6 EARLY LETTERS [CHAP. I 



Letter i lodgings yesterday evening, which are very comfortable 

 and near the College. Our Landlady, by name Mrs. 

 Mackay, is a nice clean old body exceedingly civil and 

 attentive. She lives in "n, Lothian Street, Edinburgh," 1 

 and only four flights of steps from the ground-floor, which 

 is very moderate to some other lodgings that we were nearly 

 taking. The terms are i 6s. for two very nice and light 

 bedrooms and a sitting-room ; by the way, light bedrooms are 

 very scarce articles in Edinburgh, since most of them are little 

 holes in which there is neither air nor light. We called on 

 Dr. Hanley the first morning, whom I think we never should 

 have found, had it not been for a good-natured Dr. of Divinity 

 who took us into his library and showed us a map, and gave 

 us directions how to find him. Indeed, all the Scotchmen 

 are so civil and attentive, that it is enough to make an 

 Englishman ashamed of himself. I should think Dr. Butler 

 or any other fat English Divine would take two utter strangers 

 into his library and show them the way ! When at last we 

 found the Doctor, and having made all the proper speeches 

 on both sides, we all three set out and walked all about the 

 town, which we admire excessively ; indeed Bridge Street 

 is the most extraordinary thing I ever saw, and when we 

 first looked over the sides, we could hardly believe our eyes, 

 when instead of a fine river, we saw a stream of people. W T e 

 spend all our mornings in promenading about the town, which 

 we know pretty well, and in the evenings we go to the play 

 to hear Miss Stephens, 2 which is quite delightful ; she is very 

 popular here, being encored to such a degree, that she can 

 hardly get on with the play. On Monday we are going to 



1 In a letter printed in the Edinburgh Evening Despatch of May 22nd, 

 1888, the writer suggested that a tablet should be placed on the house, 

 n, Lothian Street. This suggestion was carried out in 1888 by Mr. Ralph 

 Richardson (Clerk of the Commissary Court, Edinburgh), who obtained 

 permission from the proprietors to affix a tablet to the house, setting forth 

 that Charles Darwin resided there as an Edinburgh University student. 

 We are indebted to Mr. W. K. Dickson for obtaining for us this 

 information, and to Mr. Ralph Richardson for kindly supplying us with 

 particulars. See Mr. Richardson's Inaugural Address, Trans. Edinb. 

 Geol. Soc., 1894-95, p. 85 ; also Memorable Edinburgh Houses, by 

 Wilmot Harrison, 1898. 



2 Probably Catherine Stephens, who was born in 1794, and died, as 

 the Countess of Essex, in 1882. 



