EDINBURGHSHIRE, or, as it is frequently called, Mid Lothian, is the seat of the metropolis of North Britain. It is situated between 55° 39 ’ and 55° 59 ’ north latitude, and between 2° 36' and 3° 33’ longitude west from Greenwich. Its boundaries are the Frith of Forth on the north; Linlithgowshire or West Lothian on the west; the counties of Haddington or East Lothian, Berwick, and Roxburgh on the east; and those of Selkirk, Peebles, and Lanark on the south; the length of the whole line, which is very irregular, and longest on the south, being about ninety miles. The medium length of the county may be taken at twenty-four miles, and the breadth at fifteen; the area thus comprising 360 square miles, or, by the latest computation, 354 square miles, or 226,560 English acres, of which 145,000, or sixty-four acres in a hundred, are in cultivation, and the remainder, or more than a third, hilly, or otherwise comparatively unproductive.

The surface of this county exhibits a great variety of natural scenery, almost everywhere blended and embellished with the labours of taste and opulence. The lower and richer part of it is of a semicircular form, inclining towards the Frith of Forth on the north, and terminating near Mid Calderon the west, and Falaon the south-east, but interrupted by the Pentland Hills, which, rising in the south-west, approach to within five miles of the frith, and thus divide the southern part of this tract into two large plains. These hills cover about forty square miles; and though none of them rise to the height of more than 1700 feet, yet their situation in a flat country, and their bleak and barren aspect, render them very prominent objects in the landscape. On the south-east, where the county terminates almost in a point, between the counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk, and about fifteen miles from the sea, there is another mountainous tract, called the Moresoot Hills, the highest of which rise to upwards of 1800 feet, and extend over fifty square miles. From the rivulet Gala, which flows through it, this is commonly known by the name of the Gala Water district. Fertile valleys are found amongst these hills, and many of the hills themselves have been cultivated. With the exception of these two hilly tracts, Edinburghshire may be considered as a low-lying country, though not level or flat, the surface being varied by ridges and gentle acclivities, and occasionally by detached hills of moderate elevation, amongst which Arthur’s Seat, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and the Corstorphine Hills, are the most considerable. The view from these eminences is singularly rich and beautiful; embracing, besides the city itself, a great many gentlemen’s seats, with their pleasure grounds, and elegant villas thickly planted in every direction, with the town and shipping of Leith, and the estuary of the Forth expanding into the ocean on the north and north-east, and the plains and high grounds of Fife beyond; whilst the naked and rugged hills to the south form a striking contrast with the highly-ornamented landscape into which they protrude.

The climate is exceedingly variable, but not subject to extremes. Snow seldom falls before December. From March to June cold east winds often prevail, sometimes attended by great falls of rain. July and August are warm and pleasant. Partly from the nature of the soil, as well as the climate, the corn crops, with a few exceptions, do not come to maturity so soon as in the south of Scotland by three weeks or a month. The fields, in late seasons, are not all cleared, even near the city, till the end of October. According to a register kept in its immediate vicinity for eight years, from 1785 to 1792 inclusive, the average number of rainy days was 175, and the quantity of rain 25∙75 inches. The thermometer once in the same period was at 89°, and twice besides above 80°; the lowest point was 1 l o , and the average of the whole period 46∙570.

The streams of this county are so inconsiderable as not to be called rivers, but walers ; a term wdiich in Scotland is 1 employed to denote a stream somewhat larger than a brook or burn, and whose bed is never in ordinary seasons altogether dry. Almond Water, which rises in the borders of Lanarkshire, separates this county from Linlithgowshire for a great part of its course, and falls into the sea near the village of Cramond, where, at high water, it is navigable by sloops for about a quarter of a mile. The Water of Leith has its source in the western extremity of the parish of Currie, on the north side of the Pentland Hills, and falls into the sea at Leith, after a course of about sixteen miles. It flows in a deeper channel than the former; and the banks are, for the most part, beautifully fringed with wood. In no part of the island perhaps is so small a body of water employed with greater effect, there being upwards of seventy mills, the greater number corn mills, on ten miles of its course. The Esk is the most considerable rivulet, and also the most beautiful. It is formed of two others of the same name, called the North Esk and the South Esk. The North Esk rises on the southern side of the Pentland Hills, above Newhall, about fourteen miles from Edinburgh, and flows by Pennicuik, Roslin, Hawthornden, Laswade, and Melville Castle, till it meets with the South Esk below Dalkeith. The South Esk has its source in the Moresoot Hills. On its banks, which are also well wooded and picturesque, stand Arniston, Dalhousie, and Newbattle. Their united streams flow into the sea at Musselburgh. The Tyne, which rises in this county, after a course of five or six miles in a north-east direction, passes into East Lothian; and the Gala, the only rivulet that flows to the south, rising on the north of the Moresoot Hills, leaves this county after it has proceeded about ten miles, and falls into the Tweed below Galashiels. The Esks and the Gala contain trout, and salmon are caught in the Esk at Musselburgh; but the quantity of either is not considerable.

