OS1/11/105/78 | ScotlandsPlaces

List of names as written	Various modes of spelling	Authorities for spelling	Situation	Description remarks
MARKET CROSS (Site of) [High Street]				[continued from page 77] seat of the government and legislature. Here in early times before the invention of printing the acts of the Scottish estates were promulgated by being read aloud to the bystanders. Here also from those times to the present, have all royal edicts been issued and all royal accessions proclaimed. From the wars which followed Queen Mary's resignation in 1567 to the revolution of 1688 this was the principal place for executing the numerous victims of evil Dissensions. It appears that during the minority of James VI. a gibbet stood constantly ready on the spot for nearly twenty years, till atlength it was cut down amidst the rejoicings which attended a general reconciliation of the nobility brought about by this means. The cross more over was the chief scene of all public rejoicings was honoured with the principal pageants at the entries of Sovereigns and formed the ground work of a platform where the magistrates used to drinK on the King's birth day. In 1756 when the Royal Exchange was finished the magistrates conceiving that it could no longer be necessary as a rallying point or rendezvous for commercial people, and thinKing moreover that it encumbered the street caused it to be demolished leaving only a radiated pavement to marK the space of ground which it had occupied. Abridged from Chambers Reekiana

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[Page] 78

This Name Book refers to Edinburgh 1852 - Sheet 35
OS large scale Scottish town plans, 1847-1895 - Scale: 1:1056

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Bizzy- Moderator, Christine Y

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