[582]. Analecta.
[583]. It may be satisfactory to local antiquaries to know that this hall was situated in what was consequently called the Assembly (latterly, Old Assembly) Close, on the south side of the High Street. The assembly to be held on the 25th May 1736 was advertised as to take place ‘in their new hall, behind the City Guard.’ This last site was that afterwards occupied by a building used as an office by the Commercial Bank, now the Free Church of the Tron parish. A rent of £55 was paid for this new hall, which continued to be used for fifty years, although confessedly too small, and very inconvenient.
[584]. Burt’s Letters, i. 193.
[585]. The Horn Order and Crispin Knights are satirised in several pasquils of the time of Queen Anne as fraternities practising debauchery to an unusual degree. A satire on the Union says:
The Canongate know no cabals,
Nor knights of the Horn order;
And lights were not put out at balls,
When I was a dame of honour.
The Crispins, and the Crispin pins,
Wore things unknown unto us;