INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



OF J. M. LbMOINE, PRESIDENT OF THE LITERARY AND 



HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DELIVERED ON 25TH 



NOVEMBER, 1881. 



Subject : " EDINBUEGH,— EOUBN,— YOEK." 



» 



GLIMPSES, IMPRESSIONS AND CONTRASTS. 

 ZEIDIIVIBTJIIGH . 



" Such dusky grandeur clothed the height, 

 Where the huge castle holds its state, 



And all the steep slope down, 

 Whose ridgy back heaves to the sky 

 Piled deep and massy, close and high 



Mine own romantic town." 



(Marmion.) 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



As President, it is my duty, a pleasant one, rest 

 assured, to open this evening, our annual winter-course 

 of lectures. On more occasions than one, your indul- 

 gence has made me forget my repugnance to address a 

 public meeting. More than once, instead of being 

 reminded of my shortcomings, I have found myself 

 surrounded in these rooms, by friendly faces, greeted 

 by cheerful, encouraging looks. In lieu of presenting 

 you historical tableaux of the early, shall I say with 

 the late Lord Elgin, " the heroic times of Canada," as oft' 

 I have done, I shall to-night ask your attention and 

 beckon you to follow me, far from our Canadian 

 home. We shall indulge in a ramble, short though it be, 

 over a foreign, but not unfriendly, land, in that haunted, 



