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It was formerly a custom with the boys to dress Heriot's statue with flowers on the first of May, and to renew them on this anniversary festival when they re

ceived their new clothes.*

It should seem, therefore, that the floral adornment of the statue annually on this day, is derived from its ancient dressing on the first of May.

The statue stands beneath the centre tower of the north or principal front, and over the middle of a vaulted archway leading to the court-yard of the hospital. Grose says, the Latin inscription above the figure signifies, "that Heriot's person was represented by that image, as his mind was by the surrounding founda

tiou."

George Heriot was jeweller to king James VI., subsequently James I., of England. He was born about June, 1563, eldest son to George Heriot, one of the company of goldsmiths in Edinburgh. The elder Heriot died in 1610, having been a commissioner in the convention of estates and parliament of

• Gentleman's Magazine, 1745, p. 666.

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It appears that so late as the year 1483, the goldsmiths of Edinburgh were classed with the "hammermen" or common smiths. They were subsequently separated, and an act of the town council on the twenty-ninth of August, 1581, conferred on the goldsmiths a monopoly of their trade, which was confirmed by a charter from James VI., in the year 1586.

A century afterwards, in 1687, James VII. invested the goldsmiths with the power of searching, inspecting, and trying all jewels set in, gold, in every part of the kingdom; a license to destroy all false or counterfeit work; to punish the transgressors by imprisonment or fines, and seize the working tools of all unfree goldsmiths within the city.

In January, 1587, George Heriot married Christian, the daughter of Simon Marjoribanks, an Edinburgh merchant. On this occasion, his father gave him 1000 marks, with 500 more to fit out his shop and purchase implements and clothes, and he had 1075 marks with his wife. Their united fortunes amounted to about 2141. 118. 8d., which Heriot's last biographer says, was "a considerable sum in those days; but rendered much more useful by the prospect of his father's business, which would at this time naturally be transferred to the younger and more active man."

In May, 1588, Heriot became a member of the incorporation of goldsmiths. "Scotland which was then an independent kingdom, with a court in the metropolis, though poor in general, was probably in a state not less favourable to the suc cess of Heriot's occupation than at present. A rude magnificence peculiar to the age, atoned for want of elegance, by the massy splendour of its ornaments. The nobles were proud and extravagant when their fortunes would permit; and Ann of Denmark, the reigning queen, was fond of show and gallantry." During this period, Heriot was employed by the court. In 1597, he was made goldsmith to the

queen, and so declared "at the crosse, be opin proclamatione and sound of trumpet.' Shortly after, he was appointed jeweller and goldsmith to the king, with a right to the lucrative privileges of that office.

Heriot rose to opulence, and lost his wife; he afterwards married Alison, eldest daughter of James Primrose, clerk to the privy-council, and grandfather of the first earl of Roseberry. On the accession of James to the throne of England, he followed, the court to London, where he continued to reside almost constantly. He obtained eminence and wealth, and died there on the twelfth of February, 1624, in the sixtieth year of his age, and was buried at St. Martin's in the Fields.

Queen Ann of Denmark's Jewels.

In a volume of original accounts and vouchers relative to Heriot's transactions with the queen, there are several charges which illustrate the fashion of the times in these expensive decorations, viz.—

For making a brilliant in form of a ship.

For gold and making of a Valentine. A ring with a heart and a serpent, all set about with diamonds;

Two pendants made like moore's heads, and all sett with diamonds;

A ring with a single diamond, set in a heart betwixt two hands.

Two flies with diamonds.

A great ring in the form of a perssed eye and a perssed heart, all sett with diamonds.

One great ring, in forme of a frog, all set with diamonds, price two hundreth poundis.

A jewell in forme of a butterfly.

A pair of pendentis of two handis, and two serpentis hanging at them. A parrate of diamondis.

A ring of a love trophe set with diamondis.

Two rings, lyke black flowers, with a table diamond in each.

A daissie ring sett with a table diamond.

A jewell in fashione of a bay leaf, opening for a pictur, and set with diamondis on the one syde.

A pair of lizard pendantis, set with diamondis.

A jewell for a hatt, in forme of a bay leafe, all set with diamonds.

A little watch set all over with diamonds, 1701.

A ryng sett all over with diamondis, made in fashion of a lizard, 120l.

A ring set with 9 diamonds, and opening on the head with the king's picture in that.

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Item, deliuered to Margarett Hartsyde a ring sett all about with diamonds, and a table diamond on the head, which she gaue me to vnderstand was by her Mats. direction, price xxx li." This item in reference to Margaret Hartsyde is remarkable, because it appears that this female, who had been in the royal household, was tried in Edinburgh on the 31st of May, 1608, for stealing a pearl, worth 1107. sterling belonging to the queen. She pretended

A jewell in forme of a lillye, sett of that she retained these pearls to adorn diamonds.

An anker sett with diamonds. A jewell in form of a honey-suckle. A pair of pendants, made lyke two drums, sett with diamondis.

A jewel, in forme of a jolley flower, sett with diamonds.

A jewell in forme of a horne of aboundance, set with 6 rose diamondis, and 12 table diamondis.

A ring of a burning heart set with diamondis.

