Notices of the Most Remarkable Fires in Edinburgh, from 1385 to 1824: Including an Account of the Great Fire of November, 1824 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adjoining alarming fire broke appearance appre Baillie Blackfriars Board of Ordnance bourhood brunt burgh burning burnt calamity Canongate Canonmills Carrubber's Close Castle city-guard conflagration Courant Office Court of Session Covenant Cowgate crowd damage destroyed destructive fires dreadful fire east side edifice Edin eleven o'clock engines entirely consumed exertions fell fire occurred fire was discovered fire-engines firemen FIRES IN EDINBURGH flames raged fourth flat front furniture gable head High Street immediately Kirkheugh lands of six Leith liament Square little heaven Lord Provost Magistrates ment Close Messrs morning neighbouring Netherbow Port North Bridge north side occasion Old Assembly Close Parlia Parliament Close Parliament House Parliament Square pile of building poor present printing-house REMARKABLE FIRES ROBERT CHAMBERS roof ruin scene Scotland Scots set fire seven storeys Showers spread Stairs steeple storeys in height suffered tene terrible third flat tion Tron Church wall West Bow whole wind Wynd
Popular passages
Page 18 - Session, the Bank, most of the Lords, lawyers, and clerks, were all burnt, besides many poor and great families. It is said just now by Sir John Cochran and Jordanhill that there is more rent burnt in this fire than the whole city of Glasgow will amount to. The Parliament House very nearly escaped; all registers confounded; Clerks...
Page 17 - There are burnt, by the easiest computation, between three and four hundred families; the pride of Edinburgh is sunk; from the Cowgate to the High Street, all is burnt, and hardly one stone left upon another. The Commissioner, the President of Parliament, the President of the Court of Session...
Page 63 - IN THE PARLIAMENT SQUARE, AND DESTRUCTION OF THE JURY COURT ROOM. After the fire in the Tron Church had been subdued, it was generally supposed that the conflagration was at an end ; but on Tuesday night, about ten o'clock, a new alarm was given of a fire having broken out in the Parliament Square, a place directly to the windward of the former scene of destruction. It originated in the top story of that lofty pile of building on the south side of the square, which, in rear, was eleven stories in...
Page 27 - God/ and the Rev. Mr Willison of Dundee did not omit to improve the occasion. 'In Edinburgh/ says he, 'where Sabbath-breaking very much abounded, the fairest and stateliest of its buildings, in the Parliament Close and about it (to which scarce any in Britain were comparable), were on the fourth of February (being the Lord's Day), burnt down and laid in ashes and ruins in the space of a few hours, to the astonishment and terror of the sorrowful inhabitants, whereof I myself was an eye-witness.
Page 19 - Session by means of the disorder. Few people are lost, if any at all: but there was neither heart nor hand left among them for saving from the fire, nor a drop of water in the cisterns. Twenty thousand hands flitting their trash, they know not where, and hardly twenty at work.
Page 32 - Council may know what persona are liable to sustain their losses, and what not, that some speedie remedie may be taken for their relief, and recommends to the said Baillie to call for the Collector of the Stent, and get ane accompt of the valuation of the whole brunt lands : And, in like manner, the Council recommends...
Page 24 - And further, remembering that most tremendous and terrible blowing up of gun-powder in Leith, upon the 3d of July last, wherein sundry persons were lost, and wonderful ruins made in the place; and likewise reflecting...
Page 67 - ... entertained for the Commercial Bank. Here the most melancholy accidents happened, in one of which Mr Braidwood, director of engines, nearly lost his life ; and here we rejoice to be able to add, these calamities terminated. Frequent alarms of fire in other places were given in the course of Wednesday, originating principally in chimneys ignited by burning embers. One broke out in Carrubber's Close, among some chips under the roof, and assumed a threatening appearance, but was eventually got under....
Page 28 - ... Parliament Close and about it (to which scarce any in Britain were comparable), were on the fourth of February (being the Lord's Day), burnt down and laid in ashes and ruins in the space of a few hours, to the astonishment and terror of the sorrowful inhabitants, whereof I myself was an eye-witness. So great was the terror and confusion of that Lord's Day, that the people of the city were in no case to attend any sermon or public worship upon it, though there was a great number of worthy ministers...
Page 32 - Saturday's night last, about ten of the clock, brock out in the northeast corner of the Meal-mercat, and consumed to ashes all the said mercat, all the statelie buildings of the deceast Baillie Thomas Robertson, on both the sydes of the Kirkheugh, the Exchange, and the whole Parliament Gloss, except the Treasury House, which, by great Providence, was preserved...