Page images
PDF
EPUB

Dalkeith.

of Morton (Dalmahoy), 8944; G. R. E. Fairholm, 6200; Charles | Dalkeith and Loanhead. Leather also is manufactured at Cowan (Loganhouse), 5677; John Borthwick (Crookston), 5239. The duke of Buccleuch's property, though comprising only 8541 acres, is the highest on the valuation roll (£28,296), with the exception of that of the railway companies.

2179

Minerals.-Though not a mining district par excellence, Mid-Lothian possesses a considerable amount of mineral wealth. There are 19 colleries, which in 1876 employed With the and raised 715,803 tons of coal. persons exception of 90,000 tons raised in the parish of WestCalder, this was all obtained in the valley of the Esk. In its general character the coal does not differ from ordinary Scotch coal; but a large quantity of the best canuel coal, used for making gas, is procured at Niddrie Colliery, and from the marquis of Lothian's mines at Newbattle and Dalkeith. The depth of the pits varies from 50 to 180 fathoms. On the east side of the Esk the strata lie at an angle of from 10° to 14°; those on the west side, at Niddrie and Gilmerton, at from 60° to 90°. Of blackband ironstone about 61,262 tons were raised in 1876, principally in the parishes of Lasswade and Penicuik; and 25,172 tons of fire-clay were obtained in the county. In the vicinity of West-Calder there is a large amount of shale, containing from 20 to 30 gallons of oil per ton. The extraction of the oil by distillation in retorts was introduced about 1862. About 258,278 tons were raised in 1876. Limestone is of frequent occurrence :-at Esperton in the south; at Cousland, Crichton, Burdiehouse, and Gilmerton, near Edinburgh; at the Camps, in Kirknewton parish; and at Muireston and Levenseat, still further west. Freestone is quarried at Craigleith, Redhall, Hailes, and Craigmillar. From Craigleith was obtained the greater part of the stone for the new town of Edinburgh; Hailes furnishes an excellent material for pavements and stairs; and Craigmillar has been appropriated by the builders of the new docks at Leith. Barnton Mount supplies large blocks of whinstone, which have been exported to England for docks, and even to Russia, for fortifications; the causeway stones for the streets of Edinburgh are mainly procured from the quarries at Ratho; and a large number of smaller quarries for the supply of road-metal are scattered throughout the

county.

Manufactures. Owing its origin no doubt to the development of literature and publishing in the metropolis, the chief manufacturing industry in Mid-Lothian is papermaking. There are 22 paper mills in the county, most of them large and extensive works; and their aggregate annual production is 18,500 tons of writing and printing, and 5000 tons of coloured and wrapping paper. The most important mills, some of them dating from the beginning of the last century, are situated on the North Esk between Penicuik and Musselburgh, all producing writing and printing papers; while on the South Esk at Newbattle coloured papers are manufactured. On the Water of Leith there are eight separate mills, as well as one near Mid-Calder, and another at Portobello. An ancient vat-mill, called Peggy's Mill, still exists at Cramond, producing hand-made hosiery papers, &c. There is a carpet factory on the Esk at Roslin; and the well-known establishment at Lasswade, where velvet-pile and tapestry carpet was produced under Whytock's patent, is now removed to Bonnington. The manufacture of gunpowder is also carried on at Roslin, the works being distributed in the recesses formed by the sudden bends of the river. The Fushiebridge works have been discontinued. Iron foundries exist at Dalkeith, Westfield, Loanhead, Penicuik, Millerhill, and the suburbs of Edinburgh; brick and tile-works at Portobello, Millerhill, Now battle, Bonnyrigg, and Rosewell; and candle works at

1 From this enumeration the manufactures of the city are excinded,

Besides the Scottish metropolis, the county contains the following towns and villages:-Leith and Granton, both flourishing seaports; Portobello, a watering-place about three miles to the east; Musselburgh, an agricultural and fishing town near the mouth of the Esk; Dalkeith, a market-town and borough of barony; Corstorphine, with a convalescent hospital and an ancient collegiate church containing several tombs of the Forrester family, who became possessors of the fee in 1871; Ratho, erected in 1404 into a principality for the eldest son of the Scottish king; Cramond, formerly a place of much more importance than now; Mid-Calder, with a church of considerable antiquity, adorned with the armorial bearings of the Sandilands family, West-Calder, Balerno, Currie, Juniper Green, and Colinton, all manufacturing villages; Liberton, deriving its name from the lepers who once were its principal inhabitants; Gilmerton, mainly inhabited by coal-miners and carters; Lasswade, Loanhead, Roslin, and Penicuik.

