is not very exact, unless we imagine the sides of the wedge to be bevelled off, so as to make practicable slopes from the ridge to the hollows on the north and south. The ridge lies very nearly east and west, having the Castle at the west end, and Holyrood at the east. This west end reaches an elevation of nearly 400 feet above the level of the sea, and consists of rude, rough, time-resisting rock. The rock is bare and inaccessible on the west; it has slopes of almost impracticable descent on the north and south; but on the east it communicates with the sloping street-the ridge of the wedge-which descends to Holyrood, upwards of a mile distant, in a straight line.

This wedge-shaped elevation is bounded on the north and south by hollows or valleys, which separate it from other elevated ridges or hills still further to the north and south. These are not hills in the same sense as the Castle or central hill, being much less lofty and prominent; but it will be convenient to adopt the term. The southern hill rises gradually from the south valley, and then spreads away imperceptibly to the level of the surrounding country; the northern hill rises by a slope from the north valley, and then declines again towards the sea at Leith and Granton. Westward of the Castle Hill the

ground is pretty level, having less ascent than to the north and south. Eastward of the northern hill lies Calton Hill, separated from it by a valley; while eastward of the southern hill is Salisbury Crag, separated from it by a pleasant, open, green spot. Arthur's Seat is still further east than Salisbury Crag, having an intervening deep valley, called the Hunter's Bog.

As

We therefore find that there are six elevated spots, to which the designation of 'hills' may, without much impropriety, be given, and four or five valleys, that separate these hills one from another. The buildings of Edinburgh occupy four of these hills and three of these valleys; while the other two hills furnish the most glorious vicinity to a city, in respect to prospect and healthy exercise, that can be imagined. these valleys or hollows are such as would shame our Holborn-hill or Ludgate-hill, in regard to steepness, the reader may ask whether the streets follow all the windings of hill and valley, and whether horses and vehicles can surmount these difficulties? We shall by-and-by explain in how picturesque a way this matter has been managed, and how the hills are linked together, in spite of the valleys beneath.

It will readily be imagined that these hills and valleys have been brought within the limits of Edin

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burgh by degrees. "Rome was not built in a day;" nor was Edinburgh. The Castle Hill, and a portion of the slopes leading thence down to the north and south valleys, formed the city of Edinburgh long before the north and south hills were built upon; the latter were 'out in the fields" until a comparatively recent period. Wherever there is a very ancient castle, in or near any of our old towns, we may in most cases safely infer that the castle was the nucleus of the town, and that the town spread out by degrees from the base of the castle. Edinburgh is no exception to this rule. The Old Castle was the centre-the heart, from which all else has sprung. Its arteries have ramified north, south, east, and west; it has seen the picturesque quaintness of the old town, the sober comfort of the south town, the architectural splendour of the north town; and the old black rock yet rears its head as proudly as ever, defying both man and time: the railway whistle is heard round its very base, and the steam of the locomotive condenses on its rugged sides, but the Castle Rock still maintains most of its old features.

The mode in which Edinburgh has spread out from the Castle as a centre, will be best understood by a rapid glance at the social history of the city. This we shall therefore give, before inviting the reader to a topographical ramble through it.

In the seventh century the southern part of Scotland belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria; and one of the sovereigns of that kingdom, Edwin, built a fort on the site of the present Castle. Thus is said to have originated the appellation DUN EDIN, the Celtic name for Edinburgh, meaning the Hill of Edwin; the Anglo-Saxon name was EDWINSBURGH, whence the modern designation. It is, however, the opinion of antiquaries who have studied these matters, that a fort or castle existed on this hill before the arrival of the Romans in Britain. A few scattered notices are met with in early annalists and historians, from which we learn that, by about the year 854, a tolerably large village had grown up around the base of the Castle. In 1093, we find the Castle to have been a place of refuge for the widow and children of Malcolm Canmore, and to have been besieged by Donald Bane, the brother of Canmore, and the usurper of his throne.

By the reign of David I., in the twelfth century, Edinburgh had become an important Scottish town, and had been erected into a burgh, although it consisted of mean thatched houses. William the Lion frequently resided at the Castle. In 1215 Edinburgh acquired a higher degree of importance, from being made the scene of the first Parliament appointed by Alexander II.; and, twenty years afterwards, it was further made the scene of a provincial synod by the Pope's legate. Alexander III. made the Castle the depository of the regalia and archives. During the fourteenth century, Edinburgh, with its castle and its palace of Holyrood, was involved in the turmoils arising out of the successive attacks of the English Edwards. One incident

of those times gives us the intimation that St. Mary's Wynd, still existing as an offshoot from the Highstreet, was known by its present name so far back as 1336. When Scotland was freed from these hostile excursions Edinburgh became a more important place than at any former period. Robert Bruce bestowed on the burgh the harbour and mills of Leith. Before the end of the same century it was confessedly the chief town in Scotland, though not nominally the capital; parliaments were frequently held there, and a Mint was established for coinage. In 1384, Edinburgh is described by Froissart to have contained about 4,000 houses; but these were of so poor a character that they could not accommodate a company of French knights who about that time visited it. In the next following year the whole town was reduced to ashes by Richard II., except the Castle; so that we may consider this as a point of division between two distinct parts of the town's history. The poor houseless inhabitants were permitted to raise habitations within shelter of the Castle walls.

