style, within a walled enclosure. In one of the corners of the wall is a small but neat monumental erection, commemorative of the late PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR. A little lower down the hill, on the south, is a handsome columnar erection, a copy, with variations, from the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, designed to commemorate the late DUGALD STEWART, author of several works on moral philosophy.

Eastward from these erections, and verging on the public road, with a southern exposure, stands the HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH-a splendid edifice, with a considerably projecting pediment. This building was erected after a design by Thomas Hamilton, architect, and cost about £30,000, a considerable portion of which sum was raised by subscription. The High School is an old and much-respected institution, and, as a grammar school, has been attended by many men of celebrity. In former times, the institution occupied a building in the Old Town, and was removed to this handsome new structure about 1828. High School is under the immediate patronage of the TownCouncil.

The

In a conspicuous situation on the opposite side of the road from the High School, stands an edifice, within a railing, commemorative of ROBERT BURNS. This handsome structure was raised by subscription a few years ago. A marble statue of the poet which it once contained has, for the sake of better preservation, been removed to the College library.

The view from the railing in front of the High School, looking westward towards the North Bridge, and southwards towards the back of the Canongate (the tall chimney of the gas-works in the centre of the wildly-broken scene of house-tops), cannot but have a striking effect on strangers. The North British Railway proceeds by a tunnel beneath the hill in this quarter.

Westward, along the Calton Hill road from this spot, on the left-hand side in entering the town, is an extensive suite of castellated buildings erected within a high wall, constituting the PRISON OF EDINBURGH. The edifices are all modern, and their internal arrangements, under the general direction of the Prison Board for Scotland, are as perfect as circumstances will admit of. The establishment is supported by general taxation.

In entering the town from the Calton Hill, we proceed along Waterloo Place a handsome new street, in which are situated, on the southern side, the GENEral Post-OffICE and STAMPOFFICE, both elegant stone erections. Adjoining the Post-office is a small burying-ground of old date, containing the tomb of David Hume the historian: it is a round tower-like structure, conspicuous from its situation. Here also has lately been erected an obelisk called the MARTYRS' MONUMENT, designed to commemorate the sufferings and struggles for civil liberty of Muir, Palmer, and others about the year 1793.

Issuing from Waterloo Place, we have on our left the THEATRE

ROYAL, a building of plain appearance; and on our right, beyond the road which leads to Leith,

THE GENERAL REGISTER-HOUSE OF SCOTLAND.

This consists of a square building with a quadrangular court in the centre, containing a circular structure or tower fifty feet in diameter, which joins the sides of the court, and just leaves sufficient spaces at the four angles for the admission of light into the inner side of the outer edifice. To the spectator from the street it presents a compact building of 200 feet in length, by a breadth of 120 feet, possessing an elegant front of smooth ashlar work, with Corinthian pilasters and a pediment above the entrance. Each of the corners is surmounted by a small circular turret, with a clock and vane. From the centre is seen a dome which surmounts the inner structure. The building is two visible storeys in height, with a sunk area flat level with the street, and screened by an enclosing parapet, divided in the middle by a double flight of steps. It stands forty feet back from the line of Princes Street, and, from the felicity of its situation, as well as its tasteful design, it has a much better appearance than any other public building in Edinburgh.

The General Register-House is a depository not only of state papers and public archives connected with Scotland, but of copies or records of all the title-deeds of property, and of every description of legal contracts, mortgages, &c. existing in the country, and by the careful preservation of which innumerable disputes are prevented, and the just rights of every individual are discovered on the slightest examination. Besides the registers of the above nature, the establishment contains records of all suits at law, with the whole of the papers, printed and written, which have been used in actions before the supreme courts for centuries. To the immense collection of registers and papers which has thus been formed, additions are yearly made by the concentration of all the books of registers used in the counties by the sheriffs, by which means the most recent information can always be obtained. The collection of national archives is not of a very perfect kind, and the documents are not very ancient, in consequence of the disasters into which Scotland fell at different periods, the want of proper attention, and accidental losses. A great part of the papers relative to the country in its independent state were carried away by Edward I. and Cromwell. Among other remarkable documents in the establishment are shown the Scottish copy of the Articles of the Union between England and Scotland, with the Act of Ratification of the same. Both consist of several large leaves of vellum, bound in a volume, and highly illuminated with devices in colours and a miniature of Queen Anne. The General Register-House is under the immediate management of the depute clerk register, and is supported by government.

PRINCES STREET.

At

This street, which faces the south, and extends to four-fifths of a mile in length, is reckoned one of the most interesting and cheerful city promenades in Europe. In proceeding along it from either end, the stranger will not fail to be struck, as well as delighted, with the imposing appearance of the Old Town, towering in huge black masses to a great height, and extended towards the castle, which rises to a still greater altitude. night, when lights are seen scattered over the irregular groups of building, the spectacle is even more grand than in the day. The space which intervenes between Princes Street and the Old Town forms a valley, also not without its attractions. In ancient times, as already noticed, it contained a lake (North Loch), which has long since been drained, and the space, including the sloping banks, was latterly laid out as two public gardens, the division between the two being the Earthen Mound. These gardens have been lately intruded upon by the line of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, and some extensive alterations are the consequence; the western garden, however, retains in a great measure its secluded pleasure-ground appearance, and is deserving of a visit from strangers, as the walks are not only pleasant, but offer a close inspection of the precipitous rock on which the castle is situated, also the fragments of some ancient outworks of the fort. The inhabitants of Princes Street are furnished with keys for admission to the garden gratis; to others, a key is charged two guineas per annum.

