Follow us on Facebook
A New-Years-Gift
Commentary
This broadside begins: ‘A New-Years-Gift : OR, A RESPECTFUL WISH From the Hand of a Stranger who (upon the 28th of November) was a Sufferer by the Fire which happened in the Canongate. TO MY LORD BALMERINO’.
This eighteenth-century broadside, written in verse, offers good wishes for the coming year, one presumes it is intended to be bought as a gift for friends. It is not clear why we are told that the author was in a fire in Edinburgh’s Canongate. Neither is it clear why the verse is dedicated to ‘Lord Balmerino’. It is likely that this is Arthur Elphinstone (1688-1746), a Scottish nobleman and army commander, who was executed for his part in the 1745 rebellion. for more click here
note-Lord Balmerino was patron of South Leith Parish Church
