224 



A CELEBRATED MANUFACTURER. 



tobacco was washed or cleansed in water, dried, and then 

 ground. Now, however, the tobacco undergoes quite a 

 process, and must be kept packed several months before it is 

 ground into snuff. One of the most celebrated manufacturers 

 of snuff was James Gillespie, of Edinburgh, who compounded 

 the famous variety bearing his name. The following account 

 of him we take from " The Tobacco Plant :" 



" In the High Street of Edinburgh, a little cast from the 

 place where formerly stood the Cross, 



" ' Dun-Edin's Cross, a pillar'd stone, 

 Rose on a turret octagon,' 



was situated the shop of James Gillespie, the celebrated 



snuff manufacturer. The shop is 

 still occupied by a tobacconist, 

 whose sign is the head of a typical 

 negro, and in one of the windows 

 is exhibited the effigy of a High- 

 lander, who is evidently a compe- 

 tent judge of 'sneeshin.' Not 

 much is known regarding the 

 personal history of James Gilles- 

 pie, but it is understood that he 

 was born shortly after the Jacobite 

 rebellion of 1715, at Koslin, a pic- 

 turesque village about six miles 

 from Edinburgh. He became a 

 tobacconist in Edinburgh, along 

 with his brother John, and by the 

 xercise of steady industry and 

 frugality, he was enabled to pur- 

 chase Spy law, a small estate in 

 the parish of Colinton. about four 

 miles from Edinburgh, where he erected a snuff-mill on the 

 banks of the Water of Leith, a small stream which flows 

 through the finely -wooded grounds of Spy law. The younger 

 brother, John, attended to the shop, while the subject of our 

 notice resided at Spylaw, where he superintended the snuff- 

 mill. Mr. Gillespie was able to continue his industrious 

 habits through a long life, and having made some successful 

 speculations in tobacco during the war of American Independ- 

 ence, when the 'weed' advanced considerably in price, he 

 was enabled to increase his Spylaw estate from time to time 



JAMES GILLESPIE. 



