368 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
cessarily woven up with the warlike, even from the
days when our forefathers, with their good swords
and true hearts, were enabled to defend their homes
and hills against all the might of England, aided,
? as albeit the latter often was, by Ireland, Wales,
and all the chivalry of Normandy and Aquitaine ;
and to hand down to future times the untarnished
crown of a regal race as an emblem of what Scotland
was, ere she peacefully quartered her royal arms
and insignia with those of her adversary, with whom
she shared her kings, and as an emblem of what
she is still, with her own Church, laws, and constitution,
free and unfettered.
The Old city-with its ?stirring memories of
a thousand years ?-has records which are, in tenor,
widely apart from those of the New; yet, in the
former, we may still see the massive, picturesque,
quaint and time-worn abodes of those who bore their
part in the startling events of the past-fierce combats,
numerous raids, cruelties and crimes that
tarnish the?histonc page j while in the New city,
with its stately streets, its squares and terraces,
the annals are all recent,?and refer to the arts of
Peace alone-to a literary and intellectual supremacy
hitherto unsurpassed.
Yet, amid the thousands of its busy population,
life is leisurely there ; but, as has been well said,
?it is not the leisure of a village arising from the
deficiency of ideas and motives-it is the leisure of
a city reposing grandly on tradition and history,
which has done its work, and does not require to
weave its own clothing, to dig its own coals, or smelt
its own iron. And then in Edinburgh, above all
British cities, you are released from the vulgarising
dominion of the hour.? For, as has been abundantly
shown throughout this work, there every step
is historical, and the past and present are ever face
to face.
The dark shadow cast by the Union has long
since passed away; but we cannot forget that
Edinburgh, like Scotland generally, was for generations-
neglected by Government, and her progress
obstructed by lame legislation ; that it is no longer
the chief place where landholders dwell, or the
revenue of a kingdom is disbursed ; and that it is
owing alone to the indomitable energy, the glorious
spirit of self-reliance, and the patriotism of her
people, that we find the Edinburgh of to-day what
sheis, in intellect and beauty, second to no city in
the world.
