The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-26
Our Special Contributors--=ISo5.
THE EDINBURGH OF TO-DAY.
By PROF W. GARDEN BLAIKIE, D. D., LID.

North may change in lesser feat
ures, Nature has left such traces of
her hand around her that her general
aspect must always be the same.
The grim lion that guards her on the
east is still as he was when King Ar
thur sat on his brow, if there be any
thing in the legend that ascribes the
origin of the name "Arthur Seat" to
him, and represents him to have gone
there to gaze northwards toward
Strathmore, where his wife lay buried.
A long ridge, crowned by the Castle
Hill on the west, and running toward
Holyrood on the east, still forms the
backbone of the city; considerable
hollow still sewers the old town from
the new, but instead of the Nor Loeb
reposing calmly in it as of old, it is
now devoted to the rushing railway,
and frightened by the beautiful gar
dens of Princes street; the Calton
Hill keeps watch and ward on the
northeast; the hill of Corstorphine,
rich in foliage, catches the sunshine
on the northwest; on the south, is the
fine range of the Pentlands; and on
the north, the Firth of Forth, a mir
ror beautifully framed with noun
tains, reflects all the tints of the sky
when the sun condescends to shine.
1t must be owned that we need the
sun to do all these features justice;
but what place does not? And it
must be owned, too, that sometimes
not only the sun refuses to shine, but
in his place we get an eastern haar
pronounced harr), cold, foggy
emanation from the North Sea that
dulls and darkens everything, to say
nothing of its effect on our national
temper. 1t was in such "haar" that
Queen Mary landed at Leith when
she came to Scotland from France,
ane John Knox would have us to re-
gard it as an omen or at least sym
boil of all the "dolour" and distress
which she brought to her unhappy
country.
There are to-day, in point of fact,
three Edinburghs; the old city re-
posing on her long ridge with many
a close and court branching way from
the backbone, once picturesque and
interesting, now the despair of sani-
tary refomers. Then there is the reg
ular and elegant new town to the
north, classical and fair, but accord
ing to Mr.. Ruskin, wanting the very
elements of architectural variety and
beauty; and lastly, the southern
suburbs, city of villas of quite re-
cent origin, embosomed among trees
and shrubs, no mean symbol of the
comfortable middle class that has
| fled hither from the din and dust of
the streets. To be city of less
than 100000 inhabitants, Edinburgh
spreads itself over a very wide area,
but this is due to the great number
of parks and gardens that make it SO
green and fresh looking The COM
bination of town and country, of
mountain and valley, of wood and
rock, of the luxuriance of nature and
the beauty of art, is very striking.
Like the girl in the song, Edinburgh
says of herself, "My face is my for
tune;' there is no mistake about the
face, and our hotel keepers might be
able to testify that the fortune is by
no means despicable.
But the spirit is at work in the
ancient city, for you cannot resist the
'tmonstrous regimen" of sanitary re-
formers and health inspectors ct hoe
genus onene The old houses are
racidlY going. John Knox's house
and the Magdalene Chapel along
with the Church of St. Giles, will
soon be almost the only memorials of
400 years since. | cannot remember
how many Improvement Schemes"
we have had recently, each to the
tune of some 100000 sterling, or
more. The process is still going on.
OF course the results are good, but
the process is expensive in more ways
than one. About forty years ago, it
was seriously planned to demolish
John Knox's house, because it jutted
out into the street, an objectionable
sin in municipal eyes. Our antiquar-
ians came to the rescue with a wit
ness. There was such to do that
the authorities had to yield. and the
house remains, better than ever.
But leaving the stone and lime de-
partment, let us glance at the life of
the city. In trade and commerce
Edinburgh is nowhere, with the ex-
ception that the banks and insurance
companies of Scotland have their