The population of the entire county in 1871 was 328,379, of whom 153,892 were males and 174,487 females. Excluding the boroughs of Edinburgh, Leith, Portobello, and Musselburgh, the population of the county proper numbered in 1851, 57,843 persons, and in 1871, 74,126, indicating an increase of 28 per cent. within that period. This increase occurs principally in the parishes of WestCalder, Lasswade, Colinton, Dalkeith, and Kirknewton.

Antiquities. It is believed that Cramond was once a Roman seaport; and various objects of Roman art have been discovered in the vicinity and upwards along the bank of the Almond. On several heights are remains of carly military works the most important being that on Dalmahoy Hill, Braidwood Castle in the parish of Penicuik, and the so-called Castle Greg on the Harburn estate in Mid-Calder parish. "Eirdehouses" have been discovered at Crichton Mains, at Borthwick Castle, near Middleton House, &c., the first being especially interesting from the fact that some of the stones bore the marks of Roman masonry. There are hut-circles and a hill fort on Kaimes Hill, near Ratho; a large tumulus, with three upright stones, at Old Liston; a smaller tumulus at Newbattle; a kist-vaen at Carlowrie; and standing stones at Lochend, at Comiston (the Caiy stone), and several other places. The most remarkable of all perhaps is the "Cat Stane," on the Brigs farm near Kirkliston, which, according to an ingenious hypothesis of Sir James Young Simpson, marks the burial place of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa. (See Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, 1855, 1873, 1875.)

The following are among the most interesting of the residential and ecclesiastical buildings in Mid-Lothian, not within the limits of the larger towns and villages. Roslin Chapel, founded by the St Clairs in 1446, is one of the most highly decorated specimers of Gothic architecture in Scotland, and presents a remarkable combination of peculiarities. Roslin Castle, the seat of the St Clairs, is a fine ruin, occupying a peninsular rock on the banks of the Esk, and must have been a very strong position before the days of cannon. Hawthornden, a little further down the stream, is interesting as the residence in the 17th century of Drummond the poet, as well as for the strange caves in the rock on which it is built. Dalhousie Castle, the seat of the earl of Dalhousie, is a modernized building of castellated style on the banks of the South Esk; and New battle Abbey, the seat of the marquis of Lothian, occupies the site of the ancient Cistercian monastery a few miles down the stream. Craigmillar Castle is a fine ruin on a knoll three

See Proc. of Scot. Antig. Soc., 1862.

miles to the south of Edinburgh, which formerly was the residence of the Preston family, and afforded shelter on various occasions to Queen Mary. Borthwick Castle, also a temporary residence of the unfortunate queen, is a double tower on Middleton Burn, still bearing the marks of Cromwell's cannon balls. Crichton Castle, a mile and a quarter to the east, was the residence of the wellknown family which produced the celebrated Sir William Crichton, and its ruins show "the builders' various hand." Dalmahoy Castle, near Ratho, is the seat of the earl of Morton, and preserves, besides other valuable antiquities, the only extant copy of the Bible of the Scottish Parliament, and the original warrant for committing Queen Mary to Lochleven. Melville Castle, near Lasswade, the seat of the earl of Melville; Colinton House, the seat of Lord Dunfermline; Calder House, the seat of Lord Torphichen; Riccarton, belonging to Sir William Gibson Craig, Bart.; and Lauriston Castle, once occupied by John Law of Mississippi notoriety, may also be mentioned. Temple, on the South Esk, was at one time the chief seat of the Knights Templars in Scotland.

