CHAPTER XLIV.

MANSIONS.

THE mansions of the nobility and gentry of Scotland do not differ in any important respect from similar classes of structures in England. The "hall" is, however, completely wanting in Scotland, and there are comparatively few specimens of the Elizabethan style. Turbulent times being more recent in Scottish than in English history, the chief mansions of an unfortified character in the northern kingdom are not of earlier date than the reign of Charles II., and most of them are much later. In many instances, the whole or part of the original castellated buildings which stood on the same site are retained.

Before the reign of James III. (1460-'88), there seems to have been no mansion besides the regular tower, with its surrounding inferior buildings, and external wall or barmkyne. In that, and one or two of the ensuing reigns, a few mansions were built, in an ornamental style, having, for instance, an elegant front looking inward to a quadrangular court; yet, in these instances, the outside of the building was still a plain and almost dead wall, calculated for defence. Crichton castle (Edinburghshire) and Linlithgow palace are examples. In the reign of James VI., the favorite style was the tall square tower; but this was now rendered somewhat more ornamental by means of sundry flourishes, such as minor towers projecting like pepperboxes from the corners. Glammis castle (Forfarshire) is a superb specimen of this

class of mansions.

In the reign of Charles II., mansions were for the first time built in anything like pure Grecian taste. This was introduced by Sir William Bruce, of Kinross, baronet, an architect of considerable skill, and of whose works the modern Holyrood palace, and his own house of Kinross, are examples. During the last century, the mansions built in Scotland have partaken of all the changes of taste passing through England, from the heavy barrack-like structures of Sir John Vanburgh, to the light and elegant Grecian style of Adam. We have now chateaux in the style of the middle ages (Gordon castle, Banffshire, and Colzean, in Ayrshire); Grecian structures by Adam (Hopetoun house, Linlithgowshire); mansions in the Doric and more sombre Grecian style since introduced (Hamilton palace, a superb example); and, very lately, a few specimens in the priory and Elizabethan styles.

CHAPTER XLV.

CHIEF TOWNS.

EDINBURGH, the capital, is situated in the county of the same name, on a cluster of eminences, distant between one and a half and three miles from the Firth of Forth. The city is composed of two principal parts, the Old and New Towns, the former being built on a long narrow eminence gently rising toward the west, where it terminates in a lofty and abrupt rock, on which the castle is situated, while the latter occupies lower ground toward the north. The town is universally built of a fair sandstone, which retains its original color in the newer parts of the town and in the best public buildings, and forms one of the most important features of Edinburgh. The New Town is laid out on a regular plan of rectangular streets and squares, exhibiting in general much architectural elegance. Between the Old and New Towns, and between various sections of the New Town itself, as well as in the centres of the principal squares, there are gardens laid out in the modern landscape style, forming delightful places of recreation. It is chiefly owing to the unequal

ground on which Edinburgh is situated, the massive elegance and regularity of its buildings, the intermixture of ornamental pleasure-ground, and the picturesque hills immediately adjacent, whence distant and extensive prospects are commanded, that this city makes so great an impression on most strangers.

Formerly the seat of the government of the country, Edinburgh is still that of the supreme law courts and of a flourishing university. It is also to a great extent a city of residence, not only for affluent persons connected with the country, but for strangers desirous of enjoying a society of moderate habits, and the benefits of education for their children. Its leading classes are thus composed of legal practitioners, learned persons, and families in independent circumstances. It is only in a small degree a manufacturing town, the principal trades being the brewing of ale (for which the town is celebrated), coachmaking, the weaving of shawls, and the printing and issuing of literary productions. The leading periodical publications are the well-known Edinburgh Review, Blackwood's and Tait's magazines, and a Philosophical and Medical Journal, besides which there are a number of smaller size. The town is distinguished for its numerous banking institutions, which exert an influence on the general trade of the country. Within a few miles of the city, on the Esk river, there are various paper-mills, at which vast quantities of paper are made, both for the home trade and for exportation to London. A railway in course of execution to Glasgow is expected to prove of great benefit to both cities.

Among the remarkable objects in the city, the most striking is the castle, a large fortress romantically situated on the summit of a mass of igneous rock, between two and three hundred feet in sheer height. It contains, besides various batteries and other fortifications, an ancient palace, in which Queen Mary was delivered of her son James I., of Great Britain, and a modern barrack, in which a foot regiment is usually quartered. In a well-protected room, are shown the crown, sceptre, mace, and sword, which formed the regalia of the Scottish line of princes. The courts of law are situated in the centre of the old town, and are composed of a great hall, formerly the meeting-place of the Scottish parliament, rooms for the two various divisions of the civil court and for the lords ordinary, a room for the high court of justiciary (supreme criminal court), and other accommodations. The extensive libraries belonging respectively to the advocates (barristers) and writers to the Signet (solicitors), are adjacent. Holyrood house, the palace of the Scottish kings, is situated at the lower extremity of the principal street of the Old Town. The oldest part is a mass of building erected by James V., containing the presence-chamber, bedroom, and other apartments, used by Queen Mary, with some of the original furniture as also a gallery, furnished with (generally imaginary) portraits of the kings of Scotland. The apartments of the queen are to be regarded with no ordinary interest, both as furnishing a curious and faithful memorial of the domestic accommodations of a princess of the sixteenth century, and on account of that extraordinary incident, the murder of David Rizzio, which took place within them. Another part of the building, erected in the reign of Charles II., contains the apartments used by George IV. for his levee in 1822, and a suite of rooms which furnished accommodation to Charles X., of France, and his family, during the years 1831, '32, '33. Closely adjoining to the palace, are the ruins of a Gothic church, originally that of the abbey of Holyrood, and latterly a chapel-royal.

