Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/131

CHAPTER II.

A Description of Edinburgh—Arthur's Seat—The fine Echo—Dediston Lake, and House—Crag Miller Castle—Dalkeith—Roslin Castle—Hawthorndean—Penny-wedding.—The Views from Calton Hill, and Arthur's Seat.

James the First of England, was born in a small room, or rather closet, in Edinburgh Castle; in which, when I saw it, soldiers were drinking porter. There is a dwelling-house in the castle for the governor; but almost the whole of the edifice is now converted into barracks.

Edinburgh is built upon the sides of a mountain; and the Castle is on the summit of a huge rough rock on the west side of that mountain, high and perpendicular above the level ground, and inaccessible on every side but one. The Abbey, or Holyroodhouse, is at the bottom of the mountain, at the distance of a mile from the Castle. The High-street, which is wide, is a regular descent; and is, as it were, a communication from the Castle to the Abbey, down the face of the mountain. The rest of the town lies