are healthy and promising, and are kept thoroughly
clear of weeds. I infer that they are mainly grown for feeding cattle,
and this seems a good idea, since they can be harvested in defiance of
rain and mist, which is rather more difficult with Hay. They become more
and more abundant as we approach this city, and are grown up to its very
doors. Heavy stone walls laid in mortar and copses or little forests of
Oak are among the characteristics of the rural district around
Edinburgh, whereof the culture is widely famed for its excellence. The
only Scottish town of any note we pass is Dunbar, by the sea-side,
though Dunse, Haddington and Dalkeith lie but a few miles inland from
our road, with which they are connected by branches. We reached this
city about 3 P. M. or in five hours from Newcastle, 130 miles.

EDINBURGH.

I knew this was a city of noble and beautiful structures, but the
reality surpasses my expectation. The old town was mainly built in a
deep valley running northward into the Firth of Forth, with the Royal
Palace of Holyrood in its midst, the port of Leith on the Firth a few
miles northward, and the Castle on a commanding crag overlooking the old
town from the west. The Canongate and High-street lead up to the
esplanade of the Castle from the east, but its other sides are
precipitous and inaccessible, a deep valley skirting it on the north,
while the south end of the old town fills the other side. The former or
more northern valley has for the most part been kept clear of buildings,
the spacious Prince's-street Gardens and the grounds of several
charitable institutions having had possession of it, until they were
recently required to surrender a part for the Railroads running south to
Berwick, &c., and west to Glasgow for a General Depot. Across this deep
valley or chasm, northward, rises the eminence on which the new town of
Edinburgh is constructed, with the deep chasm in which runs the rapid
mill-stream known as the "Water of Leith," separating it from a like,
though lower, hill still further north and west, on which a few fine
buildings and very pleasant gardens are located. The new town is thus
perhaps 150 feet above the old town, a mile and a half long by half a
mile wide, commanding magnificent views of the old town, the port of
Leith, the broad, ocean-like Firth of Forth, and the finely cultivated
country stretching southward; and, as if these were not enough to secure
its salubrity, it has more ga