Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/343

 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 207 history. We must refer om* readers to the work itself for rnaiiy romantic and striking incidents connected with the nmnicipul and judicial monu- ments of the old capital, the Tolbooth and Parliament-close, a scene of more strange aud remarkable vicissitudes than any other portion of the town, the adjoining church of the patron saint (the idol condemned by the Reformers), St Giles, the Parliament Hall, the great south window of which may be perceived in the annexed charming little subject, representing the ancient thoroughfare, or descent to the Cowgate from the Parhament- close. They will accompany his progress, with increasing interest, through the intricate haunts and nooks of the city, the High-street, which still marks the line of the primitive thoroughfare from the Palace to the Castle ; along which the rude huts of the earlv Cale- The Back Stairs leading to the Cowgate. The Canongate Tolbooth. donians were constructed, as early, it is believed, as the ninth centuiy. After gazing a moment at the picturesque Netherbow, demolished in 1704, they will pass into the Royal Burgh of Canongate aud the Abbey Sanctuaiy,' a fertile field for curious investigation, replete with interesting tradition's, and, passing leisurely through many a scene of events of romantic originality, with which the picturesque character of " Auld Reekie" seems so strikingly to liarmdni^e, will fnjjuw ilieir agreeable cicvroiie to (he