It is not, I believe, generally known that Mr. Stevenson made an unsuccessful attempt to have the University buildings, then in progress, removed from the old town to the site proposed to be opened up on the Calton Hill; and the remarks he then made, addressed to the Right Honourable Sir John Marjoribanks, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, may have interest even at the present day, as shadowing forth views which, in the now altered relations of the new and old town, have been to some extent realised.
“In making the following observations at the desire of the Lord Provost regarding the completion of the College of Edinburgh, the memorialist would be understood as referring to the site of the building rather than to the merits of any particular design, of which he does not presume to give any opinion, as it is a matter which more properly falls under the observations of the architect than the engineer.
“In treating of the fitness of the present site of the College of Edinburgh, it may be proper to take some cursory notice of the situation of the Old College, as connected with the houses and streets in the neighbourhood, and then show the alterations which the University grounds have undergone since the design was first formed of rebuilding the College.
“Old College.
“In so far as the memorialist can recollect the exterior of the area of the Old College, it was occupied by a range of low buildings of only two stories, particularly upon the southern and western sides, and was again divided by a range of buildings into a small lower court towards the north, and the present main courtyard on the south, and these two courts communicated with each other by a spacious flight of steps, so that the principal or higher court was comparatively open and free to the influence both of the sun and of the air. Nor was there any obstruction to this state of things beyond the precincts of the College for a considerable period after the New College was commenced, and until the elegance of the building stamped a new value upon all the surrounding property. But, unfortunately, by this time the funds for the works fell short, and the operations were stopped. The Magistracy, also, who originally entered upon this great work, in rotation retired from office, and the same zeal was perhaps not felt by those who immediately succeeded; and we are now left to regret the shortness of the period of human life, which has removed the man who conceived the magnificent design of this building, which is now so completely invested with streets as to be rendered nearly unfit for the purposes of its foundation.
“New College.
“The site of the New College of Edinburgh, as already stated, does not possess any of those properties which are considered essential to the convenience and eligibility of a public school. Instead of being in a retired situation with sequestered walks, like the other colleges of the United Kingdom, it is closely surrounded by paved streets, which are the most public thoroughfares for carriages in the city, insomuch that the memorialist has witnessed the annoyance of Playfair’s mathematical class by a ballad-singer, and he has oftener than once seen the Professor of Moral Philosophy put to silence by the disloading of a cart with bars of iron in College Wynd; and at all times the driving of a single carriage briskly in the streets which surround the College is sufficient to disturb, and even to interrupt, the classes. To this it may be replied that double windows will prevent such interruptions; but these would obscure the light which already, from the late erection (on all sides) of very high buildings, is much injured.
“So strongly is the memorialist impressed with these views, from what he has himself as a student experienced, and from what he has heard from others, that he cannot resist bringing them forcibly under the notice of your Lordship in connection with the erection of a building for one of the first seminaries of education in Europe.
“When your Lordship’s predecessors in the office of the magistracy adopted the plan of Robert Adam, the most eminent and justly celebrated architect of his day, the site was comparatively free from the objections stated. It is not therefore the plan which is objectionable, but it is the neighbourhood which has been so altered and changed as to be very unsuitable to the elegant design of the architect.
“From causes to which it is unnecessary to allude, the building of the New College has only advanced about one third towards the perfecting of the design, and a sum of money is now expected to be procured for its completion. The present moment is therefore one of the greatest importance for considering the deficiencies of the present site, and if found materially defective, as humbly appears to your memorialist to be the case, it were much better to change the site of the building while it may be done without much loss, and execute the design in a more eligible situation.
“It must always be kept in view that when this design was made the grounds were open to the free circulation of the air and the full influence of light. But now the case is materially altered, and if the design is executed under such a change of circumstances the direct rays of the sun will hardly ever reach the area of the courtyard, especially in the winter months, neither will there be that free circulation of air which is essential to health and comfort, and moss (byssus) will make its appearance upon the lower parts in the interior of the courtyard, which is very unsuitable in a magnificent building such as Mr. Adam’s design for the College of Edinburgh.
“At the period when the rebuilding of the College was determined upon there was perhaps little choice as to the spot for its erection; the number of students, now greatly on the increase, was at that time much smaller, and the College grounds were then much more relieved and uncumbered with other buildings, a state of things which most unquestionably would have been preserved had the building proceeded as was expected; but in the lapse of about one third of a century many changes take place, and the slow progress of the building necessarily produced a want of energy in the official people to prevent the use that has since been made by the respective proprietors of the surrounding grounds.
“At the present crisis, however, your Lordship will now feel yourself called upon in a review of these circumstances to consider what is proper to be done upon a great scale for the ultimate best advantage of future generations in a matter of great public interest. Under these impressions a field of operation is just opening for your Lordship’s consideration, in a prolongation of Princes Street in a direct line to the lands of Calton Hill and Heriot’s Hospital, now in progress under the auspices of your Lordship. To take a minute view of this improvement would be tedious, and would require the notice of more particulars than these observations are intended to refer to. But in a general way it may be noticed that there is ample space and freedom for the execution of Mr. Adam’s design on the lands to which the new approach will lead by a very easy access.
“It may be objected to the removal of the College that it would be inconvenient for the students; but for those who are perhaps the most numerous, living in the New Town, a site for the College on the north side of the town would be the most convenient, and for a different class lodgings at a cheap rate would be procured quite at hand in the Canongate.
