Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-04-07
The Beauty Of Edinburg.

The capital of Scotland is about the only
city save Venice that meets the approval Of
Ruskin. Alexander Smith thus describes it :
Living in Edinburg there abides, above all
things q sense of its beauty. Hill, crag, cas-
tie, rock, blue stretch of sea, the picturesque
ridge Of the old town, the squares and ter
races of the new-these things seen once are
not to be forgotten. The quick life Of to-
day sounding around the relics of antiquity,
and overshadowed BY the august traditions Of
kingdom, makes residence in Edinburgh
more impressive than residence in any other
British city. / have just come in--surely 1t
never looked so fair before, What poem
is that Princes street. The puppets of the
busy, MANY -colored hour move about on its
pavement. while across the ravine, time has
piled up the old town, ridge on -idge. gray as
a rocky coast washed and worn by the foam
Of centuries: peaked and jagged by gable
and roof; window ed from basement to cope !;
the whole surrnounted by st. Giles airy
crown. The new is there looking at the old
Two times are brought face 10 face, and are
yet separated BY thousand years. Wonder
full on winter nights. when the gully is filled
with darkness. and out of it rises, against the
sombre blue and the frosty stars, that mass
and bulwark OF gloom. pierced and quivering
with innumerable lights. There is nothing
in Europe to match that. I think. Could you
but roll river down the valley it would be
sublime.
Finer still. to place one's-self near the
Burns monument and look toward the castle.
1t is more astonishing than an Eastern dream
city rises up before you painted by fire on
night. High in air bridge of lights leaps
the chasm; few emerald lamps. like glow
worms, are moving silently about in the rail-
way station below a solitary crimson one is
at rest. That ridged and chimneyed bulk of
blackness with splendor bursting out at
every pore. is the wonderful old town, where
Scottish history mainly transacted itself;
while. opposite. the modern Princes street is
blazing throughout its length. During the
day the castle looks down upon the city as if
out of another world stern with all its peace
funess, its garniture Of trees. its slopes of
grass. The rock is dingy enough in color,
but after a shower its lichens laugh out
greenly in the returning sun, while the
rainbow is Frightening on the lowering
sky beyond. How deep the shadow which
the castle throws at noon over the gar
dens at its feet where the children play !!
How grand when giant bulk and tow
cry crown blacken against sunset. Fair, too
the new town sloping to the sea. From
George street which crowns the ridge, the eye
is led down sweeping streets of stately archi-
lecture to the villas and woods that fill the
lower ground and fringe the shore; to the
bright azure belt of the Forth with its smOk-
ing steamer its creeping sail; beyond, to
the shores of Fife, soft blue and fecked with
feeting shadows in the keen clear light of
spring, dark purple in the summer heat. tar
nished gold in the autumn haze: and farther
away still, just distinguishable on the paler
sky, the crest Of some distant peak, carry
ing the Imagination INTO the illmitabe world.
Residence in Edinburgh is an education in
itself Its beauty refnes one like being in
love. 1t is perennial, like a play of Shake
spcare's. Nothing can stale its infinite va
riety."