Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-05-20
SATURDAY, MAY 90, 1926.
EDINBURGH.

"Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk," contain
many a vigorous and original sketch. The fol.
lowing partakes Of both these qualities, and
will interest our readers, especially such as have
not met with it before.
should be very much at loss, II were
obliged TO say positively, either at what hour
or from what point Of view, the external ap'
pearance of this city is productive Of the no.
blest effect walk round and round it, and
survey 1t from east, west, north and south,
and every where it assumes some new and glo-
rious aspect, which delights me so much at the
moment, that ann inclined to think i have at
last hit upon the true station from whence TO
survey its beauties. A few steps bring me to
some new eminence, from which some yet wide
& more diversified picture ofits magni6cence O.
pens itself to my eyes, perhaps TO some
winding ravine, the dark and precipitous sides
Of which, while they shut out much Of this
imposing expanse of magnitude, from deep
and concentrated frame work, in whose centre
some one isolated fragment assumes charac-
ter Of sublimity, that seems almost to throw
the wider field of variety and splendor into
temporary shade. have at last given up
the attempt, and am contented to let my adj
mration be as impartial as the charm is uni
yersal.
In every point Of view, however, the main
centre OF attraction is the Castle of Edinburgh.
From whatever side you approach the city
whether by water or by land-whether your
foreground consist Of height or of plain, of
heath, OF trees, or of the buildings of the city
itseii-this gigantic rock lifts itself high above
ankat surrounds it, and breaks upon the sky
WIN the same commanding blackness OF min
gled crags, cliffs, buttresses and battements
These. indeed, shift and vary their outline at
every step, but every where there is the same
unp,oved effect ofgeneral expression--ehe same
lofty and imposing image, to which the eye
turns with the same unquestioning worship
Whether you pass on the southern side, close
under the bare and shattered blocks Of granite,
where the crumbling turrets on the summit
seem as if they had shot out OF the kindred rock
IN some fantastic freak of Natue--and where,
amidst the overhanging mass of darkness, you
vainly endeavor TO descry the track by which
Wallace scaled-or whethervou look from the
north, where the rugged cliffs find room for
some scany patches of moss and broom, to di-
yersify their barren grey-and where the whole
mass is softened into beauty by the wild green
glen which intervenes between the spectator
and its observation-disclosures you are placed,
and however ii is viewed, you feel at once that
here is the eve Of the landscape, and the essence
OF the grandeur.
Neither is 1t possible to say under what sky
or atmosphere all this appears to the greatest
advantage. The heavens may put on what as
pect they choose, they never fail to adorn il.
Changes that elsewhere deform the face Of ma
ture, and rob her Of half her beauty, seem 10
pass this ma leslie surface only to dress out
its majesty in some new apparel Of magni6-
cence. Ii the air is cloudless and serene, what
can be finer tkan the calm reposing dignity of
those old towers; every delicate angle of the ifs
sured rock; every loop-hole aud every lineament
seen clearly & distinctly in all their minuteness?
or, if the mist be wrealhed around the basis of
the rock, aud frowning fragments of the clta-
del emerge only here and there from out the
raking clouds thai envelope them, the mystery
and the gloom only rivet the eye the faster, and
half baffied imagination does more than the
work OF sight. AT times, the whole detail is
lost to the eye-one murkey tinge of impene-
trable brown wraps rocks and fortress from the
root to the summit-all is lost but the outline;
but the outline atones abundantly for all thar is
lost The cold glare of The sun, plunging slow
ly down into melancholy west beyond them,
makes all the broken labyrinth Of towers, bat
teries, and house tops, paint their heavy breath
in ten-fold sable magnitude upon that lurid can
vaSs.
A, break OF day how beautiful is the fr esh-
ness with which the venerable pile appears TO
rouse itself from its sleep, and look up once
more with bright eye into the sharp and dewy
air! Al the grim and sultry hour" of noon,
with what langui6 grandeur the broad flag
seems to Zap its long weight or folds above the
glowing battlements. When the daylight
goes down in purple glory, what lines of gold
creep along the hoary brow of its antique
strength! When the whole heaven is deluged,
and the winds are roaring 6ercely, and snow
and hail, and stormy vapour" are let loose to
make war upon his front, with what an air of
pride does the veteran citadel brave all their
wellkuown wrath, "cased in the unfeeling ar
mour Of old time!" The capitol itself is but a
Pigmy 10 this giant.
But here, as every where, moonlight is the
best. Wherever spend the evening, / must
always walk homewards by the long line OF
Princes street; and along all that spacious line,
The midnight shadows of the Castle-rock forev-
er spread themselves forth, and wrap the ground
on which tread in their broad repose Of black
ness. 1t is notPossible 10 imagine more ma