1.     For North Bridge, see EC Ruddock, "The Building of the North Bridge, Edinburgh, 1763-1775," in Transactions of the Newcomen Society, Vol.47 (1974-6), pp.9-33.  See also AJ Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966 and 1988), pp.59-65.

2.     According to a pamphlet of 1775, The Importance of the Cowgate Bridge, etc. Considered, thought to have been written by James Brown, the developer of George Square and who was to become one of the South Bridge trustees.  Quoted in AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.58.

3.     AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), pp.58-9.

4.     AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), pp.56-8.

5.     For Bristol, see Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bristol, (Faber and Faber, 1952).

6.     This description of the building of South Bridge relies heavily on the account in Chapter 3 of AG Fraser’s The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989).

7.      For example, "Your Lordship will remember that we had some conversation about the propriety of Columns in the New Street…" suggests that Hunter Blair’s and Adam’s discussion had been about more than the general principles of the scheme.  Quoted in AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.67.  The location of the original letter is not clear.  Fraser gives a very thoroughly-researched account of the South Bridge project and Robert Adam’s involvement in it, in Chapter Three of his book.

8.      See the breakdown of commissions by date in D King, The Complete Works of Robert and James Adam, (Butterworth, 1991).

9.     Lady Nicolson had established the line of Nicolson Street, running through what had been the park around her mansion, only in 1757, offering the first building feus along its line in that year (J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh,  (Penguin, 1984), p.239).  Development was a gradual process, the Riding House dating from 1763 and Nicolson Square from 1765 onwards (Ibid., p.248).

10.    J Gifford, C McWilliam, and D Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh,  (Penguin, 1984), p.174.

11.    AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.67.  For the letter of 14th July, see Ibid., p.69.

12.    Soane Museum, Volume 34, Drawings 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, and 11.  It is interesting to note that the designs for the terrace of shops and houses for Leith Street are all endorsed "A fair copy of this sent to Edin., 12th July 1785," only two days earlier (Soane Museum, Volume 38, Drawings 45-49).  Adam was obviously working on the two schemes at the same time, and the excuses he sent to the South Bridge Trustees about the illness of his draughtsman may not have been the only reason for the pressure on his resources at this time.

13.    South Bridge Trustees Minutes, 1785-1802, in Edinburgh City Archives.

14.    The original government grant of £12,000 for the construction of Register House was considerably exceeded in the £31,000 cost (AJ Youngson The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966 and 1988), pp.65-68 passim).  It was also on the question of likely expense that there was strong opposition on the Council to Adam being asked to provide designs for Charlotte Square (M Sanderson, Robert Adam and Scotland: Portrait of an Architect, (Scottish Record Office and HMSO, 1992), p.121).

15.    The earlier scheme proposes an angled slip-road cutting around the Tron Church, but apparently deliberately aligned away from the church, suggesting that it was envisaged that there should be buildings between the two.

16.    The survey was engraved and published, and must be the plan referred to in the Minute Book of the Trustees as "…laid before Parliament."  AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.62.  For a reproduction of the survey, see Ibid., fig 3.11, on pp.64-5.

17.    AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.66.

18.    AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.55.

19.    National Library of Scotland, MS 20500, ff.5-8, quoted in AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.70.

20.   South Bridge Trustees Minutes, following Minute of 1st March, 1786.  Quoted in AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), pp.70-72.

21.   M Sanderson, Robert Adam and Scotland: Portrait of an Architect, (Scottish Record Office and HMSO, 1992), p.103.  According to John Clerk of Eldin, Adam’s brother-in-law and close friend, he became so ill that, "on an impression that he should die at the age of 58" (Adam was 58 on 3rd July 1786) he gave his landscape sketches and paintings to his three sisters.

22.    Soane Museum, Adam Collection, Volume 34, Drawings 1 and 2.  Adam’s itemised bill lists a further two presentation drawings prepared in connection with the revised scheme, which do not survive.

23.   AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), pp.80-81.  Fraser reproduces (Figs 3.30-3.32) Kay’s elevation drawings.

24.    For Pulteney Bridge and its possible English and Italian inspirations, see J Manco, "Pulteney Bridge", in Architectural History: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, Vol. 38 (1995), pp.129-45.

25.    Soane Museum, Adam Collection, Volume 34, Drawing 3.

26.    BFL Clarke, The Building of the Eighteenth-Century Church, (SPCK, 1963), pp.174-5.

27.    Soane Museum, Adam Collection, Volume 34, Drawing 10b.

28.    For example, at Home House, London.  See M Whinney, Home House, No 20 Portman Square, (Country Life, 1969), p.31, for a discussion of the deviations from the original designs for the staircase there.

29.    AG Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.79.

30.    Reports of the Select Committee, appointed to enquire into the state of the Public Records of the Kingdom, &c, ordered to be printed by the House of Commons, 4th July,1800, contains a summary of the costs of building Register House.  Quoted in AT Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, (Country Life, 1922), Vol. 2, p.234.