Dalkeith

Dalkeith, a town of Midlothian, 6 miles SE. of Edinburgh, on a tongue of land between the North and South Esks. There is a large corn exchange (1855); of nearly a dozen places of worship the only old one is the parish church, collegiate once, of which Norman Macleod was for three years minister. The chief glory of the place is Dalkeith Palace, a seat of the Duke of Buccleuch (see SCOTT). Standing near the end of the High Street, in a beautiful park of 1035 acres, it is a Grecian edifice, built in 1700 by Sir John Vanbrugh for Monmouth's widowed duchess. The castle, its predecessor, was the seat first of the Grahams, and then of the Douglasses from the 14th century till 1642, when the ninth Earl of Morton sold it to the second Earl of Buccleuch. Dalkeith thus has memories of the Regent Morton (the 'Lion's Den' the castle was called in his day), of General Monk (1654-59), and of visits from James IV., James VI., Charles I., Prince Charles Edward, George IV., and Queen Victoria. Professor Tait was a native. It is the scene, too, of Moir's Mansie Wauch. Pop. (1841) 4831; (1881) 6931; (1891) 7035.