"massy,' ," "close," and "high;" the whole being still more obscured by modern mystery, in its most tangible form of smoke. But, the colours are all definite; note the rainbow band of them-gloomy or dusky red, sable (pure black), amethyst (pure purple), green, and gold -a noble chord throughout."* Turner's best view of Edinburgh (not mentioned, however, by Mr. Ruskin), is considered to be that from Calton Hill. This is the engraved picture, of which the original water-colour is in the collection at Abbotsford.† For my own part, I prefer his view from near St. Anthony's Chapel, having the ruins of the chapel on the left, Holyrood in the valley to the right, and the old and new town, with Calton Hill and the Castle, to fill up the picture. The foreground of Turner's view of Edinburgh in the Vernon collection is so confused and imaginative, that it is barely possible to give it a local habitation and a name.' What with the bastions and batteries, the old chapel, the Parliament Hall, Queen Mary's closet where James the Sixth was born, the Crown room with the Regalia, and Mons Meg-which Sir Walter Scott sarcastically calls the subordinate Palladium'-there is almost as much to see within the Castle as there is from the Castle walls. At one o'clock in the day, too, there is something to hear, although it is only the report of a single gun; but it is an important signal for the regu * Modern Painters, iii. 280. † Another water-colour of Edinburgh 'was exhibited in the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition. It was painted in Turner's 'second style.' His first exhibited picture of Edinburgh was as early as 1801; it was the view of the city 'New Town, Castle, &c., from the Water of Leith.' (See Thornbury's Life of Turner, vol. I. chap. xi. pp. 147, 351, 367, 368. Also, the Catalogue of Turner's works in the Appendix of vol. ii. p. 371.) In one of the Edinburgh pictures, Turner has represented himself helping Sir Walter Scott up Arthur's Seat. THE TIME GUN. * 281 lation of time in Edinburgh, for it is fired by means of electricity, coincidently with the tick of the sixtieth second of the corrected mean time clock in the Royal Observatory, three quarters of a mile distant; and, as the roar of the gun is heard, thus appealing to the ear if not to the eye, the Time-ball on the Nelson monument on Calton Hill drops to the bottom of its mast.† And thus, the Old Town and New are placed en rapport, and in accord on the subject of time. * Professor C. Piazzi Smyth. The flash of the gun and the fall of the time-ball of course communicate the exact second, at whatever distance the state of the atmosphere may render them visible, but allowance has to be made according to distance for the report of the time-gun. Thus, on the top of Arthur's Seat seven seconds elapse before it is heard, and at the shipping ports of Leith and Granton 11 or 12. On the Edinburgh and Leith Directory map circles are traced showing the distances reached by the report at each successive second up to 13; but as, notwithstanding the small charge of powder employed (only 4lb., not to render the effect too startling to inhabitants residing near the Castle), the gun is audible at even about 20 miles' distance in quiet weather, it has been proposed to issue certain sheets of the Ordnance Survey Maps with five-second circles marked. According to a paper lately read before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts by Mr. Daniel Campbell, forester at Wemyss Castle, Fifeshire, the report is distinctly heard along the opposite shores of the Firth of Forth; it penetrates to the centre of the Fife peninsula, the clocks in Markinch, 21 miles distant, being regulated by the gun. IT CHAPTER XXVIII. EDINBURGH THE NEW TOWN. Princes Street-Royal Raptures—The North Bridge—Fall of ́T was a bold but excellent thought to carry the chief street of the New Town of Edinburgh along the level on the summit of the Loch's upper bank, and to build the houses only on the farther side of the street. In this respect, Princes Street is like that portion of Piccadilly that fronts the Park; but unlike Piccadilly in being a level street, and in looking down upon a deep ravine. It is only at its Calton Hill extremity that there are buildings on either hand; and as these structures are either (like the Gaol) of a castellated character, or (like Waterloo Place and the old and new post-offices) assume a palatial appearance, this portion of Princes Street, with its unique termination of the temple-crowned mass of the Calton Hill, is as grand and striking as any street scenery can well be. It was here that, as the writer of Black's 'Guide' reminds us, 'George IV. exclaimed, in royal rapture, "How superb!" Plebeian raptures are probably of a much tamer character; but, at any rate, neither Nob nor Snob could view this street without admiring it, and without commending FALL OF THE BRIDGE. 283 the daring architectural feat of conveying the street across the Calton Hill ravine, and connecting the line of the house-frontage by the open colonnades of the Regent Bridge. Save at this eastern extremity, the whole mile-long stretch of Princes Street is a one-sided street of houses looking southwards over the deep ravine of the Nor' Loch to the massy piles of buildings that form the ridge of the Old Town from Holyrood to the Castle. Two bridges and a mound, that serves the purposes of a bridge, link the north and south banks of the Loch, and join the Old Town to the New. The first bridge is the 'North Bridge,' connecting the Calton Hill end of Princes Street with High Street. The new Post-office -laying the foundation of which was the last public act of the lamented Prince Consort- is now rising on the eastern angle of the fine opening to the bridge opposite the Register Office; and the whole of the bridge, except its central portion, has a range of shops on either hand. The Theatre Royal, a mean-looking building, was removed to make way for the new Postoffice. It was erected two years after the bridge was begun to be built in 1767; and on Thursday, August 3rd, 1769, at half-past eight in the evening, when more than 1,000 persons had barely crossed the bridge, on their return from hearing a sermon by the celebrated Whitfield, the south abutment suddenly gave way, owing to an over-pressure of earth upon the upper parts of the arches, and five persons perished in the ruins. The fall of the bridge was attributed by the enemies of stage performances to an interposition of Providence, ‘in thus graciously permitting the broad way to the temple of Satan to be suddenly buried in ruins.' The bridge itself was not completed till 1772, but the theatre was opened in December 1769, under the management of David Ross, of Covent Garden Theatre, who, in his second season, let the theatre to Foote, who was greatly successful, and in his farce of 'The Minor' gave imitations of Whitfield. The preacher did not like this, and denounced the player from the pulpit in these words: 'However much you all admire Mr. Foote, the devil will one day make a football of him.'* The second bridge, appropriately named the Waverley Bridge,' commences at the Scott monument, and is carried above the Waverley Railway Station and the line, which runs along the bed of the Loch, where no longer three men can be drowned, as happened on February 11th, 1682,†-and tunnels through the Mound beneath the National Gallery. The tunnel was a great engineering difficulty from the loose nature of the débris with which the Mound had been constructed. For many years, not only the Mound, but also the Princes Street bank of the Loch, were grievous eyesores; but since 1830, and more especially during the last twelve years, they have been converted into gardens such as (regard being had to their situation in the very heart of the metropolis) no other city in Europe can show. These gardens are divided into East and West: the East Princes Street Gardens extending from the Waverley bridge to the Mound, and being thrown open to the public; the West Princes Street Gardens being on the other side of the Mound, and reserved for subscribers, although respectable strangers are readily admitted. Both gardens are most scrupulously kept, and are laid out with the greatest taste, the winding walks leading among open * See Somerville's Life and Times, p. 71. Alexander Campbell's Journey from Edinburgh, ii. 270. Scots Magazine, xxxi. 461. † Chambers' Domestic Annals, ii. 434. |