The history of the county is of little importance apart from that of the city of Edinburgh. Traces of early Celtio occupation still remain in such names as Inveresk, Almond, Leith, Dalry, Dalmahoy, Dalkeith, &c.; though by far the greater proportion of the villages, hamlets, and castles have received their present designation from Saxon possessors. The termination ton is very frequent. Within the county lie the battlefields of Boroughmuir, where the English were defeated by the earl of Murray in 1334; Pinkie, near Inveresk, where the duke of Somerset inflicted tremendous loss on the Scotch; and Rullion Green, on the eastern slopes of the Pentlands, where the Covenanters were routed by the royal troops under General Dalziel.

EDINBURGH, the ancient capital of Scotland, is situated in the county of Mid-Lothian or Edinburgh, to the south of the Firth of Forth. The Royal Observatory, which is built on the summit of the Calton Hill, in the north-eastern quarter of the city, is in 55° 57' 23" of N. lat., and 12m 43 05% of time W. long. of the meridian of Greenwich.

The site of Edinburgh is altogether remarkable as that of a large city, and is the chief source of its peculiar characteristics. It occupies a group of hills separated by deep ravines, and is the central feature of a landscape of rare beauty. The county of Mid-Lothian forms towards the south-east a wild hilly district, diversified with fertile cultivated tracts, but, over an extensive area, broken into a rough pastoral country, rising at various points to upwards of 2000 feet above the level of the sea. On the north it is bounded by the Firth of Forth, from the shores of which the ground slopes gradually towards the south till it merges in the range of the Pentland Hills, with its contour diversified by various undulations and abrupt heights. On this irregular ground, amid the outlying spurs of the Pentlands, a bold cliff of trap-rock, which rises through the sandstone strata

[ocr errors]

Environs of Edinburgh.

of the district, appears to have early attracted attention from its capacity for defence. Maitland, the earliest historian of the city, says, "The situation of Edinburgh plainly shows that its origin is owing to the castle;" and from its standing in St Cuthbert's parish, which surrounds the castle rock, he assumes that the first settlement was in the low ground to the north-west. From this a road anciently led up past the Well-House Tower, along the northern slope of the Castle Hill. By this access Queen Mary and other royal visitants rode. up to the castle on various public entries, and then returned through the town, by way of the High Street and Canongate, to Holyrood. Symeon of Durham, under the date 854 A.D., includes Edinburgh among the churches and towns of Northumbria within the bishopric of Lindisfarne, and this is supposed to refer to the church of St Cuthbert. But the first erection of the Magh dune fortress, or "Maiden Castle," on the summit of the rock, must have tempted the natives of the district to seek the protection of its defences. Hence at an early period a hamlet grew up along the ridge which slopes from the castle rock towards the valley at the base of Salisbury Crags, distinct from the Kirk-town of St Cuthbert. In the reign of Malcolm Canmore the Castle of Edinburgh included a royal palace. There his pious queen, Margaret, the grand-niece of Edward the Confessor, died in 1093. It continued to be a royal residence during the reigns of her three sons, and hence the first rapid growth of the upper town may be referred to the 12th century. The parish church of St Giles is believed to have been erected on its present site in the reign of Alexander I., about 1110, and the huge Norman keep of the castle, built by his younger brother, David I., continued to be known as David's Tower till its destruction in the siege of 1572. Before his accession to the Scottish throne, David I. had been earl of Huntingdon, having acquired that manor and earldom in England by his marriage with Matilda the heiress of Waltheof, earl of Northumberland. He consequently frequented the English court, and became familiar with the military and ecclesiastical architecture introduced by the Anglo-Norman kings; and soon after his accession to the Scottish throne he founded the Abbey of Holyrood, which from an early date received the Scottish court as its guests. But notwithstanding the attractions of the abbey and the neighbouring chase, the royal palace continued for centuries to be within the fortress, and there both the Celtic and Stuart kings frequently resided. Edinburgh was long an exposed frontier town within a territory only ceded to Malcolm II. about 1020; and even under the earlier Stuart kings it was still regarded as a border stronghold. Hence, though the village of Canongate grew up beside the abbey of David I., and Edinburgh was a place of sufficient importance to be reckoned one of the four principal burghs as a judicatory for all commercial matters, nevertheless, oven so late as 1450, when it became for the first time a walled town, it did not extend beyond the upper part of the ridge which slopes eastward from the castle rock. But the mural defences of the town were an evidence of wealth and growing prosperity; and no sooner was it surrounded with protecting walls than its rapid increase led to the growth of an extensive suburb beyond their limits.

