that this little community have, amongst others of their own age, a character in some degree peculiar to themselves, and are, generally speaking, bold, hardy, and ingenious, beyond their years.

They are now taught Latin and Greek within the establishment, as above mentioned; but formerly there was a provision for such lads attending the High School of Edinburgh, as were to receive these branches of instruction, which brought them into contact with boys of a higher rank, and otherwise circumstanced. These Herioters, as they were termed, were never treated with any aristocratic scorn by the other pupils who attended the same class. Indeed, they would not have brooked any thing approaching to it, for they had a strong esprit de corps; and the author can remember, that when one of them had received some real or imaginary offence, the whole Hospital took the matter up, and it was like to become the subject of a serious feud betwixt the High School boys and the Hospitallers, had it not been adjusted by compromise. The Herioters had also peculiar skill in making balls, rackets, clacking-boards, and other implements of boyish amusement-a talent which gained them consideration, as well as a little money. We have already noticed their art of disposing of flowers; for which purpose they were usually called upon to assist at decorating the statue of Charles II., and the Gothic roof of the Parliament House, upon occasions of public rejoicing. Most of them carry into life the same firmness and intelligence of character. The Hospital has furnished many respectable, and some eminent names; and they are, in general, much attached to the place, and to the memory of the founder.

It is generally allowed, that the internal management of the Hospital, under its various treasurers, and as controlled by the magistrates of Edinburgh, has been highly creditable. But charges have been brought against the magistrates, that, upon one highly important occasion, they were guilty of sacrificing the interests of the Hospital to those of the city. The case stands thus :

With other valuable landed property, lying immediately around the city of Edinburgh, the Hospital possessed the whole of that extensive plain, to the north of the city, on which the New Town now stands. This property the trustees of the Hospital-the magistrates, namely, and ministers of Edinburgh-sold for a large sum of money to the city, when the speculation of building a New Town upon that site was first adopted. The transaction was one of some delicacy, since the magistrates may be said to have acted in some degree in the double character of sellers and purchasers; and it has been hastily and injuriously urged, that whatever advantage the estate of the Good Town may have acquired by the transaction, must have been just so much advantage gained at the expense of the Hospital. But this reasoning, upon being more closely examined, will be found

erroneous. To execute such a speculation as the erection of a New Town, was a task far beyond the duties and powers of the Hospital. There was a chartered extension of the city's bounds, and of its rights to be procured, for the encouragement of settlers; there was property to be bought, roads to be made, levelling and other expensive operations to be undertaken, before there could be expected the least prospect of any valuable return. To have directed the funds of the Hospital to such a purpose, would have been both unjust and criminal; and it was therefore clear, that while the ground continued the property of the Hospital, the proposed plan could not be executed at all, and the site for the intended New Town could not have been obtained. The transaction, thus considered, seems to have been fair and beneficial, as well to the Hospital, who obtained a price for their property much above what corresponded with any revenue they could themselves derive from it ;-to the magistrates, as administrators for the city, who acquired the means of carrying through a most important train of improvements, and at the same time augmented the common good, or municipal property;-and to the public, because the acquisition of that property by the magistrates, and its being included in the extended royalty, were indispensably necessary to the very existence of those splendid improvements, which have elevated Edinburgh into one of the most magnificent cities in Europe.

To return to the external appearance of the building, and internal arrangement of the whole administration, it would perhaps be difficult to show an establishment of the kind, comprehending so much of external grandeur and of real utility, as the foundation of George Heriot.

The West Bow, from the lower part of which the view is taken, was, until the South Bridge was built, the only passage (and it was a most steep and difficult one) by which a wheel-carriage could attain the High Street of Edinburgh; for Saint Mary's Wynd, through which with great care it was possible to ascend in a carriage, only connected with the Canongate.

The inhabitants of the Bow were chiefly artisans, and the trade of white-smiths predominated among them to such a degree, that it was said the inhabitants could not sleep on the Sabbath mornings, for want of the clatter of hammers, which they were familiarized with on the other days of the week. The matrons of the Bow were distinguished for their religious zeal, and, as we observe from the satirical poems of the time, most violent Covenanters. The "Bowhead saints," and "the godly plants of the Bowhead," are the frequent subject of mirth to Pitcairn, Pennycuik, and other wags of the cavalier or Jacobite faction. This precise generation were much scandalized by the backsliding of their neighbour, the celebrated

Major Weir, who, after living a life of rigorous profession, was burned for incest and sorcery in 1676, after confessing a great many impossible crimes, besides some others that were at least improbable. His house, in a small close leading straight downwards from the second turn of the Bow, long stood empty, and was believed to be haunted.* In the Bow, also, flourished of old one Mitchell, a curious mixture of madness, knavery, absurdity, and something like humour. He was a white-smith, and published various lucubrations under the title of the Tinclarian Doctor.

Near the bottom of this steep and crooked street, are several lofty lands, or nests of houses, each marked with a cross placed on the chimney, or on the front of their gables. These having been erected upon lands originally belonging to the Knights Templars, came at length to be united to the barony of Drem. This was a great vexation to the magistrates of Edinburgh, for the Baron of Drem having a separate jurisdiction independent of theirs, these houses became a place of refuge to artizans, who were not free of the city corporations, besides the insult of the Baron of Drem's bailie holding independent courts within their jurisdiction. After a considerable sum had been offered by the city, and refused by the baron, this petty jurisdiction, with others of the same class, was, by the Act 1748, abolishing all heritable jurisdictions in Scotland, taken away, without costing the community any compensation whatever.

