Moray House

Returning to Canongate, Moray House has a curious entrance guarded by obelisk - topped pillars and its substantial balcony.

In this mansion, which has richly ornamented dome-shaped ceilings, Cromwell lived for a few days in 1648, and for nearly a year after the battle of Dunbar. Behind is a summer-house in which the Treaty of Union (1707) was partly signed.

Next to Moray House are more modern tenements, and a timber fronted building which goes by the name of Huntly House, though it is very doubtful if it ever was the home of the "noble" family of Huntly. Be that as it may, this structure is perhaps the most noted specimen of domestic architecture of the pre-Reformation period still remaining in the city.

The front is adorned with sculptured tablets bearing quaint mottoes, and the date 1570, but the building is considerably older.

The Canongate Tolbooth, with its projecting clock (opposite), dates from 1591. Note the inscription "Patriae et Posteris" over the arch. The clock bears the arms of the Burgh of Canongate - a stag's head with a cross between the tynes, to remind one of the incident which befell David I. while hunting in the neighbouring forest. The tower contains a bell, dated 1608, and inscribed "Soli Deo honor et gloria." In olden times the Tolbooth was a jail.

Farther on is Canongate Church, which was built in 1688 for the parishioners who had formerly worshipped in the nave of the Abbey of Holyrood. In the churchyard (to the left of the entrance) are buried George Drummond, six times Lord Provost of Edinburgh, founder of the Royal Infirmary and other institutions; Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations; Robert Fergusson, the poet, whose tombstone was erected by Burns; and Dugald Stewart, the philosopher, who has a classical monument on the Calton Hill.

To the right of the entrance are the graves of John Ballantyne, Scott's printer; Sir John Watson - Gordon, the portrait painter; Horatius Bonar, the hymn writer; and Mrs. Maclehose, the "Clarinda" of Burns.

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