Gardyne's ‘Garden of Grave and Godlie Floures,’ 1609, are addressed to Craig, who perhaps wrote the first of ‘Certaine Encomiastick Poesies to the Author,’ prefixed to that work. Among the complimentary verses (not found in ed. 1709, but preserved in the author's manuscript) prefixed to Gardyne's ‘The Theatre of the Scotish Kings,’ is a copy of verses by Craig, who also contributed some prefatory verses to ‘The Famous Historie of the Renowned and Valiant Prince Robert, surnamed the Bruce, King of Scotland,’ Dort, 1615. Some verses of Craig are in John Adamson's ‘The Muses' Welcome,’ 1618, and he wrote some commendatory verses to ‘The Staggering State of Scots Statesmen,’ by Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, first printed in 1754. Dr. William Barclay, in ‘Nepenthes, or the Vertues of Tobacco,’ 1614, addresses a short poem to Craig. In 1873–4 a collective edition of Craig's poems, which are very rare and very worthless, was issued by the Hunterian Society, with an introduction by David Laing.
[David Laing's Introduction to the Hunterian reprint of Craig's poems.]
CRAIG, JAMES (d. 1795), architect, was the son of William Craig, merchant in Edinburgh, and Mary, youngest daughter of the Rev. Thomas Thomson of Ednam, Roxburghshire, and sister of James Thomson the poet [q. v.] Craig was a pupil of Sir Robert Taylor [q. v.], and in 1767 sent in a ‘plan of the new streets and squares intended for the city of Edinburgh’ for a competition instituted by the authorities of that city, who were desirous of extending it by buildings laid out in a more modern style. Craig adopted as the keynote of his design some lines from his uncle's poem on ‘Liberty:’—
August, around, what public works I see!
Lo! stately streets! lo! squares that court the breeze!
See! long canals and deepened rivers join
Each part with each, and with the circling main
The whole enlivened isle——;
and therefore planned a series of exact squares and parallelograms, in which the North Loch was preserved as a long canal with formal buildings on each side. This plan, though utterly destitute of inventive ingenuity or any regard for the natural features of the ground, was accepted with acclamation by the magistracy of Edinburgh; they presented Craig with a gold medal bearing the city arms and the freedom of the city in a silver box, and his plan was engraved by P. Begbie and published in 1768 with a dedication to George III. Hence arose that portion of Edinburgh known as the New Town. One of the principal buildings erected by Craig, as part of this design, was the Physicians' Hall, ‘a chaste Grecian edifice,’ the foundation-stone of which was laid by Dr. Cullen [q. v.] in 1774, and which was destined to be an enduring monument of Craig's architectural genius. It has been since pulled down to make way for the Commercial Bank of Scotland. Craig subsequently modified his original design by introducing a circus in the centre of George Street, and in 1786 issued a quarto pamphlet with engravings, containing a scheme for a further remodelling of the Old Town. Fortunately the mania for improvement died out before this could be carried into execution. Craig died in Edinburgh 23 June 1795. There is a portrait of him seated among his architectural designs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Gent. Mag. (1795), lxiii. 615.]
CRAIG, Sir JAMES GIBSON (1765–1850), politician, second son of William Gibson, merchant, was born in Edinburgh on 11 Oct. 1765. His ancestor, Sir Alexander Gibson, lord president of the court of session in the reign of James VI, married the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton, the feudal lawyer of Scotland [q. v.] In 1823 James Gibson succeeded under entail to the estate of Riccarton (Midlothian), and took the additional name of Craig.
He was educated at the high school, Edinburgh. In 1786 he was admitted a writer to the signet, and for sixty-four years he carried on the business of a law agent with eminent success, gaining the confidence of many who, on public grounds, were ardently opposed to him. His political activity dated from his early manhood, and at that time a bold adherence to the whig cause was not without sensible dangers. In a biographical sketch of his friend Allen [see Allen John, M.D.], he describes a dinner given in Edinburgh to celebrate the fall of the Bastille, in the organisation of which he and Allen took a leading part. After every effort had been made to prevent this demonstration, the guests as they entered had their names taken by the police, while the sheriff of the county and another person were subsequently discovered in an adjoining room noting down as much of the proceedings as could be heard through the partition. Cockburn in his life of Jeffrey, paying a warm tribute to Craig's public services, declares he was ‘so prominent in our worst times that it is difficult to understand how Thomas Muir could be transported
