Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

EDINBURGH 15
found there — show at once how a Porteous
mob might rise Hke Myrmidons from the
earth and presently disappear again. Went to
a Jeweller's, where we saw a rich display of
Scotch gems. Trinkets of such materials as
Mont Blanc produces are about cent, per cent,
dearer here than at Chamounix.
The people of Edinburgh have acquired
a taste, or more properly a rage for splendid
buildings. The expenditure upon the College
is profuse, even to absurdity ; and they are at
this time erecting an hotel which looks more
fit for a palace. They begin now to be
ashamed of their mound, of which they
formerly boasted, and to wish that they had
made a bridge instead. A single wall is built
along this mound, with a pavement on both
sides ; it is for the sake of shelter from the
wind whether it blows east or west. The
good sense of this makes one wonder the
more at the enormous length of the streets
in the New Town, where there is neither
protection nor escape from the severe winds
to which Edinburgh is exposed. There is
a new English Church at the end of Princes
Street, in a highly ornamented Gothic style,
and well provided with catacombs.^ The
^ St John's.