PORTOBELLO. 119
dwelling, naming it Portobello, in commemoration of the bombardment of a
town of that name at which he had been present. This cottage, situated on
the south side of the main street, and still pointed out to strangers, formed
. the nucleus around which other houses arose, which, increasing in number
and respectability, as time rolled on, have in these days of ours blossomed
into the important and much-frequented watering-place it has become. So
originated both the name and town of our- Scottish Brighton.
Very early in its history the manufacture of bricks and tiles was instituted.
Shortly afterwards a pottery was started, and that again was followed
at short intervals by other public works, as bottle-making, crystal and glasscutting,
a paper-mill, and chemical works. These, for the most part, are all
built on the banks of the rivulet called the Figget Burn, which falls into the
sea at the west end of the town, and which constitutes the boundary between
the parishes of Duddingstone and South Leith.
Originally the town does not appear to have been built regularly, or on
any plan, as there is an evident want of uniformity or orderliness in the laying
out of the streets, and the style of the houses. Each proprietor seems to
have been left very much to his own mind in the matter, and, as taste or
means or circumstances dictated, erected a larger or smaller dwelling,
without any reference either to character or effect. The consequence is that
we have, in a great measure, a town of almost all sizes and styles of building :
handsome villas retiring from the public view, embowered nest-like in a sea
of foliage : and houses of an humbler and meaner class close upon, or skirting
the thoroughfare, presenting a cold, stiff, and uninteresting aspect to the
visitor, unrelieved either by tree, plant, or flower-plot Latterly, indeed, this
has to a great extent been corrected. Within these thirty or forty years the
style and character of the architecture, as well as the regular and orderly
disposition of the streets, have had the attention of competent judges, and
the more modem parts of the town are now all that could be desired in these
respects. Altogether, Portobello is a fine town, interesting in itself and
fortunate in its surroundings : the city of Edinburgh within an easy walk, with
Arthur’s Seat, the village of Duddingstone, Lhddingstone Loch, the grounds
of Abercorn, and the grand historic ruin of Craigmillar Castle; Leith,
a quaint old seaport of stirring memories, with its spacious harbour,
magnificent docks, and numerous fleet of steamers ever in motion, telling
in poetic utterance of the life, energy, and enterprise abroad in these days of
ours; and Musselburgh also, ‘the honest toun,’ two miles or so to the east,
is not without its attractions, alike to the antiquarian, the historian, or the