EDINBURGH, FROM THE GLASGOW ROAD.

THIS view offers little room for description, though in itself eminently beautiful. It is indeed the particular excellence of the scenery in the vicinity of the Scottish capital, that the same objects present such new, unexpected and interesting combinations when viewed from different points. That at present selected is from the new buildings on the lands of Coates, where the New Town is presently extending itself in a south-westerly direction. The Castle-rock, as it stoops precipitously to the westward, forms the principal feature in the view; and sublime as it is, sustains injury, if not degradation, in being made the pedestal for that ugly and clumsy pile of barracks, which would be honoured by a comparison with the most vulgar cotton-mill. A few hundred pounds, nay, the expenditure of the same money which this deplorable mass actually cost to the public, if laid out under the control of the most ordinary degree of taste, might have saved Edinburgh Castle, that ancient and martial Acro

* [See Chamber's Minor Antiquities of Edinburgh, p. 82, &c.]

polis of Caledonia, from the imposition of that hulk, which even Nasmyth's pencil, aided by the palliating effects of distance and of mist, cannot divest of its lumpish deformity.

The West Church, or Saint Cuthbert's, is another clumsy structure, but fortunately stands much out of sight. A circumstance happened with respect to this church, and to more than one besides, which singularly illustrates the proverb, that Scotsmen are ever wise behind the hand. When the heritors had chosen the cheapest, or at least the ugliest plan which was laid before them, had seen it executed, and were at leisure to contemplate the ground cumbered with a great heavy oblong barn, with huge disproportioned windows, they repented of the enormity which they had sanctioned, and endeavoured to repair their error by building a steeple, in a style of ornamented and florid architecture; as if the absurd finery of such an appendage could relieve the heaviness of the principal building, which is only rendered more deformed by the contrast. It may be hoped, that the number of excellent architects who have lately arisen in this country will introduce a better taste among their patrons; and it would be especially desirable to convince those concerned, that beauty or elegance in architecture depends not upon ornament, but upon symmetry; and that in truth, a handsome and tasteful plan may often be executed at less expense than one which shall, so long as the building stands, entail disgrace on all who have had to do with it.

The very handsome Episcopal chapel of Saint John's, which is a beautiful specimen of modern Gothic, rises on the left of the West Kirk with an air of superior elegance, which, in a former day, might have drawn down the wrath of the zealous and predominant Presbyterians. But although doubtless equally sincere in their faith as their fathers, the modern Calvinists no longer mingle with their own religious zeal, any animosity against those of other congregations.

At the hollow beneath the West Kirk, the North Loch once commenced. But there is strong reason to believe, that the water there collected was an artificial inundation, formed by means of an artificial dike near the bottom of Leith Wynd; and intended, by stopping the course of the small rivulets arising near the foot of the castle-rock, to save the expense of fortification on that side of the city. Bowyer, the continuator of Fordun's Chronicle, mentions, that in the year 1398, Queen Annabel, wife of Robert the Third, proclaimed a tournament of twelve knights on each side, in honour of her eldest son David, then created Duke of Rothsay; and adds, in express words" Hujusmodi tyrocinium fuit centique a parte aquilonali villæ de Edinburgh, ubi nunc est lacus." Besides the direct testimony of the historian, it may be added, that the bottom of the North Loch, though it latterly became soft and marshy by continual

depositation of owze and filth, was originally hard, so that it could be forded both by men and horses. After the celebrated skirmish fought betwixt the factions of Angus and Arran upon the High Street of Edinburgh, and hence popularly termed Clean the Causeway, Archbishop Beatoun, who had inflamed the broil, and indeed had assisted in it, wearing armour under his rocket, could only escape from the fury of the victorious Douglasses, by traversing a ford in the North Loch. These, with other circumstances mentioned by Maitland in his History of Edinburgh, go to establish the fact, that this lake was artificial, and constructed for the defence of the city upon the northern side, where there was no wall.

EDINBURGH, FROM CORSTORPHINE HILL.

THE Corstorphine Hills, taking their name from the village so called, form a beautiful screen of eminences, rising about three miles to the north-west of Edinburgh, and producing the same effect with that of the Surrey Hills, as seen from Saint James's Park. They are chiefly clothed with wood, and rising from the verge of the great valley which stretches towards Stirling, they take their direction towards the Frith of Forth, and again sink into lower ground, near the House and Park of Barnton, belonging to the late George Ramsay, Esq. The view from these hills is one of the most magnificent in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh.

The prospect abounds also with objects of curiosity, both to the antiquary, the philosopher, and the man of taste. The new mansion of Ravelstone is the seat of Sir Alexander Keith, Knight-Mareschal of Scotland; and the old house, situated close beneath it, is preserved with great judgment and taste, as a model of the style of building, of laying out gardens, etc., as practised in Scotland three hundred years since. Craig-Crook Castle, an ancient mansion, formerly noted for the tales of terror and superstition connected with it, and at present more honourably distinguished as the residence of Francis Jeffrey, Esq.,* is also an interesting object in the view.

EDINBURGH, FROM THE CALTON-HILL.

THE pencil of our celebrated associate Turner has given a daring representation of one of the most magnificent scenes in this

[Late Lord Advocate-now (1834) Lord Jeffrey-one of the Judges in the Court o Session.]