Publication Account

Date 1951

Event ID 1097510

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097510

RCAHMS County Inventory: The City of Edinburgh

61. The Mercat Cross, High Street.

Besides fulfilling its primary function as the focal point for trade, the Cross also served at one time and, another such various purposes as a place of execution,* a centre of public rejoicings and entertainment, and the seat from which Royal proclamations were made. It must therefore always have ranked as one of the major monuments of the city although its early history, form, and situation remain unknown. It appears on record for the first time in a sasine, dated 1365 (1), which indicates that it stood at that period on the S. side of the High Street about 45 ft. E. of the present E. end of St. Giles' Church (2). In 1555 the Town Council, for some unspecified reason, but presumably because it had become unsafe, proposed to take it down and re-erect it upon the same site. Yet nothing seems to have been done immediately, and for several years afterwards small sums were disbursed for making minor repairs to it and cleaning. Its position was, however, inconvenient, as causing an obstruction to traffic; and in.1617, in order to widen the street preparatory to the visit of James VI, it was taken down and re-erected farther E., seamen from Leith lowering the old pillar safely.** The structure as rebuilt must have been of considerable size to judge by the number of masons employed; on one occasion, for instance, sixteen of them received extra pay for working a sixteen-hour day, from 4 a.m. "neir until aucht at night." Gordon's map of 1647 shows the new Cross in position. In 1756 it was demolished, the long pillar or cross-shaft being broken in the process; and to replace it a stone, which was declared by Act of Sederunt to be the Market Cross of Edinburgh, was affixed to the side of a neighbouring well. In the meantime, the larger part of the broken pillar had been re-erected with its capital at Drum House, Midlothian, while five of the eight circular medallions that had adorned the under structure were built into the front wall of Deanhaugh House, Stockbridge. On the demolition of this house in 1814, the five medallions were secured by Sir Walter Scott who built them into the garden wall of Abbotsford; and there they still remain in company with the basin of a fountain from which it is said that the central pillar of the Cross originally rose. A small oblong finial of freestone, which once formed part of the Cross, is likewise preserved in the garden of Viewforth, Cammo Road, Barnton.*** It is carved on back and front with the triple-towered castle of Edinburgh set on its rock, with a label dated 1641 above.

Within a century of its destruction tentative proposals were made to restore the Cross, and the movement gathered impetus a few years later when the owner of Drum House proposed to return the shaft and capital and the Town Council accepted the offer. Then arose a vigorous controversy regarding sites and styles, in which a joint committee of the Royal Scottish Academy and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland played a prominent part; and, although the project for a complete restoration fell through, by 1866 the pillar, now returned, had been erected within a railing on the E. side of the N. door of St. Giles' Church. In 1885 Mr. Gladstone, then M.P. for Midlothian, supplied funds for a complete restoration of the landmark on the lines of Gordon's drawing, placing it in its present situation in the centre of the roadway at the E. end of the Church that is to say about 24 ft. S. of the position that it occupied in the 14th century. As it now stands, the Cross has an octagonal under structure carrying the platform from which Royal proclamations are read. Within this rises the surviving portion of the old shaft, about 14 ft. high and surmounted by a modern capital bearing a unicorn. On the E. side of the shaft has been carved the inscription THE OLD + OF EDR.

RCAHMS 1951

(1) Reg. Mag. Sig., i, p. 40. (2) P.S.A.S., xx (1885-6), p.384.

*The cross itself was not, of course, used as a scaffold.

**They were afterwards entertained to a “Disjoyne and Denner”, costing 24 pounds 15 shillings Scots, to the accompaniment of trumpets and a drum.

***In the same place may be seen some other carved stones brought together from various sources. These include fragments of capitals from two 17th -century gate-piers, differing in pattern; a 17th-century pediment enclosing a circular scrolled panel in which are displayed two baxter's peels and a besom ; three moulded rybats of the 16th century; a human mask of the 17th century, very rudely carved ; three stone balls , each 16 inches in diameter.