Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 1, 1894 - Miscellanies, Volume I

NOTES ON EDINBURGH
as if some prodigal Pharaoh were beginning to
extend to the adjacent sea and country — half-way
over to Fife, there is an outpost of light upon Inch-
keith, and far to seaward, yet another on the May.
And while you are looking, across upon the Castle
Hill, the drums and bugles begin to recall the scat-
tered garrison ; the air thrills with the sound ; the
bugles sing aloud ; and the last rising flourish
mounts and melts into the darkness like a star: a
martial swan-song, fitly rounding in the labours of
the day.
IX
WINTER AND NEW YEAR
The Scots dialect is singularly rich in terms of
reproach against the winter wind. Snell, blae,
nirly, and scowthering, are four of these significant
vocables ; they are all words that carry a shiver with
them ; and for my part as I see them aligned before
me on the page, I am persuaded that a big wind
comes tearing over the Firth from Burntisland and
the northern hills ; I think I can hear it howl in the
chimney, and as I set my face northwards, feel its
smarting kisses on my cheek. Even in the names
of places there is often a desolate, inhospitable
sound ; and I remember two from the near neigh-
bourhood of Edinburgh, Cauldhame and Blaw-weary,
that would promise but starving comfort to their
inhabitants. The inclemency of heaven, which has
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