requiring them to disperse, contained no offer of indemnity or pardon. Their numbers were reduced to eight hundred, dispirited and exhausted by want, disappointment, and fatigue.

On attempting to return by the Pentland Hills, they were overtaken by Dalziel, whom they repulsed, at first, in different attacks; but, at sunset, their ranks were lost, or broken by the cavalry, and they were overpowered and dispersed. Not above fifty were killed, nor more than one hundred and thirty taken in the pursuit, the rest being preserved by the darkness of the night, by the fatigue of the king's troops, and by the compassion of the gentlemen who composed the cavalry, for their unhappy countrymen, whom oppression had rendered mad and desperate, but whose behaviour during the insurrection was inoffensive and mild. The inhabitants in the vicinity were less merciful, and many of the fugitives were intercepted and slain. This affair took place on the 28th of November, 1666.

INTERIOR OF THE ADVOCATES' LIBRARY.

This splendid Library is one hundred and forty feet long, and forty-two feet wide, with an elliptical arched ceiling, very richly panelled, twenty-eight feet high. The ceiling is supported by twenty-four fluted columns and thirty-six pilasters of the Corinthian order, eighteen feet and a half high, with an entablature richly ornamented. The centre compartment is formed by spandrils into a dome, with a large cupola. The dome is enriched by paintings, executed by Mr. Stothard, of Apollo and the Muses; the celebrated historians, poets, mathematicians, &c. painted as large as life.

The book-presses are formed in piers, supporting a gallery running along both sides and end of the room behind the columns. The apartment is lighted by windows on the south side and centre cupola. The floor is of oak, and the whole has a very imposing effect.

SOUTH BRIDGE.

This Bridge is composed of nineteen arches, of various sizes, the whole of which are concealed, except the one over the Cowgate. It runs in a line with the North Bridge, both of which intersect the High Street. From the regularity of the buildings, which have been raised on this artificial foundation, the largeness and splendour of the shops, and the great thoroughfare, this street may be considered, at once, the most compact, busy, and elegant of the Old Town.

The foundation stone of this Bridge was laid on the first of August, 1785; and, by an operation of astonishing celerity, the whole was completed, and the street opened for carriages in March, 1788, In digging the foundation of the central pier of the Bridge, which was no less than twenty-two feet deep, many coins of Edward I., II., and III. were found.