Framed print of a pen and ink watercolour, a copy of a drawing by James Skene of Rubislaw. The Earl of Haddington's House was built and occupied by the Earl of Haddington; approximately on the site of the “Cunzie House” or the Old Mint, and later of George IV Bridge. The building was sometimes referred to as “The French Ambassador's House”. See Robert Chamber's "Traditions of Edinburgh" (1868) in which there is a small picture of a house, identical with this item, which is described as the town-house of the first Earl of Haddington, President of the Court of Session and Secretary of State for Scotland, nick-named “Tam o’ the Cowgate”, who died in 1637. Note, however, that an illustration in James Grant’s "Edinburgh Old and New, Vol. 2", Chapter XXXI, shows a different building.