. We were shown its dungeons and its Court of Lions,
where, says tradition, wild animals, kept in the grated cells
adjacent, were brought out on festival occasions to furnish
entertainment for the court. So, while lords and ladies gay danced and
sang above, prisoners pined and wild beasts starved below. This, at
first blush, looks like a very barbarous state of things, but, on
reflection, one does not find that we have outgrown it in our present
so-called state of refined civilization, only the present way of
expressing the same facts is a little different. Still lords and
ladies dance and sing, unknowing or uncaring that the laborers who
minister to their luxuries starve or are turned into wild beasts. Man
need not boast his condition, methinks, till he can weave his costly
tapestry without the side that is kept under looking thus sadly.

The tournament ground is still kept green and in beautiful order, near
Stirling castle, as a memento of the olden time, and as we passed
away down the beautiful Firth, a turn of the river gave us a very
advantageous view of it. So gay it looked, so festive in the bright
sunshine, one almost seemed to see the graceful forms of knight and
noble pricking their good steeds to the encounter, or the stalwart
Douglas, vindicating his claim to be indeed a chief by conquest in the
rougher sports of the yeomanry.

Passing along the Firth to Edinburgh, we again passed two or three
days in that beautiful city, which I could not be content to leave
so imperfectly seen, if I had not some hope of revisiting it when the
bright lights that adorn it are concentred there. In summer almost
every one is absent. I was very fortunate to see as many interesting
persons as I did. On this second visit I saw James Simpson, a
well-known philanthropist, and leader in the cause of popular
education. Infant schools have been an especial care of his, and
America as well as Scotland has received the benefit of his thoughts
on this subject. His last good work has been to induce the erection
of public baths in Edinburgh, and the working people of that place,
already deeply in his debt for the lectures he has been unwearied
in delivering for their benefit, have signified their gratitude by
presenting him with a beautiful model of a fountain in silver as an
ornament to his study. Never was there a place where such a measure
would be more important; if cleanliness be akin to godliness,
Edinburgh stands at great disadvan