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GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 5 ____ - 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 ~- - ~- ~~ -_ -____________ ~ - - _ _ _ _ _ - .~
Volume 11 Page 9
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