EDINBURGH TO THE ROMAN CA5IP. 65 



-fs ^?»7 r ^-K-^V rev '""i •'? " •■* 



wiMMiWwiiia ua i/crt iWaj im wW m 



ESilB-iJHeil TO f HE MiM C«P. 



*' A hoary ridge of ancient to-wn 

 Smoke-wreathed, picturesque and still, 

 Cirque of crag, and temple hill, 

 And Arthur's lion coitching down 

 In watch, as if the news of Flodden 

 Stirred hira j^et — my fancy flies 

 To level wastes and moors imtrodden, 

 PurpKng 'neath the low-hung skies. 

 I see the bm-dened orchards, mute and mellow, 

 I see the sheaves ; and girt by reaper trains, 

 ^•Vnd bluiTed by breath of horses, tlrrough a yellow 

 September moonlight roll the swaggering wanes." 



Alexaxdee Smith. 



Arrival in Ediuburgh — Professor Dick's " Constitution Hill" — Messrs. 

 Girdwood's Wool Stores— Origin of the Highland Society — Its En- 

 coui-agcment of Gaelic — Its Early .Vims — Original jNIembers — Its 

 Agricultural Education — Gradual Development — Bagpipe Contests — 

 Cheese, Cured Meat, and Ploughing Prizes — Resume of the princi- 

 pal Cattle Shows — Present Competition Rules — Agricultural Statistics 

 1 nquiry — The Council Chamber of the Society — Pictures of "Winners 

 The Museum — White Crop Samples. 



^T seemed quite strange to be in Edinburgli at last, 

 y with the mare quietly drinking at the Sinclair 

 fountain; but our reverie was broken rudely enough by 

 the boom of the one o^clock gun, and away she went, 

 best pace, down Princess-street, and it took *' a long 

 pull and a strong puU^^ to stop her. " Dick's Con- 

 stitution Hill,'^ as it is called by all the sporting men 

 and the faculty, would have been most opportune, 

 and we passed down it later in the day when we 

 went on our way to Tanfield. It is fully a quarter 



2 F 



