The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
History
The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.
Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
Great Britain -- Description and travel
On St. John Street near by, Smollett, the historian and novelist for a
time resided with his sister, Mrs. Telfer. The next building to this
was the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, where Robert Burns, poet-laureate
to the lodge, was made a Royal Arch Mason. At No. 13 lived Lord
Monboddo and his beautiful daughter, Miss Burnet, whose death Burns
so touchingly commemorated. Lord Monboddo anticipated Darwin, for he
propounded the theory that the human family had ascended from the
monkey. His contemporaries were not disposed to favor his opinions,
which exposed the noble lord to the jocular request, "Show us your
tail, Monboddo." At No. 10 was the residence of James Ballantine, the
printer of the first editions of the Waverley Novels, whose commercial
failure involved Sir Walter Scott, as a partner, in the anxieties which
beclouded the best years of his life, and compelled him to overtask his
strength in the honorable ambition to "owe no man anything." Ballantine
was in the habit of giving a great dinner at this house on the occasion
of every new publication by Sir Walter, and therefore it is linked with
the memory of most of Scott's literary contemporaries, who, with the
Duke of Buccleuch, were usually invited to the feast. At Panmure Close
the celebrated Adam Smith lived for twelve years, and died July 8, 1790.
Before closing this account of places of especial interest--and we
have spoken of but one of a thousand--we must name what is called the
Abbey Sanctuary, the only one remaining in Scotland. This is a large
territory, in the vicinity of Holyrood Palace, and includes the whole
range of Arthur's Seat, Salisbury Crags, and the Queen's Park. It
was set apart centuries ago, as a district into which poor but honest
debtors might flee for safety from imprisonment. So long as they could
prove that they were not fraudulent bankrupts, they were safe in
this land of refuge, and on the Sabbath they could go over the city,
wherever they pleased, until sunset. This freedom naturally tempted
some of them to transgress the hour, and they were then in peril of
the bumbailiffs; but history says that "as the bailiffs would no more
dare to cross the sacred strand than a witch can pursue its victim over
a running stream, there were often tremendous _treats_ at the foot of
Canongate." On one such occasion the fugitive fell just as he was at
the strand, or boundary line. His body was on the safe side, but his
legs were captured, and held by the bailiffs till an arrangement was
made for his temporary relief. The question of jurisdiction came up in
Parliament, and after much grave discussion it was decided and resolved
that, "as the bailiff could do nothing with a man's legs unless he had
the body they belonged to, the debtor must be allowed to take his legs
along with him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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