“‘That wad gar me greet,’ said Madge, sobbing, ‘but it couldna gar me mind, ye ken.’”
Paul’s Work was also entered from the Canongate by the long, narrow, and steep Coull’s Close, one of those lanes intersecting the towering structures of the High Street and the Canongate, so happily depicted in one sentence of “Guy Mannering”: “Away walked Mr. Pleydell with great activity, diving through closes and ascending covered stairs, in order to attain the High Street, by an access which, compared to the common route, was what the Straits of Magellan are to the more open but circuitous passage round Cape Horn.”
James Ballantyne lived close by at No. 10 St. John Street, which was entered by an archway from the Canongate, and led to South Back of Canongate. At the bottom of this street, within a couple of minutes from Holyrood, could be seen, quite near at hand, Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Crags, and St. Anthony’s Chapel and Well—a beautiful and romantic environment of the grey old northern capital. St. John Street, long after the Canongate had been deserted by its courtly occupants, continued to be the residence of a few of the rural and city gentlefolk. In this retired spot, only a few years previously, lived the eccentric Lord Monboddo, who is said to have anticipated the “evolution” theory. Lord Monboddo’s daughter was one of the loveliest women of her time—the “fair Burnet” mentioned by Burns in his “Address to Edinburgh.” A tenement at the top of the street contained the abode of Smollett when in Edinburgh. From its being a private street it was a quiet locality, and in those days was guarded by an ancient seneschal in faded uniform, who barred all passage to carriages and carts, except for the service of those who lived in the street.[8]
One of the earliest efforts of the press in Paul’s Work was the third volume of the “Border Minstrelsy,” which was published in April 1803. Scott wrote to Ballantyne: “I have to thank you for the accuracy with which the ‘Minstrelsy’ is thrown off. Longman and Rees are delighted with the printing.” The new edition of the first two volumes, issued along with the third, consisted of 1000 copies; of Vol. III. (422 + 6) there were 1500 printed. Five other editions followed—the sixth being printed in 1820.
ST. JOHN STREET