hunting horns, belts, &c. The houses in New Street are now divided into shops and separate flats, and what was a garden fronting the houses, is now occupied by the Edinburgh Gas Company Works.

PLAYHOUSE CLOSE.-Immediately opposite New Street is a good specimen of the style of the architecture of private dwellings between 1630 and 1650, having ornamental designs of roses, shamrocks, and thistles, and a double row of dormer windows. Entering by the court, and at the back of it in 1746, a new playhouse was erected, within which the public of Edinburgh were gratified by the actings of the greatest players of the time.* In 1736, however, Allan Ramsay had opened a theatre in Carrubber's Close, High Street, but it was found too small, and the one in the Playhouse Close was opened. † Ramsay lost money through this adventure. On 14th December, 1756, the tragedy of "Douglas," written by John Home, a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, was presented to an Edinburgh audience. On the extension of the city northwards, the theatre was shut, and a new one erected in the New Town. At what period the English Drama was introduced into Scotland is unknown, but it is supposed a company of actors came to Scotland with King James the Sixth, and performed before the Court at Holyrood. They are also found, from the Records of the Burgh of Aberdeen, to have gone north, and performed in that city. Some of the performers are said to have been contemporaries of Shakespeare. Burbage (a friend of

* Wilson's "Memorials."

"Annals of Edinburgh and Leith," compiled by E. Henderson.

Shakespeare's), and four others, servants to the Earl of Leicester, had obtained the first Royal licence to act plays; and a question has been mooted, whether Shakespeare himself may not have been one of his "Majesty's servants," and present both in Edinburgh and Aberdeen on the above-mentioned occasions. Some writers have averred, that unless Shakespeare had actually visited Scotland, he could not have given those descriptions of Scottish scenery in "Macbeth" unless from actual observation. The well-known passage,

"Fear not, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinnane," and again when he speaks of the blasted heath, and asks

all point to an intimate knowledge of localities and scenery, and which only one who had visited them could have acquired. Be this as it may, however, the most authentic record is, that the subjects of plays were originally Scriptural, and were called moralities. Some of these moral plays represented the Nativity of our Saviour; the massacres of Herod; a dramatic performance, called "Christ's Sufferings," was, so early as the fourth century, written in Greek by Gregory, Bishop of. Constantinople. Such representations became so popular and common as to be complained of as a nuisance. Plays being afterwards composed on profane subjects were performed in the open air, and frequently exhibited scenes of the grossest indelicacy. After the Reformation, the licentiousness of the stage was almost as much detested by the stern Reformers as the mass itself, and was anathematised by the clergy in no measured terms. They were, however, compelled by the mandate of James the Sixth,-who took much delight in theatrical performances,-to drop their

censures. Suppressed during the civil wars of Charles the First, they were revived at the Restoration of Charles the Second, with the engaging novelty that women, for the first time, appeared on the Scottish stage,-female characters having previous to that time been represented by slender youths. Signora Violante was the first of strolling players who made appearance in Edinburgh. She was an Italian, celebrated for feats of strength, posture, and tumbling; and, along with some other English comedians, fitted up a theatre in Carrubber's Close in 1715, and for several years afterwards itinerant companies of comedians visited the city.* Up to the present time indeed, these Scriptural Plays have not entirely disappeared. At Ammergau, in Bohemia, there is held almost every year a Passion play, representing Christ and His Apostles, to which many persons from that country and from others assemble. The representation is given in an amphitheatre, and in the open air.

ST. JOHN'S CROSS.-Next the Playhouse Close and at St. John's Close, there formerly stood a Cross called St. John's, where Proclamations used to be made, and meetings of the Magistrates, Constables, and Incorporated Trades of the Burgh held, whenever civic demonstrations occurred. On 14th May, 1571,† it is recorded "that there was a Parliament holden in William Cocklie's house in the Canogait, near St. John's Cross, by such as maintained the King's authority, and ane uther in the Tolbuith of Edinburgh, by those that held for the deprived Queen" in which * Stevenson's "Chronicles of Edinburgh," p. 384. + Balfour's "Annals," I. p. 354.