PRINCES STREET EDINBURGH

Princes Street. Nearly a mile in length and bordered on one side by, gardens, the street might more appropriately be known as 'Princes Terrace' but Princes Street owes a great debt to the Castle Hill which, as elsewhere in the city, lifts the view to a very high standard of beauty. Here are many of the chief shops of Edinburgh, with hotels and restaurants, and at the east end the Waverley Station fills the valley. The Street itself has at each end two squares, St. Andrews (East End) the cities primary financial district and the most influential outside of the City of London and Charlotte Square (West End) where the City Bus Station resides.

In the foreground the graceful Scott Monument(1844 designed by George Meikle Kemp) rises from the gardens, an open Gothic tower 200 feet high with a statue of Sir Walter by Sir John Steell R.S.A and figures of characters in Scott's works.

Just west of the monument an embankment known as The Mound crosses the valley and supports two imposing public buildings designed in classical style by W.H Playfair and housing the Royal Scottish Academy and the National Gallery. In the former (adjoining Princes Street) periodical exhibitions of the works of living artists are held, and there is a permanent Diploma Collection of Academicians

The National Gallery contains a small European collection of very high quality, including pictures by Rubens, Velasquez, El Greco, Rembrandt, Watteau, Gainsborough, Constable, etc. There is an outstanding room of French Impressionism, including pictures by Degas, Gauguin, Cezanne, van Gogh, and a fairly full representation of Scottish painting up to 1900 (one room is devoted to Raeburn).

In the Gardens, across the railway, at the foot of the Castle Rock, are the ruins of the Well-house Tower, built in the reign of David Il to protect what is thought to have been the only water supply the garrison then had, and enlarged in the reign of James II.

At the west end of Princes Street is St. John's Episcopal Church, a fine Later Gothic structure, some of the details of which are copied from Westminster Abbey and St. Georges Chapel, Windsor. At the rear is a Celtic cross in memory of Dean Ramsay (1793-1872 ; author of Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character, a classic of humorous literature), who was for many years incumbent here. Scott’s mother and Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), the portrait painter, are buried in vaults below the Church. Also at the west of Princes Street is the West Kirk, or St. Cuthbert’s Church, the history of which goes further back than that of any other religious institution in Edinburgh. As early as the eighth century the site was occupied by a church dedicated to Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham. who died in 687.

There have been seven buildings on this same site, the present church having been built in 1892-3. The tower, built in 1787-90, is the only remaining part of an eighteenth-century edifice. In the burial ground are interred Napier, the inventor of logarithms and De Quincey, of Opium Eater Fame. At the foot of Lothian Road is the Caledonian Hotel. Halfway up Lothian Road is the Usher Hall, the City’s main hall.

At the eastern end of Princes Street are the Waverley Steps, one of the windiest spots in Britain. The steps lead down to the Waverley Station and opposite that across Princes Street, the old Register House, a very pleasing Adam building, in which are preserved the public records of Scotland, both legal and historical. Among the historical documents permanently exhibited are the Treaty of Northampton (1328), an example of the National Covenant (1638), and the original Articles of the of the Treaty of Union (1707). Eastward, Princes Street is continued by Waterloo Place past the base of Calton Hill, where the chief feature is St. Andrew's House, home since 1939 of Scottish Government Departments on the, on the site of old Colton Goal, its fresh stones looking particularly fresh in Auld Reekie.

Here, too, is the Royal high School, a thirteenth century foundation. Sir Walter Scott was among its many brilliant pupils. Opposite is the Burns Monument, and high above it the National Monument, modeled on the Parthenon in 1822 to commemorate gallant achievements during the Peninsular War. It was never finished, owing to lack of funds, but is probably no less picturesque on that account. Nearer the road is the Nelson Monument, shaped something like a telescope and with a small museum of relics . The time ball at the top falls daily exactly at 1 p.m., Greenwich time.

Westward of the side of the National Monument is the Observatory of the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh and founded in 1770. On the south side of Waterloo Place are the Old Calton Burying Ground, in which are, besides the graves of many historic figures, a tall Obelisk in memory of live "Chartist Martyrs" sentenced (1793-4) to transportation ; the circular, temple-like Tomb of Hume. the philosopher and a monument, with a statue of President Lincoln, which forms a memorial of the Scots-American soldiers who fell in the American Civil War.

Beyond the Royal High School Regent Road leads down towards Portobello north of Princes Street and parallel with it is George Street the pride and starting point of Georgian Edinburgh extending from St. Andrew Square to Charlotte Square. From St. Andrew Square (off whose northeast corner is the bus station of Scottish Omnibuses, Ltd.) the New Town spread (1770-1825) northwards and westwards in graceful stone terraces, squares and crescents, rich in literary and other interest to Queen Street, Heriot Row. Moray Place (Edinburgh's finest circus) and Randolph Crescent, among others.

At the east end of Queen Street are the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland