CHAPTER FORTY

A

T one time about the end of last century Edinburgh was threatened with a shameful attack on its amenity, more especially at night, but also in the daytime. There were erected on the face of the old town looking towards Princes Street enormous letters constituting advertisements-Bovril opposite the top of the Mound, Vinolia Soap on one side of North Bridge, and Bermaline Bread on the other side, and which if allowed to remain would have been followed by others-Monkey Brand, Oxo, Lemco, &c. &c. These great letters were objectionable in the daytime, but unendurable at night, when they were lined out in electric light, and made to wink and flash in varying colours over the face of the old town, so picturesque with its ordinary window lights after dark. I wrote to Lord Playfair, who was the Chairman of the Bovril Company, and he, as one would have expected, at once took steps to put a stop to the outrage. The others were not so easily dealt with, and it was only by statutory authorisation that the Magistrates were able to put an end to such a disfigurement of the city.

There is now only one illuminated advertisement board looking towards Princes Street, and this, I regret to say, was in an evil hour set up by those who are the proper guardians of the city's beauty. The Town Council, in the erection of it, and in the use of it, violated two rules which they

lay down for the observance of the rest of the community. While they preclude the North British Railway Company from erecting anything in their station at a level higher than that of Princes Street, they themselves have placed above the Waverley Market an erection like those we see in Chinese pictures of heathen shrines-a thing devoid of all semblance of taste, which as the citizen comes along Princes Street stands up against the view of Arthur Seat in the one direction, and the view of the Castle slope in the other. As regards its use, it is an advertising use only, and it is lighted up as a transparency at night, thus doing the very thing which the Corporation has taken power to prevent all other citizens from doing. It constitutes a decided blot on a fair scene. The gasworks' chimneys no longer stand out against the Salisbury Crags, but this advertising device does, most offensively. I have never been ableto discover by what authority it was erected. I ask in all earnestness that it be removed. A temporary advertisement when the Market is let for a show is endurable, but the presence of a permanent advertising station obtruded on Princes Street isnot to use strong language-a thing to be deprecated in the name of good taste.

As I am speaking of advertisements, may I enter my humble protest against the Corporation allowing the West Princes Street Gardens to be used as an advertising station? Every season for

DISCREDITABLE ADVERTISING

some years past, a large placard is put up opposite the end of Castle Street for months at a time, because certain exhibitors in Edinburgh wish to draw gate-money at the Royal Institution. Possibly it is thought to be a sufficient excuse for placing a great square board in front of the Castle Rock that it advertises an "Art" exhibition. Does not this make it worse? What lover of art, if not interested in commercial profit, would tolerate the idea for a moment of using Princes Street Gardens as an advertising station? Yet that is what is done year by year in the name of art (!!!), placing an ugly obstruction to the view of a most picturesque natural scene-a square of black sticking-plaster disfiguring a lovely face, for that is its effect. Will our civic rulers consider whether this ought to be done?" Would a conscientious answer "Yes," be possible?

Edinburgh was until recent years without any building in which great public gatherings, or great musical entertainments,could be held. The Music Hall, and later the Free Church Hall, and the U.P. Synod Hall, were the only places in which large meetings could be held, and these gave only moderate accommodation, and unsuitable for some purposes. When great public dinners took place, the spacious Corn Exchange, or the Queen's Brigade Drill Hall in Forrest Road, were the only

buildings available, neither of them being very suitable. On the occurrence of the University Tercentenary, it was necessary to hire the Queen's Brigade Drill Hall and hide its somewhat railway station-like roof with thousands of yards of coloured calico. The Disraeli and Salisbury banquets were held in the Corn Exchange. Of late years the munificence of two citizens has provided two really splendid halls for great gatherings. The M'Ewan Hallat the University is one of the finest in the world, a piece of architecture magnificent in conception, enabling the University to conduct its great ceremonials in surroundings not to be surpassed for appropriateness and grandeur. The Usher Hall-which has at last materialised after many weary years of waiting-supplies Edinburgh with a concert-room in every way worthy of the city, which in all its details is eminently fitted for great gatherings, and contains every modern appliance for comfort and for convenience of access and departure, things often too little considered in such buildings. But the city is still without a dining-hall suitable for a large assemblage.

Edinburgh may congratulate itself on the great progress made during the last fifty years in sanitation, resulting in a very marked diminution of the death and sick rates. There are many difficulties in the way in the old town, from the nature