GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 5
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and the memory of the day. Southwards, over the Echoing Rock and Samson’s
Ribs, the eye rests on old Craigmillar Castle.
Amidst ali this, the city, though glowing in purple and crimson, with
grand pinnacles of splendour, standing up above brown hollows and mystic
shadows, might not be greatly regarded, but still it was something to remember
that ‘like some sweet beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are listening
to it,’ it was there as the base and soIid centre of the fairy-seeming vision.
Different tastes have differentIy estimated the comparative beauty of the
two prospects, both transcendent, from the Calton Hill and the Castle.
Besides the view from the former, of Leith, the ocean and its far-stretching
and embayed shores, the two finest points are, first, the view of Arthur’s
Seat and the ‘giant-snouted crags’ of Salisbury, brought out across the deep
valley into such bold and startling zelief; and secondly, the peep westward of
THE blOUND
what Thomas Aird calIs the ‘backbone of the Castlehill,’ with those lofty and
close-piled houses, churches, spires, and public buildings, which might
be compared to the black mane of a thunder-cloud, hanging with a
frown so dark and portentous over the fair gardens, Scott’s Monument, and
‘ merry Priiices Street’ below ! There are here a depth and a contrast of light
and shade, glory and gloom, the most refined Art of the present and the
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