The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-27

natural solid rock foundation it stands four
hundred feet above the level of Edinburgh,
ana mas only one approach. This highway
leads from the castle by High street into
the canongate, which ends at the base of
the hill at Holyroad Palace. 1t was diff
cult indeed to realize that this was once the
fashionable quarter of Edinburgh, and that
1t was an interesting item of town gossip
that there was to be "a Draw f1ittin' in the
Canongate" on such day.
Down this old highway there are many
interesting old homes. 1t is now called "old
town." the new part of town having been
built in comparatively recent years on the
north side of the railroad track. Leading
from the Canongate on each side are mar
row lanes between houses to courts be-
yond which are only about three, four or
five feet wide, and called close" 1t
takes time and patience, but in many of the
dirty ways filled with more children than
think ever saw at once before, we hunted
out the former homes of Sir Walter Scott,
the inn where DR.. Johnson stayed, the old
residence of James Ballantyne the printer
of the orgininal editions of the Waverley
novels, and whose commercial failure in
volved Sir Walter Scott as a partner, in the
troubles and anxieties which clouded the
last years of his life, and impelled him to
exertions beyond his strength in the hon.
orable ambition to lowe no man anything"
Moray house on one side is still In excellent
preservation, ana once the nome or the
Regent Murray. In the old Canongate
church yard we sought out the last resting
place of Robert Ferguson" 1t is said
that when Burns visited Edinburgh in 1856,
one of his first visits was to the grave of
his elder brother in the Muses." where
he reverently uncovered his head and wept.
From the earliest instalment of the money
he obtained for the Edinburgh edition of his
poems the AYRSHIRE bard erected a respect
able monument to the memory of Fergu-
son. On the front of the monument he
placed the following pathetic inscription:
mo sculptured marble herel No pompous
lay!
No storied urn or animated bust!
This simple stone directs pale Scotias way
To pour her sorrows DER her poets dust"
Near by we found the last resting place
of Adam Smith, the author of the Wealth
of Nations DR.. Adam Ferguson, the his
torian of the Roman republic, and David
Allen, the artist Next to John Knox the
interest somehow clusters around Mary,
Queen of Scots, and in Holyrood Palace it
was to her apartments that we hurried
with breathless interest. Fully one-half
of the palace is now reserved as the apart
ments of Queen Victoria, though she has
not repaired hither in many, many years.
In the old banqueting hall of Hollywood
are now shown portraits of all the reigning
sovereigns of Scotland. Though some one
has remarked in wonder that each and all
of the Scottish kings should have "a nose
like the knocker of door" However,
there is fine full length portrait of
Robert the Bruce, which accords with the
mental image one may have formed of this
rugged warrior. BY the way, we passed
close by the field of "Bannockburn' on our
way to Edinburgh, though now all is peace
full enough. What elastic memories one
must have when travelling abroad. First TO
run back into the mists of antiquity and
then run down the scale to the twelfth or
ahirteenth century-in other words, to quite
modern times, until when we come to any
thing as late as the seventeenth century
1t hardly seems worth while to draw ones
attention to such a narrow focus. But
how the romantic interest will cluster
around Mary, Queen of Scots. Her assem-
bly room. her bed room, her bed, where. If
one has a real intense imagination. you
could picture the queen fast asleep Then
her work box and chairs aqd window seat
where she doubtless sat and pondereo over
the troubles of her gay life and maybe
thought over some of the homely truths
numbered at her by the bold reformer.
Then on to- her sanctum sanctorum--