CHAPTER SEVENTEEN I F the municipality of Edinburgh has in the past been open to censure for neglect of, and in some cases attack on, the amenity of the city, the Imperial Government has not acquitted itself any less discreditably. The tale that has to be told of their proceedings in mutilating old historical buildings and erecting new buildings that are indefensible, is by no means a short one. The old historic Castle, which any good citizen would expect to be protected from outrage, was most scandalously dealt with "By Order" of Ministers of the Crown. The two most interesting buildings on the Castle Rock are St. Margaret's Chapel, which stands behind the great gun known as Mons Meg, and the Parliament Hall on the south side of the square. The little chapel, which dates from the time of Malcolm Canmore and his consort, Queen Margaret, is an excellent specimen of early Norman architecture, and many interesting historical incidents are associated with it. In my boyhood its existence as a chapel was unknown. Most shamefully was it treated. It was altered to serve as a store for the powder bags and fuses that were to be used for firing salutes! The Government officials placed a wooden floor halfway up the walls, so as to provide two stories, on which the Ordnance Department piled their ammunition. It was only in 1845 that the discovery that it was a chapel was accidentally made. A gentleman looking over the upper floor saw what he thought was an old font, but which on investigation proved to be the capital of a Norman pillar. This led to inquiry, and Her Majesty, learning that the building was an ancient chapel, directed that it should be freed from the dishonouring fittings that had been ruthlessly set up in it. It is now restored, and forms, when its history is studied, one of the most interesting relics of the past. At the south side of the square, on the upper part of the Castle Rock, stood the ancient Parliament Hall, in which the national business was transacted when the city was besieged by an enemy. This Hall I can remember being in use as a military hospital; it being treated in the same shameful way as the chapel had been, by having a floor put in half-way up, so as to make a twodecked infirmary for the garrison. This was a gross outrage upon a historical building, and to such an extent was it carried that a projection was thrown out from the south wall on brackets, and an enormous sewage pipe carried down the face of the rock to the ground, disfiguring in a very disgusting manner the most picturesque view of the Castle, the rock rising perpendicularly from the road below, and crowned with the Parliament Hall building and the royal rooms which Queen Mary occupied, and from which her infant son James was let down in a basket, and carried off to be out of danger from the enemy. A more THE COTTON MILL ruthless outrage was never committed than this, and it marks a period when taste and even decency were at a discount in Government departments. This insult to Edinburgh is now a thing of the past, although little credit attaches to Government officials for the restoration; for only when the expense was undertaken by a citizen, Mr. Nelson, the publisher, did the Government consent to restore the Hall, and to remove from the picturesque buildings and lofty rock the hideous disfigurement caused by these sewage works. The Parliament Hall is now restored, and beautifully decorated as an armoury of old weapons, so that it can be visited with pleasure, where formerly it could only be looked on with shame. Outside, the bold, rugged face of the rock is no longer made hideous. There is one building on the Castle Rock which still remains, and which as long as it does remain will be a disgrace to the Government and to the city. Early in the century a huge factory-like building was set up on the west side of the rock. I remember well when I was a boy, a cousin who was in the 93rd regiment coming to see my father, and that my father, in conversation, inquired where he was quartered in the Castle, to which he replied, "In the cotton-mill." I was puzzled at the idea of there being a cotton-mill in theCastle, until indulging my youthful inquisitiveness, I came to learn that the soldiers' name for this hideous barrack was applied as a piece of sarcasm. There it stands to this day, Lord Cockburn's denunciation—"Lofty and offensive; the disgrace of those who set it there, and not to the credit of thosewho allow it to remain"-being not one whit too strong. A better situation for a well-designed castellated building in Scottish style does not exist, and even without any building the rock would be grand, but the bald, flat-faced erection of tenement-like design is worthy of the most condign condemnation. It may be vain to expect that the successors of those who committed this outrage will take steps to remedy it. Indeed, it is understood that when Mr. Lowe was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he positively refused to place a sum on the estimates to be applied to the rectifying of the evil, saying with characteristic bluntness that if Edinburgh did not like the building she had better provide what was necessary to alter it. One can only hope that the excellent example set by the many donors who have done great works for the City and Castle may be emulated by some wealthy citizen. No nobler work could be found for civic munificence than to remove this prominent eyesore from our beautiful citadel. Many citizens have done good work, and a great work was done by Mr. Nelson on the east and south sides of the Castle. If a generous donor can be found to remedy the evil done in the Georgian era of de |