OS1/11/105/227
| List of names as written | Various modes of spelling | Authorities for spelling | Situation | Description remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site of TOWN WALL (1420) | [continued from page 226] and Knowledge, acquired from tradition and other sources. Mr. Matheson ClerK in the office of the Board [of] WorKs also assisted to point out the site. The latter gentleman Saw part of the foundation of this wall some [---] when some improvements were in progress at the south side of the buildings of the Court of Session The following account of this wall is from Chambers' ReeKiana Page 72. The first wall of Edinburgh built in 1450 and which included only the High Street - running in a line between that street and the Cowgate which was then a suburb. The fragment of this old wall was demolished in 1829 to make way for the western approach to the High Street under the Improvements Act. The wall in question crossed the West Bow at the first turn from the top where there was a gate visible in De Wit's Map, 1648 and of which one of the Hooks for supporting a hinge is still to be seen in the front of an adjacent house. This gate for some reasons not easily to be understood appears to have been Kept up long after another wall had, in 1513 been extended in a wider circuit around the City. It used to be the scene of certain ceremonials at the entry of our Sovereigns into Edinburgh. From this CrooK of the Bow, the wall stretched directly eastwards at about an equal distance from the High Street and Cowgate. In 1832, when the worKmen were digging for the foundations of a new Lock-up house in connexion with the Parliament House, a fragment of the wall, about 50 feet long and twenty feet in height, was discovered in a line parallel to the south end of that building and about 10 feet from the windows of the manuscript room of the advocates Library being in fact exactly on the line of the middle part of the old passage called called the BacK Stairs. It was speedily closed over by the new walls and will of course continue to exist in all probability for several. In De Wit's Map there appears at this spot a piece of ruined wall which is evidently the same with that just described. It must have cut the ancient Church-yard of St Giles into two parts perhaps forming the upper into a Kind of terrace. See Chamber's Reckeana see also Extract annexed from the Scotsman Newspaper of April 1833 |
Continued entries/extra info
[Page] 227Transcriber's notes
Words lost in foldThis Name Book refers to Edinburgh 1852 - Sheet 35
OS large scale Scottish town plans, 1847-1895 - Scale: 1:1056
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Bizzy- Moderator, Christine Y
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