Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/87

Rh the Cross to see what was going on. There I overheard a group of fellows forming their plan of operations. One of them asked what sort of a man the sheriff was, and whether he was not to be dreaded. 'No, no,' answered another; 'he is a puppy of the President's making.' On hearing this exordium Mr. Cockburn went off, leaving the culprit to himself."

Among the sights which Johnson was shown at Edinburgh, the New Town was not included. Yet some progress had been made in laying out those streets, "which in simplicity and manliness of style and general breadth and brightness of effect" were destined to surpass anything that has been attempted in modern street architecture. from Boswell's windows, over the tops of the stately elm-trees which at that time ran in front of James's Court and across a deep and marshy hollow, the rising houses could be easily seen. Full in view among the rest was the new home Hume had lately built for himself at the top of a street which was as yet unnamed, but was soon, as St. David's, to commemorate in a jest the great philosopher who was its first inhabitant. Had the change which was so rapidly coming over Auld Reekie been understood in its full extent, surely Johnson's attention would have been drawn to it. Boswell only mentions the New Town to introduce the name of "the ingenious architect" who planned it, Craig, the nephew of the poet Thomson. His mind, perhaps, was so set on escaping from "the too narrow sphere of Scotland," and on