Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Scotland —> Next]

Passage Illustrated: "The Old Town" of "Edina, Scotia's Darling Seat"

THE City of Edinburgh, like that of London, lies by no means in the heart of the country of which it is the metropolis; and this cause, with others, may be supposed to have made it in several respects less representative of Scotland as a whole, than it would otherwise have been. Many of our excellent readers, born within the sound of Bow bells, who have never ventured farther than Margate or Brighton, and who know Scotland mainly through occasional pictures in "Punch" or through the newspapers, will be surprised to know that the inhabitants of Edinburgh do not wear "kilts," nor do they play the bagpipes. Indeed, the aspect of Edinburgh generally is much like that of the better class of English uniform culture and refinement ; wUh just that peculiar aroma of pnd and haughtiness which seems to hint that it has seen better days. For, after all in some measure the glory has departed from it, and, politically and socially, it is not what it once was. You cannot walk through it without feeling this. The Castle frowns over you from its grey height; for is it not turned into soldiers barracks, and does not the crown, with many another ensign of royalty, rest within its walls, a thing for tourists to look at, and for historians to dream over! Holyrood, once the scene of many a merry gathering, knows nothing of its old grandeur, scarcely recognising it even in the shows and levees of the "Lord High Commissioner" during the sittings of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland: and the squalid courts of the Canongate and the grimy closes of the High-street tell only by carved doorways here, and chiselled coats-of-arms there, of the days that have been. Is it wonderful, then, that the children of this mother-city walk her streets with an air of dignity, as those who claim a long lineage and a grand history?

But, unlike many cities which one could name, Edinburgh has not contented herself with sitting in the dust and singing a Miserere over departed glories; accepting the fact that the old cannot come again, she has built a "new town" for her children on her northern side, and the gay and bright — shall we not say matchless? — promenade of Princes-street looks across its gardens (once the Nor' Loch) toward the ancient town, as if to challenge the complaint that " the former days were better than these." And thus, in Edinburgh, old and new have come to stand face to face, the one beautiful even in decay, the other fresh and fair, to offer to many a quiet student studies in that law according — to which "the old order changeth, giving place to new." It makes us think of the two well-known rows of stained-glass windows in the great Cathedral of Cologne, the one old and grand with a manner of stiff, yet simple, majesty; the other born of these latter days, not indeed so grand, not even so beautiful, yet withal bright and rich in colour. ["Edina, Scotia's Darling Seat," pp. 9-10]

Near to this point [Buccleuch Pend, associated with poet Robbie Burns] is a break in the ancient street, Bank-street striking down toward the New Town, and George IV. Bridge, in an opposite direction toward Lauriston; and then we come to what may well be named the heart of ancient Edinburgh — to what indeed Scott has called "The Heart of Midlothian." Here is the Parliament House, here the Cathedral Church of St. Giles, and the Tolbooth, which Scott has made immortal. ["From Castle to Palace," continued, 31]

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?].

---

Victorian
Web

Visual
Arts

Illus-
tration

Scotland

Next

Created 1 June 2025