A Canongate Romance
Near the top (south side) is Chessel's Court, at the far end of which is the old Excise Office, the scene of Deacon Brodie's last burglary.
Opposite Chessel's Court is a gloomy building on the front of which will be noticed the figure of a Moor wearing a turban and necklace. This effigy recalls a curious story. In the seventeenth century a student, Andrew Gray, was arrested as ringleader of a mob which had attacked the house of an unpopular Provost. Gray was imprisoned, but escaping, went to sea, and eventually rose to high position in the service of the Emperor of Morocco.
Years after, a Moorish vessel, of which he was captain, arrived in Leith Roads. Learning that the daughter of the Provost of his student days was ill of the plague, Gray is said to have cured, and then married her. The couple set up house in this building, which has long been known as Morocco Land.
At Little Jack's Close, farther down on the same side, David Hume wrote most of his History of England.
On the opposite side, behind the building with the double row of dormer windows was established in 1747 the earliest regular Edinburgh Theatre, in which, in 1756, was produced John Home's tragedy of Douglas.
Almost facing Playhouse Close a circle of stones in the causeway marks the site of St. John's Cross, where Charles I. in 1633 knighted the Provost of Edinburgh.
Farther down is an archway leading to St. John Street, in which dwelt (No. 10) James Ballantyne, Scott's printer, and other noted personages of that time. On the first floor above the arch Tobias Smollett, the novelist, lived in 1766.
Passing through the arch, the first building on the right is the hall of Canongate Kilwinning (No. a) Lodge of Freemasons, of which Burns was poet-laureate.
