of a river; at the same time that the high grounds which form their banks would be in character with streams of such gigantic dimensions, supposing those arms of the sea to be rivers." A portion of this varied view is given in our Engraving. When Queen Victoria visited Edinburgh in 1842, she sat down on the parapet of the Castle to enjoy this splendid panorama: the people, assembled by thousands in Princes-street, two or three hundred feet below, espied her, and greeted her with stentorian lungs; while the handkerchief which she waved in recognition of them was distinctly seen below; nay, it is even said that the captain of the Pique frigate, lying out in the Firth of Forth, espied her with his telescope, and immediately fired a royal salute. The buildings of the Castle may be passed over with slight mention. The barracks, presenting their broad front towards the south-west, on the highest part of the Castle rock, form a most provokingly ugly mass. No cotton-mill could exhibit a more bare series of plain, flat, dismal, modern windows; and ingenuity could hardly have contrived a structure less in harmony with the scenes that surround it. As seen from the valley beneath, it is beyond measure tame and spiritless. The glittering treasures which form the Regalia were hidden from the light of day for nearly a century. When the Union took place between the two countries the Scottish crown-jewels were lodged in a room in the Castle, in 1707; but they seem afterwards to have passed almost out of mind, for no one knew what had become of them. At length, in 1818, the Prince Regent deputed some commissioners to search for them; and they were found carefully secured in a large oaken chest. They are now placed in a small room, lighted by lamps, and strongly secured by iron railings; and the corporate officers have power to grant tickets of admission to see them. The regalia consist of the Scottish crown; the sceptre; the sword of state; the Lord Treasurer's rod of office; a ruby ring, once belonging to Charles I.; a golden collar of the order of the Garter, presented by Queen Elizabeth to James VI.; and the badge of the order of the Thistle, bequeathed by Cardinal York to George IV, One of the objects to be seen at the Castle is the ponderous gun, designated 'Mons Meg,' placed on the bomb-battery, and pointing its mouth very harmlessly (for it is never now fired) over a portion of the New or North Town. Mons Meg' is a curiosity for which the "gude folk" of Edinburgh have a great affection. It is supposed that this monster cannon was fabricated in the time of James IV.; but how it obtained its familiar name does not seem to be known. There is a curious entry in the accounts of the High Treasurer, during that reign, relative to 'Mons Meg' having been transported on some occasion of national festivity from the Castle to the Abbey of Holyrood; there was a payment of 10s. to the pioneers for aiding to remove the cannon; 14s, to the minstrels who played before it during the removal; 9s. 4d. for eight ells of cloth, "to be Mons' claith to cover her;" payments for the iron and for men's labour in making a cradle for 'Meg' during her removal; and many other items. The great gun appears to have been fired off occasionally at holiday times; but at length, in 1754, it was removed from Edinburgh Castle to London, where it remained in the Tower during three-quarters of a century, much against the inclination of the Scots. It is said that when George IV. was standing on the ramparts of the Castle, during his visit in 1822, Sir Walter Scott, who was by his side, brought 'Mons Meg' to the recollection of the king; and that, consequent on this circumstance, the cannon was restored to its ancient site in 1829. 'Mons Meg' is about 13 feet long, 2 feet 3 inches diameter at the mouth, and having a bore of 20 inches. It is formed of a number of iron bars welded together, and bound by strong hoops. Leaving the Castle, we commence the descent of that remarkable line of street which extends thence to Holyrood, almost in a direct line from west to east. It consists of four distinct portions-Castle-hill, Lawnmarket, High-street, and Canongate-all names well known in the past history of Edinburgh. Every year witnesses some change in the appearance of this venerable avenue-some alteration, to make way for modern improvements; and it is, perhaps, scarcely improbable that persons now alive may see the whole line converted into smart shops and modern-fronted houses. One could almost feel regret at such a change. There is such a unique picturesqueness about the oldest portions of this line of street, that we can hardly afford to part with it, even for the increased comforts of modern erections. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in his account of Queen Victoria's Royal Progress' in Scotland, justly remarks, "There are thousands of streets in the civilized world to which the High-street of Edinburgh can bear no comparison, either as to elegance of architecture or magnificence of design; but the antiquated, unpretending, and smoke-discoloured fronts of its houses, of some ten stories, occasionally topped by curious gables and huge square chimneys, so high in the heavens that, notwithstanding its great breadth from side to side, it is painful to look directly up to them from below, give to it a peculiar species of venerable grandeur which is to be found nowhere else." We may walk from end to end, from west to east, without meeting two contiguous houses similar to each other. Here we have a house both broad and high, speckled over with a vast number of windows; next may come a house equally lofty, but narrower; then another, in which gables and odd nooks and corners diversify the front; at one point is a stair (the Scotch do not use the plural word, stairs, in the same sense as the English the whole ascent, reaching from the bottom of the house to the top, is simply a stair,) passing upwards from a doorless entrance between two houses; and at another a stair reaching outside the house from the pavement