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Other items like "Symson the printer's house, Cowgate"
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The south side of the Cowgate
Burns, Archibald, 1870, Photograph
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The south side of the Cowgate
The south side of the Cowgate
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Location
Category
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Item no
6947
Title
The south side of the Cowgate
Description
A view of houses in the Cowgate, Edinburgh. The buildings are in a state of disrepair and have been constructed from many different materials. A number of the windows have broken panes or have been boarded up. A small wooden hand cart stands in the alleyway.
Artist / maker
Burns, Archibald
Date
1870
Size
18.5 x 24 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Edinburgh and Scottish Collection
Number 10 on the location map.
The accompanying text in the volume reads:
"10. The south side of the Cowgate to the east of Horse Wynd. The close at the entrance of which a wheelbarrow is standing was called St Peters Pend, and the house to the right or west of this is thus described by Wilson (Memorials 2. 103). "On the other side of St Peter's Pend is the singularly picturesque timber fronted tenement, the curiously carved lintel of which forms the vignette at the head of this chapter. An outside stair, constructed in a recess formed by the projections of a neighbouring building, leads to a very handsome stone turnpike on the first floor. The fine doorway is finished with very rich mouldings, and encircled with the follwing inscription - Gif. ve. did. as. ve. sould. ve. mycht. haif. as. ve. vald. - There can be no question from the style and character of this inscription, that the building is of great antiquity, and has probably formed the residence of some eminent ecclesiastic, or a noble of the court of James V. It possesses an interest however from a recent and more humble occupant. Here was the printing establishment of Andro Symson, a wealthy, a wealthy successor of Chapman and Millar, the first Scottish typographer whose printing presses were worked within a hundred yards of this spot. Symson was a man of great learning and singular virtue, who through one of the curates ejected at the Revolution, has escaped the detraction to which nearly all his fellow sufferers were subjected. We have his own authority for stating that he received a University education and was a [co-disciple] of Alexander, Earl of Galloway, by whose father he was persecuted to the parish of Kirkinner in Wigtonshire. He was an author as well as a painter;and his most elaborate work, a poem of great length, and of much more learned ingenuity than [unknown word] merit, is announced in the preface as issued from my painting house at the foot of Horse Wynd in the Cowgate Feb 16. 1705"
Exhibitions with this item
The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage
Contrasting Character
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Related subjects
Architecture
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Architectural features
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Passageways
Architecture
>
Architectural features
>
Windows
Homes
>
Residential buildings
>
Houses
Places
>
Edinburgh areas
>
Old Town
Places
>
Scotland
>
Edinburgh
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