the world at first in the memorable biography of Dr Thomas M'Crie, has
been admirably restated by Dr Hume Brown for a later age and from his
own judicial standpoint. But Knox's public life was not the whole of his
work: in bulk, it was a small part of it. When he became minister of
Edinburgh in 1560 there was only one church there; St Cuthberts and
Canongate were country parishes outside. It was some years before he got
a colleague; and, as sole minister of Edinburgh, he preached twice every
Sunday _and three times during the week_ to audiences which sometimes
were numbered by thousands. Once a week he attended a Kirk Session; once
a week he was a member of the assembly or meeting of the neighbouring
elders for their 'prophesying' or 'exercise on Scripture.' Often he was
sent away to different districts of the country on preaching visitations
under the orders of the Church. But when Knox was at home, his
preparations for the pulpit, which were regular and careful, and his
other pastoral work, challenged his whole time. And this work was
carried on in two places chiefly; in St Giles, which now became the High
Church of Edinburgh, and in his house or lodging, which was always in or
near the Netherbow, a few hundred yards farther down the High Street.
The picturesque old building 'in the throat of the Bow,' which attracts
innumerable visitors as the traditional house where Knox died, was not
that in which he spent most part of his Edinburgh life. From 1560 down
to about the time of his second marriage he lived in a 'great mansion'
on the west side of Turing's or Trunk Close; and thereafter for some
years in a house on the east side of the same close. Neither of them now
exists; but the entrance into the High Street from both was under the
windows of the third or Netherbow house, which is shewn in modern times,
and which was probably ready for Knox's reception, if not earlier, at
least when he came back from his latest visit to St Andrews. In these he
kept his books, which constituted much the larger part of his personal
property--('you will not always be at your book,' Queen Mary had said,
as she turned her back upon him in closing their second interview). And
with them, and with helps from the old logic and the new learning (for
while abroad he had added Hebrew to his previous instruments of Greek
and Latin) he studied hour by hour for the sermons which he
delivered--and their delivery also lasted hour after hour--in the gre