up to the story or flat over the shop; some of the houses have inscriptions on them, serving as the mottoes of the pious occupants | eastern end is a tower of great richness, which rises two or three centuries ago; while others have been to a height of 240 feet, and is a most prominent object partially modernized to suit the altered taste of the from almost every part of Edinburgh. times; in some, the upper windows are decked with boards indicating the occupation of those who dwell within; while other of the upper windows, at such a height that one begins to wonder whether the Scotch ever feel wearied with climbing such interminable flights of stairs, have clothes hung out on poles to dry. Here and there we see a piece of looking-glass jutting out from the side of a window, in such a position as to reflect the images of the passers-by: a fancy which is exhibited in many of the towns of Holland and Germany. Sometimes the upper flats, or stories, project beyond the level of the lower, as in old-fashioned English houses; but, for the most part a pretty general level is maintained in this respect. Many and many a 'spirit-cellar' is to be seen under houses, the upper flats of which are occupied in other ways; but the number of these is probably much less now than in former times. A good idea of the shop-cellars in the High-street, as they existed in the time to which the novel refers, is given in the Antiquary.' The first portion of this long line of street commencing from the Castle, we have said is designated Castle Hill. Just at this spot is a series of flights of steps, leading down from the level of the Parade to the valley of the Cowgate (or rather, the Grassmarket,) beneath, on the south; and a pretty considerable descent it is. Down we go, counting the steps by dozens or scores, and meeting on the way with the new road, scooped out of the southern brow of the Castle Hill; then descending again to a lower and lower depth till we fairly reach the valley. This is the most western descent from the central ridge to the southern valley: the others, as will be presently described, are formed by very steep narrow wynds, or closes. One of the first buildings met with on Castle Hill, after passing a few old houses on the south side of the street, is Victoria Hall, the new place of meeting for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The Assembly had before only an inconvenient place of meeting; but this new structure has been so planned as to serve the purpose of a meeting hall and of a church for one of the Edinburgh parishes. This Victoria Hall was made the scene of holiday ceremonial, on the occasion of the Queen's visit to Edinburgh in 1842. The royal procession advanced up the main artery of street, from Holyrood to the Castle; and when it arrived opposite this spot, the Queen's attention was attracted to a gallery, where stood the Grand Master Mason of Scotland, Lord Frederick Fitzclarence, and a glittering array of the Masonic fraternity. After the bowings, the shoutings, the wavings of handkerchiefs, customary at such a scene, the Masons laid the foundation-stone of the building in great form. It is a very beautiful Gothic structure, having a range of five windows on each side, separated by buttresses crowned with pinnacles; while at the Very few of the old houses of Castle Hill are now left; they have been destroyed, to make way for various improvements. In former times, in a little block of buildings bounded on one side by Blyth's Close, and on another by Tod's Close, was a private oratory of the queen of James V., afterwards Regent of Scotland: it was a most curious relic of past times, but was, in later days, parted off into a number of 'flats,' or dwellings, for a poor class of inhabitants. There was also, on the south side of the street, the house of the Earl of Dumfries, the access to which was by a stair entering from an alley at the side: it was inhabited by one of the earls of Dumfries about a century ago, then by Lord Rockville, and lastly, like almost all the houses of the nobility in Edinburgh, it was divided into distinct flats, and let off to poor people. At the corner of Blair's Close, also in Castle Hill, was the residence of the Duke of Gordon,-another of those Edinburgh mansions, tall, wide, substantial, and closely pent up on either side. On the opposite side of the street, declining a little way down the northern slope of the Castle Hill, Allan Ramsay built a house for himself, whither he retired about ninety years ago. It is reported that he was very fond of his new house, and was on one occasion showing all its beauties and (probably) eccentricities to Lord Elibank, to whom he remarked, that the wags about the town likened it to a goose-pie. "Indeed," said his lordship, "when I see you in it, Allan, I think they are not far wrong." We next come to the Lawn-market, a place which, as its name imports, was once occupied as a market for cloth and other materials. Between it and the Castle Hill stood, until about five-and-twenty years ago, one of the most picturesque streets in Edinburgh, called the West Bow, leading down, in a crooked and very steep line, to the Grass-market in the southern valley. This West Bow will occupy a little of our attention in a future page. Going eastward from the Lawn-market, we come at once into the High-street-the scene of so many stirring events in Scottish history and story. It is a pretty long street, extending to the boundary of the Canongate. As seen at the present day, it presents, on the north side, first a short street, called Bank-street, leading down to the Bank of Scotland, which overhangs the northern slope of the hill. This is a large, handsome, and rather costly structure. The Institution itself, which had the merit of establishing the distinctive principles of the Scottish banking system, was founded as long ago as 1695; but the present building is comparatively modern. Farther down, on the same side of the High-street, is the Royal Exchange, the building which has been before alluded to as opening