he took it upon himself to learn a great many others of a less familiar nature, including Carib, Eskimo, Huron, Algonquian, Quechuan and Tahitian. In 1773 he published a work which brought much scorn and ridicule from his contemporaries, entitled 'Of the Origin and Progress of Language'. In this Monboddo theorised that all languages had evolved from a single origin, a completely new idea. He also claimed that humans had evolved from apes, again a new notion, and one that seems to have anticipated Darwinian evolutionary theory. Unfortunately, the world was not ready for such radical concepts and the book was thoroughly lampooned. It did not help his cause that he had also asserted within its pages that orang-utans were human and capable of speech, and that a race of people who had tails lived in India.<br />
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There are many instances of his eccentricity that have been recorded. Monboddo was a great admirer of the ancient Greeks, and he refused to have anything to do with technology that had been developed since that time; he would not get into a coach or a sedan-chair for that reason and when he went to London (King George III was an admirer of his) he rode there on horseback. It was while visiting the King on one occasion that part of the courtroom ceiling began collapsing; there was a panicked rush to get out, but Monboddo sat on placidly in the room. When asked later why he had not joined the exodus he explained that he presumed he was witnessing some obscure local ceremony, of which he as a stranger could take no part. It is also claimed that upon leaving his courtroom one day to find that it was raining heavily, he sent his wig to his house in a sedan-chair but walked home himself.<br />
<br />Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-39534587147423192302011-09-20T08:57:00.000-07:002011-12-12T19:15:03.416-08:00Edinburgh's Town Guard<br />
Scotland's capital by any standards was historically a somewhat unruly place, and riots of various kinds and causes were a regular challenge to the local constituted authorities throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A local police force was only formed in the first decade of the nineteenth century, and before this time only the city's Town Guard could be called upon to police the streets and defend against the Edinburgh mob. The Town Guard was the force first formed in the aftermath of the Battle of Flodden (1513), when panic and looting followed the news of Scotland's disastrous defeat and the Council decreed that every fourth citizen had to take his turn on the watch. It was never a popular force with the city's less privileged classes. In 1736, for example, its commander Captain Porteous was dragged by a furious mob four thousand strong from his cell in the Tolbooth (city prison at the time), where he was awaiting trial for ordering his men to fire upon a riotous assembly, and brutally lynched in the street.<br />
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For much of the eighteenth century the Town Guard were the only form of law and order, and as the events of 1736 showed they were certainly capable of using effective force when it was called for. Their lair was the Guard House, an ugly squat building of great antiquity sited in the High Street opposite the Tron Kirk. From here the evening watch issued at eight o'clock every night, beating drums to announce the start of a sort of curfew upon drunkenness.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span><br />
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A wooden horse situated outside the Guard House was the punishment for revellers captured by the Town Guard; the victim would be placed on this with heavy irons attached to each foot and a drinking jug upon his head so that passers-by understood the nature of his offence. The Guard House was demolished in 1785 and the Guard was moved to the Tolbooth, the city's main gaol, further up the High Street. The Tolbooth was in turn demolished in 1817, and its site outside St Giles Cathedral is marked today by brass markers and a stone mosaic amongst the cobbles in the shape of a heart. This is a reference to Sir Walter Scott's novel The Heart of Midlothian, which is centred upon the Porteous riots. The Edinburgh tradition of spitting upon the mosaic as one passes arose originally to express contempt for the old Tolbooth and for public authority, though contempt for a certain football club seems to be the prime motivation today.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span><br />
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By the final decades of the eighteenth century the Town Guard had become something of an anachronism and the butt of local humour. Its members were almost invariably elderly Gaelic-speaking ex-soldiers, a typical example of whom was described by Scott as an "old grey-headed and grey-bearded Highlander, with war-worn features, but bent double by age; dressed in an old fashioned cocked-hat, bound with white tape instead of silver lace; and in coat, waistcoat, and breeches, of a muddy-coloured red, bearing in his withered hand an ancient weapon, called a Lochaber-axe..." It seems that their numbers were continually being reduced and their role restricted by the city fathers, so that by Scott's day they were no longer so much feared as openly mocked: "[They]were neither by birth, education, nor former habits, trained to endure with much patience the insults of the rabble, or the provoking petulance of truant schoolboys, and idle debauchees of all descriptions, with whom their occupation brought them into contact. On the contrary, the tempers of the poor old fellows were soured by the indignities with which the mob distinguished them on many occasions..." Poor old fellows they certainly were, for the pay was sixpence a day and it is recorded that when the Lord Provost inspected their ranks in 1789 he found a Guardsman who had been in the ranks since the Porteous riots of 1736! The man was dismissed and awarded a pension for life.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span><br />
It would seem that the Edinburgh caricaturist John Kay took a special interest in the Town Guard, as they feature in several of his works. The sketch of John Dhu, described by Scott as "the fiercest-looking fellow I ever saw", was particularly admired by the citizens who gathered around Kay's shop window to gaze at the work the artist displayed there.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span><br />
