their foundations have been pitched. There is a certain gloomy indistinctness in the formation of these fantastic piles, which leaves the eye, that would scrutinize and penetrate them, unsatisfied and dim with gazing.

In company with the first friend I saw, (of whom more anon,) I proceeded at once to take a look of this superb city from a height, placed just over the point where the old and new parts of the town meet. These two quarters of the city, or rather these two neighbouring but distinct cities, are separated by a deep green valley, which once contained a lake, and which is now crossed at one place by a huge earthen mound, and at another by a magnificent bridge of three arches. This valley runs off towards the æstuary of the Forth, which lies about a mile and a half from the city, and between the city and the sea there rises on each side of it a hill-to the south that called Arthur's Seat-to the north the lower and yet sufficiently commanding eminence on which I now stood-the Calton Hill.

This hill, which rises about 350 feet above the level of the sea, is, in fact, nothing more than a huge pile of rocks covered with a thin coating of soil, and, for the most part, with a beautiful verdure. It has lately been circled

all round with spacious gravelled walks, so that one reaches the summit without the least fatigue. It seems as if you had not quitted the streets, so easy is the ascent; and yet where did streets or city ever afford such a prospect! The view changes every moment as you proceed; yet what grandeur of unity in the general and ultimate impression! At first, you see only the skirts of the New Town, with apparently few pub. lic edifices, to diversify the grand uniformity of their outlines; then you have a rich plain, with green fields, groves, and villas, gradually losing itself in the sea-port town of Edinburgh,-Leith. Leith covers, for a brief space, the margin of that magnificent Frith, which recedes upwards among an amphitheatre of mountains, and opens downward into the ocean, broken everywhere by green and woody isles, excepting where the bare brown rock of the Bass lifts itself above the waters midway to the sea. As you move round, the Frith disappears, and you have Arthur's Seat in your front. In the valley between lies Holyrood, ruined-desolate-but majestic in its desolation. From thence the Old Town stretches its dark shadow-up, in a line to the summit of the Castle rock-a royal residence at either extremity-and all between

an indistinguishable mass of black tower-like structures-the concentrated "walled city," which has stood more sieges than I can tell

of.

Here we paused for a time, enjoying the majestic gloom of this most picturesque of cities. A thick blue smoke hung low upon the houses, and their outlines reposed behind on ridges of purple clouds ;-the smoke, and the clouds, and the murky air, giving yet more extravagant bulk and altitude to those huge strange dwellings, and increasing the power of contrast which met our view, when a few paces more brought us once again upon the New Town-the airy bridge-the bright green vale below and beyond it-and, skirting the line of the vale on either side, the rough crags of the Castle rock, and the broad glare of Prince's Street, that most superb of terraces-all beaming in the open yellow light of the sun-steeples and towers, and cupolas scattered bright beneath our feet-and, far as the eye could reach, the whole pomp and richness of distant commotion-the heart of the city.

Such was my first view of Edinburgh. I descended again into her streets in a sort of stupor of admiration.

Excuse my troubling you with all this, now that I have written it; but do not be alarmed with any fear, lest I should propose to treat you with much more of the same kind of diet. I have no intention to send you a description of

the cities and scenery of Scotland. I refer you semel et simul to Sir John Carr and our dear countryman Mr Pennant. I have always been "a fisher of men ;" and here also, I promise you, I mean to stick to my vocation. enough for the present.

Your's sincerely,

But

P. M.

P. S.-You will observe by the date of my letter, I have already left the Black Bull. I write from one of the most comfortable hotels I ever was in, and have already ascertained the excellence of the port.

pect not; but you have heard of him a thousand times. And yet you may have met him at my rooms, or North's; for I think he determined, after you began to reside. At all events, you remember to have heard me describe his strange eccentric character-his dissolute behaviour during the first years of his residence his extravagant zeal of study afterwards-last of all, the absurdity of his sudden elopement, without a degree, after having astonished the examining mas ters by the splendid commencement of his examination. The man is half-mad in some things; and that is the key of the whole mystery.

W and I were great friends during the