The Freedom of the City and Royal Burgh of Edinburgh

By C. J. Cousland, F.R.S.E., A.R.P.S.

The freedom of the City of Edinburgh has been bestowed for a period of over five hundred years upon those whom the citizens delighted to honour. The first recipient was a Churchman; the second, forty years later, a Merchant; then Gavin Douglas, the poet-Bishop, a son of the Earl of Angus, who at the time was the Provost of the Collegiate Church of St. Giles. Then follow men of all ranks and responsibilities - the Provost of the town, a Hamilton; the Town Clerk, a Guthrie; the Lord justice Clerk; then an officer of the King of France who was a visitor; Captains of the Castle of Edinburgh; a Teacher; a Physician; an Organist; a Playwright; a General; a Map Maker, in the person of Mr. James Gordon of Rothiemay; a Bell-founder; the Lord Lyon King-of-Arms, and so on.

It is not clear how these early freedoms were bestowed. There may simply have been an intimation given of the Council's vote and intention, or the Burgess Ticket may have been delivered by the Town's Officer, or again there may have been a ceremony and we know that on occasion there was a banquet. The record of the recipient's reaction to the gift is to be found only occasionally until the days of the nineteenth century when the bestowing of the Freedom became formal and ceremonial. In the book kept in the City Chambers recording the Free Burgesses and commencing in 1813, Sir Walter Scott's name appears, and beside the citation is a pencil note to the effect that the honour was conferred in the Lord Provost's house at an evening function. Charles Dickens did not come to Edinburgh for his Burgess Ticket-it was apparently sent by post-but the honour, as he said in Edinburgh seventeen years later, gave him very great satisfaction and pleasure.

On several occasions the Council Chamber in the High Street has been used to bestow the compliment, and it was in November, 1920, that Alexander Graham Bell, (an Edinburgh boy, born in South Charlotte Street, who had left the city with his parents when in his teens and lived in the United States of America), was made a Burgess and Guild Brother there. A councillor who was present at that simple ceremony has a vivid recollection of the tremendously enthusiastic reception accorded the venerable, handsome and white, bearded gentleman, the inventor of the telephone, as he passed between the rows of Bailies and Councillors, in their robes and chains of office, preceded by the City Halberdiers attired in their quaint, mediaeval dress.

On an earlier occasion the Freedom was presented in the City Chambers, to Dr. Alexander Whyte, the greatly beloved minister of Free St. George's Church, who had been unable, because of ill-health, to attend the ceremony arranged to take place in the Synod Hall. In his speech Dr. Whyte referred to the great men of the Edinburgh he had first known.

The history of Edinburgh and the history of Scotland are closely interwoven, and it can almost be said with truth that the history of the ancient Capital is the history of the Kingdom. There are very many tragic features in that history as the historians and writers have pictured it-the forays and fights, the cleansing of the causeway, the rebellion of the clans, wars and news of battle; intrigues and murders in the palace, martyrdom and burnings at the Cross, persecutions and plunderings of the people and the kirk; the tragedies of the Covenanting times, the gibbet and the guillotine and the cruel lot of the men sent to be galley slaves-so goes the record of the grim side of these centuries. It is good to come upon another aspect of these same times, the one which fills in by far the greater part of the passing years of the city-the steady, everyday life of the citizens, of the merchants and craftsmen, the burgesses and guild brothers and the people in their homes, in the market places and the closes and causeways ; it is the aspect of reason and common sense and duty, and it often appears recorded in the letters and other writings of such men as those who were made honorary freemen. The first name in that long list is that of the priest, the confessor of James the Second's widow, Mary of Gueldres, who founded the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity. He was Sir Edward de Boncle and he directed the building of the church, of which he was the first Provost. After the Reformation a part of the garden (it was situated to the east of the Nor' Loch, where to-day the " Flying Scotsman " sets out for London) was given by the magistrates to be made a Physic Garden, and that garden, a century later, was removed to Leith Walk, to the Shrub Hill district, and developed into the Botanic Garden as we know it to-day-a Royal Garden and Arboretum which covers sixty acres at Inverleith. On the valuable diptych of Trinity Church, Which has escaped the ravages of the mob reformers and of time, there is a fine portrait of this, the first of the town's freemen, which is reproduced here.

