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under the calm light of a summer evening is to get a 

 full foretaste of that delight which closer inspection is 

 sure to enhance. 



If the traveller approaches from the south by the 

 East Coast of the Midland route, the train skirts the 

 base of Arthur's Seat, and gives, before entering the 

 city, furtive peeps at old Holyrood Palace and Chapel. 

 Passing through a tunnel, cut in the solid rock of the 

 Calton Hill, the passenger, on emerging, sees high on 

 the north side the castellated buildings of the Jail, the 

 house of the Governor, with a fine round tower, occu- 

 pying the summit of a high cliff which beetles above 

 the track. Approaching from the south by the West 

 Coast route, the rear view of the Castle is seen on 

 entering the station, while, if the visitor approaches 

 from the west, the train passing through the fine gardens 

 of Princes Street has the abrupt cliff of the Castle 

 overhanging it. Each approach opens up characteristic 

 features of the city, showing some of its rugged, rocky, 

 picturesque outlines." It was my happy lot to see the 

 " Modern Athens " during August's leafy month, sum- 

 mer's crowning glory ; how much I would have liked 

 to view it in winter's white garb and ramble round 

 with such a word-painter as Alexander Smith, whose 

 chromo will close this sketch : — " Edinburgh is com- 

 plete in its storied beauty whether beneath the autumn 

 sun, or white and silent winter snow. We have just 

 come in; surely it never looked so fair before. What a 

 poem is that Princes street ! The puppets of the busy 

 and many-colored hour move about on its pavement ; 

 their interest how slight, their pursuits how trivial ? 

 while there, across the ravine, Time has piled up the 

 Old Town ridge on ridge, gray as a rocky coast washed 

 and worn with the foam of centuries ; picked and 

 jagged by picturesque gable and roof; windowed from 

 basement to cape, the whole surmounted by St. Giles' 

 airy crown. The new is there looking at the old. Two 