During the first half of the fifteenth century Edinburgh gradually recovered from the disasters of the fourteenth; and when James I. of Scotland died in 1436, it became in name what it had long been in effect, the capital of the country. Before this time, Perth and Stirling had disputed with it the palm of superiority; but when James I. was murdered, his son James II., then a mere boy, was enthroned in Edinburgh, as possessing the strongest castle, and as being best able to defend him from the ambitious nobles who distracted Scotland at that period. James II., III., and IV., during the latter half of the same century, granted to Edinburgh many privileges, which still more enhanced its importance as the Scottish metropolis. Permission to fortify the town with a wall, and to levy a tax to defray the cost; exemption of burgesses from the payment of any duties, except a petty custom; a grant of all the Vale between Craigend Gate on the east, and the highway leading to Leith on the west; a grant of the 'haven silver' and customs on ships entering the roadstead and harbour of Leith; a charter establishing the sites of its markets-these were some of the favours granted to the royal city.

There seems every reason for believing that Edinburgh, in the middle of the fifteenth century, comprised only the main line of street from the Castle to Holyrood,-the upper surface of the wedge, and a portion of the north and south slopes, leading down to the adjacent valleys. But about that period the town began to extend its limits. The wall was built in 1450, and included very little more than the present High-street, from the Castle to the Canongate; but by the year 1513 a much larger area was included within the city boundary. The wall, at this latter date, proceeded from the Castle, southward, to near the present site of Heriot's Hospital; then in a crooked line, eastward, to a lane or street called Pleasance; and then northward, by St. Mary's Wynd and Leith Wynd, to the open ground forming the northern valley.

The lower portion of the main artery of street, from west to east, did not at that time belong to Edinburgh Proper. David I. founded the Abbey of Holyrood in the twelfth century, in the low ground lying east of the city. The abbot and monks, in order to connect themselves with Edinburgh, planned a line of street from their Abbey, up the slope of the wedge-shaped hill, till it joined the High-street of Edinburgh in a continuous line: this street received the name of the Canongate, and was constituted a burgh distinct from Edinburgh.

For nearly two centuries and a half subsequent to the year 1513 Edinburgh maintained almost precisely the same external limits; but she gained in height what she required in surface. Before the boundary of the first wall was passed, the north and south slopes, declining from the central ridge, were crowded with tenements as dense as they could be packed, separated only by closes, wynds, or courts, so narrow that one might wonder how light, and air, and sunshine, could gain access to them; and these houses were raised higher and higher, by the building of additional 'flats' or stories, before the suburbs were built upon. There was a reason for this, which no longer meets the eye. The north and south valleys were morasses or lochs, which required to be drained before houses could be there constructed. The southern morass was drained between the two dates above given. There were formed the streets now known as the Cowgate and the Grass-market, mostly inhabited, at that time, by the wealthier classes. The closes, or wynds, extended down the slope from the High-street to the Cowgate; while at a short distance southward of the latter commenced the ascent of what we have termed the southern hill.

When James V. of Scotland ascended the English throne as James I., it was expected that Edinburgh would lose most of her nobility, who would follow the Court to London. But this occurred only to a limited extent. The Scotch nobles were too poor to shine with advantage at the English Court, and too proud to submit to disadvantageous comparisons: they therefore, for the most part, remained at their houses in the district of the Canongate, except an occasional visit to

After the departure of the Duke of York from Edinburgh, the city remained in a dull and stagnant position for a long time. Had he stayed there a few years longer, the city might have received some one of those large extensions which have only been adopted in later times. A project was brought forward for extending the royalty, and for building a bridge over the northern valley, in order to connect the central hill with the northern hill. The duke gave all reasonable countenance to these projects, and in all probability they would actually have been carried out; but their patron was removed, and Edinburgh was, for many years afterwards, a neglected city.

The Union, in the early part of the eighteenth century, took away a good many of the nobility from Edinburgh. The Parliament and the. Privy Council were both transferred to London: the wealthier inhabitants came to enjoy the sunshine of Court favour in London; and the Canongate, more than any other part of the city, became deserted by those who had formed its main stay and support. Edinburgh then had an extremely dull half century. The English Court treated Scotland with undeserved neglect; and the two revolutions of 1715 and 1745 were almost the only incidents which drew the attention of the English towards Edinburgh. Under these circumstances, any notable extension of the town was out of the question; there was neither spirit, nor wealth, nor population, to induce any large plans of civic improvement. Very few strangers came among them: the townsmen all knew each other, as those of a small country town do at the present day. There were neither political nor commercial events of any importance observable in the city; and the people seem to have acquired a cold, dull, formal, morose demeanour, suitable to the stagnant place in which they lived. In short, this has been designated the Dark Age of Edinburgh.

The year 1745 brought about a new order of things. When the pretensions of the house of Stuart were finally set aside by the defeat of the Young Pretender, many circumstances occurred to give new life to Edinburgh. The feudal system of Scotland died out; manufacturing and commercial industry began to develop itself; and the inhabitants seemed to awake out of a lethargy. An old house happened to fall down