The college is a large modern quadrangular building, in the southern quarter of the city. It contains class-rooms for the professors (thirty-three in number), a library of splendid proportions and decoration, and an extensive museum of natural history. The university is chiefly distinguished as a school of medicine; but it is also the means of preparing a great number of the native youth for the professions of law and divinity. The Register house is a beautiful building, planned by Adam, in a conspicuous part of the New Town: it contains the records connected with the legal business of the country. The Royal institution is the general appellation of an elegant building facing the centre of Princes street, and containing halls for various public bodies, as the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, the Scottish academy of painting and sculpture, and an academy for instruction in drawing. Of places of worship, the most remarkable are St. Giles's church in the Old town (once the cathedral), a Gothic building of the fifteenth century, lately renovated; the Trinity college church, also a Gothic building, founded by the queen of James II. of Scotland; St. George's, St. Stephen's, and St. Andrew's, modern churches of the establishment; and St. Paul's and St. John's, elegant Gothic chapels

of the episcopalian body. There are two Roman catholic chapels, and many dissenting places of worship. Of the other public buildings, the most remarkable are the Infirmary; the hospitals for the maintenance and education of poor children, of which Heriot's is the most elegant; the Surgeons' and Physicians' halls; and the offices of the bank of Scotland and Royal bank. On the Calton hill are situated some other public structures, as the county jail and Bridewell, monuments to Nelson, Dugald Stewart, and Professor Playfair, an astronomical observatory, and a small portion of a building designed as a national monument to the Scotchmen who perished in the last war, but which will probably never be completed. The population of Edinburgh in 1831, was one hundred and thirty-six thousand three hundred and

one.

Leith, the seaport town of Edinburgh, and recently constituted an independent parliamentary burgh, is situated at the efflux of the rivulet of the same name, which originally constituted its harbor. The older part of the town is crowded and mean, but in the outskirts there are some good streets. The town is connected with Edinburgh by a broad and beautiful road, above a mile in length, denominated Leith walk. Besides the quays skirting the embouchure of the river, there is a range of wet-docks; but the harbor, after vast efforts to improve it, continues to labor under several strong natural disqualifications. During spring tides, the utmost depth of water on the bar at the mouth of the river is seventeen feet-during neap tides, fourteen feet; and it is rarely that a vessel of four hundred tons can gain admission. The want of deep water at Leith is partly supplied by a harbor at Newhaven, a stonepier at Granton, and a chain-pier at Trinity, which serve as places of embarkation and debarkation for steamers and other vessels devoted chiefly to passengers. The chief foreign trade of Leith is with the ports in the Baltic and north of Europe; next to this in importance ranks its intercourse with the West Indies. But the imports of Leith are chiefly for local consumption, and bear little reference to the great manufacturing business of the country. For the coasting trade there are various companies, each of which has several vessels in employment. Among the ports with which regular intercourse is carried on by steam, may be mentioned London, Hull, Newcastle, Aberdeen, and Rotterdam. The tonnage belonging to Leith is on the decline it was, in 1826, 25,674; in 1832, 23,094; in 1835, 22,073. The amount of tonnage which entered the harbor in 1835 was 340,540. The gross amount of customhouse duties in 1834 was 386,9057. In Leith there are several breweries, a sugar-refining establishment, and several manufactories of soap, candles, ropes, and glass. The customhouse, an elegant modern building, is the seat of the board of customs for Scotland. In 1831 the population of Leith was twenty-five thousand eight hundred and fifty five. The town, in union with Newhaven, Portobello, and Musselburgh, returns a member to parliament.

Glasgow, the most populous city in Scotland, occupies a highly advantageous situation on the banks of the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, a few miles from the place where the river expands into an estuary, forty-two miles from Edinburgh, three hundred and ninety-seven from London, and one hundred and ninety-six from Dublin. The external appearance of this great city is elegant and impressive. The streets are regular in arrangement, and substantially built of smooth stone. The public buildings are in general handsome, and, in most instances, disposed in such a manner as to be seen to advantage. The more ancient part of the city extends along the line of the High street, between the cathedral and the river; the more modern and elegant part stretches toward the northwest. On the left bank of the river, and connected by three bridges, is situated the populous barony of Gorbals, bearing the same reference to Glasgow which Southwark bears to London. Westward from the lowest of the bridges, both sides of the river are formed into quays, which, owing to recent operations for deepening the channel, are now approached by vessels drawing about fourteen or fifteen feet water. The quay on the right or north bank is denominated Broomielaw; it has recently been extended to three thousand three hundred and forty feet in length, while that on the south bank is one thousand two hundred and sixty feet.

Glasgow took its rise as a dependency of the cathedral of the bishops (latterly archbishops) of the see bearing its name. It was not, however, till long after the reformation, that it became a seat of considerable population. About the middle of the eighteenth century, it had acquired a considerable share of the import colonial trade, which it still retains; but, during the last seventy years, it has chiefly been