J48 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street.
that sum has been called. It is expressly provided
by the charter of the bank, granted 5th August,
1831, ?that nothing contained in these presents
shall be construed as intended to limit the responsibility
and liability of the individual partners of
the said Corporation for the debts and engagements
lawfully contracted by the said Corporation, which
responsibility and liability is to remain as valid
and effectual as if these presents had not been
most elegant of any in Britain.? In addition to
the ball-room, ? there is to be a tea-room, fifty
feet by thirty-six, which will also serve as a ballroom
on ordinary occasions ; also a grand saloon,
thirty-eight feet by forty-four feet, besides other
and smaller rooms. The whole expense will be
6,000 guineas, and the building is to be begun
immediately. Another Assembly Room, on a
smaller scale, is to be built immediately by the
INTERIOR OF ST. ANDREW?S CHURCH, GEORGE STREET.
granted, any law or practice to the contrary
notwithstanding.?
The branch of the Clydesdale Bank, a little
farther westward on the other side, is a handsome
building ; but the next chief edifice-which, with
its arcade of three rustic arches and portico, was
long deemed by those obstinately wedded to use
and wont both an eyesore and encroachment on
the old monotonous amenity of George Street, when
first erected-is the Assembly Rooms.
The principal dancing-hall here is ninety-two feet
long by forty-two feet wide, and forty feet high,
adorned with magnificent crystal lustres. ?? The
New Assembly Rooms, for which the ground is
staked out in the new town,? says the Edinburgh
AdvPrtise7 for April, 1783, ?will be among the
inhabitants on the south side of the town; in
George Square,? Eventually this room was placed
in Buccleuch Place. ? Since the peace,? continues
the paper, ? a great deal of ground has been feued
for houses in the new town, and the buildings there
are going on with astonishing rapidity.?
To the assemblies of 1783, the letters of
Theophrastus inform us that gentlemen were in
the habit of reeling ?from the tavern, flustered
with wine, to an assembly of as elegant and
beautiful women as any in Europe;? also that
minuets had gone out of fashion, and country
dances were chiefly in vogue, and that in 1787 a
master of the ceremonies was appointed. The
weekly assemblies here in the Edinburgh seasvn
are now among the most brilliant and best con
