243 



the Professor himself, was greatly enhanced by the historical interest 

 of the district which they traversed. It is hoped that a cursory notice 

 of the plants which they collected and of the places which they visited 

 may not be unacceptable to the Society. 



On Friday, the 12th of July, 1844, the party went by the 11 o'clock 

 train to Edinburgh, where they arrived at 1, p. m.; and having been 

 joined by three gentlemen belonging to that city, making the number 

 sixteen in all,* they immediately drove off in a stage coach which had 

 been engaged to convey them to their destination. The rout lay 

 along the coast of the Firth of Forth for about 25 miles in a south- 

 east direction. There is little to interest the stranger in the general 

 aspect of the coast, which consists chiefly of long flat reaches of sand, 

 and possesses few of the features which lend beauty and variety to 

 the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The inland district, however, is 

 highly cultivated, and fertile to a degree scarcely exceeded in any 

 other part of Scotland ; and it was curious to observe, that this lux- 

 uriant vegetation often owed its protection from the sea breeze solely to 

 a stripe, of blighted shrubbery, separating the fields and gardens from 

 the bleak and exposed shore. This is particularly the case at Gosford, 

 the seat of the Earl of Wemyss, where the plantation behind the walls 

 is cut down by the blast in such a way as to exhibit the appearance 

 of an inclined plane rising from the top of the wall. But the absence 

 of interest in the monotonous appearance of the coast was amply com- 

 pensated for by the charms of historical association with which it 

 abounds ; and neither the peculiar aim nor the rapidity of the journey 

 could altogether exclude objects of this kind from our curiosity and re- 

 gard. The ancient town of Musselburgh and its immediate neigbour- 

 hood is singularly rich in antiquities, having, from its proximity to the 

 capital, been the scene of some of the most striking events of our his- 

 tory. While crossing the Esk, which divides the burgh from the sub- 

 urban village of Fisherrow, we had a view of an old bridge, which is 

 worth travelling as far to see on its own account, — " a structure " Mr. 

 R. Chambers mentions, " supposed to be of Roman origin, and over 

 which the Highland army of Prince Charles Stuart passed on their way 

 to the field of Prestonpans in 1745, and which had been crossed in like 

 manner, two centuries before, in 1547, by the Scottish army on their 

 march to the field of Pinkie j a structure," he adds, "over which all of 



* The party consisted of Dr. Balfour, Messrs. Miller, Craig, Murray, MacLel- 

 lau, Thomson, Risk, Sharp, Crawford, Ramsay, Stevenson, Keddic, Connal, Holden, 

 Ashby and Douglas. 



