Sketch of the early history of the medical profession in Edinburgh : being an address delivered at a conversazione in the hall of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, on 22d January 1864 / by John Gairdner, M.D.
- Gairdner, John, 1790-1876.
- Date:
- 1864
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sketch of the early history of the medical profession in Edinburgh : being an address delivered at a conversazione in the hall of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, on 22d January 1864 / by John Gairdner, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![must not suppose that we were in this respect better or worse than our neighbours in those times. Sunday markets were held in the end of the sixteenth century, and were abolished only in 1592 ; and though public worship was regularly observed, no constraint was then put on individuals or on public bodies in regard to their modes of observing the day. It is difficult for us to imagine the state of opinion on this subject which then existed. The Sunday of the early reformers, selected as it was by the leading men among them for private entertainments;1 for marriage-feasts, with dancing, fire- works, and various kinds of merry-making;2 and for public enter- tainments, such as the festival in honour of the friends of Queen Mary, on 31st August 1561, after her arrival from France,3 and the festival in honour of the Danish friends of King James and his queen, on 24th May 1590, after their arrival from Denmark,4—the enter- tainers, in both cases, being the magistrates of this city,—was indeed a very different thing from the Sunday of a century later, which, rigidly enforced by serious penalties, left nothing to the consciences of individuals. And those opposite phases of the day were almost alike dissimilar to the day of rest with which we are ourselves 1629, 4th June 1637, 13th September 1640, 22d September 1644, 13th Sep- tember 1646, 5th October 1651, 6th March 1653. Of these meetings the earliest was for the admission of a member; the second is that of which I have given an account in the text (p. 12); six of the others were for electing office- bearers ; one was for calling to account a barber for some illegal doings; and one, the last of all, is expressly called in the minutes, ane money meating. 1 Inventaires de la Royne Descosse, printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1863, preface, p. lxxix. This volume is just contributed to the Bannatyne Club by Lord Dalhousie. I have been greatly indebted to the preface, which is from the accomplished pen of my friend Mr Robertson. From the references he has given in the same page, it appears that Knox travelled, wrote letters, and entertained noblemen and ambassadors on Sunday. 2 Same book, preface, pp. lxxvii. and lxxviii. The allusion is to the marriage-feast of Murray, the Queen's brother, then Earl of Mar, in 1562. The marriage was in St Giles' Church, where Knox preached the sermon, and from whence the cortdge proceeded to the banquet at Holyrood Palace. 3 Same book, preface, p. xxxvii. note 1. It was held in the old archi-epis- copal palace, which still exists at the corner of the Cowgate and of Blackfriars' Wynd, east side. See also Town-council Records, 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th August 1561, in vol. iv. pp. 14, 15; and Diurnal of Occurrents, pp. 66, 67. 4 Town-council Records, 21st May 1590. It was held in the lugeing of Thomas Aitchesounc, master of the cuuzie house [the Mint], at Todrike's wynd fute. This tenement is also still in existence, and is a very little to the east of the other, in the Cowgate. Ample provision was made for the hilarity of the occasion, as the minute proves. The minute has been correctly copied by Chambers—Traditions of Edinburgh, p. 100. B](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21452076_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
