John Knox - A Lion of a High Street

This extract reproduced here is taken from Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh.

Approximate date of book believed to be early 1880's.

One of the chief "lions" of the High street, if not of the old city itself, is the ancient manse of John Knox, which terminates it on the east, and is perhaps the oldest stone buildings of a private nature existing there, for it was inhabited long before his time by George Durie, Abbot of Dunfermline, who was also arch-dean of St Andrews. He was promoted to the abbacy by James V. in 1539 and was canonised two years afterwards at Rome, according to Wilson; but no such name appears in Butlers "Lives of the Fathers"

Until within the last few years the whole of this portion of the High Street was remarkable for its ancient houses, all bearing unchanged the stamp of Mary's time - about 1562; some that had open booths below had been converted into closed shops, but the fore-stairs, from which the people had reviled her as she came in from cranberry, and from whence their descendants witnessed Montrose dragged to his doom remained unaltered.

Adjoining the house of Knox (which we shall describe presently) once stood a timber fronted fabric, having a corbelled oriel, and flats projecting over each other in succession, and a roof furnished with picturesque dormer windows. its lintel bore the date 1601, and it was said to have been the mansion of the early Lords Balmerino. On a Sunday morning in 1840 this entire edifice suddenly parted in two - the front half was precipitated into the street with a terrible crash, while the back part remained in its original position, thus giving a perfect a perfect longitudinal section through the edifice to the people without, presenting suddenly a scene as singular as some of those displayed by the diable boiteux to the gaze of the student Don Cleofas, when all the roofs of Madrid disappeared before him.

Some of the inmates were soon in bed, others were partaking of there humble morning meal, and high up on the attic storey was seen an old crone on the creepie stool, smoking at ingle side. The whole inhabitants were filled with consternation, but all escaped without injury. The ruins were removed, and on their site was built, in 1850, a very hansom gothic church in connection with the Free Church body, and named after the Reformer. Its foundation-stone was laid on the 18th of May, being a memorable in the annals of the great Non-intrusion movement of Scotland.

The wooden-fronted edifice on the other side of Knox's house was, about the middle of the 18th century, occupied as a tavern, the scenes of riotous mirth and high jinks, like those described by Scott in "Guy Mannering" and to which ill-fated "Alexander Boswell" refers to in his curious poem "Edinburgh and the Ancient Royalty" published in 1810:-

"Next to the neighbouring tavern all retired,

And draughts of wine their various thoughts inspire.

O'er draughts of wine the beau would moan his love;

O'er draughts of wine the cit his bargain drove;

O'er draughts of wine the writer penned his will,

and legal wisdom counselled o'er a gill."