CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 205 



The second is a subject of particular interest to the antiquarian, as commemorating 

 one of those relics of antiquity which the improvements of modern days are pro- 

 gressively sweeping away ; the east gate of the old weigh-house in Edinburgh, 

 pulled down in August, 1822. The venerable gate, arched and enriched with the 

 castellated arms of the city, with pillars formed of blocks of stone, square and 

 oblong, placed alternately, is humourously adorned with the graphic advertisements 

 of theatrical tumblers, and modern manufacturers of jet; one conspicuous bill bears 

 the semblance of a rope dancer performing some extraordinary evolution ; another, 

 of more aspiring dimensions, discovers the familiar device of a man mowing down 

 the stubble on his chin by the " bright bloom" of a boot illumined with that unsur- 

 passable jet, which, like a second fountain of HeUcon, has inspired the lucubrations of 

 many a bard ; and a third, a pithy placard prudentially pasted on high to screen it from 

 the unhallowed fingers of juvenile depredators, laconically informs us of the bodily 

 existence and calling of one " Peter Small-text," (otherwise, weight) " dealer in 

 cheese !" Besides these important announcements, there are divers others which, 

 confessing we have not eyes to decipher, we leave to the sharp-sightedness of those 

 to whom spectacles and old age are a dream. The work of demolition has already 

 commenced, and, on a dilapidated part of the building above, three or four labourers 

 are busied with pickaxe and lever. The execution of this rare little print manifests 

 remarkable taste ; there is a spirit, and, withal, a delicacy in the touch which, united 

 to an elaborate degree of detail, immediately reminds us of the small and beautiful 

 wood-prints of the ancients. The marginal inscription we copy : — 



" The East Gate of the old Weigh-house, Edinburgh. Pulled down, August, 

 1822." 



*' Drawn and executed on marble, by corroding and engraving away the inter- 

 stices between the lines, and printed from the surface in the manner of types, at the 

 common printing-press, in imitation of the crossed-wood engravings of tJie old 

 masters. By Daniel SomervillCi Edinburgh." 



CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW TUBLICATIONS. 



The New Statistical Account of Scotland, No. III., containing the county 

 of Peebles complete, with Map, and part of the county of Lanark.* 

 August, 1834. Blackwood, Edinburgh ; and Cadell, London. 



It is at length generally allowed that the illustration of the parochial 

 statistics of a country is important enough to claim the attention and 

 study of every description of reading and thinking men. To the honour 

 of Scotland, from whence, if the idea did not originate, the executive 

 part was first given to the world, a most able work on the statistics of 

 that portion of the country is now in a course of regular publication. 

 Of the diflferent parts already issued, the public have expressed a very- 

 favourable and encouraging opinion. We shall, therefore, devote some 

 brief comments to a subject on which so much interest has been latterly 

 excited. 



The general and laudable desire of "being useful has influenced the 

 clergy without the smallest hope of reward, or the most distant idea of 

 ambition — and their labours in this undertaking appear to have been 

 highly beneficial and extensive. In ascertaining the gross amount of the 

 agricultural produce of their parishes, they seem to have experienced 

 the greatest difficulty, the ratio commonly understood to exist betwixt 



* By the Ministers of the respective Parishes, and under the superintendence of 

 a Committee of the Society for the benefit of the Sous and Daughters of the Clergy. 



