Cassell's Old and new Edinburgh: its history, its people, and its places . kable feats, performed by a couple of Italianmountebanks, a father and his son. A rope beingfixed between the half-moon batterv of the Castle, 232 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Grassmarket. and a place on the south side of the market, 200feet below, the father slid down it in half a son performed the same feat, blowing a trum-pet all the way, to the astonishment of a vastcrowd of spectators. Three days afterwards there was a repetition ofthe performance, at the desire of several peopleof quality, when after sliding
Cassell's Old and new Edinburgh: its history, its people, and its places . kable feats, performed by a couple of Italianmountebanks, a father and his son. A rope beingfixed between the half-moon batterv of the Castle, 232 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Grassmarket. and a place on the south side of the market, 200feet below, the father slid down it in half a son performed the same feat, blowing a trum-pet all the way, to the astonishment of a vastcrowd of spectators. Three days afterwards there was a repetition ofthe performance, at the desire of several peopleof quality, when after sliding down, the father madehis way up to the battery again, firing a pistol. striking. These houses were not so old, however,as the order of the Templars, but having been builtupon their land, and being also the heritage of theHospitallers, and forming, as such, a portion of thebarony of Drem, had affixed to them the ironcross in remembrance of certain legal titles andprivileges which are to this day productive ofsolid benefits. With tlie Temple Close, which was entered by a. THE TEMPLE LANDS. GRASSMARKET. {From a Drawing by George W. Simson.) beating a drum, and proclaiming that while upthere he could defy the whole Court of Session. The whole of the south side of the Grassmarkethad been pulled down and re-built at intervalsbefore 1879. Among the oldest edifices that once stood herewere unquestionably the Temple tenements andthe Greyfriars Monastery. In describing the execu-tion of Porteous, which took place in front of theformer, Scott says :— The uncommon height andantique appearance of these houses, some of whichwere formerly the property of the Knights Tem-plar and the Knights of St. John, and still exhibiton their fronts and gables the iron cross of theirorders, gave additional effect to a scene in itself so narrow arch beneath them, they ha\e been entirelyswept away since 1870. Immediately to the westward of them was one ofthe most modern houses in this quarter, through I w
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