Houses in the High-Street, Picturesque Scotland: Its Romantic Scenes & Historical Associations Described in Lay and Legend, Song and Story, p. 27, "From Castle to Palace." 10 cm high by 11.3 cm wide, or 4 inches by 4 &12; inches, framed.
Text Illustrated: Noble, Crooked Houses in The High-street
Close beside the old Assembly Hall stands St. John's (Free) Church, where for many a year Dr. Guthrie and his gifted colleague Dr. Hanna, the biographer Chalmers, laboured together. Here Guthrie stood, as it were, in the midst of his great work; for the Ragged School, which he founded and for which he laboured so nobly, is but a short way off in Ramsay-lane, and no doubt many of the bairns to whom he was such a benefactor came from the "lands" and "closes" of the neighbourhood. Guthrie was no less famous as a preacher than as a philanthropist; and no one who ever heard him can forget the benign countenance, the genial tone, and the natural, unconstrained eloquence which went to make his preaching what it was. Proportioned to the size of the city, the crowds which used to gather in Free St. John's were no less wonderful than those which throng Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle, the immense space of St. Paul's when Canoa Liddon is the preacher.
Just beside this church the West Bow used to bend toward the Grassmarket. Down this West Bow the unfortunate Captain Porteous was borne, in 1736, by an angry mob, angry at first because of some executions which had taken place in circumstances of great barbarity, and then infuriated by Porteous's commanding his soldiers to fire upon the people when carried him to the Grassmarket, and there hung him, where, alas! many a better man had perished before him ; for the Grassmarket has well been called the "Smithfield" of Edinburgh, having been, like the latter, at once the scene of busy trade, and the spot where many a martyr sealed his testimony with his blood. [pp. 24-25]
Now at length we are in the part of the High-street known as the "Lawnmarket." They tell how once upon a time — it was in the year 1640 — this place was the scene of one of the silliest incidents in the silly annals of duelling. It happened that one Major Somerville was at the head of the Covenanting regiment which then held Edinburgh Castle, and upon the day in question an officer, named Captain Crawford, who held no command, demanded admittance at the castle-gate. He was refused, or at least was told that Major Somerville must first know his name and rank. . . . [25]
See also Close, Canongate, p. 27, and In High Street, p. 24, in "From Castle to Palace."
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Bibliography
Watt, Francis M., and Andrew Carter. "From Castle to Palace." Picturesque Scotland: Its Romantic Scenes & Historical Associations Described in Lay and Legend, Song and Story.. London: John M. Murdoch [1887?], pp. 22-30.
Created 7 June 2025