Edinburghshire abounds in coal, limestone, and sandstone, or, as it is popularly called, freestone. A continued bed of coal extends across the whole county from Carlops, on the confines of Tweeddale or Peeblesshire, in a direction from south-west to north-east, near fifteen miles in length, and from seven to eight in breadth, on both sides of the North Esk. But it is chiefly towards the lower end of this vale that the coal is wrought, where there are in some places twenty-six seams, from two to ten feet thick. Some of the seams are horizontal, and others almost perpendicular, from which they are distinguished by the names of pat seams and edge seams; and it has been remarked that the position of the coal corresponds in some degree with the surface of the ground, being level in the valley of the North Esk, and inclined to the horizon on the higher grounds at a distance. Coal has been wrought in the parish of Laswade for upwards of two centuries, where it is still so abundant that the quantity raised is said to be equal to a sixth part of what is obtained from all the coal works of the county. Over nearly the whole coal district it is necessary to keep up powerful steam-engines, for the purpose of freeing the workings from water. A stupendous machine of this description has recently been erected in the parish of Inveresk, by Sir John Hope, Bart. Dikes or veins of stone frequently occur in the coal strata, which, with the expense attending the erection of machinery, and also that incurred in propping the roofs of the pits, forms a very considerable drawback upon the profits realized by the coal-masters. Limestone is found not only in the same tract with the coal, but still farther to the east, and also in the south-west, where coal has not yet been discovered. The great quarry at Gilmerton, in the parish of Libberton, about four miles from Edinburgh, is nearly a mile in length, everywhere open to the light of day, and [7:8:430]has the appearance of a long chasm, advancing obliquely to the surface. Like the coal in its neighbourhood, the stone rests in an inclined position, which, when removed, leaves a floor of such a moderate declivity as to be descended by paths among the fragments of rock that have been left. At the bottom there is a pool of water. Overhead is a roof of considerable height, consisting of a bed of solid rock, supported by pillars of limestone. The principal freestone quarries are at Craigleith, in the neighbourhood of the city, from which the six columns in the front of the New College were obtained; and at Hales, in the parish of Colinton, about three miles to the westward. The stone of the former, from its superior whiteness, has been of late most in request for building; but the latter is still unrivalled for flags and for stairs. In the year 1830 a large fossil tree was found in the former quarry, at a considerable depth down in the mass of stone; and another towards the end of October 1833, still deeper. A stone similar to that of Craigleith, but easier wrought, is now got at Redhall, also in the parish of Colinton. Mill-stones have been wrought in the parish of Pennicuik. Copper has been found in the parish of Currie and some other places, but not so rich as to pay for working. Ironstone abounds in the coal district, and also along the shore from Leith westwards; and stones for building and paving are to be found in every parish of the county. A stone similar to the Chinese Petunse, used in the manufacture of porcelain, has been found in the Pentland Hills; and clay, fit for being made into crucibles, in the parish of Dud-dingstone. There are mineral waters in different parts of the county, none of which are of much celebrity, with the exception probably of St Bernard’s Well, to the northwest of the city.

The valuation of Edinburghshire, which appears to have been taken in 1649, is L.191,054. 3s. 9d. Scots; and iι> 1811 the real rent of the lands, according to the returns made under the property-tax, was L.277,827. 19s. Id. sterling, and of the houses L.4(M),004. 5s. 6d. In 1795 the landed property was divided into 542 estates, of which twelve belonged to hospitals and other corporate bodies, of the valued rent of L. 10,628. 4s. 5d. Scots, or more than an eighteenth part of the whole. Here, as throughout the rest of Scotland, the land is occupied by tenants on leases for a term of years, excepting the comparatively small portion possessed by the proprietors themselves, or let in grass for the season. Within a few miles round the city the cultivation of farms is conducted with a view to the wants of that great market, where potatoes, turnips, and clovers are found more profitable than corn. The price of these crops, sold on the ground, the purchaser taking upon himself all the expense of carrying them to market, or taking them away for his own consumption, may average about L.20 the Scotch acre (about L.16 the English), and very fine crops sometimes bring even more than L.30. Early potatoes, raised within a mile of the city, have been sold, to the extent of several acres on one farm, at L.50 an acre. The manure for raising these crops is amply supplied by the streets and stables of the city. The street soil manure, although the etfects of it are not so lasting as those of stable or farm-yard dung, enables the farmers to raise large crops of wheat and other kinds of corn, after the green crops, upon soils that are not naturally very fertile; but the seeds of all sorts with which it abounds are unfavourable to the cleanness of their fields. Their straw, instead of being consumed or converted into manure on their farms, is carried to the city for sale, or given to stab-lers in exchange for their dung. The rent of farms of from fifty to a hundred acres, within a mile of the city, is in some instances as high as L.8 or L.10 an acre. Lime is very little employed as a manure within the circle to which the town dung extends. Beyond this circle, which has been materially extended by the canal, the system of cultivation is nearly the same as we have already described under other Scotch counties. The extent of the natural wood has been estimated at 3000 acres, and of plantations at about 14,000, being together about one acre in every fourteen.

