Description of Plans for Buildings to be erected on the Mound.

HAVING in a few instances taken occasion to animadvert on some of the proceedings of our worthy Magistracy, and having even been accused of doing so with too little ceremony, it is with peculiar pleasure that we are enabled to pay a just tribute to those measures which have really tended to the embellishment of this venerable city. Such, of late, has repeatedly been our agreeable task. The grand approach to the New Town, by WELLINGTON BRIDGE, which is now in a train of execution, must ever remain a monument of their taste, judgment, and attention to the good of the city. And the interest which we have always felt in every project for its improvements makes us anxious to submit to the public, one, which we are convinced will meet with their approbation. It has been formed, and the plans for it drawn up by one of our most intelligent and indefatigable correspondents.

The Mound must strike every passenger as still left in a statenot suited to the improved and finished condition of the rest of the New Town. No situation can be more favourable, either for ornamental building, or for one which is to be a centre of public resort. The plan at present in view is to erect a row of buildings on a line with the centre of Hanover Street, which may have a front of equal ele vation, both to the East and West,

and may have, on each side, a walk and colonnade, as well as a parapet railing, to enclose the carriage road along the edges of the mound. There will be some difficulty in accommodating the buildings to the slope of the ground, which is about 48 feet, or nearly one in 17; but this may no doubt be removed by the assistance of skilful engineers.

On the north side, fronting Hanover Street, might be erected a Royal Manege, of which a beautiful plan and elevation are exhibited in our frontispiece. It affords dressing-rooms for ladies and gentlemen, a handsome lobby, a gallery for spectators, besides an office and comfortable house for the Master. The whole expence, it is believed, of finishing this building in the most elegant manner, may be defrayed by selling the present auk ward area in Nicholson Street.

The art of steady and gracefulriding, one of undoubted utility, and only to be learned by principles, is at: present excellently taught in this city. But it is neglected, partly," we believe, on account of the remote and inconvenient situation in which the Academy is placed. By rendering it more conspicuous, gentlemen will be induced to avail themselves" of the advantages which they possess. in this respect, instead of being taught. by their grooms, or other persons to-. tally qualified for conveying thenecessary instruction and the public_ is not perhaps aware, that the present efficient state of the British cavalry"

is in a great measure owing to the pains taken by Lord Pembroke in teaching the men to ride.

It has been proposed to build along the Mound, a street, which might form a continuation of Hanover Street. The chief objection is, that though the houses might present handsome fronts to the street, the back parts, which would be viewed from Princes Street, the North Bridge, Castle-hill, and other conspicuous points, would exhibit only masses of deformity. If a street then is built, it should be only a single row of houses, with a double front. The mound might be also employed for the site of other public buildings, a theatre, for example, to which its central situation would excellently adapt it.

It is impossible to pass from this subject, without noticing the deplorable condition in which that portion of territory, which lies between the old and new town, still continues. There is scarcely a corner of the country so remote, where ground left in such a state would not be justly considered as a disgrace! What then shall we say to its being placed in the véry centre of so great a city, and forming the most conspicuous object from all the places of greatest resort? It were superfluous to observe how much the health, as well as beauty of the town, must be improved by this space being laid out in a tasteful and judicious

manner.

Such a measure forms an almost indispensable accompaniment to building on the mound; and indeed we will not imagine, that our Magistrates, who are carrying on so many valuable improvements, can longer shut their eyes to the necessity of the one which we have now suggested.

Account of a Steam Boat invented in

1737.

mises to be more useful to mankind, than its application to the conveyance of vessels. This it is now made to accomplish without the aid of wind and tide, not only in rivers or narrow channels, but in broad firths, and almost in the ocean. The application of steam to mechanical purposes has now been known for upwards of a century. It was in 1705 that Newcomen took out his patent for the steam engine. In 1712, it was first used in the collieries, and, by 1720, it had come into general use. In 1725, Mr Wauchope of Edmonstone contracted for one with John Potter, Engineer. But there is a fact not generally known, for which we are indebted to an intelligent correspondent. It is, that so far back as 1737, there existed the invention of a steam boat. The plan of it is contained in a little. pamphlet, under the following title: "A Description and Draught of a new invented machine for carrying vessels or ships out of, or into any harbour, port, or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm. By Jonathan Hulls. London. Printed for the Author. 1737. Price 6d."

