THE ROYAL MILE
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John
Knox's House
Open Mon-Sat 10-4.30; admission payable.
Saved
from destruction by its association with the great man, John Knox's
House juts out into the High Street as obstinately as the preacher
himself expounded his beliefs.
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It is not even certain that the author of A Trumpet Blast
against the Monstrous Regiment of Women and other works ever
even lived here, although the owner of the house was a Catholic
besieged in the castle-and Knox would have enjoyed squatting
rent-free in a Catholic's house. It is also claimed that this
is the house to which he came to die. |
By
way of compromise, the exhibition inside also features the man
who certainly did own the place in the 16th century, James Mosman,
the goldsmith who was later hanged for his devoted allegiance
to Mary, Queen of Scots. Knox, Mosman and Mary make an Interesting
trio, which is well exploited. There's a reconstruction of Mosman's
work bench, and the rather bare interior echoes to the sound of
arguments between Knox and Mary. The walls are lined with well-presented
historical panels and objects related to their lives, laid out
in glass cabinets, while the beams and ceilings are crudely patterned
in a style familiar from Gladstone's Land at the top of the Royal
Mile. The house provides some idea of what 17thcentury accommodation
might have been like. On the ground floor some medieval 'luckenbooths'
or lockable shops were recently excavated and now tell the story
of the Netherbow Port that adjoined the house.
Next
door to John Knox's house is the Netherbow Centre.
The
Netherbow Centre has a theatre, and a very good Café, and
the bell from the Netherbow Gate can be seen in the courtyard.
Opposite
the Netherbow Centre, in Tweeddale Court, you can visit the Scottish
Poetry Society.
The
society has a fascinating library and in the courtyard some of
the old city wall can still be seen, including the Netherbow Gate,
the great gate that marked the eastern boundary of the old city.
It was demolished 250 years ago to ease the flow of traffic, and
it had long been more useful as an excise checkpoint than as a
defensive barrier. A couple of decades before it was taken down,
Charles Stuart's Highlanders had simply pushed their way through
into the city when the gates were opened to let a carriage leave.
Its speedy demolition was also an indication of how rapidly things
settled down after the '45. A carving above No.9 High Street gives
a more accurate impression of how the Netherbow Gate might have
looked than the fanciful bronze sign that now hangs outside the
Netherbow Centre.
When
you reach the Netherbow Centre, and the appropriately named
World's End pub (the start of Walk 111, you are at the point
where the burgh of Edinburgh ends and the burgh of Canongate
begins.
Surprisingly
perhaps, the Canongate's name has nothing to do with military
ordinance, but refers to the Canons of Holyrood Abbey at the bottom
of the hill and the 'gait'-or street-they lived on. Their founder
David I authorized the separate burgh in 1143 and it was only
just over 500 years later that Edinburgh acquired feudal superiority
over it. As an undefended suburb of that city, there was plenty
of room for the nobility to build grand houses with large gardens.
Continue
down the street to see the best surviving example of these residences,
on the right, beside a pair of stone gateposts topped with spiky
spires.
Moray House was built for Mary, Countess of Home, and later bought
by the Earl of Moray. Architecturally the balcony demonstrates
the way these stone buildings initially imitated wooden construction
techniques, supported on stone 'beams'. It's most famous though
for being the place from which the Covenanting General Argyll
looked down during a wedding reception on his arch enemy Montrose
being wheeled to the scaffold. The house has been a teacher training
college since the 19th century but, hidden away among the college's
ugly buildings through the arch, it is still possible to find
the little summer house where the Treaty of Union with England
was plotted.
Further
down, on the left-hand side, is the Canongate Tolbooth
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The
Tolbooth, with its clock sticking out, was built in 1592 in
French style as the Canongate's equivalent of the Heart of
Midlothian. It now houses the People's Story (open Mon-Sat
10-5, 2-5 during the FestivaL, an entertaining and amusing
museum with a wealth of information and artefacts relating
to ordinary lives in Edinburgh over the ages. Over the road
is the Huntly House Museum of local history (same hours),
not as grand a house as the name suggests, being in fact three
town houses in one. The pious inscriptions on its timber frame
once lent it the nickname 'the speaking house'. The 16th century
house is more interesting than many of the displays, which
are of the old-school, glass cabinet and wall-mounted variety.
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Cross
the road to see the peculiar Dutch gable of the Canongate Kirk
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The
church was built in 1688 as the parish kirk of Canongate
when the Abbey Church of Holyrood was remodelled by James
Vll as a Catholic Chapel Royal.
Its
Dutch gable can be explained by the close trading links
the burgh had with the Low Countries in the 17th century.
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After
his victory at Prestonpans in 1745, Charles Stuart held English
officers captive in the church, where they could probably have
heard the Jacobite celebrations going on down the road in Holyrood
Palace.
The
interior is fairly plain but the graveyard more than makes up
for it, with an extraordinary view of the Greek buildings on Calton
Hill and more than its fair share of notable dead. Adam Smith's
grave is on the left of the gate as you enter. Further on is the
grave of poet Robert Fergusson with its fond inscription by Robert
Burns, who paid for the stone. That poet's beloved 'Clarinda'
is also buried here, under her real name Mrs Agnes McLehose. The
grave of George Drummond, six times Lord Provost and the driving
force behind the New Town, can also be found. More controversially,
leaning against the church's east wall is a stone slab claiming
to mark the grave of David Rizzio, the brutally murdered secretary
of Mary, Queen of Scots. Back on the streetside of the graveyard
is the original Canongate Mercat Cross that used to stand just
outside the Tolbooth just up the road. Nearby is an interesting
modern sculpture of the mythical beast called a chimera.
Carry
on down the street, keeping an eye out for Dunbar's Close, on
the left-hand side.
This
is a well-kept Edinburgh secret: a lovely little reconstruction
of a 17th century garden. Next door is Panmure House, where the
economist Adam Smith lived from 1778 to 1790.
Continue
down to Queensberry House, the large house on the right.
This
was the last great townhouse to be built In Edinburgh before the
Union. It was built for the 2nd Duke of Queensberry who was instrumental
in forging the Treaty.
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As
you approach the end of the Canongate, you will come to
White Horse Close, on the left, from where the stagecoach
to London used to leave.
Possibly
named after Mary, Queen of Scot's horse, the White Horse
Close has more famously lent its own name to a brand of
whisky, and has been quaintly restored.
As
you reach the foot of the Royal Mile you will see, directly
in front of you, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the
new Scottish Parliament building.
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