The other three royal burghs associated with Edinburgh were Stirling, Roxburgh, and Berwick; and their enactments form the earliest existing collected body of the laws of Scotland. But the determination of Edinburgh as the national capital, and as the most frequent scene of parlia mentary assemblies, dates from the assassination of James I. in 1436. Of the thirteen Parliaments summoned by that sovereign, only one, the last of them, was held at Edinburgh. But his assassination that same year, in the Black, friars' monastery at Perth, led to the abrupt transfer of the

[graphic]

court and capital from the Tay to the Forth. The coronation of James II. was celebrated in Holyrood Abbey instead of at Scone; and the widowed queen took up her residence, with the young king, in the Castle of Edinburgh Of fourteen Parliaments summoned during this reign, only one was held at Perth, five met at Stirling, and all the others at Edinburgh; and, notwithstanding the favour shown for Stirling as a royal residence in the following reign, every one of the Parliaments of James III. was held at Edinburgh. James II. showed special favour to Edinburgh by conferring on it various privileges relating to the holding of fairs and markets, and the levying of customs; and by a royal charter of 1452 he gave it pre-eminence over the other burghs. Further immunities and privileges were conferred on it by James III.; and by a precept, known as the Golden Charter, of 1482, he conferred on the provost and magistrates the hereditary office of sheriff, with power to hold courts, to levy fines, and to impose duties on all

merchandise landed at the port of Leith. Those privileges were renewed and extended by various sovereigns, and specially by a general charter granted to the city by James VI. in 1603, the year of his accession to the English

throne.

James III. was a great builder; and, in the prosperous era which followed on his son's accession to the throne, the new town of the 15th century spread over the open valley to the south, with the Cowgate as its chief thoroughfare But the death of James IV. in 1513, along with other disastrous results of the battle of Flodden, brought this era of prosperity to an abrupt close. The citizens hastened to construct a second line of wall, inclosing the Cowgate and the heights beyond, since occupied by the Greyfriars' Church and Heriot's Hospital, but still excluding the Canongate, as pertaining to the Abbey of Holyrood. The new wall long determined the limits of the town. For upwards of two centuries after its erection the requisits

[graphic][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

accommodation for the increasing population was secured by crowding buildings on every available spot within the protection of the walls, displacing the earlier structures by lofty piles of building within the straightened area, and projecting from them overhanging additions of timber. By those means the northern and southern slopes of the ridge along which the main street of the old town was formed were crowded with the picturesque alleys and closes which contributed so much to the peculiar aspect which the ancient city still retained when in 1808 Scott thus pictured it :"Such dusky grandeur clothed the height, Where the huge castle holds its state, And all the steep slope down, Whose ridgy back heaves to the sky, Piled deep and massy, close and high, Mine own romantic town."

Within this ancient civic area stand the collegiate church of St Giles-for a time the cathedral of the diocese of Edinburgh, the Parliament House and law courts, and

the civic Council Chambers. Here also in earlier years of the present century stood the old Tolbooth, or Heart of Mid-Lothian, and other buildings of note, including mansions of the Scottish nobility, and even of royalty. But it forms a mere historic nucleus of the modern city, which for a century past has been extending over the neighbouring heights, northward towards the ancient seaport of Leith, and southward and westward to the lower slopes of the Pentland Hills. The area included within the parliamentary boundary extends to 4179 acres, or 61 square miles; but, owing to its singularly irregular site, while the lower parts of the city stand little more than 100 feet above the level of the sea, the higher parts rise in some places to 250 feet, and the summit of the castle rock is 383 feet above the sea. Within the same civic

at the beginning of the century were the main cause of the insolvency 1 The extensive building operations engaged in by the corporation of the city in 1833, when the property of the corporation was valued

area, and entirely surrounded and in part encroached on by its streets, is the Calton Hill, occupied by the Royal Astronomical Observatory, the floor of which stands at a height of 349 feet above the sea; and beyond the

narrow

DOMINUS &

RUST

Arms of Edinburgh.

