AND BRITISH GHANNIL. 



46p 



with rope- works for building and fitting out ships, 

 the remains of which, as also of a glass and salt work, 

 were visible in 1750, when Maitland wrote. 

 He mentions, also, that the great ravages of the sea 

 upon the coast, between Leith and Musselburgh, 

 have occasioned the " public road to be divers 

 times removed further into the country, and the 

 land being now violently assaulted by the sea on 

 the eastern and northern sides, all must give way 

 to its rage, and the Links of South Leith probably 

 in less than half a century will be swallowed up." 

 It is also well known, that this process has in no- 

 w^ise abated, as the road alluded to has of late years 

 been again and again removed from the sea, and 

 is now in some places defended by bulwarks of 

 stone, to preserve the present line. Even the 

 New Baths erected but a few years since at a con- 

 siderable distance from the high-w^ater mark, have 

 now^ barely the breadth of the high-way betweea 

 them and the sea, which has overthrown the bul- 

 wark or fence in front of these buildings, and is 

 now acting upon the road itself. 



Proceeding along the southern shores of the Haddington 

 Frith of Forth from Leith to Berwick-upon- Benvkk. 

 Tweed, many instances are afforded of the waste 

 of the land by the sea. The shores near Mussel- 

 burgh, at Morison's Haven, and Prestonpans, have 

 suffered greatly from the sea. An instance of this 

 is remarked of the link-ground or downs of the 

 former place, where James, Duke of Albany and 



VOL. II. H h 



