[33] History of St. Giles’s, Edinburgh, by the Very Rev. Dr. Cameron Lees. W. and R. Chambers.
[34] Taylor’s Pennyless Pilgrimage.
[35] A “land” is a house of several storeys, usually consisting of different tenements.
[36] Melville’s Memoirs, p. 181.
[37] The initials G. S. for the wife suggest that the formal “Egidia” was softened, after the homely Scottish fashion, into “Gidy.”
[38] Scandals.
[39] Byers’ Close takes its name from John Byers of Coates, and the carved lintel, “I.B: M.B: 1611 Blissit be God in al his giftis,” now on the old family mansion, Coates House, within the grounds of St. Mary’s Cathedral, was removed from Byers’ Close.
[40] Wilson’s Memorials, ii. footnote to p. 12; and Grant’s Old and New Edinburgh, i. 223.
[41] Sir Alexander Boswell.
[42] This Robert Mylne (F.R.S.) was a great-grandson of the Robert Mylne mentioned on p. 68, and was tenth in the line of Scottish Royal Master Masons of that name. He afterwards settled in London, where he built Blackfriars Bridge over the Thames, was the successor of Wren as Superintendent of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and died in 1811.