The title of this pamphlet will ex. hibit the limited view in which the author régarded his plan, being rather for overcoming local difficulties, than for being the continued instrument of the vessel's motion. He discusses the question, whether the machine should be placed within the vessel to be thus towed, or whether it should be fitted into a boat, which, being attached to the vessel, might draw it along. For several very good reasons, he prefers the latter alternative; so that his project is quite that of a steam boat.

In explaining the process followed, the author begins by demonstrating a number of problems in mechanics and pneumatics, upon which his machine is founded. He then proceeds to describe the mechanism employed in the

"In some convenient part of the

tow

tow-boat there is placed a vessel about 2 thirds full of water, with the top close shut; this vessel being kept boiling, rarifies the water into a steam; this steam being conveyed through a large pipe into a cylindrical vessel, and there condensed, makes a vacuum, which causes the weight of the atmosphere to press on the vessel, and so presses down a piston that is fitted into this cylindrical vessel, in the same manner as in Mr Newcomen's engine.

It hath been already demonstrated, that a vessel of 30 inches diameter, which is but two feet and a half, when the air is driven out, the atmosphere will press on it to the weight of 4 ton 16 hundred and upwards; when proper instruments for this work are applied to it, it must drive a vessel with a great force."

Account of Ancient Tapestry formerly in the Church of ST PAUL'S, now in the Cathedral of Aix. THE attention of all travellers in the South of France, is arrested by a piece of tapestry, with historical figures, preserved in the cathedral church of Aix. Some particulars respecting it are given by M. de St Vincens, a French gentleman of distinction. It is worked of silk and wool, but principally of wool; and it contains twenty-seven compartments, or pictures, representing subjects of sacred history. In the manuscript history of the city of Aix, they are stated to have belonged originally to the church of St Paul, in London.At the era of the reformation, all the religious ornaments of this description were removed, and sent abroad for sale, when the present was purchased by the city of Aix. The most distinguished persons in England had evidently superintended its formation, as it bears in two places the arms of Henry VIII.; it bears also those of three Archbishops of Canterbury;

Morton, Dene, and Warham, besides other arms which are supposed to belong to noble families in England.— The date of 1511 appears upon one of the compartments. The merit is various, but in many instances very considerable. From the style and date, M. Saint Vincens supposes it to have, been executed from the cartoons of # Quintyn Matsys, or perhaps of Jerome Dubois. He concludes with the following circumstance, which deserves to be recorded:

"Lord Douglas, Earl of Buchan, desired to purchase the tapestry which I have described. This nobleman, who founded at Edinburgh the Society of Antiquaries, and gave to the public, every month, a literary journal named the Bee, was the friend and the correspondent of my father; he wrote to me during the short interval of the peace of Amiens, to desire that I would ask of M. Cicé, then Arch

bishop of Aix, that he would sell him this tapestry, which M. Cicé had bought for his church. He mentioned his wish to place it in the church belonging to an ancient Scottish abbey which he had annexed to his domains. He had adorned this church with many beautiful monuments. He had erected there one to Mr Peiresc, of whom I had sent him a bust modelled after that in my possession. He proposed to erect similar ones to Camden and other learned contemporaries of James I., as our Peirese was he wished to have our tapestry to place it in his church as a national monument. I could not fulfil his commission."

The author is mistaken in giving to the Earl of Buchan the title of Lord Douglas, although his Lordship is related to that illustrious family; and also in representing his Lordship as the Editor of the Bee. The other facts stated by him are, we believe, correct, and certainly bear testimony to that zeal for the arts which dis

tinguishes his Lordship.

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