Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

MUSSELBUKGHon the links. Every year the Royal Company of Archers,the Queen's Bodyguard in Scotland, compete there fora silver arrow, which was originally presented by theburgh. The mnner each year receives a ' riddle ofclaret' from the town ; and is bound to append a goldor silver medal to the arrow before the next year's competition.The custom was instituted before the close ofthe 16th century ; and the arrow, which is carefullypreserved and is still annually shot for, has a seriesof medals, in almost unbroken succession from 1603 tothe present time, attached to it.Musselburgh proper consists mainly of the HighStreet, running with varying breadth along the line ofthe Edinburgh and Berwick road for a distance ofalmost 660 yards. The houses on either side present afairly well-built and comfortable appearance, withoutmuch pretension to handsomeness. The street in itscentral parts expands to a considerable breadth, givinga pleasant and spacious air to the town, which in itsprincipal parts is kept tolerably clean. The High Streethad formerly gates at its E and W ends. Two largepillars still mark where the former was placed ; theybear the burgh arms and the date 1770. The W gatewas at the old bridge, noticed below. A second street,known as Mill HUl, runs for about 450 yards NE fromthe end of the iron foot-bridge to the links, and derivesits name from an old mill belonging to the town.Various lanes, alleys, and less important streets runparallel and at angles with these two main thoroughfares.Newbigging suburb stretches S at right anglesto the High Street, from a point opposite the Cross. 'Thesuburb of Fisherrow, which lies between the E side ofthe Esk and the sea, consists of several parallel streets,and for all purposes it is regarded as part of Musselburgh,from which it is only separated by the river. Itcontains no buUdings of any importance ; and is, on thewhole, inferior in appearance to Musselburgh proper.Mall Park, the suburb beside the station, which is atthe SW extremity of the town, was about 1878 laid outfor feuing, and several new tenements and works havebeen erected there. The Mall, from which the suburbderives its name, is a short but beautiful avenue, leadingfrom the W end of the High Street to the station,and overarched on both sides with fine trees. These treeswere preserved to the town in 1846-47 by the energyof the Rev. Mr J. G. Beveridge, parish minister, who gotup a petition successfully praying the directors of therailway, then building, so to modify the original plans asto leave uninjured these great ornaments to the town.The town-hall, on the N side of the wide central expansionin the High Street of Musselburgh, is a comparativelymodern edifice, bearing the date 1762. It wasaltered in 1875-76 at a cost of £1000, and contains apublic hall 48 feet long by 37 broad and 30 high, tohold 600 ;and includes apartments for the council andpolice business of the burgh. Adjacent to it is the tolbooth,built in 1590 of materials taken from the ancientLoretto chapel, noticed below. This is said to be one ofthe earliest instances in Scotland of the use of ecclesiasticalmaterials in the construction of a secular building; and the action drew upon the burgesses of Musselburgh,for about two centuries, an annual sentenceof excommunication at Rome. The tolbooth never hadany pretensions to architectural beauty, and it sufferedmuch from the weather ; but about 1840 it underwentrenovation and a certain amount of urnamentation. Itis surmounted by a small and curious steeple (moreancient than the main body of the tolbooth itself), witha clock. The original clock is said to have been presentedto Musselburgh by the Dutch States, in order toencourage commercial relations between the townspeopleand the Dutch. The present clock was presented to theburgh by Mr Ritchie in 1883 ; and on its face it bearsthis latter date along with that of 1496. In 1746 anumber of rebels were confined in the tolbooth ; andeven yet it is used for the detention of prisoners forperiods of not more than 30 days. In front of the tolboothstands the old cross, consisting of a heavy squareijedestal, surmounted by a pillar, on the top of which86MUSSELBURGHis a unicorn supporting a shield with the arms of theburgh. The cross indicates the old position of theMidraw, a row of houses standing in the middle ofpart of the High Street, and long interfering mth itswidth and beauty. At the W end of the High Streetis a monument erected in 1853 to the memory ofDavid Moir, M.D., long prominent in the town as apublic man and a physician, and well known to widercircles as the ' Delta ' of Blackwood's Magaziiie. Themonument consists of a statue 8J feet high, by HandysideRitchie, on a pedestal 20 feet high, the base ofwhich bears a suitable inscription. There are severalbuildings of antiquarian and historic interest within thelimits of the burgh. On the margin of the links, immediatelybeyond the ancient eastern gate of the to'wn,stood a celebrated chapel and hermitage, dedicated toOur Lady of Loretto. The chapel, founded most likelyin 1533 by Thomas Douehtie, a hermit, enjoyed a reputationfor sanctity and miraculous powers akin to thoseascribed to the famous Church of Loretto in Italy.Keith says the Musselburgh chapel was connected withthe nunnery of Sciennes in Edinburgh ;possibly itonly placed itself under its protection. The hermitageattached to the chapel, inhabited by a solitary ascetic,added to the sanctity of the place, to which large numbersof pilgrims resorted annually. James V. himselfperformed a pilgrimage on foot to the chapel from Stirlingin August 1536, before departing to France to wooa wife. The evils which too often sprang up with theassembling of heterogeneous crowds at shrines and pUgrimresorts, were not absent from Loretto ; and SirDavid Lyndsay of the Mount directed one of his bitingsatires against the Loretto pilgrimages. The chapel issometimes called St AUareit or Lariet, by old writers,e. g. by the Earl of Glencairn in a satirical letter againstRomish friars, purporting to come from ' the halie Hermeitof Alareit,' and preserved by Enox in his Historyof the Eeformation. In 1544 the chapel, along with muchof the town, was destroyed by an English army, imderthe Earl of Hertford. Though repaired after this event,it was finally destro}'ed at the Reformation, its materialsbeing used, as we have seen, to build the tolboothof Musselburgh ; and it is now only represented by amound-covered cell, measuring 12 feet by 10. Thepresentschoolhouse of Loretto, erected in last century, standsnear the site of the ancient chapel. There were two otherchapels in the town of Musselburgh, similar in characterto that of Loretto, but of much less note ;both have disappeared.The house in which occurred, on 20 July1332, the death of the great Randolph, Earl of Moray,the friend and ally of Robert the Bruce, stood till 1809at the E end of the S side of the High Street. Theinhabitants are said to have formed a guard round thehouse during the earl's illness, and to have received fortheir devotion some reward, in the form of town privileges,from the Earl of Mar, the succeeding regent. Itis also said that the motto of the burgh, 'Honesty,' wasderived from Mar's openly expressed opinion that theburghers were honest fellows ' ' in acting as they did onthis occasion. At the W end of the High Street standsthe house in which Dr Smollett was received by CommissionerCardonell. In the Dam Brae, a back street,there are still extant portions of the Musselburgh KilwinningMasonic Lodge built in 1612. In the vUlaof Eskside, near the Fisherrow end of the iron bridge,dwelt for some time Professor Stuart ; and withinits garden is the study of his son Gilbert, a detached,two-storied, circular building, in which several of theworks of the latter were written. Pinkie House, inthe SE outskirts of the town, is separately noticed.The manse of Inveresk, standing near the parochialchurch, which has been already noted in the articleInveresk, was built in 1806, and is supposed to occupythe site of the pre-Reformation parsonage. The formermanse, built in 1681, had many literary associations.Within its walls were composed Williamson's sermons,and great part of Home's tragedy of Douglas. Duringthe incumbency of Dr Carlyle, the manse was a favouriteresort of Robertson, Hume, Campbell, Logan, Mackenzie,