Windham County Democrat. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1836-1853, 1853-10-05
From the National Era.
Letter from the Editor

About two miles from the Ffith of rorlh rises ase
ries Of high ridges, running generally from east TO
west, separated by deep, vallies, and gadua
y ascending westerly till they terminate abruptly in
PERCEPTIONS Withholding cliffs The highest of these
is called Arthurs Seat, which rises to the height of
nearly nine hundred feet above the level of the sea,
and commands a view of Mid Lothian, the portion of
Scotland most repete with historic interest," Of fields,
on which have been fought some of its greatest bat
ties of localities rendered immortal by the genius of
Walter Scotia view, comprehendng in its range
Edinburgh, Leith, the broad Firth, with the numer-
villages on lis shores, the Lomond, Grampian and
Lammermuir Hills, the distant peaks of Benlomond
and Benedi, and the German Ocean. The next ridge
is Salisbury Craggs, the next which is lower, is that
which stands the Castle of Edinburgh, and on the
next, still lower, is the site of the New Town.
The Old Town, with its gloomy ranges of lofty,
quaint old houses, is TO us peculiarly attractive 1t
is built on the ridge above mentioned, which
terminates on the west in the almost inaccessible cliff
which stands the Castle. From this long summit
of the ridge, the main street, gently descending
eastcry, till it reaches the Palace of oyrood stand
ing at its foot. Through this in olden times, NOV
ed many splendid pageant; and here the hous-
of the nobility, which ranging from five TO ten sto
rics high solid and gloomy, were doubtless looked
upon as magnificent in those times. But centuries
have done their work, dark, dirty, diapidated they
ale no@ the dwellings, of the poor. The proud no.
bles are defunct depored and their once prncely
habatlons, now let out III stories rooms, crowd
ed with all sorts of miserable looking people. As
you pass along the Streets you look at the narrow
stone stairways by the tread of ages, and won
der to what strange recesses they lead. Now, old
building, bent with the weight of years, rises before
you, and yon look up up up till your neck cracks,
and you see hung out to dry, from that small win
dow, some old clothes belonging to poor family,
cupying perhaps the once favorte chamber of the
Earl of Dumfries. Every few yards, narrow low
entrances, dreary as dungeons gateway lead into
what called 'coscs' very dark, contracted courts,
packed with houses, story piled story, to a dizzy
heigh-damp, filthy, without a spot of verdure, and
where Gods sunshine comes. Thousands of hui
man beings live here-how, it is hard say but hu-
man nature has a marvellous faculty of adaptation
with capacities for association with angels it
commodate itself TO the condition of brutes.
Sundays, these gloomy houses and dungeon closes
pour out their contents into the main street, which is
so thronged that you hardly pass. We walked
through it twice last Sunday. What a spectacle
Men, women, and children, in every variety of cos
tune, hundreds of them bare-footed bareegged rag
ged, horribly dirty gossiping in groups sitting in the
a au S9nS ,e G9ro af on Ie gaFr9%
breast pale little girls nursing ptable little babies
noisy boys, with Just clothes enough TO their ma
kedness, wallowing in the dirt siclly and wo-
men, come forth from confined noisome chambers, to
breathe purer air red-faced men and women, reek
ing from the gin shops; drunken men, staggering to
and fro with diotic eer soldiers in their scarlet uni
forms, released from duty few hours, mngling with
the masses, their gay, Haunting colors giving an as
pect of strange pcturesqueness to scene otherwise
painful And all this may be seen in High street, the
,aI Land rnfttp
grandes edifces, and which is full of the memorials
of glorious past. For instance the famous palace of
Holyrood is at one end of the street, and the no less
famous Castle, at the other and, between Them con-
trasting strangely with the asurrounding gloom and
dapidation we find the Free Church College, with
its massive towers the Victoria Hall, with its impe-
rial spire several churches of graceful architecture
the Bank of Scotland the Hall and Museum of the
Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland; Par
Lament Square, with its fine public buildings; and on
this street, too, stood the Tobooth, associated
with some of the greatest events in Scottish history
and the Cross of Ednburgh, where proclamations of
State used 10 be made; and here still stands the
Church of st. Giles, lin which, two centuries ago,
the jealous Jenny Geddes rebuked the Bishop of Ed
inburgh for daring to say mass in it, by throwing a
stool at his head sRd the quaint old house of the
lon-hearted Johas Xhox, the lower part of which,
whiskey while above remain the queer-ookng let
tiers, carved by his direction, "LOre God Nth all your
heart, and yor neighbor as yOurSeD!"
! thought we had seen the worst; but just before
reaching Hollywood, turn carried us into another
street, called Cowgae, running along the base of the
ridge parallel with that had just left. 1t still
more thronged and such the aspect of the peo-
pie and their habtations, that felt doubtful wheth-
er it entirely safe 10 proceed. Horses and hogs
better cared for have toerable lodgings than
these people.
Instead of redeeming Old Town from its degrade
tion the better classes generally have retired to what
is called New Town. Here the streets are wide
regular well paved and clean, the houses large and
substantial, and there is every indication of plenty
and taste. Strangers, combining themselves to this
part of the town, in the habit of describing Ed
inburgh as a beautiful and well ordered city but
am always looking out for the quarters of the poor
like to see where and how the toiling people live
Wealth is about the everywhere. Having seer
the homes of the rich and respectable ia one city, you
have seen them in all but poverty has as many col
ors as Josephs coat. l ttoaght had seen every va
rety of wretchedness in London, Paris, and the cit
les of the Rhine but Edinburgh has wretchednes:
of its own.
Is it not marvellous that in a city that boasts of the
costiest benevolent institutions where science ha:
been cultivated with the most signal success The
fame of whose poetry and philosophy and divinity
has gone out into all the earth where such men a,
Macauey, and -Chamers, and Scott and Stewart have
lived in city full of intelligence and TASTE ant
leiznre, and Orthodox zeal--no remedy, scarcely {
palliative should have been found, for the misery
and degradation of so many thousands of its citizens
5 Lake Wndermere, Aug. l3-Since the foregoing
, was written, | have been to Glasgow. l intend nc
Il. r