EDINBURGH

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3471, 26 May 1934, Page 11

EDINBURGH

' SCOTLAND’S FAIR CAPITAL

A CITY OF STAGE EFFECTS

It was ■either a reference to the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of alts university, recently celebrated, or else the clear crisp and invigorating’ mountain air of the Oakanagon, at this season sp much like its atmosphere, which set me thinking of Edinburgh. As Cincirinaitus of old and Robert Burns would Very well agree, the scope which the occupation of plowman affords for thinking is boundless. In Ontario many a pleasant day have I passed in reverie behind the “useful plow.” But to-day, at the end of a cross-cut saw .in the mountains of British Columbia, I speinit some hours in Edinburgh. Edinburgh’s foremost industry, as someone has said, is education. It was for the purpose of acquiring some of her product that at an early age I was sent there from my highland home. Our school was situated on the south side of the old town, overlooking the Meadows. Before us to the south and west lay the new residential districts, and behind, the old town with its history. Sharing robins with my brother, then a university student, in a street off the Leith walk, the thoroughfare connecting this modern Athens with its Piraeus, my route home from schbbl lay through the heart of the old town. While at that time envying the boys, and they were the greater number by far, who crossed the Meadows and dispersed among the leafy lanes of the modern city, *we also had our reward. Especially the more imaginative of us, whose course lay along the places, bridges, wyn'ds, walks, closes and steps—for such are some of the strange designations of the thoroughfares of “‘Auld Reekie/’ as Edinburgh is fondly called. “The place,” says Robert Louis Stevenson, of his native city, “is full of theatre tricks in the way of scenery—lyou turn a corner and there is the sun going down into the highland hills —you look down an alley and see ships tacking for the Baltic/’ This description is verified when, turning into Louriston Place, you see the majestic mass of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags hurst into full view. Impressive enough as a rfibuhtairi, the reMarkable extent to which the contours of Arthur’s Seat resemble a carved lion crouched in defiance, adds * to its grandeur ah& aWe. The lion’s flanks, the Maned neck and massive head stand out in clean perspective, the wholfe gazing out across the Forth. Proceeding along Lauriston we pass a rival, and in our school days, I am sorry to say, despised institution. The George Heriot School is a building of architectural beauty; its founder, George Heriot, had a romantic career. He was a goldsmith and jeweller and the Rothschild of his day; it is related how he outdid James VI in the quality of their respective fires. James proudly showed him the royal hearth ablaze with perfumed wood. “Ah, said George Heriot, I can show you a more costly fire than that, Your Majesty.” So saying he tossed thereon a note of James’s for £2000., At Greyfriars churchyard where the historic covenant of 1638 was signed, when many of the covenanters used their own blood in place of ink, we reach a peculiar feature of Edinburgh’s construction, bridges, by which certain streets cross at different levels. Chambers Street runs between two of these bridges; here Sir Walter Scott was horn in 1771, as a plaque high up on the wall Intimates. Here, also, is Edinburgh’s venerable university, and next to the castle, her proudest possession. Although the present main university building is the work of Robert Adam, one of its most distinguished graduates, it is not remarkable architecturally. As an institution of learning, however, the university holds an enviable place to-day among the schools of the world. What a galaxy of rare men have passed through her halls! Oliver GbldsMith, John Stuart Blackie, Lord Palmerston, Darwin, Lord John Russell, Thomas Carlyle and Sir J. M. Barrie are only a few names that come to mind. From the university s to the High Street is hut ’a few minutes’ walk. How large is the history of Scotland writ in the history of this mile of cobblestones? What scenes have the gray peak-gabled houses of the High Street, with their crests and finials, their torch extinguishers, looked out Upon through the centuries ?

It is not difficult to visualize scenes and. personalities of other days. ■ Mary, Queen of Scots, passes b.v. ' The great Montrose rides by serenely to his doom. Here is Parliament Square, the heart of Midlothian, and the Mercat # Cross; Sir Walter Scott limps out of the Parliament House (since the union), headquarters of the Scottish law. He is followed by , Jeffrey, that most brilliant of reviewers whose "sarcasm was cold and sharp as a Toledo blade. The other Edinburgh reviewers are also there; Brougham,

the fPfroriher, with his ponderous learning, and Sydney Smith, one of % .the greatest wits of his day and

century. At the Advocates Library we meet two of Scotland’s master minds, David Hume and Adam Smith, intimate friends and both pioneers in their respective fields, the former, the father of Scottish philosophy and inspirer of Kant, the latter, the first economist; his “Wealth of Nations is a standard textbook to-day. There is John Knox descending stands, a fine example of medieval domestic architecture. He is on his way to St. Giles Cathedx'al where it is said he preached three times every day. But Jenny Geddes, a seventeenth century vegetable vendor ot the High Street, is the best-known character connected with St. Giles; her story is dear to the hearts of all Scots. . When the attempt was made to introduce Laud’s Liturgy into Scotland, Jenny Geddes hurled her stool in protest at the officiating dean.