diere is no proof that the shallow waters of the
Leith, as they debouched upon the sands of what
must have been on both sides an uncultured waste
of links or moorland, ever formed a shelter for the
galleys of Rome ; and it is strange to think that
there must have been a time when its banks were
covered by furze and the bells of the golden broom,
and when the elk, the red deer, and the white bull
of Drumsheugh, drank of its current amid a voiceless
solitude.
GAYFIELD HOUSE.
the gorge of the Low Calton, and descends Leith
Walk till nearly opposite the old manor house of
Pilrig; it then runs westward to the Water of
Leith, and follows the latter downward to the Firth.
The parish thus includes, besides its landward
district, the Calton Hill, parts of Calton and the
Canongate, Abbey Hill, Norton Place, Jock?s
Lodge, Restalrig, and the whole of South Leith.
? Except on the Calton Hill,? says a statistical
writer, ?the soil not occupied by buildings is all
The actual limits of Leith as a town, prior to
their definition in 1827, are uncertain.
South Leith is bounded on the north-east by the
Firth of Forth, on the south by Duddingston and
the Canongate, on the west by the parishes of the
Royalty of Edinburgh, by St. Cuthbert?s and North
Leith. It is nearly triangular in form, and has an
area of 2,265 acres, The boundary is traced for
some way with Duddingston, by the Fishwives?
Causeway, or old Roman Road; then it passes
nearly along the highway between the city and
Portobello till past Jock?s Lodge, making a projecting
sweep so as to include Parson?s Green ; and
after skirting the royal parks, it runs along the
north back of the Canongate, debouches through
susceptible of high cultivation, and has had imposed
on it dresses of utility and ornament in keep
ing with its close vicinity to the metropolis. Imgated
and very fertile meadows, green and beautiful
esplanades laid out as promenading grounds, neat,
tidy, and extensive nurseries, elegant fruit, flower,
and vegetable gardens, and the little sheet of
Lochend, with a profusion of odoriferous encb
sures, and a rich sprinkling of villas with their
attendant flower-plots, render the open or unedificed
area eminently attractive. The beach, all the
way from South Leith to the eastern boundary is
not a little attractive to sea-bathers ; a fine, clean
sandy bottom, an inclination or slope quite gentle
enough to assure the most timid, and a limpid roll
