As light’s a flee.’
Peter afterwards established a penny-post in Edinburgh, which became so profitable in his hands that the General Post-office gave him a handsome compensation for it. He was also the first to print a street directory in Edinburgh. He died January 19, 1799.
[86] Provost Creech was the first who had the good taste to abandon the practice.
[87] See Collection of Original Poems by Scotch Gentlemen, vol. ii. 137 (1762).
[88] An Edinburgh term applied to a class of rogues. Probably a corrupt pronunciation of the English word cully—to fool, to cheat.
[89] Where the North Bridge now stands.
[90] A full description of the old Parliament Hall, with a plan showing the divisions and the arrangements of the ‘booths,’ is given in Reekiana; or, Minor Antiquities of Edinburgh. It is not now called the Outer House.
[91] Several of the illustrations in the present section are immediately derived from a curious volume, full of entertainment for a denizen of the Parliament House—The Court of Session Garland. Edinburgh: Thomas Stevenson. 1839.
[92] A Moral Discourse on the Power of Interest. By David Abercromby, M.D. London, 1691. P. 60.
[93] John Sinclair of Murkle, appointed a Lord of Session in 1733.