Britain that has so many "memorials and things of fame"
as Edin- burgh. It owes muds to its unequalled position, the charm of which even Scottish builders have been unable to destroy, and it owes much also to the concentration of historical and literary associations within a comparatively limited area. Next to Nature, and, of coarse, longo intervallo, Edinburgh is chiefly indebted to Sir Walter Scott. He ban peopled the whole city for us with the creations of his genius. Wander where we will, this great magician is by our aide, and a thousand humorous or pleasing recollections spring up at names which his genius has immortalised. Unfortunately, even Scott's reputation is not sufficiently honoured to preserve from destruction many spots linked to his memory, and the editors of the two hand- some volumes before us both allude to the rapid disappearance of the records of the past that Sir Walter loved so well. Apart from its main features, for which art is not responsible, the great novelist would find himself in a new world if be were to returu to his "dear romantic town." In one respect there has been real progress. "I smell you in the dark !" was Dr. Johnson's exclamation upon walking with Boswell through the High Street; and thirty, or even twenty years ago, it would have been possible to detect in the closes and wynds of the Old town as many smells as Coleridge reckoned at Cologne; but the city is now said to be one of the cleanest and healthiest in the country. In 1833, Mr. Thomas Shepherd, a landscape-painter, published a volume of "Views of Edinburgh," and his illustrations are reprodnoed in the work before us, edited by Mr. Gowans, who observes that they are at once faithful and artistic. Faithful they are certainly, and artistic in a measure. The letterpress of what may be called picture. books is not generally read with much attention, but Mr. Gowans has the merit of telling the reader pleasantly, and without unnecessary amplification, what it is worth his while to know ; and if there is an illustrative anecdote drawn from literature or public life, he relieves his otherwise matter-of-fact pages by relating it. Mr. Gillies's volume is got up with more daintiness, and some of the vignette illustrations interspersed among the letterpress are charming. As a drawing. room book it is highly attractive, but it may be questioned whether it conveys each a correct impression of certain prominent scenes as the larger and more pretentious-looking work. Moreover, it is not to a book of this class that we go for historical knowledge, and the fifty pages of "public history," however ably written, could well be spared. On the other hand, the chapters, slight though they are, on the "Domestic History of Edinburgh" will be acceptable to the class of readers who, after taking up the book for the sake of the pretty illustrations, may have sufficient curiosity to turn to the letterpress. We cannot, by the way, agree with one of the writers (for Mr. Galles has coadjutors in the work) that most of the Edin- burgh monuments add to the architectural beauty of the city. On the contrary, some of the most promiment—the Nelson Tower and Playfair's monument, for example—are hideous, and it would be diffi- cult to conceive of a monument more inappropriate than that erected to the memory of Burns.
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