A century and a half later, in 1618, an English dramatist, Ben Jonson, arrived in Edinburgh. He was a man of exceptional learning and industry and an intimate friend of the great Shakespeare and, although from across the border, he was of Scottish Border descent (of the Annandale Johnstones). On the 25th of September he was solemnly elected a Burgess of Edinburgh and, on another occasion, entertained at a public banquet there. The following notes are from Dr. G. Gregory Smith's biography of the poet.

"Jonson, who left London on foot, tramped on and reached Edinburgh early in August, 1618, before his friend the Sculler. They did not meet till September in the house of a Leith worthy, Master John Stuart. 'So with a kindly farewell,' says the Water Poet, ' I left him as well as I hope never to see him in a worse state; for he is amongst noblemen and gentlemen that know his true worth.' The burgesses of Edinburgh gave him the freedom of the city and many vied to do him honour.

"We get into closer touch with Ben and his host in a corner of the University Library at Edinburgh, where the volumes which once filled the shelves of Hawthornden are now preserved. To the book-loving Ben these had been familiars and, doubtless, prompters (good Leith Canary aiding) of many of the censures of the poets and reminiscences of London life handed down in the Conversations.'

"Jonson started southward from Leith on 25th January, 1619, again on foot. He had written little or nothing, except some rough drafts on subjects suggested by his visit, which he had directed to be sent to Drummond if he died by the way. The line-

"The heart of Scotland, Britain's other eye"

is all that remains of a poem on Edinburgh; and a ' fisher or pastoral play,' with Loch Lomond as the setting, appears to have been interrupted, or to have been lost at the burning of his library, with the poem on his Scottish adventures, and notes on Pinkie, the Government of Edinburgh, "the curricula of the universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews, and other things, drawn from material put at his disposal by Drummond."

Among the several verses by which he is remembered today are those "To Celia."

And his philosophic mind is reflected in his stanza, "The Noble Nature" -

The simple inscription "0 rare Ben Jonson" is cut on the slab over his grave in Westminster Abbey.

Charles the Second granted the Company of Merchants of the City of Edinburgh a charter in 1681 and in the following year his son, then Duke of York and afterwards James the Second, came to Edinburgh, where three years earlier he had received the freedom of the city. He brought with him Colonel Churchill, who also received the freedom in 1679, and who later was created Duke of Marlborough, the famous Duke; and the Secretary to the Navy, the diarist Samuel Pepys. Two days after the following letter was written, Pepys too was made a freeman. As no detailed record is available, we do not know whether this was a ceremonial occasion or whether the honour was bestowed privately. The letter by Pepys speaks for itself

Mr. Hewer -

After having told you that the Duke is well, and (then) myself, I may safely take notice to you of what will, I know, soon become the talk of the town, and be very differently entertained by it; but be their constructions of it what the worst part of them please, our solace must be that the Duke is well arrived here, though with a greater loss in his train than we can yet make any just computation of, by reason of the Kitchin yacht not being yet come in -, which (of all the yachts) had the most opportunity of saving men, as lying nearest and longest about the wreck of the Gloucester, which struck upon the edge of the (Well, say some; Lemmon, say others;) about five in the morning, on Friday last, from an obstinate overwinning of the pilot, in opposition to all the contrary opinions of Sir J. Berry, his master, mates, Col. Legg, the Duke himself, and several others, concurring unanimously in our not yet being clear of the sands, and therefore advising for his standing longer out to sea. The pilot is one Ayres, a man that has heretofore served the Duke as pilot in the war, and in his voyage hither, and one greatly valued as such by him: but this, however, has fallen out, and will (as it ought) be strictly enquired into, the man being, it is said, saved, and (could it be regularly done) would be tried and hanged here, for the nearer satisfaction of those great families of this kingdom, who (it is feared) would be found the greatest sufferers in this calamity; and among others, my Lord Roxbrough, (one of the flowers of this nobility) not yet heard of, nor Mr. Hyde, my Lord Hyde's brother, and lieutenant of the ship; though Sir J. Berry is, and is very well spoken of by His Royal Highness, for his comportment in this business, though unfortunate.

I told you in a line by Mr. Froud, that though I had abundant invitation to have gone on board the Duke, I chose rather, for room's sake and accommodation, to keep my yacht, where I had nobody but Sir Christopher Musgrove and our servants with me: the Master of the Ordinance being obliged, by his indispensable .attendance on His Highness, to leave us.

Our fortune was, and the rest of the yachts, to be near the Gloucester when she struck, between which and her final sinking there passed not (I believe) a full hour; the Duke and all about him being in bed, and, (to show his security) the pilot himself, till waking by her knocks.

