Satisfactory Close of the Day.

suggestive of men and their deeds, of which history records no superior for piety, patriotism and valor.

Returning to the hotel, we recalled the incidents of the day, all which were of the most satisfactory character and worthy of an emphatic place upon our life annals.

CHAPTER XXX.

EDINBURGH.

"EDINA! Scotia's darling seat!
All hail, thy palaces and towers,
Where once beneath a monarch's feet,
Sat legislation's sovereign powers,
There watching high the least alarms,
Thy rough, rude fortress gleams afar
Like some bold vet'ran grey in arms,

And mark'd with many a seamy scar,
The ponderous wall and massy bar,

Grim rising o'er the rugged rock;

Have oft withstood assailing war,

And oft repelled the invader's shock."

Ir requires but a brief sojourn in the northern capital to appreciate those high eulogiums which the people of Scotland are wont to bestow upon their revered metropolis. Sir Walter Scott speaks of it as,

"Mine own romantic town,"

and not a feature is wanting entitling it to that expressive appellation. Picturesque in its feature of hill and dale, sea and land, rock and meadow, art in its most beauteous adornments and nature in its attractive simplicity, dignified from age, and illustrious from the men and their achievements of which its streets were the scenes and its annals are the record, refined in its society and eminent in the disciples and institutions of literature and science, whatever name most correctly unites in itself all these excellencies is the one to which Edinburgh is most entitled.

Let us ascend some elevation, and take a survey of its

Arthur's Seat.

Edinburgh Castle.

celebrities. Several spots offer themselves, but none is better for our purpose than Arthur's seat, a lofty eminence to the south-east, and divided from the main city by fine meadows and gardens. To ascend the summit were very fatiguing and unnecessary, so we will take a road cut into the side of the hill and which will place us far enough up for extensive observation. Well, here we are, and here let us remain for an hour at least. "How grand-how beautiful!" "It is so, beyond what the eye often rests upon. Now for a leisure survey of each object in order. Do you see that antique battlemented, stone edifice standing upon the brow of yonder hill, over which it seems to hang as if about to topple to its destruction? That is Edinburgh Castle, built twelve hundred years ago, by Edwin, a king of Northumbria, who planned the town, and from whom, as its founder, is derived the name Edwinsburgh or Edinburgh. The rock upon which this fortress stands, is three hundred and eighty-three feet above the level of the sea, and its battlements are visible at the distance of forty to fifty miles. Visiting this massive structure, you will be shown the "Regalia," comprising the crown, (parts of which formed the tiara, worn from the days of Robert Bruce), the sceptre and the sword of state, memorials of Scottish independence, and reminding her sons of their valiant forefathers, "who, with unequal means, but with undaunted courage, maintained the liberties of their country through ten centuries of almost ceaseless war"-you are then conducted to the natal room of James VI. to the turret overlooking the Newtown where lies the famed Mons Meg, an immense cannon, more than four centuries old, a kind of “national palladium,” but disabled by a fracture for present use. These are a few among the

Calton Hill.

Monuments.

curiosities which will help you to pass an hour or more of

much interest on

"This steep and iron-belted rock,

Where trusted lies the monarch's gems:

The sceptre, sword, and crown, that graced the brows,
Since Father Fergus, of an hundred kings."

That

And there is another elevation quite in the right from the castle, that is Calton Hill, three hundred and fifty feet high, and ascended by a winding-path or wearisome stairs. lofty monument on the apex is in honor of Lord Nelson, and the lesser, near by, imitating in form, the Parthenon at Athens, commemorates those Scotsmen who fell in different engagements on sea and land during the last war with France. As its erection was of doubtful policy, so it remains and will continue incomplete, from want of public sympathy and support. In addition to these natural structures, Calton Hill contains monumental erections in honor of Professor Playfair, Dugald Stewart, and other worthies. in church and state. Looking quite below the hill, you see a castellated structure, than which the nation contains none more interesting and suggestive-it is Holy-Rood abbey and palace. (Intending to devote a chapter to this building, it will engage no more attention at the present time.) Between the hill and abbey is a monument to the Poet Burns, (the bust not there), erected upon the spot where he is said to have written the poem quoted from in my heading. Do you notice in the foreground an elaborate and highly finished structure, having much the appearance of a churchsteeple cut off at the base and placed upon the ground? That is the Scott Monument, designed by a native artist (Kemp), and erected at a public subscription of fifteen thousand

Public Buildings.

Old and New Towns.

six hundred and fifty pounds sterling, exclusive of the marble figure of the Novelist and Poet, which occupies the interior. Casting your eye around, you behold many steeples, indicating the religious character of this eminently Christian city; and other public buildings, as the Bank of Scotland, the County Hall, the Highland Society Museum, Parliament House, the University or College, instituted by James VL, in 1582, consisting now of sixty-three professors, and attended by above twelve hundred students; the Royal College of Surgeons, Heriot's Hospital, the Royal Institution, and much else that indicate a place of no mean celebrity. It was from an elevation of this same Calton Hill, that Rowland Hill, when on a visit to Edinburgh near the close of his life, preached another "sermon on the Mount" to an assemblage of twenty thousand persons gathered around him on the hill-side. "How different the appearance of one part of the town from the other!" True, and the reason is this. Between where we stand and the magnificent streets and residences in the. distance, was a deep ravine. The abbey and palace of HolyRood were placed on this side, and as these were the center of royalty, so there were here the abodes of wealth and business. In process of time, a bridge was thrown across this ravine, and buildings erected upon the opposite side. Hence began what was called New Town, in distinction from the old town of David and his successors. The old town, deserted of its more respectable inhabitants, is occupied almost exclusively by the humble orders and tradesmen. The ravine, once the haunts of robbers and assassins, is now converted into a rail-road track and depot, which are reached by flights of stairs. That sheet of water, you see in the