Within the railing of the eastern garden, and opposite the foot of St David Street, stands that magnificent work of art

THE SCOTT MONUMENT.

This structure consists of a tower or spire in the most elaborate Gothic style of architecture, built from a design of George M. Kemp, a self-taught genius, who unfortunately did not survive to see this creation of his fancy completed. The foundation-stone of this beautiful structure was laid on the 15th of August (the anniversary of Scott's birth) 1840, and the whole was completed and the statue placed August 15, 1846. The height is 200 feet 6 inches, and the total cost, inclusive of the statue, was £15,650; a sum raised by public subscription. In the tower and abutments there are altogether fifty-six niches, designed for figures representing characters alluded to by the novelist and poet. Among others will be noticed the figures of Prince Charles, Meg Merrilees, the Lady of the Lake, Dandie Dinmont, the Last Minstrel, Dominie Sampson, Coeur de Lion, &c. The marble figure of Scott is a fine work of art, reflecting great_credit on the sculptor, Mr John Steell. The likeness is excellent. Strangers may ascend the monument by an inside stair.

ROYAL INSTITUTION.

In a line with the Scott Monument, at the foot of the Earthen Mound, stands the Royal Institution—a building in a heavy Grecian style, with a range of Doric pillars on each side, and a double row in front to Princes Street, supporting a pediment. Owing to the unreasonable opposition of the Princes Street proprietors, the structure has been kept too low; and it is not less objectionable from being placed directly in the thoroughfare from Hanover Street to the Mound. The interior accommodations are a large central hall for exhibitions of pictures, and various lesser apartments devoted generally to purposes connected with the arts. As an association, the Royal Institution was established in 1819, and incorporated by royal charter in 1827, for the purpose of encouraging the fine arts in Scotland.

Within the building are the offices of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES —an establishment instituted in the early part of last century for the encouragement of manufactures in Scotland; it is supported by an annual revenue of between £7000 and £8000, the result of certain endowments from government. Latterly, from the general advance of the arts and manufactures, the institution has confined itself principally to the improvement of artistic talent. It possesses and encourages a school of drawing and design, the first which was instituted in the United Kingdom; and in connexion with this academy there is a gallery of casts of the finest sculptures, ancient and modern. This gallery is open to the public, and is exceedingly worthy of a visit.

The apartments of the ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH are within the Royal Institution building, west side. On the summit of the building, over the pediment, a colossal figure of Queen Victoria, in a sitting posture, has lately been placed.

The upper part of the Mound has hitherto been defaced by various temporary wooden erections; but the ground is here soon to be cleared; and in a commanding situation at top, blending with the edifices of the Old Town, is now in course of erection the Free Church University; a structure which, it is anticipated, will greatly beautify this part of the city.

WEST END OF THE TOWN.

At the western extremity of Princes Street is situated St John's chapel, a handsome edifice in the Gothic style of architecture, belonging to the Scottish Episcopal communion. The barn-like structure with a pointed spire, in the low ground adjoining, is the church of St Cuthbert's-a populous suburban parish.

Westward from this locality, towards the entrance to the town by the Glasgow road, are some of the more elegant mansions of modern Edinburgh-as those of Athole and Coates' Crescents,

1.

Melville Street, &c. These, however, are usually considered to be inferior to the houses of Moray Place, Ainslie Place, Great Stuart Street, and Randolph Crescent-situated to the northwest, and reached by crossing Charlotte Square to the head of Queen Street. Of three or four storeys in height, massive in bulk, and with embellished fronts of fine sandstone, the houses in these districts have a magnificent effect, and convey an idea of great durability. The stranger will of course walk through this fashionable quarter of the town; nor, when so far, will he omit to visit what is close at hand

THE DEAN BRIDGE.

This is a bridge of four arches, crossing the small river called the Water of Leith, at the height of 106 feet above the bed of the stream, built from a design of the late Mr Telford. The structure is light and elegant, and the view from the parapet down on the deep defile which it spans over is charmingly picturesque. At the bottom of the dell, on the east, is seen a Grecian temple-like -St Bernard's Well, locally famed for its mineral waters. On the west is an ancient village, the Water of Leith, a curious jumble of mills and dwellings of a mean order. The road along the Dean Bridge leads to Queensferry and the north of Scotland.

structure

GEORGE STREET-ST ANDREW SQUARE.

George Street, which extends from Charlotte Square on the west to St Andrew Square on the east, being of the older part of the New Town, is much less elegant in architecture than the new streets and places adjacent; still, from its breadth and length, it is a fine street, and with St George's church (a St Paul's in miniature) at its western extremity, the effect as a piece of street scenery is considerably beyond the average. Within the last twenty years, many of the houses have been transformed into shops, and the original character of the street has been further infringed upon by the erection of two statues in bronze, on pedestals, both by Chantrey: one is the figure of William Pitt, at the spot where George Street is intersected by Frederick Street; the other is that of George IV., at the intersection of Hanover Street.

The stranger may be interested in knowing that the house No. 39 Castle Street (within two doors of George Street), is that in which Sir Walter Scott resided for many years of his married life-the "dear 39" which he affectingly speaks of being obliged to part with. Here was written many of the Waverley novels and other productions. The house is now occupied by Mr Macvey Napier, editor of the Edinburgh Review.

In the division of George Street between Frederick Street and Hanover Street, south side, is a building with a projecting pediment, forming the ASSEMBLY ROOMS, for balls and other festive