CHAPTER V. INDUSTRY. "He who dareth in the generous strife, Must, ere the morning mists have ceased to lour, Stand in the arena." FEW names among the fortunate prosecutors of trade have become more famed in the annals of our British merchant princes than that of George Heriot, the munificent founder of the hospital in the Scottish capital which bears his name. Perhaps we shall hardly select a more fitting example of "the tide, which, taken at its height, leads on to fortune." Many circumstances, unquestionably, combined to forward his progress in life; yet, after all, it was mainly his own integrity and zealous perseverance which accomplished the success, testified to us by such enduring proofs. George Heriot was in every way well connected. But the most interesting family relationship to which we now look back, was that with the Scottish historian and poet, George Buchanan. The mother of Buchanan was a daughter of the family, and it was through the patronage of James Heriot of Trabroun, his maternal uncle, that the future poet and statesman was enabled to proceed to Paris, and prosecute his studies at its famed university. Other connexions might be traced out, in which names of conventional rank figure; but the family derived far truer and more lasting honour from the industrious tradesman, the fruits of whose laborious perseverance have been the means of housing and educating hundreds of friendless. orphans, and fitting thousands to fill a respectable station in the middle ranks of life with honour to themselves and benefit to society; while it has drawn forth from poverty and obscurity some youths of distinguished talent, whose reputation reflects back a lustre on the noble institution and its generous founder, whose heraldic motto so appropriately announces :-"I distribute cheerfullie." The father of George Heriot appears to have been the younger son of a Scottish laird, who settled in Edinburgh. He was brought up as a goldsmith, then probably the most lucrative business in the kingdom, and uniting with it nearly all the duties and advantages of the modern banker, and to this trade his son, the subject of the present sketch, was also apprenticed, according to the fashion of the times. At the age of twenty-three, George Heriot entered into a contract of marriage with Christian Marjoribanks, daughter of a substantial burgess of Edinburgh, and Dr. Steven, his latest and best biographer, adds, "His father agreed to give 'his eldest sone and apperand air,' within a month after the proposed marriage, one thousand merks 'to be ane begyning and pak to him; besides five hundred merks additional, for the setting up of ane buith to him, furnissing of his clething to his marriage, and of wark lumes, and utheris necessaris requisite to ane buith." With his wife he was to receive the annual interest, at the rate of 10 per cent. of 1075 merks, lent to the city of Edinburgh. The yearly produce of her patrimony was exactly one hundred and seven merks, six shillings and cightpence, Scottish money; and the united capital of the two is said Heriot thus began to have been £214, 11s. 8d. sterling. business with considerable advantage. The traditionary statement, that he had the good fortune, at this period, when passing one day along the harbour of Leith, to espy, in the sand or ballast discharging from a foreign vessel, a large proportion of gold, and that he obtained the whole at a mere nominal price, we regard as pure fiction. That Heriot was amazingly fortunate in trade from the very outset, is quite certain; but this success was assuredly not gained by fortuitous or adventitious circumstances. It was, on the contrary, so far as is known, the result of persevering and honourable industry, under the guidance of sound principle. His residence in Edinburgh was in the Fishmarket Close. His first shop or 'buith' was one of those small erections, which, till a comparatively recent period, were attached to St. Giles' Cathedral. His shop, or kraam, as it was commonly called, was at the Lady's Steps, on the north-east corner of the church. This was a central situation, and a much frequented spot. Upon the steps leading up to the krames, it was customary to im plement the bargains made at the neighbouring cross, by going through certain formalities, and in presenting the hire penny. In this humble erection, and afterwards in one at the west end of the Cathedral, Heriot carried on an extensive trade, as a goldsmith and money lender. He soon recommended himself to the notice of his sovereign, by whom, on the 17th July 1597, he was declared goldsmith to Anne of Denmark, the gay consort of James VI. Ten days afterwards, Heriot's appointment was publicly proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh, by sound of trumpet. This, it must be confessed, was a most fortunate appointment, for never, truly, did tradesman get a better customer. There is no question that Heriot was principally indebted to Anne of Denmark, for the acquisition of his large fortune. Few of our sovereigns have been more addicted than was Anne to the extravagant bestowal of diamond rings and other valuable ornaments on favourites. Her rage for finery was perhaps carried to an unjustifiable length. The original documents preserved in the charterroom of the Hospital, strikingly exhibit the ruling passion of the Queen in this respect, and the no less proverbial caution of her worthy goldsmith. When her Majesty was desirous of procuring an advance of money, or some new trinkets, whether for personal use or for gifts, it was no unusual thing to pledge with him the most precious of her jewels." It was in this way that much of Heriot's money was made. The goldsmiths were for a long period the only money lenders; and the high rate of interest then usually given, with their frequent command over the resources of an extravagant court and needy nobles, rendered them persons of great wealth and influence, when possessed of the requisite skill and judgment for managing a business in which moderation and prudent foresight were so indispensable. In so far as we know of the private character of the Scottish goldsmith, he appears to have possessed those strict business-like habits of accuracy which Sir Walter has pictured with so much life in the Fortunes of Nigel. He appears indeed to have been a confidential adviser of the crown on nearly all financial matters, and it would have been fortunate both for king and people, had his influence exercised a more extensive control over the proceedings of the court. "So entirely," says his biographer, “did the royal household seem to require Heriot in his double capacity of goldsmith and cashier, that an apartment in the palace of Holyrood was actually prepared in which he might regularly transact business. It has been computed, that during the ten years which immediately preceded the accession of King James to the throne of Great Britian, Heriot's bills for the Queen's jewels alone could not amount to less than £50,000 sterling. "Imitating the extravagance of the Court, the principal nobility and gentry of Scotland also vied with one another in the frequency and costliness of their purchases. Like royalty, too, they were often glad to avail themselves, in times of emergency, of pecuniary accommodation from Heriot," Original letters both of the king and queen, and of many of the nobility, still preserved in the charter-room of Heriot's hospital at Edinburgh, furnish curious evidence of the pecuniary obligations under which they were constantly laid to the royal goldsmith. One of these which Miss Agnes Strickland regards as the earliest note from Queen Anne, now extant, is thus described in the life of the Queen :-"It is written in the Scottish dialect, while, to the Queen's credit, she had made herself mistress of the English language before she became Queen of England, and wrote and spelled it far better than did her great grand-daughter, Queen Anne of Augustan celebrity. present document is addressed to George Heriot, banker and jeweller to Anne of Denmark, who is almost as much immortalized by the genius of Sir Walter Scott as by his own good works. The note referred to, as Dr. Steven The |