The Duke himself, by the single care of Col. Legg, was first sent off in a boat, with none but Mr. Churchill in her, to prevent his being oppressed with men labouring their escapes: some two or three, however, did fling themselves after him into her, and my Lord President of Scotland (James, Marquis of Montrose), by the Duke's advice, endeavoured it, but falling short was taken up out of the water by him.

Had this fallen out but two hours sooner in the morning, or the yachts at the usual distance they had all the time before beer, the Duke himself and every soul had perished; nor ought I to be less sensible of God's immediate mercy to myself, in directing me, (contrary to my purpose at my first coming out, and the Duke's kind welcome to me, when on board him in the River) to keep to the yacht; for many will, I doubt, be found lost, as well or better qualified for saving themselves, by swimming or otherwise, than I might have been."

Samuel Pepys was 49 when he visited Scotland. He had, owing to eye trouble, finished with his diary several years before, but hi s impressions of Scotland and of Edinburgh are known to have been far from flattering, for " the uncleanly habits of the people caused him great offense." When Sir Walter Scott reviewed Pepys' Diary a century and a half later he referred to the writer of it as "this curious fellow," and he might well have been offended by much that was revealed in its pages. Pepys was a man of vigour and great ability, and in recent times his name has been remembered and the great service he did in strengthening and building up the navy applauded. He was in his time the equivalent to our modern "permanent under secretary" of the navy and without doubt deserved well of his country for his successful administration.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century John, Duke of Argyle, received a Burgess Ticket from Edinburgh's chief magistrate, twenty years before Captain Porteous was similarly honoured. Both these burgesses have been immortalised in "The Heart of Midlothian" where the author gives this picture of the Duke:-

"His high birth, his great talents, the estimation in which he was held in his own country, the great services which he had rendered the house of Brunswick, placed him high in that rank of persons who were not to be rashly neglected. He had, almost by his single and unassisted talents, stopped the irruption of the banded force of all the Highland chiefs ; there was little doubt that, with the slightest encouragement, he could put them all in motion, and renew the civil war ; and it was well known that the most flattering overtures had been transmitted to the Duke from the court of Saint Germains. The character and temper of Scotland were still little known, and it was considered as a volcano which might indeed slumber for a number of years but was still liable, at a moment the least expected, to break out into a wasteful eruption. It was, therefore, of the highest importance to retain some hold over so important a personage as the Duke of Argyle."

The Duke of Argyle was a Highland chieftain, head of a West of Scotland clan, and the next burgess we refer to, Benjamin Franklin, came also from the west, west of the Atlantic, from America, then still a British colony. In his humble birth and life, and labours and rank, he was very different from Scott's hero, but he deserved well of all men, and especially of his own countrymen. A "poor printer" in his youth, by hard work, self-education and travel, and aided by a flair for scientific investigation, he attained a position of esteem, respect and honour in society that was unique. A biographer writing of him in this century gave his book a distinctive and startling title - "The First Civilised American." Franklin himself wrote a short autobiography, for his sons' reading and not for publication, but even after two hundred years one paragraph at least will tickle the ears of Edinburgh readers and allow us to see, if not ourselves, at least our forebears as others saw them. Writing of his early days in Philadelphia, when he was, working as a compositor and minding his p's and q's at the case in the printing office there, he penned these lines which sum up with somewhat blunt frankness his knowledge of those who were to be his fellow burgesses of the Scottish Capital.

There was another bookish lad in the town (Philadelphia), John Collins by name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. We sometimes disputed, and very fond we were of argument and very desirous of confuting one another - which disputacious turn, by the way, is apt to become a very bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable in company, by the contradiction that is necessary to bring it into practice ; and thence, besides souring and spoiling the conversation, it is productive of disgusts, and perhaps enmities, with those who may have occasion for friendship. I had caught this by reading my father's books of dispute on religion. Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into it, except lawyers, university men, and generally men of all sorts who have been bred in Edinburgh."

In the digest made in the following pages of the many speeches delivered at the nineteenth and twentieth century freedom ceremonies, nothing so adversely critical as these words will be found. Pepys complained privately of Edinburgh's lack of cleanliness, and a century later Franklin complained of her lack of courtesy. To-day from her youngest burgesses she receives mostly praise for her perfection of beauty and her chivalry.

In September, 1762, one of the founders of Methodism, the great preacher, George Whitefield, was presented with the freedom of the city. Among the most famous of his many missionary journeys were those he made to Scotland, where his influence on religious affairs was both great and far-reaching. His biographer, Butler of Abernethy, has written of that influence in a sentence containing words both hot and cold.