A ring, in forme of a scallope shell, set with a table diamond, and opening on the head.

dolls for the amusement of the royal infants, and believed that the queen would never demand them; but it appeared that she used "great cunning and deceit in it," and disguised the jewels so as not to be easily known, and offered them to her majesty in sale. The king by special warrant declared her infamous, sentenced her to pay 4007. sterling as the value of the jewels, and condemned her to be imprisoned in Blackness castle till it was paid, and to confinement in Orkney during her life. In December, 1619, eleven years afterwards, "compeared the king's advocate, and produced a letter

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of rehabilitation and restitution of Mar- Surrey, and St. Martin's in the Fields, garet Hartsyde to her fame."

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London. It does not appear that he had children by either of his wives, but he had two illegitimate daughters. To one of these, named in his will as "Elizabeth Band, now an infant of the age of ten years or therabout, and remaining with Mr. Starkey at his house at Windsor," he gave his copyholds in Roehampton. To the other, whom he mentions as "Margaret Scot, being an infant about the age of four years, now remaining with one Rigden, a waterman, at his house in the parish of Fulham," he left his two freehold messuages in St. George's in the Fields, which he had lately purchased of sir Nicholas Fortescue, knight, and William Fortescue, his son: his leasehold terms in certain garden plots in that parish, held of the earl of Bedford, he bequeathed to Margaret Scot; and he directed 2001. to be laid out at interest, and paid to them severally when of age or married. He gave 10l. to the poor of St. Martin's parish, 201. to the French church there, and 30%. to Gilbert Primrose, preacher at that church; and after liberally providing for a great number of his relations, he bequeathed the residue of his estate to the provosts, bailiffs, ministers, and ordinary town-council of Edinburgh, for the time being, for and towards the founding and erecting of a hospital in the said town, and purchasing lands in perpetuity, to be employed in the main

Heriot's Statue at his Hospital, Edinburgh.

"So stands the statue that adorns the gate."

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by his executors, on the 12th of May, 1627, to the town-council of Edinburgh. He had directed a large messuage in Edinburgh, between Gray's close and Todrick's wynd, to be appropriated to the hospital; but the governors, in conjunction with Dr. Balcanquel, finding it unfit for the purpose, purchased of the citizens of Edinburgh, eight acres and a half of land near the Grass Market, in a field called the "High Riggs," and they commenced to lay the foundation of the present structure on the 1st of July, 1628, according to a plan of Inigo Jones. The stones were brought from Ravelstone, near Edinburgh; and the building was conducted by William Aytoune, an eminent mason or architect, with considerable deviations from Inigo Jones's design, in accommodation to the supervening taste of Heriot's trustees. In 1639, the progress of the work was interrupted by the troubles of the period till 1642. When it was nearly completed, in 1650, Cromwell's army occupied it as an infirmary for the sick and wounded. It remained in such possession till general Monk, in 1658, on the request of a committee of governors, removed the soldiers to the new infirmary in the Canongate, at the expense of Heriot's trustees; and on the 11th of April, 1659, the hospital being ready, thirty boys were admitted. In the following August they were increased to forty; in 1661, to fifty-two; in 1753, to one hundred and thirty; in 1763, to one hundred and forty; and in 1822, the establishment maintained one hundred and eighty.

The children of Heriot's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Band, were among the early objects who benefited by the endowment. She had married in England, but being reduced to great difficulties, resorted to Edinburgh for relief. The magistrates allowed her one thousand merks Scots annually, till her sons were admitted into their grandfather's hospital. She had 201. afterwards to support her journey to London, and a present of one thousand

merks.

Heriot's hospital cost 30,000l. in the erection. The first managers purchased the barony of Broughton, a burgh of regality, about a quarter of a mile northward of the city, a property which, from local circumstances, seemed likely to rise in value. On this and other adjacent land, the "new town" of Edinburgh now

stands. The greater part of the valuable grounds from the bottom of Carlton-bill eastward, reaching to Leith, and to the east road to Edinburgh, is the property of the hospital, which will derive great additional revenue when the buildings on these lands complete the connection of Leith with Edinburgh. In 1779, Heriot's hospital possessed a real income of 18001. per annum: its annual income in 1822 was supposed to have amounted to upwards of 12,000l.

The statutes of the hospital ordain, that the boys should be taught "to read and write Scots distinctly, to cypher, and cast all manner of accounts," and "the Latin rudiments, but no further." The governors, however, have wisely gone so much "further," as to cause the boys to be instructed in Greek, mathematics, navigation, drawing, and other matters suitable to the pursuits they are likely to follow in life. The majority of the boys are apprenticed to trades in Edinburgh, with an allowance of 101. a year for five years, amounting to an apprentice fee of 501.; and to each, who on the expira tion of his servitude produces a certificate of good conduct from his master, 51. is given to purchase a suit of clothes. Those destined for the learned professions are sent to the university for four year, with an allowance of 301. annually. Six or eight are generally at college, in addition to ten bursers selected by the governors from other seminaries, who have each an annual allowance of 201.

By

George Heriot confided to his intimate friend "Mr. Walter Balcanquel, doctor in divinity and master of the Savoy," the framing and ordaining of the rules for the government of his hospital; and accordingly in 1627, Dr. Balcanquel, “after consulting with the provosts, baillies, ministers, and council of Edinburgh," compiled the statutes by which the institution continues to be governed. these it is directed that "this institution, foundation, and hospital, shall for all time to come, perpetually and unchangeably be called by the name of George Heriot his Hospital," and that "there shall be one common seal for the said hospital engraven with this device, Sigillum Hospitalis Georgii Heriot, about the circle, and in the middle the pattern of the bospital."

And "because no body can be well

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