valley, in which the Canongate and the Palace of Holyrood lie, Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags rear their lofty cliffs in boldly picturesque outline, the highest summit rising to the height of 822 feet, and affording a magnificent prospect over land and sea. Bridges connect the different ridges on which the city is built, with crowded thoroughfares underneath. Many of the public buildings occupy lofty terraces, and thereby show to greater advantage than their architectural designs would otherwise secure for them. The valley between the Old and the New Town, and the slopes of the castle rock, are laid out as public gardens; and the Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat furnish promenades and carriage drives of unequalled variety and beauty as the public parks of a large city. Fine white freestone abounds in the immediate neighbourhood, and furnishes abundance of the best building material; while the hard trap-rock, with which the stratified sandstones of the coal formation have been extensively broken up and overlaid, supplies good materials for paving and roadmaking.

Thus on a locality seemingly ill-adapted for the site of a great city, there has gradually arisen one which compares to advantage with the most picturesque and beautiful among the capitals of Europe. Sir David Wilkie came to it in 1799 fresh from a Fifeshire manse, to begin the studies in the Edinburgh school of design which ultimately secured for him his high fame as an artist. When he returned to it in later years, familiar with all that European art had to disclose, he thus gave utterance to his matured impressions :

"What the tour of Europe was necessary to see elsewhere I now find congregated in this one city. Here are alike the beauties of Prague and of Salzburg; here are the romantic sites of Orvietto and Tivoli; and here is all the magnificence of the admired bays of Genoa and Naples. Here, indeed, to the poetic fancy may be found realized the Roman Capitol and the Grecian Acropolis."

The name of Edinburgh is a memorial of the intrusion of a new people, when, in the beginning of the 7th century, the race of Ida reared the fortress of Edwin's-burgh | on the rocky height, and thereby established the Anglian power on the Forth. But this Teutonic invasion was not the first occupation of the site. Camden aimed at identifying it with the Erparómedov ПITEрwτóv of Ptolemy; and although this has been rejected by later Roman antiquaries, the convergence of Roman roads towards the place, the traces of Roman art discovered from time to time within the old civic area, and the evidence of two Roman seaports, at Inveresk and Cramond, both connected with it by roads of Roman structure,-all tend to confirm the idea that Edinburgh was one of the sites occupied by the Roman invaders. On their withdrawal it remained an important stronghold on the southern frontier of the Pictish kingdom. One learned Anglo-Saxon scholar, the Rev. D. H. Haig, in his Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain, has identified it as the Hill of Agued, the scene of Arthur's victory of Cat Bregion.

For centuries after the founding of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria, the lowlands extending from the Forth to the Tweed continued to be a debatable land held by uncertain tenure; it was to a large extent settled anew at £271,658 against a debt of £425,195, which was compounded for by the issue of 3 per cent. bonds of annuity-the loss to the creditors thus amounting to 25 per cent. of their claims.

by Anglo-Saxon and Norman colonists under Malcolm Canmore and his sons. Edinburgh accordingly remained a frontier post beyond the Forth, until it became the capital of the Stuart kings. Then, for the first time, it rose into importance as a town. It shared in their triumphs, and bore the chief brunt in their repeated disasters; and, even after their forfeiture of the crown, some of its most picturesque associations aro with the Stuart claimants for the throne of their ancestors. Nevertheless Edinburgh continued till near the close of the 18th century to be circumscribed within the narrow bounds of the ancient city and the burgh of Canongate, with the main street extending along the height of the slope from the Castle to Holyrood Palace, and the Cowgate as the only other thoroughfare admitting of the passage of wheeled carriages. Hence the vehicle in general use was the sedan chair, by means of which the Scottish nobility and gentry paid fashionable visits in the narrow wynds of their ancient capital, and proceeded in full dress to the assemblies and balls, which were conducted with the most aristocratic exclusiveness in an alley on the south side of the High Street, which still bears the name of the Assembly Close.

Beyond the walls of the ancient city lay the burghs of Calton, Easter and Wester Portsburgh, the villages of St Cuthbert's, Moutrie's Hill, Broughton, Canonmills, Silvermills, and Deanhaugh-all of which have been successively swallowed up in the extension of the modern city. The ancient seaport of Leith, though a distinct parliamentary burgh, governed by its own magistrates, and electing its own representative to Parliament, has already extended its buildings, at one point at least, so as to conjoin with those of the neighbouring city.

