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No subject of study ought
to be of more interest to natives of Leith, young and old, than the
history of their own town and its immediately surrounding district,
which in medaeval times formed part of the extensive possessions of the
Laird of Restalrig and the Abbot and Canons of Holyrood.
This book, written at the
request of the Leith Education Authority as a Reader for the senior
classes in their schools, endeavours to tell the story of Leith in such
a way as to place it in its proper historic setting, and to show the
great part the Port has played in our national history. At the same time
it traces the progress and development of the town from its beginnings
in the little cluster of huts by the water-side to the great centre of
commerce and industry it has become to-day.
So varied and eventful
has been the history of Leith that the utmost difficulty has been found
in compressing its story within the limits of a single volume. Much has
had to be omitted. For instance, the association of the ill-fated James
I. with the town has been suggested rather than told, yet none of the
Stuarts, save James IV., was more familiarly known in Leith, or did more
to encourage its shipbuilding and commerce. Little, too, has been said
of the gallant exploits of the Leith sailormen in the long-drawn-out
struggle with France after the Union of 1707, and hardly any mention has
been made of such old-world legends as the "Twelve O’Clock Coach
"—a survival among us, perhaps, of the ancient superstition, so familiar to folklorists, of the
death-coach that travels along the road in the silence of night and
halts ever and again to pick up the souls of the dying. The legend of
the giant who is said to have found a grave beneath the Giant’s Brae
is a modern tale, and has no foundation in local history.
It is hardly possible for one to be equally familiar
with every side of Leith’s history. I
have, therefore, availed myself of the extensive and intimate knowledge
of the shipping of the Port
possessed by Mr. Malcolm
M’Donald, and have to thank him for writing the latter part of Chapter
XXX. and the whole of Chapter XXXI. To Mr. Alexander Mackay, B.A., Leith
Academy, I am under a very deep debt of obligation for valuable help and
suggestion at every stage of the book’s progress. I have, on occasion,
incorporated paragraphs from articles on Leith and Newhaven contributed
by myself to the Edinburgh Evening
News.
I wish to acknowledge the help of all those who have
supplied me with photographs. Exigencies of space have precluded the
specific mention of the source of each illustration. The larger number
of these are reproduced from photographs by Mr. J. R. Coltart, Dalmeny
Street, Leith, who not only placed his collection of views of Leith at
my service, but most generously supplied me with photographs of most of
the buildings and monuments of historic interest in the town. To Mr.
Coltart, and to all others who have
contributed to the illustrations, I would express my grateful thanks.
J. R.
LEITH, 1922.
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