r the two masses of Arthur's Seat and the ranges of
the Pentlands, has a chain of blue mountains higher than the haughtiest
peaks of your Highlands; and which, for your far-away Ben Ledi and Ben
More, has the great central chain of the St. Gothard Alps: and yet, as
you go out of the gates, and walk in the suburban streets of that
city--I mean Verona--the eye never seeks to rest on that external
scenery, however gorgeous; it does not look for the gaps between the
houses, as you do here; it may for a few moments follow the broken line
of the great Alpine battlements; but it is only where they form a
background for other battlements, built by the hand of man. There is no
necessity felt to dwell on the blue river or the burning hills. The
heart and eye have enough to do in the streets of the city itself; they
are contented there; nay, they sometimes turn from the natural scenery,
as if too savage and solitary, to dwell with a deeper interest on the
palace walls that cast their shade upon the streets, and the crowd of
towers that rise out of that shadow into the depth of the sky.

[Illustration: Plate I. (Fig. 1., Fig. 3., Fig. 5.)]

2. _That_ is a city to be proud of, indeed; and it is this kind of
architectural dignity which you should aim at, in what you add to
Edinburgh or rebuild in it. For remember, you must either help your
scenery or destroy it; whatever you do has an effect of one kind or the
other; it is never indifferent. But, above all, remember that it is
chiefly by private, not by public, effort that your city must be
adorned. It does not matter how many beautiful public buildings you
possess, if they are not supported by, and in harmony with, the private
houses of the town. Neither the mind nor the eye will accept a new
college, or a new hospital, or a new institution, for a city. It is the
Canongate, and the Princes Street, and the High Street that are
Edinburgh. It is in your own private houses that the real majesty of
Edinburgh must consist; and, what is more, it must be by your own
personal interest that the style of the architecture which rises around
you must be principally guided. Do not think that you can have good
architecture merely by paying for it. It is not by subscribing liberally
for a large building once in forty years that you can call up architects
and inspiration. It is only by active and sympathetic attention to the
domestic and every-day work which is done for each of you, that you can
ed