The progress of Edinburgh during the present century has been remarkable in many ways. In 1801 the popula tion, including the Canongate and other extra-mural suburbs, but exclusive of Leith, was 66,544; in 1871 it had risen to 196,979. But the characteristics of the city and its population are peculiar. From an early date the special associations with the national literature have been identified with the ancient capital. Barbour, indeed, the contemporary of Chaucer, was archdeacon of Aberdeen; and the royal author of the King's Quair is chiefly associated with Perth; but in the following reign Edinburgh had become the favourite residence of the Scottish kings. One of the foremost charges against James III. was that he preferred the society of artists and musicians to that of the rough barons of his court. Under the patronage of his son, the printing press was first set up at Edinburgh in 1507. At the court of Holyrood, so long as James IV. reigned, the rivalry of rank and genius involved no conflict. Of the three great poets of the reign, Dunbar is believed to have been a grandson of the earl of March; Walter Kennedy was a younger son of the first Lord Kennedy; Gawin Douglas the third son of the earl of Angus; and Dunbar enumerates six or seven other literary contemporaries. In his Remonstrance to the King, he notes among the servitors of his royal master glazing-wrights, goldsmiths, lapidaries, apothecaries, painters, and printers; and some of his own poems appear to have been among the first works issued from the Edinburgh press by the Scottish Caxton, Walter Chepman. Gawin Douglas, the author of the Palace of Honour, and the translator of Virgil, was provost of the collegiate church of St Giles; and Roull, another literary contemporary named by Dunbar in his Lament for the Makaris, is believed to have been provost of the neighbouring collegiate church of Corstorphine. In the following reign Sir David Lindsay was the leader among the literary men of the Scottish capital; and in 1554 his famous Satire of the Three Estates was enacted in the presence of the court, at Greenside, a natural amphitheatre on the north.

west side u the Calton Hill, which appears to have been the favourite tilting ground, and general arena for public displays, including even the burning of heretics and witches.

The names of Knox (died 1572), Buchanan (1582), Alexander Montgomery (1605), Drummond of Hawthorndeu (1649), Allan Ramsay (1757), Smollett (1771), Fergusson (1774), and Burns (1796), carry on the literary associations of the Scottish capital early to the close of the 18th century, when various causes combined to give them a new significance and value. In the later years of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century the university of Edinburgh was distinguished by teachers who gave it a prominent rank among the European schools of science and letters; while members of the legal faculty disputed with them in friendly rivalry. Gregory (died 1701), the Monres (the elder 1767, the second 1817), Cullen (1790), Black (1799), Playfair (1819), Dugald Stewart (1828), and Leslie (1832), all figure among the professors of the university; while David Hume (1776), Adam Smith (1790), Robertson the historian (1793), Henry Mackenzie (1831), and others of the same literary circle gave ample range to its intellectual triumphs. To this succeeded the era of Marmion and The Lady of the Lake, followed by the Waverley Novels, and Blackwood's Magazine and the Edinburgh Review, when Scott, Wilson, Brougham, Jeffrey, Cockburn, and Chalmers gave the character to the literary society of Edinburgh which won for it the name of Modern Athens. To this the actual correspondence of its site to that of Athens no doubt also contributed. Various travellers have noted the resemblance between the distant view of Athens from the Ægean sea, and that of Edinburgh from the Firth of Forth. The popular recognition of this unfortunately tempted the citizens to aim at a reproduction of the Parthenon of Athens on the summit of the Calton Hill, in commemoration of Wellington and his brothers in arms, by whom the victory of Waterloo was made the harbinger of peace to Europe. The abortive scheme, as an incompleted project, undesignedly reproduces the ruin of the ancient Acropolis. Literary taste and culture still characterize Edinburgh society; but apart from the exceptional influences of preeminent genius-the causes which largely contributed to give it so special a character no longer exist. In Scott's early days a journey to London was beset with difficulties, and even dangers; whereas railways have now brought it within a few hours' distance, and Scottish artists and literary men are tempted to forsake Edinburgh for the great centre of all national activities. Nevertheless, the influence of the past survives in many ways. Edinburgh is not a manufacturing city, but retains even now something of the character of the Scottish capital, as the resort of those whose means enable them to enjoy in ease and comfort its social amenities, without indulging in the costly gaieties which a London season involves. The supreme courts of law hold their sittings in Edinburgh, and still retain some ⚫ of the most characteristic features impressed on them when remodelled by James V. in 1532. The Court of Session has the lord president as its head; and the High Court of Justiciary is presided over by the lord justice-general and the lord justice-clerk. The judges, as senators of the College of Justice, have also the title of lord, not infrequently coupled with that of their landed estate-as Fountainhall, Kaimes, Hales, Monboddo, Woodhouselee, or Colonsay; and the advocates and writers to the signet-as the two leading branches of the Scottish legal profession are styled,-help to give a legal tone to the society of the Scottish capital.

