102 "our palace at Edinburgh." 



Harry Goodsir designated No. 21 Lothian Street 

 " The Barracks ;" Edward Forbes, in his humbler strain, 

 named it " The Attic," or in his higher nights, " Our 

 Palace at Edinburgh." " The Barracks " and " Our Pa- 

 lace " seem very antipodal, but the estimate formed by 

 these two men of their locus in quo was correct and 

 characteristic enough. There was all the life, indivi- 

 duality, and colouring of a barracks in their domicile, 

 from whence also the " Arch-Magus " and " Triangles " 

 issued their edicts, and in kingly mood basked in the 

 sunshine of their own enjoyment. The court-circle of 

 " Our Palace " was highly select, and none but men of 

 status in science, literature, and art could obtain an 

 entree. The choice sjnrits of Alma Mater assem- 

 bled in Lothian Street to talk and joke and expound 

 the argument, and many an encounter of steel against 

 steel clashed under the Goodsir attics. There the ob- 

 server could have noted in full measure that which 

 Benjamin Franklin had spoken of in his time as pecu- 

 liar to men educated in Edinburgh — a disputatious 

 tone, a proneness to keen discussion, with much loqua- 

 city and occasional dogmatism ; there also, as accom- 

 paniments of a hearty symposium, were skirmishes 

 of wit and repartee, along with the more technical 

 and scientific debate, not unfrequently setting the 

 table in a roar. In scanning the panorama of 

 the medical school, with its moving figures and 

 scenes of life, in commenting upon the wars 

 of the hospital surgeons and the contending 

 claims of the physiologists, " The Barracks " found 



