212 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
boatman, with ?DO you belang to that dug,
Sir??
On a certain stormyday, when oneof the boats was
making rather a rough passage, outside Inchkeith,
and the skipper, after the manner of his kind, was
endeavouring to reassure the alarmed passengers
by telling them that there was no danger, he lost
his temper with a well-known Fifeshire laud,
whose pallid face betrayed his intense dismay.
knowledge of the state of things that existed in
the early years of the present century, in regard
to the communication between the north and south
sides of the Firth of Forth. If they could carry
back their recollections so far, they would be
inclined, like me, rather to marvel at thc extraordinary
improvement that has taken place
within the last sixty years, than to fret because we
are still some stages from perfection.?
?As for you E- ?
(Balcomie 7) said the old
Kinghorn salt, scornfully,
CCye were aye a frightened
cxature a? your days.?
If the breeze was fair,
the old boats might
achieve the passage in
about an hour; but with a
head wind, against which
they could beat, and still
worse, with a calm, the
voyage was often tedious,
and lasted five or six
hours.
There are few things
that tell, perhaps, more
strikingly on the changed
habits of life, than the
contrasts for crossing at
the Forth ferries now
and when the present
century was in its infancy.
At Kirkcaldy and Pettycur,
besides making use
of small boats to the great
discomfort and terror of
female passengers, travellers
were embarked and
disembarked by means of
a long gangway, which was run down to the wateredge
on wheels.
U In spite of the service of the fine boats plying
on the Granton and Burntisland ferry,? wrote the
correspondent of a local print, ?and the opening
of the new lines of railway along the coast, fatidious
pleasure-seekers tell us that a great deal
could be done to increase the attractions of a run
for a change of air to the quaint villages, the
stretches of green links and sandy beach, on the
opposite shore of the Firth. Few of these grumblers,
I venture to say, can speak from personal
ANCIENT CHAPEL IN THE KIRkGAIE.
(From WiZsm?s ? Mrrn&ls,?publishcdby T. C. Jack? E&nburg/r).
great improvement is to take place in the communication
between Leith and Fife.? This was
the introduction of two steamboats, the Tug and
Dumbarfon Castk, which were to make the trip
every morning to Kirkcaldy before going to
Grangemouth, and vice versa. (Week0 Jozrmai?,,
1820.)
Other steamers, the Sir WilZiam WdZace, the
Thane of Fie, and Add Reekie, were introduced ;
the passengers were embarked and landed by means
of gangways, though sometimes both were accomplished
on men?s backs.
After a time the ferry
between each side of the
Firth was placed in the
hands of trustees,
About 1812, when the
?( Union ? coach was put
on the road through Fife,
it occasioned a necessity
for a regular instead of a
varying tidal passage, and
thus an undecked sloop,
known as ?the coach
boat,? was placed on the
ferry. At low water it
anchored off the harbour,
and was reached by small
skiffs. Soon afterwards
the ferry trustees established
a regular service
of undecked cutters, gene
rally lateen-rigged, the
pier at Newhaven having
been built to afford better
accommodation.
It was in the spring cf
1814 or 1815 that the
first vessel propelled by
steam was seen in Leith ;
but it was not till 1820
that the newspapers announced
that ?a very
