The New era. [volume] ([Portsmouth, Va.]) 1845-1847, 1845-08-18
MIR. BRYANT'S LETTERS.

Mr.. Bryant, of the New York Evening Post,
is in Europe. and writing letters home. We
have given specimen of Willis's correspondence
here is sketch from Bryant He is in Edin-
burg. and having described the natural and arti-
hclal advantages and beauties of the city he gives
us the following as true picture of part of its
personnel:
" From this magnfcence Of nature and art the
transition was painful TO what saw of the poorer
population. On Saturday evening found my
self at the market, which is then held IN Hrh
street and the Netherbow, just as You enter the
Canongate, and where the old wooden ef1ry of
John Knox. with staring black eyes freshly paint
ed every year, stands IN its pulpit and still seems
preaching to the crowd Hither a throng of sick
ly-looklng, dirty people, bringing with them
their unhealthy children, had crawled from the
narrow wyands alleys on each side of the
street. We entered several of these wyands
and passed down one of them, between houses of
vast height. story piled upon story, till we came
to the deep hollow of Cowgate. Children were
swarmlng in the way, all of them, bred in that
close and impure atmosphere, of sickly appear
ance, and the aspect of premature age in some Of
them. which were carried in arms was absolute
ly frightful. So Here is misery said Scotch
gentleman, who was my conductor. | asked him
how large a proportion of the people If Edinburgh
belonged to that wretched and squalid class which
saw before me. " More than half" was his
reply. will not vouch for the accuracy of his
statistics. Of course his estimate was but con-
lecture.
6 In the midst of this population is House of
Refuge for the destitute established by charitable
individuals for the relief of those who NAV be
found in state of absolute restitution of the ne
cess.ries of life. Here they are employed in me-
NAL services, lodged and fed until they can be
sent their friends ar emDlovmant fnund for
them. We went the building, spacious
structure, in the Cannongate of the plainest Pn-
rltan architecture, with wide low rooms. which,
ut the time of the Union of Scotland with Enp-
land served as the mansion of the Duke of
Queensbury The accommodations are, of course,
of the humblest kind. We were shewn into the
sewing room, where we saw several healthy look
ng young women at work some of them barefoot
Such of the inmates as afford it, pay for their
board from three and sixpence to five shillings
week, besides their labor.
IS In this part of the city also are the night asv-
ums for the houseless. Here those who find
themselves without shelter for the night, are
received INFO an ante chamber, provided with
benches, where they first get bowl of soup and
are then introduced into bathing room, where
they are stripped and secured They qre next
furnished with clean garments and accommodated
with lodging on an inclined plane of planks, a
little raised from the floor. and divided into proper
compartments with strips of board. Their own
clothes are in the mean time washed and returned
to them when they leave the place.
=" 1t was very different spectacle from the
crowd in the Saturday evening market that met
my eyes the next morning in the clean and beau
ttul streets of the new town; the throng of well
dressed church goers passing each other in all di-
rections. The women, it appeared to me, were
rather gayly dressed. and large number of them
pretter than had seen in some of the more south
ern cities''