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With the founding of the city's new police force in 1805 it was clear that the days of the old Guard were numbered, and when the Tolbooth came down in 1817 they were disbanded. Scott recorded the sad spectacle of their march on their final day: "Their last march to do duty at Hallowfair had something in it affecting. Their drums and fifes had been wont on better days to play, on this joyous occasion, the lively tune of 'Jockey to the fair;' but on his final occasion the afflicted veterans moved slowly to the dirge of 'The last time I came ower the muir.' "<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fffcf6;"></span></span></div>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-76616455586746928392011-09-17T07:39:00.000-07:002011-09-17T07:39:51.814-07:00The Leith ShellycoatIn the very early years of the 19th century work began on the construction of Leith Docks. Before 1800 the port's trade had been carried out from the quaysides along the Water of Leith where it entered the North Sea, but as Leith became more industrialised in the later 18th century and demand for its goods grew it became clear that the existing arrangements for the docking and loading of trading vessels was hopelessly inadequate. John Rennie the Elder, a leading civil engineer, designed the new docks which were opened in 1806, but during their construction it became necessary to deal with a huge barnacle-encrusted glacial boulder on the shoreline in the vicinity of Leith Citadel. It was proposed by the foreman of works that this huge object be blown up, but it is recorded that the workmen charged with its destruction were not keen on taking on the job, due to the boulder's reputation as the home of a shellycoat.<br />
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In Scottish tradition a shellycoat was a sort of demon or spirit which haunted certain watery places. It wore a coat of seashells which produced a rustling sound as the demon walked, warning passers-by of its presence. Many of these shellycoats were said to be mischievous rather than violent, often amusing themselves at human expense by such pranks as calling for help, as if someone were in trouble in the water, and then moving elsewhere and calling for help again, thus leading people away from their intended path. The Leith shellycoat however had a more sinister reputation. At least one death was attributed to this demon, when he played football with a drunken visitor until the latter dropped dead through exhaustion! James Grant in Old and New Edinburgh (1880) describes the Leith Shellycoat as 'a sort of monster fiend, gigantic, but undefinable, who possessed powers almost infinite; who never undertook anything, no matter how great, which he failed to accomplish; his swiftness was that of a spirit, and he delighted in deeds of blood and devastation.' Such was the shellycoat's fearsome reputation that local youths often proved their courage by accepting the task of approaching the rock at sunset and running three times around it, all the while chanting:<br />
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"Shellycoat, Shellycoat, gang awa' hame,<br />
I cry na' yer mercy, I fear na' yer name!"<br />
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This was no doubt followed by a very swift flight from the scene. Yet the reluctance of the dock builders to destroy the rock is an indication that respect for the shellycoat was not confined to children. The boulder was instead moved to the other side of Leith, to lie on the sands there, a task that could not have been easy given its size and weight.<br />
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Today the poor shellycoat's rock resides almost forgotten in a rather unglamorous location, the entrance to the local sewage plant. It appears that with its removal the reputation attached to the rock was exorcised, for it became simply known as the 'Penny Bap' thereafter, and local boys no longer dare each other to disturb its dreadful resident.<br />
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<br />Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-37321433776722737012011-09-16T11:54:00.000-07:002011-09-16T11:57:16.829-07:00Edinburgh Worthies: Sir Henry RaeburnHenry Raeburn (1756-1823) was a prominent Scottish portrait painter whose works depicted the elite of Scottish society in the late Georgian period.<br />
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Raeburn was born in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, the younger son of a manufacturer. He was orphaned young and raised by an older brother who paid for his education. Apprenticed to a goldsmith at age 15 he soon showed a natural talent for etching and painting miniature portraits on items such as jewellery and mourning-rings. He married a wealthy widow in 1778, which allowed him to concentrate upon his artwork, and though he was self-taught his ability with oil paints was such that his fame spread rapidly.<br />
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One of Raeburn's most famous works is popularly known as the Skating Minister. It is believed to show the Reverend Robert Walker skating on Duddingston Loch near Edinburgh. This remarkable composition is not at all typical of his work, but the minister's sober dress and demeanour contrast memorably with both his elegant skill as a skater and the romantic backdrop.<br />
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Much more representative of Raeburn's usual work is this portrait of the celebrated novelist Sir Walter Scott in 1822. Sir Joshua Reynolds is one of the many artists who esteemed Raeburns portraiture.<br />
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This is the only self-portrait Raeburn is known to have produced, painted around 1820. It features among a number of his portraits commemorated in a set of British postage stamps issued in 1973 to mark the 150th anniversary of his death.<br />
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Although he was both famous and celebrated in his lifetime, Raeburn does not seem to have been much of a businessman and he died intestate with £10 in his house and another £16 in his bank account. As the inventory of his estate shows, however, at the time of his death he was owed debts amounting to over £4,500 by his many famous and wealthy clients.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-6267263843271737222011-09-15T11:48:00.000-07:002011-09-15T11:48:37.155-07:00Edinburgh Worthies: James Hutton<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">James Hutton (1726-1797) was one of the most celebrated thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, and is generally considered to be the first man to form a sensible theory of geology.