Leith
Leith
is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, just
over a mile north of Edinburgh. Leith figures as Inverleith
in the foundation charter of Holyrood Abbey (1128). In 1329
Robert I. granted the harbour to the magistrates of Edinburgh,
who did not always use their power wisely. They forbade, for
example, the building of streets wide enough to admit a cart,
a regulation that accounted for the number of narrow wynds
and alleys in the town. Had the overlords been more considerate
incorporation with Edinburgh would not have been so bitterly
resisted.
Several
of the quaint bits of ancient Leith yet remain, and the appearance
of the shore as it was in the 17th and 18th centuries, and
even at a later date, was picturesque in the extreme. During
the centuries of strife between Scotland and England its situation
exposed the port to attack both by sea anti land. At least
twice (in 1313 and 1410) its shipping was burned by the English,
who also sacked the town in 1544 when the Earl of Hertford
destroyed the first wooden pier in 1547.
In
the troublous times that followed the death of James V., Leith
became the stronghold of the Roman Catholic and French party
from 1548 to 1560, Mary of Guise, queen regent, stayed there
not deeming herself secure in Edinburgh.
A
house in Coalhill is thought to be the handsome and spacious
edifice erected for her privy council by Mary of Guise. The
wall, pierced by six gates, was partly dismantled on the death
of the queen regent, but although rebuilt in 1571, not a trace
of it exists.
The
old tolbooth, in which William Maitland of Lethington, Queen
Marys secretary, poisoned himself in 1573, to avoid execution
for adhering to Marys cause, was demolished in 1819. Charles
I. is said to have received the first tidings of the Irish
rebellion while playing golf on the links in 1641.
Cromwell
in his Scottish campaign built the Citadel in 1650 and the
mounds on the links, known as Giants Brae and Lady Fifes Brae,
were thrown up by the Protector as batteries. In 1698 the
sailing of the first Darien expedition created great excitement.
In 17I5 William Mackintosh of Borlum (1662-1743) and his force
of Jacobite Flighlanders captured the Citadel, of which only
the name of Citadel Street and the archway in Cooper Street
have preserved the memory.
