Traditions of Edinburgh . , angular, whimsical-looking street, ofgreat steepness and narrowness, called the West Bow. Servingas a connection between the Grassmarket and Lawnmarket,between the Low and the High Town, it is of considerable famein our city annals as a passage for the entry of sovereigns, andthe scene of the quaint ceremonials used on those more modem times, it has been chiefly notable in therecollections of country-people as a nest of the peculiarly * Keiths History. THE WEST BOW. 37 noisy tradesmen, the white-iron smiths, which causes RobertFergusson to mark, as one
Traditions of Edinburgh . , angular, whimsical-looking street, ofgreat steepness and narrowness, called the West Bow. Servingas a connection between the Grassmarket and Lawnmarket,between the Low and the High Town, it is of considerable famein our city annals as a passage for the entry of sovereigns, andthe scene of the quaint ceremonials used on those more modem times, it has been chiefly notable in therecollections of country-people as a nest of the peculiarly * Keiths History. THE WEST BOW. 37 noisy tradesmen, the white-iron smiths, which causes RobertFergusson to mark, as one of the features of Edinburgh desertedfor a holiday : The tinkler billies * o the Bow ^ Are now less eident + clinkin. Another remarkable circumstance connected with the street inthe popular mind, is its having been the residence of the famedwizard, Major Weir. All of these particulars serve to make it anoteworthy sort of place, and the impression is much favouredby its actual appearance. A perfect Z in figure, composed of. The Bowhead. tall antique houses, with numerous dovecot-like gables projectingover the footway, full of old inscriptions and sculpturings,presenting at every few steps some darksome lateral profundity,into which the imagination wanders without hindrance or ex-haustion, it seems eminently a place of old grandmothers tales, * Fellows. t Busy. 38 . TRADITIONS OF EDINBURGH. and sure at all times to maintain a ghost or two in its I descend into particulars, it will be seen what groundsthere truly are for such a begin with THE BOWHEAD. This is a comparatively open space, though partially straitenedagain by the insertion in it of a clumsy detached old buildingcalled the Weigh-house, where enormous masses of butter andcheese are continually getting disposed of Prince Charles hadhis guard at the Weigh-house when blockading the Castle; using,however, for this purpose, not the house itself, but a floor ofthe adjacent tall tenement in the Lawnma
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectlegends, bookyear1868
