was supposed to contain 1,305,000 cart loads of earth in 1792, and may well have been doubled since that time. The same From the windows of our apartment we see, above the houses opposite to us, the Castle on its rocky pedestal, and the esplanade where the troops exercise. The wind, which agitates their standards, bears to us, at intervals, the sounds of warlike music, and the last rays of the sun shine on their polished arms. The sentinels seen "athwart the sky" seem really "of giant size;”—an image I had admired in the splendid poem of Mr. Scott, notwithstanding my doubts of its exactness, and for which it is not easy to account. cause which enlarges to our eyes the apparent bulk of the moon at the time of its rising or setting (the comparison with intervening objects), should reduce the human figure. It is not the greatness of bulk of the moon on the horizon which is a deception of our sight, but its apparent smallness at the zenith. Rocks and mountains, and even castles and fortifications, seem always nearer than they are, because their lines are strong and distinctly seen, and a man placed upon them, should appear like a dwarf, rather than a giant. The poet, however, has drawn correctly from nature, and, as is usual with him, most happily. The Castle has nothing remarkable but its situation and prospect, which is very extensive and singular. One side overlooks the venerable uncleanliness of the old town, displaying, just under the eye, a labyrinth of crooked lanes and steep narrow passages, called closes. On the other you have a stupendous precipice, and the broad ditch, already so often mentioned, at the bottom; beyond that, the new town presents its fair front, divided into square EDINBURGH-HOLY ROODHOUSE. 26.9 battalions, covered with the buckler of their roofs, en tortue, separated, at regular intervals, by straight lines, and at right angles. All is order, light, and neatness, the very reverse of the old town. Beyond that again, at some distance, an estuary six or seven miles broad,-the Frith of Forth, or mouth of the Forth. The mountains of the county of Fife, skirt the horizon. All around the town, a cultivated country, rich, green, and sufficiently shady, soon terminated in the south-west by a confused cluster of barren hills, (the Pentland Hills); farther west the chain of the Highlands; east, the German ocean. Descending from the Castle, we followed a long street, on a slope, forming the only avenue to it. This street is terminated at its lower end by Holyroodhouse. On the way, we were shewn a small window of a very poor and old house, from whence the fanatic John Knox, 250 years ago, used to harangue the furious and ignorant populace of Edinburgh, against the Antichrist of Rome, and the unfortunate Queen Mary. About the same period, the Huguenots were exposed, in France, to worse treatment. Holyroodhouse is a dismal monastic-looking castle, formerly the residence of the Scotch Kings;-a quadrangle, flanked with towers at each corner; the apartments distributed all round. The name of Monsieur on a door attracted our attention; it was the apartment occupied, for some years, by that Prince and his little court. His bed is still there, and some remains of furniture. We were shewn, on the wall, the portrait of Princess Elizabeth, well painted, but over dressed, in the extreme of the fashion of the time. At the extremity of a long gallery, on a raised platform, the altar is still seen where mass used to be celebrated for these illustrious exiles. Raising a corner of the cloth which covers this altar, we recognized the, familiar form of a common sideboard, which had been thus dignified. The apartment of another unfortunate royal person, Queen Mary, is under the same roof. Her bed is shewn covered with a fine silk counterpane, in tatters; then the fatal closet, hardly twelve feet square, where the beauteous queen was at supper with her favourite, David Rizzio, and some other persons, when a troop of assassins, having the sort of king her husband at their head, burst in, and tore the Italian from her presence, and even from her arms, dragging him through several rooms, pierced with their swords in fifty-six places.* We reached the fatal closet by the same back staircase, raised the same corner of the same tapestry, covering the narrow door in the thick wall, through which the murderers entered the queen's apartment. Traces of blood are visible on various parts of the floor. Our conductress observed, that the floor is scoured regularly once a week; and supposing it to have always been as well taken care of, that is 12,000 or 13,000 scourings since the murder ;-yet the blood is there, and nothing can take it off! The gallery is decorated with a series of por traits of the sovereigns of Scotland, all evidently by the same hand, and much in the style of the kings and queens of a a pack of cards, I do not know who the artist is; none of the elect, I believe. Yet Holbein, whose pictures hang on the wall of the connoisseurs, is not a better artist than this painter of the Scotch royalty. * Hume's History. EDINBURGH-BRIDEWELL. 271 The garden is quite overgrown with weeds. The chapel, now unroofed, and in ruins, was deemed a model of the finest Gothic; its present desolate aspect suits the melancholy ensemble of the palace. The building for the records of title-deeds, &c. is well secured against fire, and very handsome. A lady artist has decorated it with a colossal statue of his majesty, in white marble, which does more honour to the loyalty of the inhabitants of Edinburgh, and their complaisance to the fair donor, than to their taste. By some strange accident an upper slice of the head, just all that part above the eyes, containing the brains, has been displaced, and laid by on a shelf, crown and all. It was probably originally an added piece, the block not being long enough, and has since come loose; but this accident might pass for a very improper joke. The advocates of Edinburgh have formed an excellent library, filling six large rooms. The college has also a library much less considerable, and a cabinet of natural history, well arranged, but, as yet, in its infancy. August 18-We have just seen the penitentiary house, constructed on a very ingenious plan; a semicircular building, seven stories high, each containing fourteen cells, all open towards the common centre, which is like a great well open from top to bottom. A bow window, with lattices, repeated at each story, overlooks them all, and nothing can be done by the prisoners without being seen; they work solitary, and in silence, in these 98 cells; and at night sleep in other little rooms behind them. This tower, or rather section of a tower, is lighted by a sky light, and well ventilated. No bad smells, no noise,-great order,—all as well as possible; except that the correction does not correct; and the same individuals are observed to return from time to time to enjoy again this phiJosophical retirement. A thing happened to us here which deserves to be mentioned. I had observed written over the door, an injunction not to give any money; but the woman who conducted us was so obliging, that I could not believe she did not expect some recompense for her trouble, and she received what I gave her without saying any thing; but when, on leaving the house, I was going to put something into the box for poor prisoners, the keeper said it was unnecessary, as the woman who had accompanied us had just put in the half crown I had given her! We had not seen her do it; she had disappeared immediately, and could have no motive of ostentation; nobody was present when she received the money. " Où la vertu va-t-elle se nicher !" A large and convenient house in the best part of Edinburgh (Queen Street) built of freestone, has just been sold for L. 3000; another nearly equal, for L. 2500; and in inferior streets, very good houses may be had for L. 1800, or hired for L.100 a-year, and about L. 30 taxes. A man-servant L. 40 a-year; a woman-cook L. 12; a maid-servant L. 8. A carriage, including coach-man, and every thing else, L. 250 a-year. Land in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, lets at the exorbitant price of L. 10 the Scotch acre; or feued lands, a perpetual lease, at L. 8 the English acre. High as it is, this permanent rent must become, in time, little more than nominal. All the arable land between Edinburgh and Berwick, lets between L. 5 and L. 6 an acre, (one-fifth more than the English acre) there being no tithes here to the |