PRINCES STREET GARDENS 



Town and Princes Street was occupied by the Nor' 

 Loch, a sheet of water which formed an important 

 part of the military defences of the city, but 

 which we may well imagine had become the offensive 

 receptacle of the waste products of a growing popu- 

 lation. Accordingly it was drained away, and a 

 matchless opportunity for landscape gardening was 

 lost for ever. Still, the great glen remained, capable 

 of conversion into a green valley with pleasant groves ; 

 but all this was irremediably marred when, in 1844, 

 the North British Railway was driven through the 

 old bed of the loch, filling all the air with smoke 

 and dreadful noise. 



Down to this time, the eastern part of this 

 ground had been let to a nurseryman or market- 

 gardener ; but the Town Council now resumed posses- 

 sion, building the terraces and parapets and forming 

 the walks which complete the design of the Scott 

 memorial. More and more care and money was 

 applied to the adornment of what became known as 

 East Princes Street Gardens, until, under the ad- 

 ministration of Mr. John M'Hattie, they now present 

 a really remarkable example of spring and summer 

 gardening in the formal manner. All the greater 

 credit is due to Mr. M'Hattie and his staff for this 

 result because of the stormy position which these 

 gardens occupy, fully exposed to the pitiless easterly 

 gales which blow in from the North Sea with relent- 

 less persistency. 



Miss Wilson's study was made in spring when 

 G 57 



