Chapter C: K. Sharpe, Notes to Law’s Memorials, p. xlvii (4)

From whom this exclamation proceeded I have never learned; but the house, which is of more modern date than the legend, has a story connected with it. It is said that a young woman belonging to Edinburgh, having been taken upon a voyage by an African rover, was sold to the harem of the Emperor of Morocco, with whom she became a favourite. Mindful, like her countrymen in general, of her native land and her relations, she held such a correspondence with home as led to a brother of hers entering into merchandise, and conducting commercial transactions with Morocco. He was successful, and realised a little fortune, out of which he built this stately mansion. From gratitude, or out of a feeling of vanity regarding his imperial brother-in-law, he erected a statue of that personage in front of his house—a black, naked figure, with a turban and a necklace of beads; such being the notion which a Scottish artist of those days entertained of the personal aspect of the chief of one of the Mohammedan states of Africa. And this figure, perched in a little stone pulpit, still exists. As to the name bestowed upon the house, it would most probably arise from the man being in the first place called _Morocco_ by way of sobriquet, as is common when any one becomes possessed by a particular subject, and often speaks of it.

A little farther along is the opening of New Street, a modern offshoot of the ancient city, dating from a time immediately before the rise of the New Town. Many persons of consequence lived here: Lord Kames, in a neat house at the top, on the east side—an edifice once thought so fine that people used to bring their country cousins to see it; Lord Hailes, in a house more than half-way down, afterwards occupied by Mr Ruthven, mechanist; Sir Philip Ainslie, in another house in the same row. The passers-by were often arrested by the sight of Sir Philip’s preparations for a dinner-party through the open windows, the show of plate being particularly great. Now all these mansions are left to become workshops. _Sic transit._[239] Opposite to Kames’s house is a small circular arrangement of causeway, indicating where St John’s Cross formerly stood. Charles I., at his ceremonial entry into Edinburgh in 1633, knighted the provost at St John’s Cross.[240]

FOOTNOTES

[234] A little below the church.

[235] Subjoined is a list of persons of note who lived in the Canongate in the early days of the late Mr Chalmers Izett, whose memory extended back to 1769:

‘DUKES.

Hamilton.
Queensberry.

EARLS.

Breadalbane.
Hyndford.
Wemyss.
Balcarras.
Moray.
Dalhousie.
Haddington.
Mar.
Srathmore.
Traquair.
Selkirk.
Dundonald.
Kintore.
Dunmore.
Seafield.
Panmure.

COUNTESSES.

Tweeddale.
Lothian.

LORDS.

Haddo.
Colvill.
Blantyre.
Nairn.
Semple.
A. Gordon.
Cranstoun.