In 1812, four hundred acres were employed in raising vegetables for the city within a circuit of five miles, and a hundred acres more were under strawberries. Mr Neill, secretary to the Horticultural Society, states the produce of the former at L.45, and the rent from L.8 to L.16 an acre. Between 60,000 and 70,000 Scotch pints of strawberries, or nearly half as many English gallons, are annually sold in Edinburgh, at from 10s. 6d. a pint down to 9d. The produce of an acre is from eight to nine hundred pints, thus yielding a return not very different from the garden grounds. There are also several nurseries in the immediate vicinity of the city, some of them equal to any in the united kingdom for their collection of fruit and forest trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, as well as for the arrangement and keeping of the grounds. About a hundred and thirty acres are employed in this way.

The manufactures and commerce of this county, exclusive of Edinburgh, and Leith its sea-port, are inconsiderable. None of the three great branches of industry, the woollen, cotton, or linen manufacture, is carried on here to any extent. Distilleries, paper-mills on both branches of the Esk, iron-works at Cramond, potteries and salt-pans at Inveresk, and gunpowder-works at Stobbs and I<oslin, on the South Esk, are the most worthy of notice. The paper-mills of the county have latterly much increased in number, and the article made has become celebrated for its quality. Machinery is employed to a considerable extent in the manufacture of it. From the metropolis of Scotland being situated here, the public roads which pass through it in every direction are kept in the best order, and thus promote its internal trade. A system of railways has lately been constructed between the city and the coalworks to the south-east. By this useful conveyance the metropolis is well supplied with the valuable mineral with which its vicinity abounds. A number of coaches also ply upon the railway, by which a cheap and agreeable conveyance is obtained for ten miles or thereabout to the south-east of the city. A railway between Dalkeith and the port of Leith was laid in 1836; and it is in contemplation to extend these improvements in land carriage a considerable way farther.

There is a communication between Edinburgh and Glasgow by means of the Union Canal. This work was commenced in 1817, and finished in about five years afterwards. One of the principal objects for which it was projected was to facilitate the conveyance of coal from the coal fields of Falkirk. It has been found of considerable utility in this respect, as also in various others, such as the conveyance of manure from the city into the interior of the country.

Besides the capital itself, there is no town of any note in Edinburghshire, but a great many thriving villages. Of these may be mentioned Mid Calder, Corstorphine, and Cramond, in the north-west; Pennicuik, Dalkeith, which is a burgh of barony, Laswade, Loanhead, and Gilmerton, in the east and south; and Musselburgh, including the villages of Inveresk and Fisherrow, Portobello, and Newhaven, on the Frith of Forth. Portobello is a pleasant village, resembling a portion of the metropolis in elegance, and much resorted to for sea-bathing. Roslin, in the parish of Laswade, is a pleasant village, and much resorted to on account of its chapel, a beautiful remnant of antiquity. Dalkeith, the most populous of the places we have [7:8:431]mentioned, has been long distinguished for its great weekly markets for meal and grain.

Among the principal seats are, Dalkeith House, Duke of I⅛uecleuch; Newbattle Abbey, Marquis of Lothian; Dud-dingstone l Marquis of Abercorn; Dalmahoy, Earl of Morton; Dalhousie Castle, Earl of Dalhousie; Melville Castle, Viscount Melville; Calder House, Lord Torphichen; Arniston, Mr Dundas; l’ennicuik, Sir George Clerk. To the above may be added the names of some other old families who have long held estates in the county, viz. Borthwick, Craig, Dalrymple, Davidson, Dick, Drummond, Dundas, Forbes, Foulis, Hope, Inglis, Maconochie, Scott, Trotter, Tytler, Watson, and Wauchope.

Edinburghshire sends four members to Parliament, one for the county, two for the city, and one for Leith. The annexed abstract exhibits the state of the population of the county in 1811, 1821, and 1831.

See Robertson’s Survey of Mid Lothian ; the Statistical Account of Scotland ; Beauties of Scotland, vol. i.; Sir John Sinclair’s General Report of Scotland; and, for the history and antiquities of the county, Chalmers’s Caledonia, vol. ii.
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