EDIBLE BIRDS' NESTS 



2794 



EDINBURGH 



Green preserved the tradition that 

 a former lord of the manor pro- 

 vided a minstrel for the amuse- 

 ment of the tenants in his service. 

 Brockley Hill, 1 m. farther N., is 

 supposed to be the site of the 

 Roman station Sulloniacae. Edg- 

 ware has stations on the G.N.R. 

 and on the extension of the 

 Hampstead tube rly. Pop. 1,233. 

 Edible Birds' Nests. Nests ot 

 certain species of swift (Collocalia), 

 found in Australia and the East 

 Indies. They are composed chiefly 

 of the saliva of the birds and are at- 

 tached to the walls of caverns. The 

 Chinese value them as a delicacy 



and convert them into a kind of 



glutinous, butalmost tasteless, soup. 

 Edict (Lat. edictum). Promul- 

 gation, on his entry upon office, by 

 a Roman magistrate, especially a 

 praetor, of the principles upon 

 which he intended to administer 

 the law during his term. The 

 result of this practice was that side 

 by side with the civil law there 

 grew up a great body of magisterial 

 law which ultimately became the 

 most valuable part of Roman 

 jurisprudence. The word was also 

 used later, especially in France, 

 for certain laws, e.g. the edict of 

 Nantes. See Praetor; Roman Law. 



EDINBURGH: THE CITY AND ITS HISTORY 



Bight Hon. Sir Herbert E. Maxwell, Bart. 



To Sir H. Maxwell's account of the history of Edinburgh there has 

 been prefixed a description of the city as it is to-day. Special features, 

 e.g. Arthur's Seat; Canongate ; Grey friars ; Holyrood, are dealt 

 with separately. 



The capital of Scotland and of 

 the county of Midlothian stands on 



See also Scotland 



it are S. Margaret's 



chapel, the banqueting hall, the 

 arsenal, the armoury, and the old 

 prison called the Argyll Tower. 

 Holyrood H ouse consists of a palace 



a and remains of an abbej r ; the 



the rateable picture gallery is the chief apart- 

 value is estimat- ment. Between the castle and 

 about Holyrood are Lawnmarket High 

 The Street and Canongate High Street, 

 the lofty tenements of which, called 

 " lands." give an idea of what old 

 those around it, Edinburgh was like. The Parlia- 

 of which Arthur's ment House, with its magnificent 

 Seat is the most notable, give it a hall, now contains the Law Courts, 



the S. side of the Firth of Forth, 390 

 m. N.N.W. of 

 London. The 

 pop. is 420,281, 



ed at 

 3,000,000 

 hills on which it 

 is situated and 



most picturesque appearance, and 

 this, increased by the nature and 



and around it are modern additions 

 erected for legal business. These 



grouping of its buildings, have include the Advocates' and Signet 



Libraries, whereof the former 

 shares with the British Museum 



won for it the title of the Modern 

 Athens. Its historic and literary 



associations added to this entitle and the Bodleian Library of Ox- 

 ford the privilege of receiving a 

 copy of every book published in 

 the United Kingdom. There still 



and Cal. Rlys., both of which lines remain the Water Gate and some 



it to be numbered among the 

 famous cities of the world. 

 Edinburgh is a station on theN.B. 



have here fine stations, hotels, etc. 

 As the capital of the country it has 

 many public offices, and here reside 

 a large number of civil servants, 



other vestiges of the city's walls 

 and boundaries. 



The City Churches 

 Of the many churches, the chief 



lawyers, etc. It is a great centre is that of S. Giles, rich in memorials 



for insurance and banking business, of various kinds, with its most 



while it has many warehouses for recent addition, the magnificent 



its distributing trade. Its chief in- chapel of the Knights of the 



dustries are printing and brewing, Thistle. Others are S. Mary's and 



but there are many others, in- S. John's, two episcopalian ones, 



eluding distilling as well as paper- the former being the cathedral ; 



making, and others auxiliary to and S. George's, S. Cuthbert's, and 



printing. By means of Leith, its S.Andrew's, belonging to the estab- 



port, it is connected by sea with lished church. Free S. George's 



the great ports of England and is the most famous of those be- 



the world. Several important longing to the United Free Church. 



publishing firms have their head- 

 quarters here. 



The Canongate and Tron churches 

 are somewhat older. Grey friars 



The oldest part of Edinburgh, churchyard is an historic spot, 

 affectionately known as Auld as are the Grassmarket, the Cow- 

 Reekie, lies between the castle and gate, and the Tolbooth in the 

 Holyrood. The former, originally Canongate. 



a fortress on a rock and still re- In the modern city the most in- 



taining its military character, has teresting thoroughfare is Princes 



been associated with many stirring Street, overlooked from the E. by 



Calton Hill, with its public build- 

 ings and monuments,which include 

 the unfinished national memorial, 

 the prison, a cemetery, and the city 

 observatory. There is a new prison 

 at Saughton. There are many 

 other notable buildings, including 

 some careful restorations. Among 

 these are the Mercat Cross in the 

 High Street,restored by Gladstone ; 

 John Knox's house near it ; Moray 

 House ; the White Horse Close in 

 the Canongate ; Riddle's Close, and 

 the 17th century house restored 

 by Lord Rosebery, in the Lawn- 

 market. More modern are the 

 county buildings, the public library, 

 and the sheriff court buildings. 

 There are a number of statues and 

 memorials. 



Edinburgh is famed for its edu- 

 cational advantages. The univer- 

 sity, specially equipped for training 

 in medicine and surgery, occupies 

 the site of Kirk o' Field. The 

 Heriot-Watt College, George Wat- 

 son's College, Fettes College, and 

 the Royal High School are widely 

 known. There are also several 

 theological colleges, while here are 

 the headquarters of the Scottish 

 colleges of surgeons and physicians. 

 The chief paper is The Scotsman. 

 Edinburgh and Leitb 



Edinburgh is governed by a 

 council, presided over by the lord 

 provost. It sends five members to 

 Parliament. There is a good supply 

 of water, gas, and electricity, while 

 the city has an excellent system of 

 tramways, which also connect it 

 with Leith and other adjacent 

 places. The city boundaries have 

 been enlarged several times, and 

 they now include Granton, Liber- 

 ton, Portobello, and Duddingston, 

 and the various hills around them. 

 In 1920 an Act was passed for the 

 inclusion of the port of Leith in 

 the municipality of Edinburgh. 



In primitive times, when what is 

 now Scotland was peopled by tribes 

 chronically at war with each other, 

 but combining on occasions against 

 some powerful invader, isolated 

 crags or mounts were highly es- 

 teemed for defensive purposes. 

 Among numerous sites of that 

 character in northern Britain, none 

 stands out more conspicuous than 

 the Castle Rock of Edinburgh, 

 which would no doubt be seized by 

 the early colonists of Lothian and 

 fortified by the usual rampart of 

 stone and palisade. Within the en- 

 closure they planted their wattled 

 huts, and subsisted by the chase ; 

 for according to Strabo (25 B.C.), 

 and Dion Cassius (c. A.D. 150-235), 

 the natives of Northern Britain 

 were ignorant or independent of 

 agriculture when the Roman le- 

 gions arrived there. * 



Of Edinburgh as a town, nothing 



