or whatever inflammable substance it may be im pregnated, they burn in place of wood, of which their country is destitute." The coal-works at Gilmerton, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, were begun to be wrought in the year 1627. Before this time the fuel of the citizens of Edinburgh seems to have been chiefly heath, furze, and brushwood. In the year 1584, an accident by fire having happened in the city by some of the stacks of these articles in the narrow lanes and streets, the town-council ordered, that in future all these should be removed to a more convenient place, under the penalty of 201. Scots; so that i seems to have been near a century later before coals came into general use. The price of coals in Edinburgh at present is about fifteen shillings Sterling per ton.

Edinburgh is supplied with excellent springavater, which is conveyed in pipes from the elevated grounds of Comiston, about 34 miles southwest of the city. The first pipe to bring water from this distance was laid in the year 1681. One Peter Bruschi, a German engineer, received at this time from the magistrates the sum of 29501. Sterling, for laying a leaden-pipe, of 3 inches in diameter, from Comiston to a reservoir to be erected on the Castle-hill, the highest part of the city, from whence it might be circulated with

ease through all the districts. This small pipe was soon found insufficient to answer the demands of the inhabitants; but there was none other completed till about the year 1722, when one of 4 inches in the bore was laid. These still, owing to the increasing number of people in the capital, were found insufficient for the supply, and in the year 1787 an iron-pipe of 5 inches dia, meter was added. Preceding the year 1787 the reservoir at Comiston received four distinct streams of water from the same number of pipes; and these at their fullest discharge into the cistern were estimated to pour into it from 800 to 900 Scots pints of water (near seven hogsheads) in the minute, but at other times, when the discharge into the fountain head is less, or in the usual heat in summer, from 150 to 170 pints. The reservoir at Comiston is elevated 44 feet above the reservoir on the Castle-hill. When the fountain-head at Comiston is full, the great pipe at the Castle-hill discharges into the reservoir in town 210 Scots pints per minute, (nearly equal to 840 English pints). The reservoir in the city contains 149,472 Scots pints, or 291 tons, s hogsheads, and 6 gallons. This supply of water still proving too little, an iron pipe of 7 inches in dia meter was laid in 1790, and additional springs, three miles father south than the former, were

taken in. This last pipe cost the city of Edin burgh upwards of 20,000l. A few years ago the magistrates ordered the greater part of the leader pipes, which their predecessors had laid at an expence of nearly 40,000l. to be dug up, and castiron pipes to be substituted in their room. This was done, it has been alleged, merely to raise a sum of 6000l. or 70001. by the sale of the old lead. But as lead is a deleterious metal, and is speedily acted upon by the acids in the water, perhaps higher motives, the health of the inhabi tants, may be presumed to have actuated the town-council on this occasion. Though the che mical action of water upon the iron hastens the decomposition of iron pipes; yet it is well known that water slightly impregnated with iron is far from being hurtful to health. The reservoir on the Castle hill now contains about 300 tons of water, and one lately erected near He riot's Hospital contains nearly the like quantity. Private families are supplied with pipes to their houses by the magistrates, on payment of a small annual sum; but in the old part of the city, the practice of carrying the water on the backs of men and women, in small barrels, to the high houses, or to those who have not pipes of their own, is still continued.

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.

THE Scottish national character is vanity. In

THE

no instance has this characteristic feature of the people discovered itself in a more striking manner than in the transactions of the citizens of Edinburgh. When in 1763 the improvement of the city, by the extension of its boundaries and the erection of new public buildings took place, the people entered into the scheme with an enthusiasm which is hardly to be paralleled. Since that time the city has been extended to more than double its former size, and the streets and buildings of this new part of it present an appearance for regularity, elegance of architecture, and general magnificence, which has raised the external appearance of Edinburgh above all the cities of Europe. But Scottish vanity is most conspicuous in the public buildings. When form. ing the plans of many of these, it was on a deale

of magnitude, which the poverty of the country prevented them from executing. The Observatory on the Calton-hill stood for a number of years with only a small part built of the intended plan; and from poverty was at last unavoidably finished in a very inferior style. Half of the building for the national records only is erected; it was found necessary to contract the plan of the Bridewell before its erection; and the small part built of the new University stands an immense ruin, a monument of vanity of which poverty has prevented the completion. In dress too, this ruling passion characterizes the citizens of Edinburgh. On Sundays or holidays, in this respect, the servant is not to be distinguished from the master, the rich from the poor; all is sacrificed to appearances.

The vast height of the houses in Edinburgh has always attracted the notice of strangers. However high they now appear, yet at a former period they were much higher. An act of the Scottish parliament was passed in the year 1698," prohibiting any building afterwards to be erected in the city from being built more than five stories or floors in height. This, however, seems only to have applied to the front wall facing any street or lane; the back part, on account of the declivity of the ground on which many of them stand,