Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/606

 586 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

return. In this little dome, the light admitted only from above, whence by reflection it throws the images of the outer world on the round, white table, we begin a study of Old Edinburgh. As the table turns, we may see successively the magnificent new group of buildings immediately to the west of the tower, now taken over by the Town and Gown Association ; beyond these, the esplanade, the castle, and portions of the new city, as well as an ancient approach to the old, the Grass Market. To the south, as the table revolves, we may examine minutely in the foreground Heriot's Hospital, Greyfriars' Church, the Royal Infirmary, and, less and less closely, the Meadows, the public golf links, and the Pentlands beyond. Looking to the east, one sees the rare significance of this loca- tion. The tower is situated on the north side of the great thoroughfare of Old Edinburgh. One looks down this narrow, high-walled slum street, where history is written in every old residence, in St. Giles' Church, Parliament House, and num- berless other historic monuments, until in the distance one sees Holyrood Palace, Salisbury Crags, and Arthur's Seat. To the north stretches the unique panorama which includes Princes Gar- dens and Princes street, and, with their public institutions, the Mound and Calton Hill. Beyond the new town of Edinburgh and its port, Leith, stretches the Firth of Forth ; and, on a clear day, the highlands may be seen.

" Traced like a map the landscape lies In cultured beauty stretching wide ;

There Pentland's green acclivities ; There Ocean with its azure tide ;

There Arthur's Seat ; and gleaming through

Thy Southern wing, Dunedin blue !

While in the Orient Lammer's daughters, A distant giant range, are seen, North Berwick Law with cone of green.

And Bass amid the waters."

In this physical environment the sociologist finds every variety of modern life, from the worst of Scotch slums at his feet, under the shadow of a majestic military stronghold, past the seats of ecclesiastical and political authority to the former