Cleanse the Causeway
Blackfriars Street (south side) led to the monastery of the Blackfriars, founded by Alexander II. in 1230.
This thoroughfare, or rather the older and narrower Blackfriars Wynd, was the scene of the brawl between the supporters of Arran and of Angus, known as "Cleanse the Causeway."
Cardinal Beaton's house, at the foot of the Wynd, is now demolished, but on the west side the house of the Regent Morton, with its sculptured doorway, may still be seen. Morton was beheaded for being implicated in Darnley's murder.
The tenement facing High Street at South Gray's Close (a few doors below Blackfriars Street) was the birthplace of the Hon. Henry Erskine (1746 - 1817), a famous lawyer and wit, and also of his brother Thomas (1750 - 1823), afterwards Lord Chancellor of England.
The next close is Hyndford's, where lived the mother of Lady Anne Barnard, authoress of "Auld Robin Gray" ; Jane, Duchess of Gordon, the undisputed queen of fashion; and Sir Walter Scott's maternal uncle, Dr. Rutherford Scott himself was made a Freemason here.
The picturesque and curiously gabled house projecting into the street on the north side is traditionally known as John Knox's House. During the greater part of the Reformer's stay in Edinburgh this building was occupied by James Mossman, goldsmith to Mary Queen of Scots, whose initials, together with those of his wife, Marriot Arres, are carved on the front of the building. Knox, however, lived here for a few months before his death. On the lintel on the ground floor, in old lettering, are the words:
"Love God above all and your neighbour as yourself"
Whilst at the corner is a figure supposed to represent Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. The building is now a museum, containing many interesting relics of the days of Knox.
Immediately below "Knox's Corner," and extending across the street, stood Netherbow Port, the chief gateway of the city. We now enter the Canongate - the "way of the canons," or monks of Holyrood Abbey.
A burgh of regality almost from its origin in 1128 it was granted various privileges by David I., Robert I., and Robert II.; the abbots of Holyrood, as superiors, appointing bailies and council.
At the Reformation the superiority passed into lay hands, and in 1636 was acquired by Edinburgh, though the last remnants of Canongate as a separate municipality were not swept away till 1856. Burnt by Hertford's army in 1544, Canongate was in 1571 the temporary seat of the Parliament.