"When we are taught," said Dean Stanley, "to think of the Edinburgh of that age as cold and dead, let us remember that it was of it that Whitefield when he left it exclaimed, '0 Edinburgh, Edinburgh, surely thou wilt never be forgotten by me! ' " And that same Edinburgh never forgot him. When, years afterwards, he came to the Scottish capital again, he was in danger of being hugged to death by the enthusiastic welcome of its citizens, and he sat, it is said, amongst them " like a king of men on his throne."

James Craig, who was made a burgess in 1767, was a Scotsman, famous as the architect whose plans were judged best of those submitted in competition when the Edinburgh Fathers decided to extend the city northwards across the new North Bridge. Craig's plan was carried out and to-day, nearly two hundred years later, the formal design of wide streets and handsome squares is accepted as a model city plan. Charlotte Square stands now almost as when it was first built, with St. George's Church dome towering above its western side.

How Craig came to create and develop his work is told in the following extract from a criticism published many years ago.

"In 1767 he sent in a 'plan of the new streets and squares intended for the city of Edinburgh, for a competition instituted by the authorities of that city, who were desirous of extending it by buildings laid out in a more modern style. Craig adopted as the keynote of his design some lines from his uncle's poem on ' Liberty ':-

and therefore planned a series of exact squares and parallelograms. in which the North Loch was preserved as a long canal with formal buildings on each side. This plan, though utterly destitute of inventive ingenuity or any regard for the natural features of the ground, was accepted with acclamation by the magistracy of Edinburgh ; they presented Craig with the freedom of the city in a silver box, and with a gold medal bearing the city arms, and his plan was published in 1768 with a dedication to George III. Hence arose that part of Edinburgh known as the New Town."

Not only was the plan dedicated to George III, but that monarch viewed the plan in London, criticised it, and altered the names proposed for some of the streets. "St. Giles Street," which was the name chosen by Craig for the wide street facing the Castle, he had changed to Princes Street, now perhaps one of the most famous street names in the realm.

The planning, in the year 1768, for the expansion of the town beyond the old walls which were repaired and extended for protection against the English invader after the battle of Flodden, spoke of the advance of civilisation, of a new feeling of safety and security, and the progress of a settled citizenship. Over twenty years had gone by since Prince Charlie and his Highland army had occupied the town ; the prosperity which required peaceful days was coming, perhaps tardily, but surely, to Scotland and particularly to Edinburgh ; better conditions, better wages, better houses all marched in line with better schools and a growing and improved religious life. Some culture and some leisure were now the lot, not only of 'the gown', but of the town. Entertainments, the opening of the St. Cecilia Music Hall and the building of a theatre, the steady progress in printing, the beginning of serious publishing (the Encyclopaedia Britannica was launched towards the end of this century), the advent of newspapers, the progress of art, particularly portrait painting, and many other signs of a more settled life and existence were hastening the approach of a more widespread culture and learning.

Pleasures and amusements were now possible, and so the arrival in Edinburgh of a stranger who blended science with amusement was acclaimed wholeheartedly. Edinburgh was within sight of the sea and sailing ships there used the winds of the Forth to speed them on their lawful occasions ; the horse traffic on the improved roads which led to and from the capital, carriages, coaches and horsemen, was a daily necessity. The air alone was free from man's rule, and when this visitor reached the city and inflated with strange gases a balloon which rose from the ground, carrying him in a basket with it into the blue, all the people flocked to see the sight. The balloonist earned the approval and praise of the citizens, the select King's bodyguard for Scotland, the Royal Archers, elected him a member, and the Lord Provost and Council made him a burgess and guild brother.

Vincent Lunardi, this heroic aeronaut, published a small volume of letters about his exploits in the city and elsewhere in Scotland, where he made five ascents. In these letters, written in a style not uncommon at the period but which sounds exaggerated and somewhat fulsome to-day, he has something to say about the Burgess Ticket and the citizens, especially the ladies, of Edinburgh. Writing in October, 1785, to his guardian, the Chevalier Gerardo Campagni, he says

"On Wednesday last I was made a Member of the Royal Archers Company; and on the Thursday following, had the wished-for honour of being presented with the Freedom of the Metropolis by the Lord Provost and Magistrates; on both these occasions I was most splendidly entertained, in short it is impossible to express in adequate terms the favours which have been heaped upon me, or my sensations of gratitude : the latter you will most easily conceive, as your instructions alone have served to imprint them upon my heart, whence no power can ever erase them ; were '.t possible to do that, the politeness and attention of the Scots might tempt me to forget my friends in England ; but reason, sentiment and the involuntary impulse of the soul, call aloud for an equal division of my acknowledgements and bid me be mindful of past favours.

