STAATS-
BIBLIOTHEK

MUENSHEN

GUIDE

THROUGH

EDINBURGH.

SITUATION-ARCHITECTURE-POPULATION-LEGAL PROFESSION MANUFACTURES-SOCIAL ADVANTAGES.

THE metropolis of Scotland is situated in the northern part of the county of Mid-Lothian, and is about two miles distant from the Firth of Forth.* Its length and breadth are nearly equal, measuring about two miles in either direction. In panoramic splendour, its site is generally admitted to be unequalled by any capital in Europe, and the prospect from the elevated points of the city and neighbourhood is of singular beauty and grandeur. The noble estuary of the Forth, expanding from river into ocean; the solitary grandeur of Arthur's Seat; the varied park and woodland scenery which enrich the southward prospect; the pastoral acclivities of the neighbouring Pentland Hills, and the more shadowy splendours of the Lammermoors, the Ochils, and the Grampians, form some of the features of a landscape, combining,

* The precise geographical position of the centre of the city is 55° 57' 20" north latitude, and 3° 10′ 30′′ west longitude.

in one vast expanse, the richest elements of the beautiful and the sublime.

"Traced like a map the landscape lies

In cultured beauty stretching wide;
There Pentland's green acclivities;

There Ocean, with its azure tide;
There Arthur's Seat; and, gleaming through
Thy southern wing, Dunedin blue!
While in the orient, Lammer's daughters,
A distant giant range, are seen,

North Berwick-Law, with cone of green,

And Bass amid the waters."*

The origin of Edinburgh is one of those subjects of which it may be said, in the stately language of Chalmers,† that history is taciturn, and archæology loquacious. The most learned and laborious of Scottish Annalists favour the opinion that the city owes its foundation and its name to Edwin, a Northumbrian prince of the seventh century. Others claim for it a higher antiquity, attributing its origin to Eth, a Pictish king, while Buchanan‡ gives the preference to another etymology, which affords no clue to its founder, deriving its name from Dun Edin, two Gaelic words signifying "the face of a hill." Of these, the derivation from Edwin appears to be the most obvious, as well as that which is best supported by authority.

* Delta.

† George Chalmers, F. R. S., A. S., author of "Caledonia; or, An Account Historical and Topographic of North Britain."

Buchanani Hist. Scot., lib. vi., sec. 2.

|| The laborious Maitland, in advocating the etymology from Edwin, addresses the following amusing argument to the national prejudices of his countrymen :

"As many of our countrymen are of opinion that it is a Dishonour to our Nation to ascribe the Origin of our Metropolis to the English, that plainly appears to be the effect of Incogitancy; for it is much more honourable for us to attribute the Foundation of