* * * * Others beside Mr..Hardcastle " love everything
that's old,"
and like him enjoy "old manners, old books, and old wine." A great many people in their time have enjoyed Robert Chambers' Traditions of Edinburgh, a new and illustrated edition of which has just been issued at 7s. 6d. by the publishing firm which Robert Chambers helped to found ; and a great many people can now enjoy it still. No longer does Edin- burgh possess the same back-cloth as adorned it when the book first appeared in 1825, but as long as Holyrood, the incom- parable High Street and the Castle remain, one would hesitate to agree with Mr. C. E. S. Chambers, who writes in an intro- duction to the present edition that " the old town of Edin- burgh has been modernized out of existence." Anyhow, Mr. James Riddel's pen-and-ink sketches of old bits of the town and colourful brush have given many lovely far-off things a new life.
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