WALK FOURTH.* ROYAL TERRACE-LEITH WALK-(LEITH-NEWHAVEN)-INVER LEITH ROW-EXPERIMENTAL GARDENS-BOTANIC GARDENS. IN the three preceding Walks we have exhausted most of the objects of interest in the city; and if the stranger should with them close his perambulations, he sacrifices very little worthy of notice. But in order to render our Hand-book more complete, we find it necessary to give a short description of Leith, and a passing notice of Newhaven. By omitting both of these places, the circuit of the present Walk is very materially abridged, without any corresponding diminution of its interest. We shall therefore print the description of Leith and Newhaven in a smaller type, that the reader may more readily distinguish the portion of the text which relates to them, and which may be read or passed over at pleasure. Proceeding from the Register House down Greenside Street, nothing worthy of remark occurs till we reach the head of LEITH WALK, one of the most splendid roads in the kingdom. Turning to the right at this point, a noble range of buildings, called the ROYAL TERRACE, partly obscured by an unsightly church of recent erection, will be seen occupying the northern side of the Calton Hill. * This Walk is coloured blue on the Map. These buildings command a magnificent prospect of the Firth of Forth and the opposite shores, with all the interjacent country. Tourists proposing to visit Leith will continue their progress down Leith Walk. Omnibuses ply between Edinburgh and Leith every quarter of an hour; and as there is nothing of peculiar interest to be seen upon the way, time will be saved by taking advantage of one of these vehicles as they pass. LEITH, The sea-port of Edinburgh, is distant about a mile and a half from the centre of the metropolis. It was not only the first, but, for several centuries, the only port in Scotland, traces of its existence being found in documents of the 12th century. During its early history, few places have so often been the scene of military operations. In 1313, all the vessels in the harbour were burned by the English, and in 1410 a similar act of vengeance was repeated. "In 1544 the town was plundered and burned, its pier destroyed, and its shipping carried off, by the Earl of Hertford, to avenge the insult which Henry VIII. conceived the Scotch had offered him by refusing to betroth their young queen, Mary, to his son prince Edward. Three years subsequent to this, it was again plundered and burned by the English, under Hertford, then Duke of Somerset, and its whole shipping, together with all that in the Forth, entirely annihilated by the English admiral, Lord Clinton. Four years after this, the town was fortified by Desse, a French general, who came over with 6000 men to assist the Queen-Regent in suppressing the Reformation. On the completion of these fortifications, which consisted in throwing a strong and high wall, with towers at intervals, around the town, the Queen Regent took up her residence there, and, surrounded with her countrymen, hoped to be able to maintain her authority in the kingdom. These measures, however, had only the effect of widening the breach between her and her subjects, till they finally took up arms, and besieged her in her stronghold. In October 1559, the Lords of the Congregation invested Leith with an army, but, after various ineffectual attempts to gain access to the town by scaling the walls, they were driven back with great slaughter by a desperate sally of the besieged. "In the month of April in the succeeding year, the forces of the Congregation again invested the town, being now aided by an army of 6000 men, under Lord Grey of Wilton, despatched to their assistance by Elizabeth. On this occasion, the contest was protracted and sanguinary. For two months, during which the town suffered dreadfully from famine, as well as from the more violent casualties of war, the struggle continued, without any decisive advantage being gained by either side; at the end of that period, both parties being heartily tired of the contest, a treaty was entered into, by which it was stipulated that the French should evacuate the kingdom, that they should be allowed to embark unmolested, and that the English army should, upon the same day, begin its march to England. Immediately after the conclusion of this treaty, the walls of Leith were demolished by order of the Town Council of Edinburgh, and no vestige of them now remains."* In 1561, when Queen Mary came from France to take possession of the throne of her ancestors, she landed upon the pier of Leith; but of this pier no vestiges now remain. In 1650, the town was occupied by Cromwell, who exacted an assessment from the inhabitants. In 1715, the citadel was taken by a party of the adherents of the Stuart family, but, upon being threatened by the Duke of Argyle, it was speedily eva * Encyclopædia Britannica. G Seventh edition. Art. LEITH. cuated. George IV., upon visiting Scotland in 1822, landed at a spot a little to the north of the New Drawbridge, where an inscribed plate has been inserted in the pavement to commemorate the event. Leith presents few antiquities of any interest. Among those which remain, may be mentioned the Parish Church of South Leith, a Gothic edifice, built previous to the year 1496, and the old church of North Leith, founded in 1493. In the Links, upon the south-east side of the Town, may be seen several mounds, raised for the purpose of planting cannon, by the besieging army, in 1560. The town "is for the most part irregularly and confusedly built, and a great portion of it is extremely filthy, crowded, and inelegant. Some parts of it, again, are the very reverse of this, being spacious, cleanly, and handsome. Such are two or three of the modern streets, and various ranges of private dwellings, erected of late years on the eastern and western skirts of the town. “The modern public buildings worthy of remark are the Exchange Buildings, a large and elegant structure in the Grecian style of architecture, containing a spacious and handsome assembly-room, a commodious hotel, and public reading-room. The expense of the erection was £16,000. The Custom-House, situated in North Leith, is also a very handsome building; it was erected in 1812, at an expense of £12,000. The premises of the Leith Branch of the National Bank occupy a neat little edifice, erected in 1805-6. The new Court House, by far the most elegant building in the town, forms altogether, whether the chasteness of the design or the neatness of the workmanship be considered, a very favourable specimen of modern architecture on a small scale."* The Parish Church of North Leith is a handsome though unpretending structure, surmounted by a tasteful spire; the living is one of the best in the Church of Scotland. * Encyclopædia Britannica NEWHAVEN University of 99 The chief manufactures are ropes and cordage, sailcloth, bottles, soap, and candles. There are several breweries and a distillery, and ship-building is carried on to a considerable extent. Leith is the most important naval station on the east coast of Scotland, and a considerable traffic is carried on at the port, the gross revenues of which average above £20,000 a year; but "it is universally admitted that the harbour, in its present state, is very inadequate to the accommodation of the trade of Edinburgh and of the Firth of Forth, especially to the important branches of steam navigation and the ferry communication between the opposite shores of the Firth."* Large sums have been expended, from time to time, with the view of improving the harbour and docks, but they are still considered inadequate to the trade. Government, in the arrangement of the affairs of the City of Edinburgh, by an Act passed in July 1838, made provision for making extensive improvements in the harbour, a portion of which have been carried into effect. The pier, which is a fine work, forms an excellent promenade. Leith, with Musselburgh, Portobello, and Newhaven, returns a Member to Parliament. The population amounted, in 1841, to 26,026. NEWHAVEN Is a small fishing village, situate about a mile farther up the Forth than Leith. It possesses a stone and a chain pier, but neither the one nor the other has sufficient depth of water to admit of the approach of steamers of large size. The London boats, accordingly, now land and take on board their passengers at Granton, a little farther up the Firth, where a low-water pier has recently been constructed by the Duke of Buccleuch. It was at * Parliamentary Report, July 1835. |