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">He was born into a middle-class home in Edinburgh and attended the city's High School (at that time located between Infirmary Street and The Pleasance), where he showed particular promise in mathematics and chemistry. At age 14 he began studying the humanities at Edinburgh University, but it was always clear that the young Hutton was far more interested in science. At age 18 he became a physician's assistant and attended lectures in medicine at the university. he went on to study medicine at the University of Paris and took the degree of doctor of medicine at Leyden in 1749. His thesis was on blood circulation.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Hutton returned to Edinburgh in 1750, but not to take up a doctor's practice. With his friend James Davie he conducted successful experiments in the production of sal ammoniac from soot. This was a crystalline form of ammonium chloride, used at that time in considerable quantities in dye works and in metalworking and until then only available by import from Egypt. Perfecting their technique, the two men set up in business and contracted the city's chimney sweeps to supply the basic raw material; the business prospered. Using some of the profits, Hutton purchased shops and houses in the city and rented them out, employing a factor to do so. He also inherited farmlands in Berwickshire which he tried to improve. It was on his farms that the young James Hutton developed an interest in agricultural improvement and in the study of the earth.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In 1753 Hutton confessed to a friend that he had "become very fond of studying the surface of the earth, and was looking with anxious curiosity into every pit or ditch or bed of a river that fell his way". Some of the geology he studied seemed to him to contradict the then-current theory of how and when the earth was formed, namely that all rocks had precipitated out of a single enormous flood. Hutton proposed that the centre of the earth was hot, and that this heat was the engine which drove the formation of new rocks, a process that had been going on for very much longer than had ever been imagined. He had seen Salisbury Crags on Arthur's Seat, which overlooked his house in Edinburgh, and noted that volcanic rock had intruded through sedimentary layers, and near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders he found an eroding cliff face showing sedimentary layers tilted almost vertically, below a layer of conglomerate, with horizontal layers of sandstone above all. In Berwickshire he noted at Siccar Point on the coast more stratigraphical evidence that the earth was far, far older than anyone had previously guessed. Hutton reasoned there must have been innumerable cycles, each involving deposition on the seabed, uplift with tilting and erosion, followed by re-immersion, further deposition, and so on. Looking at the thickness of these rock layers and the time required by current geological processes, his inescapable conclusion was that the earth was many, many millions of years old.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Hutton's ideas were first printed in his Theory of the Earth in 1788. They received a very mixed reception, as may be imagined. He was not popular with many Kirk (Church of Scotland) ministers, some of whom thought his conclusions were essentially atheistic; their hostility led Hutton to a number of barbed comments, such as "the volcano was not created to scare superstitious minds and plunge them into fits of piety and devotion. It should be seen as the vent of a furnace." Some scientists of the day called his theory atheistic, some plainly ludicrous, and others failed to understand them at all, for although a highly gifted man his book is so densely and awkwardly worded that it is clear that writing was not his strongest suit. Yet to those who cared to make the effort it was clear that Hutton had revolutionised the study of geology and that he had been the first to understand the forces at work in the earth. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">James Hutton died in his beloved Edinburgh in 1797, but his ideas were championed by Charles Lyell in the 1830s and reached a wide readership, including the young Charles Darwin who read them with enthusiasm on his voyage on the Beagle. Today James Hutton is seen as one of the truly great pioneers of modern science, and the founder of modern geology.</span><br />
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</span>Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4768445282717086799.post-3961064289732986572011-09-14T02:55:00.000-07:002011-09-14T02:55:44.737-07:00The Leith Glass IndustryLeith was Edinburgh's port and the main location of the area's industry during the Georgian period. The main imports prior to the 1790s were wine and spirits, and Leith was the import point for great quantities of claret in particular, for long the favourite wine of the more prosperous classes in Edinburgh. It has been claimed that the Scottish Enlightenment was greatly encouraged by the wines of Bordeaux! The wars against revolutionary France greatly interfered with this trade, and Leith businessmen turned to other sources of profit, manufacturing in particular.Wood imported in great quantity from the Baltic fed a healthy shipbuilding industry, iron from Sweden was turned into household items such as pots and pans, rope making was significant and sugar refining was also carried on. One of the most important Leith activities in this period, however, was the glass industry.<br />
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In 1780 there was only one manufacturer of glass in Leith, and only coarse green ware of the kind used for wines and spirits was produced. By 1792 the domestic market for quality glass seems to have suddenly increased, probably due to imports from Europe being disrupted by war, for there were now six glass companies in Leith, some developing highly finished items such as white glass windows and looking-glass fronts. As the workers developed their skills even luxury items were produced in quantity; engraved and cut glass for household use such as chandeliers, decanters, drinking goblets and lamps. By the end of the century Leith was one of the country's leading producers of high-quality finished glass goods. The works of the Glass House Company at Leith were advertised as for sale in the Courant of 1813, which stated that they were valued at,£40,000, with a valuable steam-engine of sixteen horse power, valued at £21,000.<br />
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The glass manufacturers have deserted Leith long since, along with much of the other industry, but awareness of their former importance to the port is preserved in the name Salamander Street, where the remains of the furnaces used in glass production can still be seen.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12545776552312235013noreply@blogger.com2