1 79^* description of the plate. ig^ 



land can be compared to tlie vicinity of Edinburgh, 

 and the frith of Forth in that respect. In many o- 

 ther places, romantic scenery may be sten to greater 

 perfection. The mountains are there more stupen- 

 duous, the vallies are deeper, and the rocks more wild. 

 But here, though the country be in general flat, the 

 fields fertile, and the view extensive ; yet the beds of 

 the rivulets are so steep, their banks so rude, and 

 the trees grovi^ing out of them with such a wild lux- 

 uriance of nature, that a traveller is at one moment 

 amused with the prospect of a wide extended, cultiva- 

 ted country, and in another minute he feels himself 

 in the midst of a solitary dell, overhung with rocks and 

 woods, without one single object in view that could 

 make him believe he was not at a great distance 

 from the seats of man, or peopled towns. 



The plate, which accompanies this number, exhi- 

 bits a view on one of those romantic dells, within a 

 mile of Edinburgh. In the fore ground is the Water 

 of Leith, winding along in its narrow vale ; the 

 banks on each side are fringed with trees, and the 

 castle of Edinburgh towering above the whole ; so 

 that from this point of yiew, it appears to be a rich 

 higliland country, highly wooded. Had the painter 

 moved a hundred yards from the place where he 

 stood, and turned to another side, a vast extended 

 scene would have lain before him, rich in corn fields 

 and pastures, interspersed with villas, and distant 

 «pires, with only a few tufts of trees, to give diversi- 

 Xy to the lights and fhades, and distant hills, to serve 

 as a contrast to the extended vale. 