“A more powerful objection would perhaps arise from the contiguity of the present site of the College to the Infirmary and other institutions connected with the education of the medical classes, but these may also be got over by a little arrangement in the present hours of the classes, and one would not despair of seeing a more direct road projected from the Calton Hill to the southern side of the town were the College removed to that neighbourhood. With regard to any real loss to the students, it is not believed that such could be instructed were this proposition fully considered. But those who would perhaps be the most clamorous are the persons who have made the most of their property by building immense piles of lodging-houses in the immediate vicinity of the College, and have thus ruined the neighbourhood.
“With regard to the funds for this change of site, your memorialist is of opinion that the removal of the College from the present valuable grounds in the central parts of the city, for buildings applicable to commercial and economical purposes, would be attended with an increase of funds towards the new erection;—for the lower part all round would be opened for valuable shops, while the higher parts would answer for dwelling-houses and other purposes. The part of the front would be easily convertible into a house for the Royal Bank, which seems much wanted, and in short it may be confidently stated that upon the whole there would be no loss, but gain, by the change of position, while very many advantages could be pointed out as attending such a measure, were this the proper place for entering more fully into the subject.
“The proposal stated is not new; it has been often under the memorialist’s consideration, and he has heard it favourably spoken of and received by several of the Professors of the University, in particular Professors Leslie and Playfair, and others eminently qualified to judge correctly upon the subject.”
With this report I conclude what may be fairly held to be of purely local interest, but which nevertheless I have thought worthy of a place in the memoir of one whose great anxiety ever was to secure the amenity of Edinburgh, and make it attractive not only as a place of residence but as a seat of learning.
CHAPTER VI.
FERRIES.
Ferry Engineering—Extracts from Report on the Tay Ferries—Reports on various Ferries—Orkney and Shetland Ferry, etc.
Before we had steamers to navigate our firths and railways to bridge our estuaries, the “crossing of the ferry” was an event of no small solicitude to the traveller. In the sailing pinnace-boat of those days he not only might encounter serious danger, but his exposure to sea-sickness and drenching spray depended wholly on the weather, and sometimes the length of the passage, and the duration of his suffering could not be foretold by the most experienced “Skipper,” as the captain of the boat was invariably styled. Anything that could reduce the hazard and uncertainty of so miserable a state of things was naturally hailed as a priceless boon; and the improvement of “ferry communication” at the beginning of this century was an important branch of civil engineering. Its successful practice demanded nautical knowledge as well as constructive experience, for the engineer had first of all to study the strength and direction of the tidal currents of flood and ebb, and then to consider from what points on the shore a ferry-boat, under the varying states of wind and tide, could most readily make her passage across. He had further to select the most suitable sites for landing-places, and to construct high and low water slips at different points to meet the varying states of tide and wind, and to construct roads of more or less extent to connect the landing-places with existing turnpikes. All this arrangement was required, because at the time of which I write, before steamboats were invented, two costly deep-water piers placed ex adverso of each other, one on each side of a ferry, would not have met the requirements of the case; for the management of a sailing pinnace, at the mercy of the currents and winds, demanded not a single pier for which to steer, but a choice of several points, on as wide a range of coast as possible, for which the “skipper” could shape his course and make a landing. Mr. Stevenson’s nautical experience peculiarly fitted him for giving valuable advice in this important branch of marine engineering. It is no doubt a branch of the profession which may be said to be obsolete, but I do not know that on that account it is undeserving of notice; and the best mode I can think of for conveying to any one who may be interested in it an idea of the “ferry engineering” of former times, is to give an extract, with an illustrative sketch, of one of Mr. Stevenson’s early Ferry Reports. I select for this purpose a report made to the “Freeholders, Justices of the Peace, and Commissioners of Supply of the counties of Fife and Forfar” relative to the ferries across the Tay at Dundee:—
“Having examined the shores and firth of Tay the reporter has now the honour of submitting the following as his report regarding the proposed improvements:—
“The improvement of the ferries on the Tay has long been the desire of the public; and though this measure has hitherto been delayed, on account of the expense which necessarily attends such operations, yet so desirable an object has been invariably kept in view; and now, when the advantages attending the recently improved state of Queensferry and Kinghorn ferries have been in a good measure realised, the passage across the Tay has very opportunely been brought under the consideration of the freeholders of the adjoining counties.
“The present landing-slips or quays upon the Tay are situate at Dundee upon the north, and at Woodhaven and Newport on the south. The bed of the firth or river at Dundee is so much silted up and encumbered with sandbanks and mud, that the piers, which were no doubt originally built of sufficient extent, and perhaps commanding the necessary depth of water for floating the passage-boats at low tides, have at length become inadequate to so great a thoroughfare, and the boats are now left by the water at every spring-tide, to the great annoyance and inconvenience of the public.
“It will be observed from the plans accompanying this report that the Craig pier at Dundee is proposed to be extended from the southern extremity of the present landing-slip or pier 400 feet in length, or to the southern extremity of the Craig rock, so as to command a depth of about five feet at low water of spring-tides, which will be sufficient to float decked boats of twenty to twenty-five tons register, built upon a suitable construction for sailing. It is proposed to construct this pier, where the greatest business is to be done, upon the plan of a double pier, sixty feet in breadth; and as it will now be of a much greater extent than formerly, a screen wall is proposed to be erected in the middle of it, in a longitudinal direction, so as to check the waves or run of the water over the pier, and also for the defence and shelter of passengers from the inclemency of the weather. This pier will form an inclined plane sloping to seaward at the rate of one perpendicular to twenty-six horizontal.
Fig. 14.