E I) I N B U ft CJ H. 
of tlie walls; alid the fouthern fuburbs, including 
Georg'e’s-fquare, Nicolfon’s park, &c. &c. The caftle 
at tlte one end, and the palace of Holyrood-ho.ufe at the 
other, may he conlidered as belonging to the old town. 
The new town, for the uniform beauty of the buildings, 
the fpacioufnefs of the ftreets and fquares, the unity of 
its plan, its advantages of cleanlinefs, air, and water, and, 
above all, that charming rus in urbe which it enjoys in 
Queeu’s-ftreet, York-place, St. Andrew’s-fquare, and 
C-hariotte’s-fquare, is certainly the fined affemblage of 
ftreets and buildings in the world. James’s-fquare, how¬ 
ever, protects it but partially from the eaft winds; and, 
by its expof'ure, and by the width, the ftraightnefs, and 
the regularity, of its ftreets, it is fubjeft to the violence 
of the winds blowing from the’riorth-eaft, and the north, 
even to fuch a degree as to be, in all feafons, an uncom¬ 
fortable and even dangerous refidence to the valetudina¬ 
rian: The greater part of its buildings, too, like the inns 
of court in London, contain a number of houfes or ftories, 
one over another, and occupied by feparate families, un¬ 
der one roof; an arrangement much lefs convenient in 
feveral refpefls, and efpecially lefs favourable to cleanli¬ 
nefs, and to the eafy fupply of water, than where each 
building is, from top to bottom, deltined to ferve only as 
one houfe, and for a fingle family. 
The High-ftreet, about amilein length, front the Caftle- 
iiill to the Abbey, forms the principal part of the old 
town. Its width, and the loftinefs of its edifices on both 
fides, 'give it, to the mind efpecially of an unprejudiced 
ftranger from England, an afpeft of dignity and ancient 
grandeur fcarcely to be equalled by the effedt of any other 
ftreet in Great Britain. The houfes are built of ftone, 
and covered on the roofs with llate. The walls are un¬ 
commonly ftrong. Each houfe refembles the keep of an 
ancient caftle. In front, thefe dwellings rife alnioft every 
where to the height of five or fix ftories. But, as the 
foreground is the fummit of the ridge ; the back-ground, 
but the fteep defcent of its (ides '; fofne of the fame build¬ 
ings which appear in front only five or fix ftories high, 
are, on the oppofite fide, not lefs in height than nine, ten, 
or eleven ftories. Lateral wynds or lanes, at right angles 
with the High-ftreet, defcend, on the north fide, to the 
brink of that which was, forty years fince, the north loch, 
or lake; on the fouth fide, to the Cow-gate. Thefe 
wynds are exceedingly narrow and inconvenient. Their 
houfes are lofty, in many inftarices ruinous, tenanted 
chiefly by the poor, and on the ground and in the upper 
ftories by the moft wretched part of this defcription of 
people. The Crofs, in the midft of the High-ftreet, was 
once a curious Gothic monumental ftrudture, but exifts 
now only in a coarfe Mofaic work in the pavement. 
Contiguous to it, on the north fide, is the Royal Exchange, 
a fmali fqiuire of convenient buildings, with a piazza, 
which was, about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
eredled to favour the bufinefs of the merchants. The 
buildings of the Parliament-fquare, almoft a century and 
a half older than thofe of the Royal Exchange, ftand 
nearly oppofite, on the fouth fide of the Crofs. The 
Canon-gate, properly a fuburb, and in old times the court 
end of the town, contains a number of good old houfes 
and gardens, which were once occupied by the chief no¬ 
bility and gentry of the kingdom. The palace of Holy- 
rood-houfe .is a venerable and fpacious quadrangular edi¬ 
fice, not unworthy of the kings for vvhofe refidence it 
was deftined. James the Seventh, when duke of York, 
was the laft fovereign of thefe.kingdoms who refided in 
tlris palace. His grandfon, the pretender Charles, held 
here, for a few days, his mimic-court, in the year 1745. 
