57* SHORT TOUR OF SCOTLAND 



fide, where neither carriages nor horfcs could pals 

 without danger, thereby loft, in a great meafure, 

 the advantages arifing from the refort of perfons of 

 rank or fortune, many of whom took up their 

 ter rcfidence elh anJ thus the balance pro- 



rurrd by the induftrious manufacturers with fo. 

 nations, was regularly drained away by the opulent 

 and idle, to the feats of dilTipation, in diftant cli- 

 mates. At length, feveral public-fpirited gentle- 

 men and citizens, beholding with concern, the mife- 

 rable condition of their metropolis, and perceiving 

 rhe r hich nature offered for its improve- 



ment and extenfion, publifhed a plan of a new city, 

 in a more eligible fituation, for the refidence of the 

 higher ranks in life, and totally unconnected with 

 the old town. 



The dcfcent on the north fide of this ftrangc 

 mafs of buildings, terminates in a narrow valley 

 called the North Loch, from its having been for- 

 merly covered with water. This valley extends the 

 whole length of the town, from eaft to weft, and is 

 bounded on the north by a rifing ground, which 

 ftretches in a parallel direction with the old city, 

 three quarters of a mile in length, the breadth 

 fufficient for three ftreets to run in the fame direc- 

 tion ; the fummit is fiat, the foil is gravel, and the 

 air is pure, of which Boreas frequently fends copi- 

 ous crafts from the north-eaft and fourji-weft. This 

 fine fpot is bounded weftward by a romantic fteep 

 glen, fhaded with trees, under which the water of 

 Leith flows towards the town of that name, and 

 forms its harbour. Thus bounded on the fouth 

 by the North Loch, on the weft by the water of Leith, 

 on the north by the fame river at a fhort dif- 

 tancc, nature could not have formed a place more 

 fuitablefor enlarging an over-crowded capital ; and, 

 confequently the magiftrates, in 1767, obtained an 

 act for extending the royalty over the faid grounds ; 

 marked the outlines of a new town, upon a regular 



plan 



