Edina, THE NEW WORLD

 

Edina Lochenbooths high st

THE NEW WORLD - Life in Edinburgh 1700s 

A city of taverns, turnpike, steps, towering apartment blocks, theatre, dancing assemblies, city chambers and strong gusts of wind. The row of towers rising from the palace to a castle on the rock- some 12 storeys high were crowded. Seen from the wide views out along the shores of the Firth of Forth there were garlands of wood and peat smoke round the town which gave rise to the name Auld Reekie. And the wynds and closes ran down to the waters of the north loch or to the Canongate. From the lawn market, the Royal mile opens out near St Giles to be wide enough for five carriages, and then narrowed down to the Canongate, down towards Holyrood palace and Arthurs seats.

 

There was the Jacobite/ Whig divide. There were 2 thrice weekly newspapers – one Whig, one Jacobite; and The Scots Magazine – full of trails, poetry, world affairs, narrative of Scots; 4 printing works, brewers, insurance, 9 Presbyterian churches. Musselburgh fish wives, sweeps, coal porters, barefoot housemaids. Women wore scarlet plaid or tartan over their heads down to their waist. There were 600 taverns, where work took place and people drank ale, claret and whisky.  There was archery for Jacobites, at Musselburgh. Golf for the Whigs at Leith links.

There was a weekly concert at St Marys chapel Cowgate. The women sang old songs and held tea parties. A well-dressed duchess appeared from a dirty close. it was the Duchess of Gordon, the leader of Edinburgh society, was once seen riding up the high street on a sow, which her sister drove with a stick!

Georgian New Town built late 1700s

The heart of Edinburgh was at St Giles cathedral since the abolition of the bishops during the Reformation – there was the new church choir, old church nave, Haddow Holes northwest corner, Tolbooth west. The General Assembly met here once a year.  

At the Luckenbooths near St Giles were shops – on the East side was the flat of poet Allan Ramsay senior who established the first library 1725 and in the ground floor flat was the printer, William Creech. And on the west side were the dark turrets of the Old Tolbooth prison. At the back of St Giles, there was the Parliament house where the Scottish Parliament sat from 1639. The Edinburgh town council sat at Parliament Close.

From Edinburgh there were 3 mail coaches to London each week. A stagecoach ran monthly to London and took 10 days on the road. There were ships to London – from the Port of Leith. Edinburgh did not have the colonial trade with the Americas or a merchant class, that Glasgow had - but the town had lawyers, Court of Session, clergymen, General Assembly. 

 

There was intellectual infrastructure, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums and masonic lodges. The Edinburgh College (university) – William Castares, who’d been in Dutch exile before 1688 revolution. In 1708 introduced a system of professors – new chairs in Arts, Law. The Edinburgh Faculty of Medicine, founded in 1726 was the first in Britain. Jacobite printers Thomas and Walter Ruddima produced editions of Scots Renaissance writers such as George Buchannan and Gavin Douglas. They also expanded the Advocates library at Parliament House 1680 to over 2 thousand volumes. The Academy of Painting opened in 1729. The High school was one of the largest grammar schools with 400 pupils – plus 4 hospitals or boarding schools for orphans – George Heriots for boys and George Watson for girls in 1659.The Royal Infirmary was founded in 1741. 

Scottish Writers museum

Baxters Close