CITY EXTENSION WESTWARDS the latter design, but a Nemesis followed; for in my boyhood I often saw in the gardens below the retaining wall and arches, which the proprietor had to build at enormous expense, when threatened by the prospect of the foundations giving way, and the great line of houses sliding down into the river.

It was when I was a very little boy that I used to go before breakfast to see the foundations being laid of Clarendon Crescent, being the first row of buildings on the north side of the river, the Dean Bridge having been erected for the purpose of opening out the Learmonth property for building. It must have been distressing to the people in Moray Place and Ainslie Place to watch the gradual closing to them of the beautiful view to the westward by the building of the crescents and terraces on the other side of the Water of Leith; although inevitable, it could not but have been a trying experience.

ANON.

"In the great roll of Letters these still stand pre-eminent, And these again

In science and in art have lasting fame."

T

CHAPTER EIGHT

1845-55

F men of consequence in Edinburgh, who went to their rest while I was a boy, I can recall the stalwart form of Wilson, better known in the literary world as Christopher North. Well do I remember him as he strode in vigorous pace along Princes Street, a man whose presence attracted the attention even of those to whom his personality and his work were unknown. The statue erected to his memory recalls him faithfully. I fear the generation of to-day have in the great majority never heard hisname, or read a word of what came from his pen. I have no doubt if they heard the Noctes Ambrosiana spoken of, many would suppose some ancient Romanin atoga had written them. But he willever have a place in the literary history of his time.

Lord Jeffrey I remember. He needs no panegyric, for his colleague and friend has told of his worth as a public man, his brilliancy as a writer, and his charm as a social companion, in terms of appreciation plainly coming from the heart. My father pointed him out to me one Sunday afternoon as he passed our house in Heriot Row. A boy's impression at the moment was, that there was a man who looked as if he was in measure borne down. A very few days later he was gone from this life. The impression he made upon me when I saw him became strongly fixed by my hearing of his death, and his appearance to this day remains in my recollection.