p by the people come to the fair.
Lodged in a private house, a neat clean place--kind treatment from the
old man and his daughter.

* * * * *

_Thursday_, _September_ 15_th_.--Breakfasted at Linlithgow, a small town.
The house is yet shown from which the Regent Murray was shot. The
remains of a royal palace, where Queen Mary was born, are of considerable
extent; the banks of gardens and fish-ponds may yet be distinctly traced,
though the whole surface is transformed into smooth pasturage where
cattle graze. The castle stands upon a gentle eminence, the prospect not
particularly pleasing, though not otherwise; it is bare and wide. The
shell of a small ancient church is standing, into which are crammed
modern pews, galleries, and pulpit--very ugly, and discordant with the
exterior. Nothing very interesting till we came to Edinburgh. Dined by
the way at a small town or village upon a hill, the back part of the
houses on one side overlooking an extensive prospect over flat corn
fields. I mention this for the sake of a pleasant hour we passed sitting
on the bank, where we read some of Burns's poems in the volume which we
had bought at Stirling.

Arrived at Edinburgh a little before sunset. As we approached, the
Castle rock resembled that of Stirling--in the same manner appearing to
rise from a plain of cultivated ground, the Firth of Forth being on the
other side, and not visible. Drove to the White Hart in the
Grass-market, an inn which had been mentioned to us, and which we
conjectured would better suit us than one in a more fashionable part of
the town. It was not noisy, and tolerably cheap. Drank tea, and walked
up to the Castle, which luckily was very near. Much of the daylight was
gone, so that except it had been a clear evening, which it was not, we
could not have seen the distant prospect.

* * * * *

_Friday_, _September_ 6_th_.--The sky the evening before, as you may
remember the ostler told us, had been 'gay and dull,' and this morning it
was downright dismal: very dark, and promising nothing but a wet day, and
before breakfast was over the rain began, though not heavily. We set out
upon our walk, and went through many streets to Holyrood House, and
thence to the hill called Arthur's Seat, a high hill, very rocky at the
top, and below covered with smooth turf, on which sheep were feeding. We
climbed up till we came to St. Anthony's W