Jock's Lodge

   JOCK'S LODGE, a village, in the parish of South leith, county of Edinburgh, 1½ mile (E. by S.) from Edinburgh; containing 449 inhabitants. This is a considerable, though scattered, village, situated on the southern border of the parish, and on the road from Edinburgh to Portobello and Musselburgh. It is said by some to have had its eccentric name from that of a beggar who, in the eighteenth century, inhabited a small tenement on the spot; but it appears, on better authority, that the village was called Jock's Lodge in Cromwell's time. It is opposite to Piershill cavalry barracks, which were built in 1793, and are named from Colonel Piers, who commanded a regiment stationed at Edinburgh in the reign of George II., and who either erected or rented a villa on the height of a rising ground overlooking Restalrig, now occupied by the officers' apartments, and called Piershill. On the right hand of the village are many neat residences.