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                           _William Nelson._

                    [Illustration: Yours Faithfully

                            William Nelson]




                           _William Nelson_

                               A MEMOIR

                                  BY

                  SIR DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E.,

                PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.

                       [Illustration: colophon]

                   Printed for Private Circulation.

                   _T. Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh._

                                _1889._


                                  TO

                          Mrs. William Nelson

                                 THIS
                         MEMOIR OF HER HUSBAND
                    IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY
                          HIS OLD FRIEND AND
                              SCHOOLMATE




FOREWORD.


The volume here produced for the eye of friends is the memorial of one
whose life presented a rare example of simplicity, of thoroughness in
working up to a high standard in all that he undertook, and fidelity in
his responsible stewardship as a man of wealth and a captain of
industry. The friendship between us extended in uninterrupted union,
with the maturing estimation of years and experience, from early boyhood
till both had passed the assigned limits of threescore years and ten. It
would have been easy to swell the volume into the bulky proportions of
modern biography: for William Nelson keenly enjoyed the communion of
friendship; and his correspondence furnishes many passages calculated to
interest others besides those who knew and loved him as a friend. But
the aim has been simply to present him “in his habit as he lived;” and
thus to preserve for relatives, personal friends, and for his
fellow-workers of all ranks, such a picture as may pleasantly recall
some reflex of a noble life; and record characteristic traits of one of
whom it can be so truly said: “To live in hearts of those we love is not
to die.”

D. W.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO,

_September 26, 1889_.




CONTENTS.


I. INTRODUCTORY,                                                      13

II. HAUNTS OF BOYHOOD,                                                26

III. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMATES,                                         41

IV. THE CASTLE HILL,                                                  61

V. HOPE PARK,                                                         77

VI. EGYPT AND PALESTINE,                                              87

VII. CHURCH--MARRIAGE,                                               108

VIII. SALISBURY GREEN,                                               121

IX. GLIMPSES OF TRAVEL,                                              137

X. HOLIDAYS ABROAD,                                                  156

XI. PARKSIDE,                                                        173

XII. CIVIC INTERESTS,                                                194

XIII. HOME HOLIDAYS,                                                 213

XIV. PROJECTED TRAVEL--THE END,                                      228




_William Nelson._




CHAPTER I.

_INTRODUCTORY._


In the early years of the present century the Scottish capital retained
many features of its ancient aspect still unchanged; but among all the
old-world haunts surviving into modern times, the most notable, alike
for its picturesque quaintness and its varied associations, was the
avenue from the Grassmarket to the upper town. The West Bow, as this
thoroughfare was called, derived its name from the ancient bow, or
archway, which gave entrance to the little walled city before the civic
area was extended by the Flodden wall of 1513. But the archway remained
long after that date as the entrance to the upper town--the Temple Bar
of Edinburgh--at which the ceremonial welcome of royal and distinguished
visitors took place.

The West Bow had accordingly been the scene of many a royal cavalcade
of the Jameses and their queens; as well as of such representative men
as Ben Jonson and his brother-poet Drummond of Hawthornden, of Laud,
Montrose, Leslie, Cromwell, and Dundee. Among its quaint antique piles
were the gabled Temple Lands, St. James’s Altar Land, and the
timber-fronted lodging of Lord Ruthven, the ruthless leader in the
tragedy when Lord Darnley’s minions assassinated Rizzio in Queen Mary’s
chamber at Holyrood. There, too, remained till very recent years the
haunted house of the prince of Scottish wizards, Major Weir; and near by
the Clockmaker’s Land, noted to the last for the ingenious piece of
workmanship of Paul Remieu, a Huguenot refugee of the time of Charles
II. Nearly opposite was the dwelling of Provost Stewart, where, in the
famous ’45, he entertained Prince Charles Edward, while Holyrood was for
the last time the palace of the Stuarts. The alley which gave access to
the old Jacobite provost’s dwelling bore in its last days the name of
Donaldson’s Close; for here was the home of one of Edinburgh’s most
pro