Page:Account of the royal visit of George the IVth to Scotland (2).pdf/2



HE visit of George the Fourth to the Scottish metropolis may well be considered a remarkable event in our national annals. Certain it is, that no other event of a domestic nature could have occurred more honourable to the people of Scotland, or more gratifying to their feelings.- Edinburgh is regarded by the Scots with pride, and a veneration almost religious, of which strangers to their character can have no adequate conception. It is not merely the capital of the country, and celebrated as a seat of science and of literature, but it has still higher claims upon their respect as the favourite abode of their ancient monarchs-as the scene, in latter ages, of every great political transaction in which the nation has been concerned—and as the depository of the only remaining symbols of its former independence. Its castle, its palace, its courts of justice, those hallowed vestiges of the olden time, are familiar household words in the remotest districts: they are still approached by the provincial Scot with the pious feeling of a pilgrim, and never