are literary men whom they know about, but with whose Parliaworks they are not closely acquainted. But at least two ment Scottish advocates are known intimately wherever the Close English language is spoken, and to lovers of literature it seems strange that there is no sign either by picture or by statue that Scott and Stevenson were members of the Faculty of Advocates. It must, however, be remembered that Stevenson was not noted for his success at the Bar, and if Scott is not represented here it is not because he is forgotten. His favourite seat at the fire is still shown, his statue is to be seen in the Advocates' Library, and some original manuscripts are a prized possession of this same library.

The three principal legal bodies have their respective libraries within the precincts of Parliament House. The Library of the Solicitors before the Supreme Courts is housed in a handsome building which is built of red stone and rises from the Cowgate. It is new, and, it must be confessed, somewhat uninteresting. The Signet Library, which possesses some valuable old books, is kept in the north-west portion of Parliament House. Most interesting of all is the Advocates' Library, which was founded by Sir George Mackenzie in the seventeenth century. It is kept in the Laigh Parliament House, where the Čovenanters were put to the question.' This library, along with the Bodleian, the British Museum, and the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, is presented with a free copy of every book published. Naturally it has attained considerable dimensions, and is said to have over 400,000 books and manuscripts. Among the most interesting are the Confession of Faith, signed by James vi. (known as the King's Confession'), the Covenant, letters of James v., of Queen Mary, of Charles II. and of James II., a copy of St. Augustine which belonged to Georges d'Amboise, and many curious old black-letter editions of books, missals, and breviaries illuminated and transcribed by the patient labour of monks of bygone days. Some

Edinburgh

of these seem strange possessions for a court of law,
but no one can deny the appropriateness of the Advocates'
Library possessing the original manuscript of Waverley.
A seated statue of 'The Shirra' bearing the words 'Sic
sedebat' completes the scene. We feel that it is he who
invested Parliament House with the interest that it has
for us.
The advocates and judges of bygone days, Lord
Monboddo and Lord Hailes and Braxfield, the 'hanging
judge,' and all the rest, were famous men, and doubtless
served their generation according to their several abilities.
But it is not their ghosts who haunt the Court; we do
not see it peopled by them, but by Saddletree and Effie
Deans and Poor Peter Peebles' and Alan Fairford, and
the other creations of this wonderful man who well earned
his sobriquet of the Wizard of the North.'

6

CHAPTER VIII

CASTLEHILL, THE LAWNMARKET, AND HIGH STREET

HE High Street of
Edinburgh was, as its

name indicates, the chief thoroughfare of the ancient city. Strange as it seems to us now, it must have occupied the position in the Old Town that Princes Street does in the New. Relics of former greatness still survive, and it is not uncommon to find beautiful old oak panelling covered over with whitewash, both in the High Street and, still more, in the closes which open out of it. These closes were inhabited by the Scottish nobility who had their townhouses there; so if we compare the High Street to Princes Street we shall find the parallel to these even more dirty closes in Drumsheugh Gardens or Moray Place. Yet it is hard to realise that this street, from upper windows of whose houses are displayed clothes from the wash'in various stages of dilapidation, and which is now haunted by tribes of street arabs, was once considered an important feature