Moutrie’s Hill, Broughton, Canonmills, Silvermills and Deanhaugh—all successively swallowed up in the extension of the modern city. The seaport of Leith, though a distinct burgh, governed by its own magistrates, and electing its own representative to parliament, has also on its southern side become practically united to its great neighbour.
The other three royal burghs associated with Edinburgh were Stirling, Roxburgh and Berwick; and their enactments form the earliest existing collected body of Scots law. The determination of Edinburgh as the national capital, and as the most frequent scene of parliamentary assemblies, dates from the death of James I. in 1436. Of the thirteen parliaments summoned by that sovereign, only one, the last, was held at Edinburgh, but his assassination in the Blackfriars’ monastery at Perth led to the abrupt transfer of the court and capital from the Tay to the Forth. The coronation of James II. was celebrated in Holyrood Abbey instead of at Scone, and the widowed queen took up her residence, with the young king, in the castle. Of fourteen parliaments summoned during this reign, only one was held at Perth, five met at Stirling and the rest at Edinburgh; and, notwithstanding the favour shown for Stirling as a royal residence in the following reign, every one of the parliaments of James III. was held at Edinburgh. James II. conferred on the city various privileges relating to the holding of fairs and markets, and the levying of customs; and by a royal charter of 1452 he gave it pre-eminence over the other burghs. Further immunities and privileges were granted by James III.; and by a precept of 1482, known as the Golden Charter, he bestowed on the provost and magistrates the hereditary office of sheriff, with power to hold courts, to levy fines, and to impose duties on all merchandise landed at the port of Leith. Those privileges were renewed and extended by various sovereigns, and especially by a general charter granted by James VI. in 1603.
James III. was a great builder, and, in the prosperous era which followed his son’s accession to the throne, the town reached the open valley to the south, with the Cowgate as its chief thoroughfare. But the death of James IV. in 1513, along with other disastrous results of the battle of Flodden, brought this era of prosperity to an abrupt close. The citizens hastened to construct a second line of wall, enclosing the Cowgate and the heights beyond, since occupied by Greyfriars churches and Heriot’s hospital, but still excluding the Canongate, as pertaining to the abbey of Holyrood. In the 16th century the movements connected with John Knox and Mary, queen of Scots, made Edinburgh a castle of much activity. With the departure, however, of the sixth James to fill the English throne in 1603, the town lost for a long period its influence and prestige. Matters were not bettered by the Act of Union signed in a cellar in High Street in 1707, amidst the execrations of the people, and it was not till the hopes of the Jacobites were blasted at Culloden (1746) that the townsfolk began to accept the inevitable. This epoch, when grass grew even in High Street, long lingered in the popular memory as the “dark age.”
By the accession of George III. (1760), Edinburgh showed signs of revived enterprise. In 1763 the first North Bridge, connecting the Old Town with the sloping ground on which afterwards stood the Register House and the theatre in Shakespeare Square, was opened; a little later the Nor’ Loch was partially drained, and the bridging of the Cowgate in 1785 encouraged expansion southwards. Towards the end of the 18th century the New Town began to take shape on the grand, if formal, lines which had been planned by James Craig (d. 1795), the architect, nephew of the poet Thomson, and the erection of Regent Bridge in Waterloo Place (formally opened in 1819 on the occasion of the visit of Prince Leopold, afterwards king of the Belgians) gave access to Calton Hill. The creation of Princes Street, one of the most beautiful thoroughfares in the world, led to further improvement. The earth and débris from the excavation of the sites for the houses in this and adjoining streets had been “dumped” in the centre of the drained Nor’ Loch. This unsightly mass of rubbish lay for a while as an eye-sore, until the happy thought arose of converting it into a broad way joining the new road at Hanover Street with the Old Town at the Lawnmarket. Upon this street, which divides Princes Street and its gardens into east and west, and which received the title of the Mound, were erected the National Gallery and the Royal Institution. Speaking generally, the New Town was resorted to by professional men—lawyers, doctors and artists,—and in its principal streets will be found the head offices of the leading banks and insurance offices, all lodged in buildings of remarkable architectural pretensions. The Commercial, the Union and the Clydesdale banks are in George Street, the National Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the British Linen Company’s Bank are in St Andrew Square, the Bank of Scotland is at the head of the Mound. The extensive building operations engaged in by the town council in the early part of the 19th century resulted in the insolvency of the city in 1833. The property of the corporation was valued at £271,658 against a debt of £425,195, which was compounded for by the issue of 3% annuity bonds—the loss to the creditors amounting to 25% of their claims.
Meanwhile the progress of letters, science and learning manifested the recovery of the city. The names of Knox (d. 1572), Buchanan (1582), Alexander Montgomery (1605), Drummond of Hawthornden (1649), Allan Ramsay (1757), Smollett (1771), Fergusson (1774), and Burns (1796), carried on the literary associations of the Scottish capital nearly to the close of the 18th century, when various causes combined to give them new significance and value. The university was served by a body of teachers and investigators who won for it a prominent position among European schools. Then succeeded the era of Scott’s Marmion and The Lady of the Lake, followed by the Waverley novels and the foundation of Blackwood’s Magazine and the Edinburgh Review.
Modern conditions have changed the character of Edinburgh society. In Scott’s early days a journey to London was beset with difficulties and even dangers; but railways have now brought it within a few hours’ distance, and Scottish artists and literary men are tempted to seek a wider field. Nevertheless, the influence of the past survives in many ways. Edinburgh is not markedly a manufacturing city, but preserves its character as the Scottish capital.
Authorities.—James Grant, Old and New Edinburgh (London, 1880 et seq.); W. Maitland, History of Edinburgh (1753); Hugo Arnot, History of Edinburgh (1789); B. Chambers, Traditions of Edinburgh (1824); D. Wilson, Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time (1846–1848); O. Smeaton, Edinburgh and its Story (1904). The Municipal Buildings of Edinburgh, by Robert Miller, Lord Dean of Guild, printed by order of the town council (Edinburgh, 1895); Royal Edinburgh, by Mrs Oliphant, illustrations by Sir George Reid, R.S.A. (London, 1890).
EDINBURGHSHIRE, or Midlothian, a county of Scotland, bounded N. by the Firth of Forth, E. by the shires of Haddington, or East Lothian, and Berwick, S.E. by Roxburghshire, S. by Selkirkshire, Peeblesshire and Lanarkshire, S.W. by Lanarkshire, and W. by Linlithgowshire or West Lothian. Its area is 234,339 acres or 3662 sq. m. The island of Cramond belongs to the county. There are no mountains, but the Pentland Hills advance boldly from the south-west to within 5 m. of the sea. The loftiest summits are Scald Law (1898 ft.), Carnethy (1881), West and East Cairn Hill (1844 and 1839), and West Kip (1806). They are generally of rounded form, and covered with heath or grass. The Moorfoot Hills, in the south-east, are a continuation of the Lammermuirs, and attain in Blackhope Scar a height of 2136 ft. Of more or less isolated eminences there are the Braid Hills (698 ft.), Blackford Hill (500), Arthur’s Seat (822), Corstorphine Hill (500)—all practically within Edinburgh—and Dalmahoy Craig (800), 7 m. south-west of the city. Of the rivers the Gala rises on the south-east of the Moorfoot Hills and flows south to join the Tweed, and the Tyne after a course of 7 m. passes into Haddingtonshire. All the others flow into the Firth of Forth. Of these the Esk, which is the longest, drains the district between the Pentlands and the Moorfoot Hills, and empties into the sea at Musselburgh. The southern branch has its source near Blackhope Scar, receives on its right Gore Water
