Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/139

 114 OBJECTS OF INTEREST.

ing, on the plan of the Parthenon, there seems a sort of blending of antique with modern recollections, as you examine coats of mail, warriors boots of amazing weight and capacity, the terrible two-handed sword, the cumbrous and cruel instrument of death, strangely called &quot; The Maiden,&quot; the pulpit of John Knox, and the joint-stool hurled by Jane Geddes at the head of the Dean of Peterborough, who, she said, was &quot; preach ing popery in her lugs,&quot; when he essayed to read the Liturgy, commanded to be used in the churches by Charles the First.

I have hinted that an unusual perseverance animated us in our explorations of Edinburgh. We seemed neither to feel fatigue, nor to fear satiety. The acme of a traveller s zeal came over us there. It was like a first love, rendered more unquenchable by the re straints and apprehensions of the voyage, from which we had recently escaped. The magnificent prospect from Arthur s Seat, the cold trickling waters of St. Anthony s fountain, the rugged cairn of Nichol Mus- kat, and the birthplace of the magician who described it, the sweet scenery of Randolph s cliff, the squares, the statues, the drives in the suburbs, the noble Uni versity, the princely libraries, the model schools, the hospitals, the churches, even the shops of the lapida ries, where the Scottish pebble is made to take its place among gems, the club-rooms, in whose luxurious arrangement men may sometimes overlook the humbler &quot; blink of their ain fireside,&quot; the publishing houses, from whence the influence of genius and learning hath gone

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