a new era for Edinburgh. It is something more than an Exchange, being appropriated partly to the Council-chamber for the meetings of the magistracy, and various other offices and apartments L-VOL. III. for the transaction of municipal business. Before the construction of the North and South Bridges, the whole northern range of the High-street, from the point now under notice down to the Netherbow which separated it from the Canongate, was occupied by lofty houses, separated by those wretched narrow wynds, which, as having been once the residence of the high-born and noble, we can view only with astonishment. Nearly opposite to the spot now occupied by the Royal Exchange is a piece of radiated pavement, in the High-street. This marks the spot where the celebrated Cross of Edinburgh stood, before it was destroyed in the middle of the last century. We can well imagine such a man as Scott lamenting the destruction of any old picturesque, time-worn memo. rials of past ages, even though the spirit of streetimprovement be the idol to which the sacrifice is made: "Dun Edin's Cross, a pillar'd stone, Rose on a turret octagon; (But now is razed that monument And voice of Scotland's law was sent In glorious trumpet-clang. O! be his tomb as lead to lead Upon its dull destroyer's head!)" This Cross, against the destroyers of which the minstrel thus hurls his anathema, was an octagonal tower, about sixteen feet in diameter, and about fifteen feet high. At each angle there was a pillar, and between the pillars were arches: above these was a projecting battlement, with a turret at each corner, ornamented with rude but curious medallions: above this again rose the proper cross, a column of one stone, upwards of twenty feet high. The magistrates of Edinburgh, apparently forgetful that the unsightly Tolbooth was a far greater obstruction, came to a conclusion, in 1756, that this ancient cross was a nuisance and encumbrance on the king's highway; and they obtained the sanction of the Lords of Session for its removal. The Cross is said to be still preserved, on the estate of Drum near Edinburgh. A fountain which had belonged to the Cross came into the hands of Sir Walter Scott. In a letter to Terry the actor, written in 1817, Scott states that he had obtained possession of this fountain, and had conveyed it to Abbotsford. The southern side of High-street, as at present existing, exhibits, at the junction of this street with the Lawn-market, a wide opening to George the Fourth Bridge, a busy new thoroughfare, carried on lofty arches over the Southern Valley, or Cowgate. There then comes upon the sight a wide spot of ground, occupied by so many different buildings that we hardly know by what name to designate it. Fronting the Highstreet is the venerable High Church of Edinburgh, St. Giles's; at the western corner of the square is the County Court; at the eastern corner, the Police-office; and behind this, the almost interminable maze of buildings known as the Parliament House, with other new buildings attached to it. One general naine for the irregular open spot of ground surrounded by these several buildings, is Parliament-square. Now, in order to unravel the arrangement of this maze of buildings, we must bear in mind that Parliament-square was once the churchyard of the High Church of St. Giles. This church stood, as it now stands, on the south side of High-street, and the churchyard extended from thence nearly to the Cowgate. The Tolbooth-the strange, clumsy, odd-looking building, of which we shall have presently to speakwas built, during the latter half of the sixteenth cen tury, as a Parliament-house and a Court of Justice; but as it was in many respects inefficient for such a purpose, it was, in 1640, converted into a prison, and a new Parliament-house was constructed on a part of the ground before occupied by St. Giles's churchyard. From time to time, as occasion offered, new buildings were erected, abutting on the old, until at length a mass of rooms and offices was obtained, almost as labyrinthine as the Parliamentary and Judicial buildings at Westminster, with their interminable corridors and passages. In the centre of the Parliament-square, having the church on the north side, is an equestrian statue of Charles II. It was erected in 1685; it is formed of lead coated with bronze, and is regarded as one of the best pieces of sculpture in Edinburgh. The building at the north-east corner of the square is a police-office, presenting no peculiar features to call for notice. This is separated by an opening from the much larger building known as the Parliament House. In modern times a Grecian front has been put to this building, somewhat out of character with the original; but this is not the only example in Edinburgh where a desire has been manifested to give a classical exterior to a structure, without reference to its internal style. One of the first rooms entered is the noble Hall of the old Parliament House, designated, at the present day, the Outer House. This is one of the finest halls in Scotland. It was the hall in which the Scottish Parliament sat for about seventy years, until the union with England. The hall is 122 feet long, by 49 broad. It has a finely-carved oak roof, with pendant gilt knobs. Here the nobles, prelates, and commons met in Parliament assembled. At the present day, this great hall, in the busy law season, is one of the most bustling and striking places in Edinburgh: it is a sort of Westminster Hall. Around it are the various Scottish courts of law, at which are employed the advocates and writers to the Signet (nearly equivalent to English barristers and solicitors); and these agents of the law make use of the Great Hall, or 'Outer House,' as a general place of rendezvous. Here are the wigs and gowns in plenty. Lawyers and clients are busily conferring together, and popping in and out of the various courts; some are parading up and down the room, discussing some knotty point of the law (for Scottish law is apparently not less full of knotty points than that |