Edinburgh Past and Present

All Books Kay's Originals Vol. 1 Kay's Originals Vol. 2 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Edinburgh Past and Present Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

Go to: « Kay's Originals Vol. 1 « Kay's Originals Vol. 2 « Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Edinburgh Past and Present Cover Title Pages Contents Ch I: General Description of Edinburgh Ch II: The Old Town Ch III: Edinburgh from Warriston Cemetery Ch IV: Historical and Descriptive Notes Ch V: Modern Dwellings of the People Ch VI: Queensferry to Mussleburgh, Along the Shore Ch VII: Roslin, Hawthornden, and The Vale of The Esk Ch VIII: Outline of the Geology of Edinburgh and Its Neighbourhood » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. I » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. III » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. IV » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V » Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI

34 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT. description. It has not yet been hackneyed by familiarity, and has sti11 all the freshness of youth, while worthy from its utility, vastness, and variety to rank in importadce with the time-honoured edifice beside it. The statue to Watt the engineer, on the opposite building, marks the new School of Arts, beside which is the Phrenological Museum. Close at hand was North College Street, and here, at the head of College Wynd, Sir Walter Scott was born, in a house Iong since taken down, the site of which is now crossed by Chambers Strec It stood cl se COLLEGE WYND. D the near building on the rig11 of the Engraving. P i along with this we may mention George Square, perhaps the most silent square in the whole city, but which speaks eloquently nevertheless when we remember that No. 25 was the house of Walter Scott, W.S., the father of Sir Walter, and that here the great noveIist spent his studious boyhood, and had that, early illness which, allowing him as it did the liberty of unlimited reading, was perhaps even more than his raids to Liddesdaie the making of him. (The house is that on the extreme right of the picture.) No. 20 was the house of Robert Syme, better known as Timothy Tickler. We well remember often seeing this venerable gentleman, then,between seventy and eighty years of age, nearly seven feet high, straight as a statue, with hair white as snow, cheek a rosebud, keen eye, aquiline nose, and military bearing, pacing leisurely along the Meadows or the Square a little before the dinner hour He was Professor Wilson's uncle by the mother's side, and lived till he had reached his ninety-fourth year. Of the speeches attributed to him in the

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THE OLD TOWN. 35 DK QUINCKY’S GXAVB. Nocks, and the articles and letters under his name in BZackwood, he was altogether guiltless, and often altogether ignorant. De Quincey assured us GEORGE 5QUARE. that though a gentleman and a man of sense, old Syme was of an ordinary

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