" As the Edinburgh Burgess Ticket may perhaps afford you some pleasure, I shall transcribe it, that vou may be acquainted with the very great honour they do me in mentioning the occasion of my being presented with it.

" Which day, the Right Hon. James Hunter Blair, Lord Provost, James Dickson, James Gordon, Thomas Sanderson and George Schaw, Esquires, Bailies, William Galloway, Esq., Dean of Guild, and James Eyre, Esquire, Treasurer, all of the City of Edinburgh, in Common Council Assembled: In Testimony of Their sense of the undaunted courage of Vincent Lunardi, Esquire, of Lucca, in Ascending in a Balloon, and passing the Firth of Forth to Fife with the Wind at South West, it the manifest risk of being Blown into the German Ocean, Admitted and Received, and hereby Admit and Receive him a Burges and Guild Brother of the said City. Extracted forth of the Council Records of the said City,

In another epistle, dated Edinburgh, September 15, 1785, he writes :-

My dearest Friend,

" Time in his flight over this city has continually scattered from his wings an increase of prosperity : may it ever enjoy that blessing, and through all succeeding ages be, as it is now, the residence of true Nobility, Benevolence and Hospitality.

" I have apartments in Walker's Hotel, in Prince's Street, New Town, from where I behold innumerable elegant buildings, and my ears are saluted with the sounds of industry from many others emulously rising.

" It would be an endless task for me to describe the Public Offices and Seminaries of Learning for which Edinburgh is so justly celebrated, or the well-regulated Police by which it is governed : I know it will afford you more pleasure to learn that I am peculiarly happy and treated with uncommon politeness and hospitality ; my arrival was no sooner announced, than many gentlemen of distinction honoured me with their visits ; and I am hourly receiving cards of invitation from the first families in Edinburgh."

Again, later, he writes from Edinburgh, on September 20, 1785

" Since my last I have been looking out for a place to ascend from and, of consequence, have had many agreeable rambles in and about Edinburgh, which, with every advantage that art can give, enjoys those of nature in a superlative degree. Most cities are furnished with public walks, where the inhabitants may enjoy the fresh air ; but here you step at once from the noise and bustle of a large city into the most romantic solitude. The Calton Hill, Arthur Seat, and the adjoining eminences, afford retreats where the gravest philosopher may indulge his contemplations ; the melancholy mourner, sequestered from the prying eyes of busy curiosity, pour forth his sighs in silence to the passing winds ; or the enraptured poet catch inspiration ! For my part, I am so much an inhabitant of the ethereal regions, that my ideas already anticipate the pleasure I hope soon to enjoy, in beholding from various angles of elevation the spires of Edinburgh, and the hills of Arthur Seat and Calton but above all, the neighbouring Firth of Forth, which runs a vast way into the country. Objects like these, united in one view, must form a scene, the magnificence of which cannot be conceived by any but an aerial traveller.

'From thence I went with a light heart to the Parliament House where my balloon is exhibited, being in a happy frame of mind for enjoying the conversation of the ladies, no less than two hundred of whom have honoured me with their company this morning. Happy mortal! you exclaim:-and well you might, could you form any adequate idea of the Scottish Beauties ! Their height in general approaches to what I should call the Majestic, adorned with an easy elegance ; their Figures are such as Grecian Artists might have been proud to copy : symmetry and proportion are there displayed in their utmost perfection. But to describe their faces the pencil of Titian, or Michael Angelo, could scarce have done them justice ! The God of Love hides himself in the dimples that play about their mouths : no perfume shop supplies the beautiful colour that glows on their cheeks and lips ; it is the pure painting of health ; and pictures forth minds as pure. Nature has made them lovely, and they have not suffered the intruder Art to spoil her works.

"I have endeavoured to give you some faint idea of their personal charms ; but their mental ones are far more striking. Grace without affectation, frankness without levity, good humour without folly, and dignity without pride, are their distinguishing characteristics. Do you not think this is a fiery ordeal for my heart ?-I assure you no: they are all so very amiable, that I cannot attach myself to any one in particular : I love them all."

