City of Edinburgh

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CITY OF EDINBURGH George Bruce TO live in the capital of Scotland is to live in the presence of history, humán and geological. Ancient rock formations present themselves dramatically to the eye at Street corners. Arthur's Seat-a long extinct volcano-Calton Hill and Castle Rock intrude on the domestic skyline even in the centre of the city. As the train runs into Waverley Station the black basalt of the Castle Rock seems to close in on the carriage windows and, perhaps, as the visitor vvalks down one of the narrow streets of the Old Town, the Salisbury Crags will glow so rosy in the afternoon sun as to appear quite unreal beside the ordinary, busy life of the town. These natural features were an appropriate setting for the violent humán dramas that were enacted in historic Edinburgh. The old stone buildings themselves carry the city's humán history in their faces. At the top of the Castle Rock within the precincts of the containing wall is the oldest building in the city-Queen Margaret's Chapel. This house of stone-without ornament, simple, enduring-testifies to the faith of Margaret, the gracious English wife of Malcolm Canmore. She caused it to be built a few years before her death in 1093. To the south the Castle overlooked rolling plains, with the Pentland Hills on the south-west, and to the east the Firth and the North sea. Westward lay a beit of arable land and on the north the River Forth opening into the Firth, while beyond the river stretched the kingdom of Fife, still sometimes so referred.to. Today we look across Princes Street Gardens to the New Town, by which is meant Georgián Edinburgh. Queen Margaret's youngest son, Dávid I (1084-1153), inherited his mother's religious zeal. About a mile from the castle, where the spiné of rock flattens out, he built the abbey of Holy Rood. The monks cultivated the ground and brewed beer-to this day there are distilleries in the area- and so brought into being a community of farmers, craftsmen and traders around the Canon's Gate. The status of a burgh was granted to the township and the Canongate rcmained a separate burgh until the middle of the 17th century. As trade and agriculture increased, the town began to grow in the form of a single Street ascending the higher ground that led westward to the castle. Meanwhile, the little town of Edinburgh itself was extending eastward to meet it and we begin to see the faint semblance of what is now the Royal Mile. In this way the conditions which created the architectural character of the Old Town as we know it were established. For prosperity and community there was the tendency to build round the abbey at the foot of the ridge, and for safety to keep as close to the castle as was possible: but when life was less threatened by English invaders or by the internecine warfare of the nobility, the geography of the landscape encouraged community. The slopes to the south and north of the ridge were steep, and in any case where Princes Street Gardens are now, there was a considerable stretch of water, the Nor' Loch. So the inhabitants built upwards and for better or worse Edinburgh achieved 'high density' living and the earliest sky-scrapers in Europe. Two buildings bear witness to the Edinburgh of medieval times. One is the ruined nave of the Abbey Church Cotttinued on page 7 Vissza