98 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



them to our respect; but they were teachers and fathers, and demand the 

 sympathy, veneration, and gratitude of their posterity. — But to return : — 



The High-street, though still exhibiting in its antique features and grotesque 

 architecture an imposing vista to the stranger, has gained considerably by 

 modern improvements, and the removal of such objects as were formerly an 

 obstruction to the thoroughfare itself, or offensive to good taste. Among the 

 greatest of these may be considered the removal of the Tolbooth, where the last 

 parliament at which royalty presided was held in July, 1633, immediately after 

 the coronation of Charles I. ;* when, among other splendid exhibitions got 

 up for the occasion, " there stood upon the west wall of the Tolbooth, a vast 

 pageant, arched above, vnth the portraits of one hundred and nine kings of 

 Scotland. In the cavity of the arch. Mercury was represented bringing up 

 Fergus I., who delivered to his majesty, as his successor, many precious 

 advices, "f 



The Cathedral Church of St. Giles — a massy gothic structure, and remark- 

 able for its spire surmounted by an imperial crown — contains under the same 

 roof four different congregations, where divine service may be celebrated at the 

 same time. The chief of these occupies the ancient Choir of the Cathedral, 

 where the lord commissioner presides at the annual meetings of the General 

 Assembly, and the senators attend service in their robes of office. 



The appearance of this church has been much improved by the demolition of 

 numerous buildings which formerly, like parasites, gaining importance by 

 fastening themselves to some illustrious patron, lost sight of their own insig- 

 nificance under the immediate countenance of so magnificent a fabric. It became 

 a collegiate church in the reign of James III., previously to which it was a parish 

 chi'rch, in the gift of the abbot of Scone, and comprised among its deans the 

 celebrated Gavin Douglas, the translator of Virgil, and afterwards bishop of 

 Dunkeld. The justly venerated and eloquent Dr. Hugh Blair was many years 

 minister of the High Church ; and Webster, the well-known founder of the 

 Widows' Scheme, and Henry the historian, were also ministers of two other 

 divisions under the same roof.J 



• Soon afier tliat epoch it was converted into a jail, and employed for that purpose till re]>laccil by 

 modern improvements. It would be superfluous to remind the reader of its rSle in the popular work 

 already named — viz. " The Heart of Midlothian." 



t History of Edinburgh.— For minute particulars, see Spalding's Diary. 



X Here are interred the remains of the Ilegent Murray, brother of Marv— the gallant marquis of 

 Montrose— and Lord Napier, the celebrated inventor of Logarithms. This church measures in length two 

 hundred and sixty feet, and in breadth in the centre, one hundred and twenty-nine. lis figure is cruci- 

 form ; and the quadrangular tower, ending in a pointed spire of exquisite workmanship, rises to the 



