46 EDINBURGH PAST AND PRESENT.
third flat, No. 8 Cowgatehead, the windows looking up Candlemaker Row.
The house is marked by the figure at the window.
LORD BROUGHAY’S BIRTHPLACE.
We ought to have painted the view of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill and
from the Braid HiIls, but in the first place we were never fortunate enough to
stand on either, and secondly, Scott has in his Marmion described the
former; and what can be added to what Burns said when he stood with
Dugald Stewart on the other?--that the view of so many smoking cottages
gave him the intenser pleasure, that he knew from experience what worth
and intelligence such cottages contained.
It is with a certain feeling of regret that we come now to bid farewell to
a theme for description which presented at once such attractions and such
difficulties, and from a city which always awakens in us many and conflicting
memories, the prevailing and- permanent impression, however, being that of
pride and exulting enthusiasm as we think of the unequalled features of its
scenery, and of the lofty aims, powerful genius, and varied accompIishments
of many of its sons. To be connected by the very slightest tie with such a
Metropolis ought for a Scotchman, though neither a native of its walls nor an
THE OLD TOWN. 47
alurnnus of its University, to be a source of unmingled and unending satisfaction.
Let us close by quoting a few of Burns’s verses, which it is as difficult
to hackney as to forget :-
‘ Edina ! Scotia’s darling seat,
All hail thy palaces and towers,
Where once beneath a Monarch’s feet
Sat Legislation’s sovereign Powers !
Here Wealth still swells the golden tide
As busy Trade his labour plies ;
There Architecture’s noble pride
Bids elegance and splendour rise.
Here Justice from her native skies
High wields her balance and her rod ;
There Learning with his eagle eyes
Seeks Science in her coy abode.
Thy sons, Edina, social, kid,
With open arms the stranger hail !
Their views enlarged, their liberal mind
Above the narrow rural vale ;
Attentive still to sorrow’s wail,
Or modest merit’s silent claim :
And never may their sources fa&
And never envy blot their name.
Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn,
Gay as the gilded summer sky,
Sweet as the dewy milk-white thorn,
Dear as tiie raptured thrill of joy.’
MIDDLE U’ALK. MEADOWS.
