House and Garden 
THE BANQUETING HALL IN THE CAS 
ern limits are, roughly speaking, Calton 
Hill, and Dean Bridge over the Water of 
Leith. The view from Calton Hill is superb 
and the street stretches beautifully away 
westward with Sir Walter Scott’s monument 
towering in the middle distance,—a super- 
excellent specimen of the handicraft of the 
best stone cutters in Europe, and a not bad 
example of nineteenth century Gothic art,— 
“Waddie Scott,” as a Scottish craftsman 
spoke his name to me this very year in Phila¬ 
delphia, with an unconscious accent of 
affection that was delightful to hear. Passing 
under Dean Bridge on a voyage of discovery 
I came upon an imposing pile of red Scotch 
sandstone which seemed 
strangely contrasted with its 
somewhat squalid neigh¬ 
bourhood. “What is that 
building ?” I asked of a 
woman passing with a bas¬ 
ket on her arm. “They’re 
dwell-hoosen,” she replied 
in her soft lowland 
tongue. Improved work¬ 
ingmen’s tenements they 
were, as I afterwards 
learned —a beneficent in¬ 
vestment of some philan¬ 
thropic landlord, of which 
there are as many examples 
in North Britain as in 
England. 
To the northward of 
Princes Street lies the aris¬ 
tocratic quarter, whose “ter¬ 
races” and “crescents” dis¬ 
dain to view the historic 
quarters of the town, look¬ 
ing Eirthward rather; and 
indeed the view is finer and 
more extensive. But it is 
the old town which will per¬ 
haps make the strongest ap¬ 
peal to the lover of “Edina, 
Scotia’s darling seat.” 
Let us consider first the 
castle. Its history can be 
read in any guide book, and 
I do not propose to lend 
color to the proverb that 
“history repeats itself.” It 
is its picturesque value 
in the landscape which is most appealing, 
and thoroughly mediaeval in feeling, it 
dominates the entire scene. 1 here is one 
projecting bartizan on the Princes Street 
side which sharply interrupts the profile 
of the castle, as it comes tumbling down 
the cliff' to the valley below, for which I 
have a special affection. It embodies in itself 
the whole mediaeval spirit and aspect of the 
castle and was a daily delight from my bed¬ 
room window in the hotel. Some day, when I 
have achieved wealth, I intend, after the man¬ 
ner of my countrymen, to purchase this barti¬ 
zan from the War Office and set it up on a 
corner of my own, as yet unbuilt, chateau. 
LLE 
THE CASTLE FROM THE ESPLANADE 
12 
