"The Cowgate," Edinburgh (1887?)

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The Cow Gate

Picturesque Scotland: Its Romantic Scenes & Historical Associations Described in Lay and Legend, Song and Story

1887?

Three-quarter-page composite woodblock engraving

14.3 cm high x 9.2 cm wide (5 ⅝ by 3 ⅝ inches), p. 29, framed.

[Click on illustration to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Reminiscences of Dr. Samuel Johnson in "The Old Town" (1775)

Cowgate, framed composite woodblock engraving, dropped into the text:

We then conducted him [Dr. Samuel Johnson] down the Post-house stairs, Parliament-close, and made him look up from the Cowgate to the highest building in Edinburgh (from which he had just descended), being thirteen floors or stones from the ground being built upon the edge of the hill, and the back wall rising from the bottom of the hill several stories before it comes to a level with the front wall. We proceeded to the College, with the Principal at our head. Dr. Adam Ferguson, whose Essay on the History of Civil Society gives him a respectable place in the ranks of literature, was with us. As the college buildings are indeed very mean, the Principal said to Dr. Johnson that he must give them the same epithet that a Jesuit did when showing a poor college abroad: 'Hae miscricie nostrae.' Dr. Johnson was, however, much pleased with the library, and with the conversation of Dr. James Robertson, professor of oriental languages, the librarian. We talked of Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, and hoped it would be quite faithful. — Johnson: 'Sir, I know not any crime so great that a man could contrive to commit, as poisoning the sources of eternal truth.' ["From Castle to Palace," pp. 29-30]

See also Houses in High-Street p. 27, Close, Canongate, p. 14, in "Edinburgh — A Walk along Princes-Street," and Architecture of The Old Town, Edinburgh: "White Horse Close, "Close in High Street," and "Candlemakers' Row" p. 162.

Bibliography

Watt, Francis M., and Andrew Carter. "From Castle to Palace." Picturesque Scotland: Its Romantic Scenes & Historical Associations Described in Lay and Legend, Song and Story.. London: John M. Murdoch [1887?], pp. 22-39.

Created 7 June 2025