eyond the limits marked by the Flodden wall. The high grey lands
along the windy ridge between the Castle and Holyrood were still
tenanted by the upper classes, and such extension as had been was
towards the Meadows. The new town had not been projected even, and on
the slopes, now occupied by its spacious streets and squares,
copse-woods and grass and heather grew. In the hollow at the foot of
these green braes, and by the side of the Water of Leith, a chain of
little hamlets--Dean, Stockbridge, and Canon-mills--nestled, and in the
mid-most of these Robert Raeburn established himself as a yarn-boiler.
Although in the country, his home was less than a mile from St Giles's
Kirk. His business appears to have prospered, and during the early
forties he married Miss Ann Elder. There was a difference of twelve
years in the ages of their two sons, William and Henry, and the younger
was no more than six when both father and mother died. Left to the
care of his brother, who carried on the business, Henry Raeburn was
nominated for maintenance and education at Heriot's Hospital by Mrs
Sarah Sandilands or Durham in 1764, and remained seven years in the
school, which owed its origin to the bequest of George Heriot, jeweller
to James VI. and I. in Edinburgh and later in London. Many boys had
been educated on "Jingling Geordie's" foundation, but Raeburn was to be
its most distinguished product. He does not seem to have distinguished
himself specially as a scholar, however, the two prizes awarded to him
having been for writing, and at the age of fifteen or sixteen he was
apprenticed to a jeweller and goldsmith in Parliament Close. This
choice of a calling was probably suggested by the lad's own
inclinations, but it was a stroke of good fortune that gave him James
Gilliland as a master. No craft then practised in the Scottish capital
was so likely to have been congenial to him. In the eighteenth century
a silversmith made as well as sold plate and ornaments, and in his
master's shop Raeburn must have learned to use his hands and may have
acquired some idea of design. In addition Gilliland seems to have been
a man of some taste--one of his most intimate friends, David Deuchar,
the seal-engraver, devoted his leisure to etching, and executed many
plates after Holbein and the Dutch masters. It was to the latter that
Raeburn owed his first lessons in art. Surprising his friend's
apprentice at work on a drawing of himself, Deuchar,