The freedoms of the nineteenth century had the advantage of a press and the speeches were recorded, sometimes briefly, often at length. Elsewhere in this publication is given a digest of a considerable number of them. Unfortunately, the speech, if he made one, of the " Great Unknown," the most famous of Scottish novelists, our own Sir Walter Scott, has not been recorded. He received the honour on 22nd December, 1813. No writer has contributed more than he to raise the fame of our city and of his native land. In his poem, " Marmion," he claims in poetic terms the city of his birth as " mine own romantic town " - a happy phrase, held dear by many in succeeding generations.

On the same day as Sir Walter Scott, the world-famous and wealthy banker, Thomas Coutts, was made a Burgess. He was born in Edinburgh, and his father, John Coutts, had been Lord Provost of the City in 1742, His grand-daughter was Baroness Burdett-Coutts, and it is of great interest to note that she was presented with Edinburgh's Freedom in 1874, (61 years after her grandfather), and that this was the first case of a woman being admitted to that fellowship. She was a good woman and a great philanthropist, and King Edward VII. is said to have summed up her position in Britain, (she died in 1906 at 91 years of age), by the remark, " After my mother (Queen Victoria) the most remarkable woman in the Kingdom." It is not generally known by Edinburgh folk that Lady Burdett-Coutts was the donor of the attractive little memorial to " Greyfriars Bobby," the faithful Skye Terrier, which stands where Candlemaker Row joins George IV. Bridge.

It was thirty years later before another woman was so honoured, on this occasion a local lady, Miss Flora Stevenson, LL.D. In 1928 a Scottish marchioness whose husband was a Freeman, and in 1930 Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, our King's only sister And Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Scots Regiment, received the Freedom. In 1934 the Countess of Willingdon was elected a Burgess along with her husband, and in the following year Mrs. Louise Carnegie received the honour. Two other names complete the list of women, eight in all, on whom the Capital of Scotland has bestowed its highest honour. In 1936 Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York (now Queen Elizabeth) allowed her name to be inscribed on Edinburgh's Burgess Roll, and in the following year Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester-both being Scotswomen-received a Burgess parchment and casket.

The ceremony to-day is simple and dignified, and is held in the City Hall, the Usher Hall. Admission is by ticket, and more citizens than the hall can hold make application for these. The hall is always crowded with an interested and appreciative audience. In the tiers of seats behind the platform privileged bodies take their places, boys of the Boys' Brigade and Boy Scouts, nurses from the City hospitals, men from the Fire and other City services, school children and youths from the Officers' Training Corps ; the public are ushered to their seats by the decorously dressed High Constables wearing their badges and white gloves , the Bailies and Councillors are in their scarlet and ermine robes. A guard of honour is formed by the High Constables with raised batons. The Lord Provost, wearing his chain of office and jewelled badge, judges and dignitaries with the distinguished visitors, (for of late years usually more than one Freeman is admitted at the Ceremony), come in preceded by City Officers bearing the large mace of gold and the sword. The Halberdiers, who for centuries have guarded succeeding Provosts, are in attendance, handsome figures resplendent in the traditional uniform of the past, blue coat, red velvet breeches and silk hose, with cocked hat, and carrying their tasselled halberds.

The minister of St. Giles opens the proceedings with prayer, probably following a custom established for centuries. (In like respect the burgesses of the Company of Merchants of the City of Edinburgh, established in 1681, still instruct the clerk at their stated meetings to " read the Company's prayer, a prayer written in 1684 by the Rev. William Arnot, at that time minister of the High Church in Edinburgh.) The Lord Provost then calls upon the Town Clerk to " read the Burgess Ticket," extracted from the Council Records, which is done, and then the youngest burgess inscribes his or her name in the Burgess Roll.

The Lord Provost enlarges upon the Citation and he speaks eloquently of the visitor's accomplishments and deeds. The new Burgess replies and nearly always disclaims his right personally to receive the honour - if a sailor he gives place to the service he represents and the honour he accepts as a compliment to the Navy and the men of the Navy : if a politician he represents his Party. In the Digest, which will be found in the pages following, of a small number of the Freemen's speeches over the last 100 years, only brief extracts are in all cases given: to repeat here all the speeches made by Lord Provosts and by the distinguished visitors would be intensely interesting, instructive and inspiring, but would require very many volumes to contain all their wise words.

The proceedings are brought to a close by three cheers given for the youngest Burgesses and the organist's playing and the audience's singing of the National Anthem, "God Save the King."