Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/144

126 The bridge, viewed from the house, must be a fine object; it is of one arch; a simicirclesemicircle [sic] of 70 feet; thrown from rock to rock. The wood, and banks of the river about the bridge, are very romantic; and, to me, beautifully rough and broken.

On my expressing my admiration of all I saw, I was answered by an overseer of the bridge, then not finished, that by and by it would be much finer; for the bed of the river was to be cleared; and the banks smoothed, and dressed. Fye on the shavers, as Mr. Knight calls them, how unmercifully do they "shave the Goddess whom they come to dress!" And will they not spare even the lovely North Esk? I admired the South Esk and its wooded banks, as it ran through the Duke's grounds to join its namesake; and both roll on together, till they fall into the firth of Forth, at Musselburgh. Dalkeith, on the whole, is a place well worth seeing. I was conducted to a spot in the Duke's grounds, to admire a frightful animal of the monkey kind; a disgusting little black beast. I was glad to turn from his nauseous prison, to the fine woods and grounds in which he is confined. The South Esk River graces the scenes of Newbattle, which lies low to its