Calton Hi1I.l THE BURYING-GROUND. I07
regulations, and is made as much as possible
the scene rather of the reclamation and the comfortable
industry of its unhappy inmates than of
the punishment of their offences.
At one time a number of French prisoners of
war were confined here.
At the east end of Waterloo Place, and adjoining
Bridewell, is the town and county gaol. It was
founded in 1815 and finished in 1817, when the
old Heart of Midlothian? was taken down. In
a Saxon style of architecture, it is an extensive
building, and somewhat castellated-in short, the
whole masses of these buildings, with their towers
and turrets overhanging the steep rocks, resemble
a feudal fortress of romance, and present a striking
and interesting aspect. Along the street line are
apartments for the turnkeys. Behind these, with
an area intervening, is the gaol, 194 feet long by 40
wide, four storeys high, with small grated windows.
In the centre is a chapel, with long, ungrated
windows. Along the interior run corridors, opening
into forty-eight cells, each 8 feet by 6, besides
other apartments of larger dimensions.
From the lower flat behind a number of small
airing yards, separated by high walls, radiate to a
point, where they are all overlooked and commanded
by a lofty octagonal watch-tower, occupied
by the deputy governor. Farther back, and
perched on the sheer verge of the precipice which
overhangs the railway, is the castellated tower, occupied
by the governor. The whole gaol is classified
into wards, is clean and well managed, and possesses
facilities for the practice of approved prison
discipline, but is seriously damaged in some of its
capacities by being a gaol for both criminals and
debtors, thus lacking the proper accommodation for
each alike.
From the Calton Hill the view is so vast, so
grand, and replete with everything that in either
city, sea, or landscape can thrill or delight, that
it has been said he is a bold artist who attempts
to depict it with either pen or pencil ; for far around
the city, old and new, there stretches a panorama
which combines in its magnificent expanse the
richest elements of the sublime and beautiful,
while the city itself is opulent, beyond all parallel,
in the attractions of the picturesque.
Prior to the erection of the Regent Bridge,
Princes Street, says Lord Cockburn, was closed at
its east end ??by a mean line of houses running
north and south. All to the east of these was a
burial-ground, of which the southern portion still
remains ; and the way of reaching the Calton Hill
was to go by Leith Street to its base (as may yet
be done), and then up a narrow, steep street, which
still remains, and was then the only approach,
Scarcely any sacrifice could be too great that
removed the houses from the end of Princes Street
and made a level to the hill, or, in other words,
produced the Waterloo Bridge.?
On the south side of the narrow street referred
to is the old entrance to the burying-ground, which
Lord Balmerino gifted to his vassals, and through
which the remains of David Hume must have been
borne to their last resting-place, in what is now the
southern portion of the cemetery, and in the round
tower of Roman design at the south-eastern corner
thereot Near it is the great obelisk, called
the Martyrs? Monument, erected to the memory of
those who were tried and banished from Scotland
in 1793 for advocating parliamentary reform. It
is inscribed, in large Roman letters :-?TO THE
MEMORY OF THOMAS MUIR, THOMAS FYSSHE
PALMER, WILLIAM SKIRVING, MAURICE MARGAROT
AND JOSEPH GEKALD. ERECTED BY THE FRIENDS
OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM IN SCOTLAND AND
ENGLAND, 1844.?
In this burying-ground lie the remains of Professor
George Wilson and many other eminent
citizens.
On the northern slope of the hill is a species of
cavern or arched vault in the rock, closed by a
gate, and known as the Jews? burial-place. It is the
property of the small Jewish community, but when
or how acquired, the Rabbi and other officials,
from their migratory nature, are quite unable to
state, and only know that two individuals, a man aml
his wife, lie in that solitary spot, Concerning this
place, a rare work by Viscount DArlincourt, a
French writer, has the following anecdote, which
may be taken for what it is worth. ?A Jew, named
Jacob Isaac, many years ago asked leave to lay his
bones in a little corner of this rock. As it was at
that time bare of monuments, he thought that in
such a place his remains ran no risk of being disturbed
by the neighbourhood of Christian graves.
His request was granted for the sum of 700 guineas.
Jxob paid the money without hesitation, and has
long been at rest in a corner of the Calton. But,
alas ! he is now surrounded on all sides by the
tombs of the Nazarenes.?
Though not correct at its close, this paragraph
evidently points.to the cave in the rock where one
Jew lies.
On the very apex of the hill stands the monument
to Lord Viscount Nelson, an edifice in such
doubtful taste that its demolition has been more
than once advocated. Begun shortly after the
battle of Trafalgar, it was not finished till 1816.
A conspicuous object from every point of view, by