It was lately, for foine time, the afylum of the head of 
the exiled royal family of France. Several of the Scot- 
ti(h nobility have, by the king’s favour, apartments in 
Holyrood-houfe ; and in it are contained pictures of the 
kings of Scotland, from Fergus, 320 years before Chrift, 
to the revolution. The caftle is ftrong by its natural 
Situation, and by the fortifications which it comprehends* 
£4 7 
Confiderable quantities of military ftores of all forts are 
depofited in it. Even in time of peace, a battalion or 
two of troops ufually lie in its garrifon ; and the lieu¬ 
tenant-governor is almoft conftantly refident. The de¬ 
clivity between the ftreet named the Cow-gate, and the 
ancient fonthern limits of the town, is occupied by late¬ 
ral ftreets, by fome new fquares, by one or two infulated 
manfions, by the high fchool, the infirmary, the college, 
and one or two other public buildings. Weftward is flic 
Grafs-markpt, in which hay, ftraw, grain, (beep, horfes, 
cows, and oxen, have long been plentifully expofed to 
public fale ; Heriot’s hofpital, front a defign of Inigo 
Jones, for the orphan fons of the freemen of Edinburgh, 
a noble charitable foundation, of which the revenues 
have not been perverted from the juft, original purpofes; 
and, in the midft of an extenfive burying-ground, that 
venerable religious ftrufture, the Grey-friars’ church. 
Many of the old buildings in this part of Edinburgh are 
continually in a ftate of dilapidation and renewal. The 
old caftellated ftrudture gives place ftill more and more to 
a lighter, cleanlier, and more commodious, plan of build¬ 
ing. But, perhaps,-another century may elapfe, ere the 
old town of Edinburgh fliall be, in all its parts, com¬ 
pletely accommodated to the modern methods of living 
and of trading induftrv. It was when every town was, as 
it were, but the enlarged bas-couroi a caftle, when people 
crowded within the walls for protection againft hoftility, 
that, in order to afford dwellings to as numerous a popu¬ 
lation as pollible, the fafhionof raifing houfes like thofe 
at Edinburgh began. It was continued here, from ufe, 
and on account of the advantage which was found in 
fharing the privileges of burgefles. 
The fonthern fuburbs are much lefs regular in arrange¬ 
ment than the oppofite new town. The accefs to them 
is principally by Bridge-ftreet, compofed of the north 
bridge that palfes acrofs the evacuated bafon of the north 
loch, and the fouth bridge, which, in the fame line of 
direction, covers the lake which formerly exifted towards 
Cow-gate. At its northern extremity, this ftreet has di- 
reCtly in front the regifter-office, the depot of the public 
records, and one of the moft beautiful and ufeful edifices 
in Scotland. On the (ides of the fouth bridge, and at or.e 
end of the north bridge, are a number of very rich and 
elegant (hops. The college and the infirmary ftand op- 
polite to one another, at the fonthern end of Bridge- 
ftreet. The ftreet terminates at this end, in that which 
is named Ni.colfon’s-ftreet ; and the two together, viewed 
in their common line of direftion, have an admirably fine 
effeCt to the eye. Weftward, by the Parliament-fquare and 
the Lawn-market, a fimilar line of communication by 
bridges begins to be opened. The fouthern fuburbs, 
thus communicating with the old and new town, cpnfift 
of Laurifton, Watlon’s-hofpital for the education of fixty 
boys, children of decayed members of the merchants’ 
company ; George’s-fquare, Park-place, Buccleugh-place, 
Briftol-ftreet, Potter-row, Nicholfon’s-ftreet, Richmond, 
Pleafimce, and Crofs-caufeway, &c. George’s-fquare is 
one of the moft elegant and agreeable places of refidence 
in this city. Park-place is likewife occupied, as is alfo 
a part of Nicolfon’s-ftreet, by genteel families. The reft 
of thefe fuburbs are, in great part, inhabited by labourers, 
inferior tradefmen, and (Indents. The houfes of the 
poorer people in general, even in the modern-built parts 
of Edinburgh, have not at all the lfghtncfs and cheerful 
cleanlinefs of the fnug brick houfes which are reared for 
dwellings to perfons of the fame clafs in London and its 
vicinity. Indeed brick buildings are almoft unknown in 
Scotland; and would be apt to imprefs the mind of a 
Scotchman with the idea of flightnefs, and want of duration. 
Befides the fuburbs above-mentioned, we have to no¬ 
tice Leith, which adjoins Edinburgh on the eaft, as Wap- 
ping does the city of London. Leith forms the piracus , 
or port, of Edinburgh. It was once a royal burgh ; but 
the rights of the fovereign over it, were, more than two 
hundred years ago, transferred for a fum of money to the 