The university, with the medical schools and other educational institutions, have long added to the attractions of Edinburgh. As a school of art it has also required a

special character; and the names of Runciman, Nasmyth, Raeburn, Wilkie, Allan, M'Culloch, Watson Gordon, Harvey, and Drummond (without referring to living painters and sculptors) are all familiar, and some of them eminently distinguished in art. A school of design was established at Edinburgh in 1760 by the Honourable Board of Trustees for Manufactures, at which Raeburn, Wilkie, Allan, and other leading Scottish artists, along with many others of less note, obtained their preliminary training. With its aid the application of art to manufacturing design and decoration has received an important imulus. Steel and wood engraving have also largely benefited by the same facilities; and this in its turn has aided in fostering the printing press as a special branch of trade for which Edinburgh has long been celebrated. In early days the names of Chepman, Millar, Bassandyne, Charteris, Hart, Watson, and Ruddiman figure among its celebrated typographers; and more recent enterprise has added to the reputation of the Edinburgh press.

But although a large unemployed population, in close proximity to a coal-field and to the fertile Lothians, and with the command of the chief seaport of the east of Scotland, gives a stimulus to important industries, the Scottish capital lays no claim to rivalry with Glasgow or Dundee as a manufacturing town. The unique beauty of its site, and the abundance of fine building material, while they have fostered the desire for developing its architectural features have begot a disinclination to encourage such manufactures as would tend to interfere with the amenities of the city. The anxiety with which these are guarded commands the sympathy of all classes of the community. The distinctive contrast between the Old and the New Town is kept ever in view. The predominant character of the former is a seemingly lawless picturesqueness, resulting from the extreme irregularities of the sites occupied by its most prominent buildings on the abrupt slopes of the ridge which is crowned by the ancient fortress. The symmetrical formality of the New Town is all the more effective from the contrast which it thus presents to the older districts of the city. In most of the old historical cities of Europe the stranger recalls the contrast as he proceeds from modern to older districts; but in Edinburgh he can look down on the city from the castle, the Calton Hill, or Arthur Seat, and view the whole spread out like a map before him; or, as he traverses the beautiful terrace of Princes Street, adorned with statues, monuments, and public buildings, he looks across the fine pleasure grounds in the intervening valley to the quaint old town with its still older castle.

The improvements effected on the Old Town during the past forty years, while they have swept away many inte resting historical remains, have on the whole resulted in a more effective development of its picturesque features. During the same period the New Town, and the still more recent extensions to the west and south, have been carried out with a careful eye to the general results; and alike in the Old and the New Town the advantageous sites of the chief public buildings largely contribute to their architectural effect.

The Castle. The central feature of Edinburgh is the castle, which includes structures of very diverse dates. The oldest of its buildings, occupying the very summit of the rock, is St Margaret's Chapel, an interesting relic, belonging at latest to the reign of Queen Margaret's youngest son, David I., and by some good authorities believed to be the actual chapel in which the queen of Malcolm Canmore worshipped. Next in interest are the ancient hall and other remains of the royal palace, which form two sides of the quadrangle styled palace yard, and occupy the summit of the rock towards the south. These buildings include the apartments occupied by the regent, Mary de Guise, and

« EelmineJätka »