rdens and public squares than any other
city of its size in the world. Its streets are broad and handsome; its
houses built almost wholly of stone, and I never saw so many good ones
with so few indifferent. If I were to choose from all the world a city
wherein to make an effort for longevity, I would select the new town of
Edinburgh; but I should prefer to live fewer years where there is more
sunshine.

Public Monuments would seem to be the grand passion of the Edinburghers.
The most conspicuous are those of Lord Nelson on Calton Hill (next to
the Castle, if not before it, the most commanding location in the city)
and of Walter Scott on Prince's-street, nearly opposite the Castle,
across the glen, in full sight of all who arrive in Edinburgh by
Railroad, as also from the Castle and its vicinity, as well as from the
broad and thronged street beside which it is located. But there are
Monuments also to Pitt, to Lord Melville, and some twenty or thirty
other deceased notables. These are generally located in the higher
squares or gardens which wisely occupy a large portion of the
ground-plot of the new town. Public Hospitals and Infirmaries are also a
prominent feature of the Scottish capital, there being several spacious
and fine edifices devoted to the healing of the sick, most if not all of
them founded and endowed by private munificence. There are several
Bridges across the two principal and more on the secondary or cross
valleys, ravines or gorges which may well attract attention. These
Bridges are often several hundred feet long, and from thirty to eighty
feet high, and you look down from their roadway upon the red-tiled roofs
of large eight or nine-story houses beside and below them. Nearly or
quite every house in Edinburgh is built of stone, which is rather
abundant in Scotland, and often of a fair, free, easily worked quality.
Many even of the larger houses, especially in the old town, are built
of coarse, rough, undressed stone, often of round, irregular boulders,
made to retain the places assigned them by dint of abundant and
excellent mortar. In the better buildings, however, the stone is of a
finer quality, and handsomely cut, though almost entirely of a brown or
dark gray color. The winding drive to the summit of Calton Hill, looking
down upon large, tall, castle-like houses of varied material and
workmanship, with the prospect from the summit, are among the most
impressive I have seen in Europe.

I was inter