DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATE.

THE frith of Forth is a beautiful arm of the sea, which from Berwick runs backwards within land to Stirling, a distance of nearly eighty miles. This distance was rapidly measured by Edward of England, in the year 1313, who, after the battle of Banockburn, which was fought in the neighbourhood of Stirling, fled with precipitation towards England; but he was so closely pursued by the gallant Douglafs, that he was constrained to throw himself inte the castle of Dunbar, within twenty miles of Berwick, from whence he stole off in a fishing boat by night to Berwick, then in the hands of the English, which he reached in safety.

The frith of Forth is bounded on each side with a fertile country, thickly strewed with towns, and diversified with gentle swells, and grotesque mountains, rising up in various forms in the back ground, which offer a great variety of picturesque landscapes. In the frith are also many isles, which serve to give a beautiful and rich variety to the prospects, that is seldom to be met with. At its entrance, on the one hand, stands the Bafs, an isolated rock of great height, perforated throughout its whole extent; on the top of which once stood a fortrefs, formerly deemed impregnable and on the other side lies the May, a low and fertile isle, on which is placed a light-house, to point out the opening into the frith in the night time; an object highly delightful to the VOL. Xiii.

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bewildered mariner in storms; for here he is sure of finding a safe asylum in the most tempestuous times. Farther up, a little below Leith, is Inch Keith, which, together with a ledge of rocks that stretch from the southern extremity to the shore, offers a screen from the eastern winds, and so effectually breaks the wayes, as to form above it a capacious road-stead, where fhips of any burden may ride in perfect safety. This is called Leith roads; a beautiful bason, which when seen from the high ground about Edinburgh, offers one of the richest prospects that a commercial nation can enjoy. In the year 1781, there were seen moored at once in this road above 600 fhips, many of them vefsels of great burden. This great and uneommon concourse of vefsels was occasioned by the continuance of an easterly wind for many weeks, during which time three large convoys, one from the West Indies, which had come by the northern passage; one from the Baltic; and another to it from all the parts of Britain, were forced to seek for fhelter here, till the wind became fair to permit them to pursue their respective courses. When these vefsels weighed, and hoisted sail, and were forced by a change of wind to veer about and moor again, it exhibited a magnificent view of moving scenery, which was seen so perfectly from above, turning in this capacious bason, surrounded with fertile fields, and near and distant hills, scattered with immense profusion, as exhibited a scene so rich and so sublime as seldom can occur in any part of the world"; and which is still spoken of with rapture by thousands who then beheld it,

Thousands too who were then in that fleet, and never had, or ever will have, another opportunity of visiting Scotland, fhould the print that accompanies this number ever fall in their way, will readily ret cognise the justnefs of the picture. For if they make allowance for the extension of the new town of Edinburgh, they will perceive that every object is delineated with the most scrupulous fidelity. The view is taken from the very point where the center of the fleet was moored.

The attentive reader who compares this view with the description given of the situation of the ground about Edinburgh, (Bee vol. ii. p. 242) will also have an opportunity of observing the justness of the remarks there made. The scenery here delineated is viewed from the north; and the hills, viz. first Arthur's seat; second Salisbury craigs; third the Calton hill, with the observatory, and optician's house upon it; and fourth the castle of Edinburgh; all slope gradually from the base, by an easy ascent from the eastward, and terminate abruptly on the west. To give a more perfect idea of these hills, let the reader be informed, that Arthur's seat and Salisbury craigs, are but one hill at their base, though it be divided at the top. It is surrounded by a vale, in most places swampy; on the south side that valley sinks at one place, so as to form a lake of considerable extent, called Duddingston loch; on the north, directly at the bottom of Salisbury craig, stands the abbey of Holyroodhouse, in one of the most fertile vales that can be found in Britain, called St Ann's yards. This is here

totally concealed from view by the tail of the Calton hill, which rises gradually up to the north of it, and terminates abruptly to the westward; first at its highest top near the observatory; and second by a fower, but more abrupt precipice, here hid from view; by the houses newly built on the ridge on which the new stown stands, which here attains its greatest height.

From the abbey of Holyroodhouse, the ground rises gradually, a continued ascent, till having passed the Calton hill, the houses of the old town begin to be seen, above those on the lower hill to the north of it; the castle being seen perched on a rock that terminates abruptly to the westward. In the back ground is seen a distant view of the eastern extremity of the Pentland hills, terminating in a bluff point to the eastward, very different in its configuration from the hills of Edinburgh. The Pentland hills form an irregular ridge of great extent, which run westward many miles, till they terminate at last near the Clyde, in the neighbourhood of Lanark. It is behind this ridge of hills that the new proposed canal is meant, by one party of men, to be carried; and nature has happily discontinued the hill at this place, as if with a view to open up a wide field for industry and commerce. Another party wish to keep entirely to the northward of this, and another range of hills, through which another opening has been made by nature, equally practicable. It is not yet determined which of the two plans will be at present adopted; but there is little doubt but they both will be executed ere

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long; the advantages arising from which will pers haps be touched at in some future number of thier work. bewusw addot vliquids 291smimist bat Mr Gilpin, in his tour in Scotland, has stigmatised the hill of Arthur's seat, as being unpicturesque in every point of view; and though I am aware of the absurdity of disputing about any thing so perfectly indefinite as an object of taste, yet I cannot help re marking, that I have seen many hills which appeared to me infinitely lefs picturesque than that which it bears from this point of view. As the delineation is exact, the reader will judge of this for himself. Indeed the peculiarity of this little cluster of hills, rising up with such bold features in the midst of a fertile level country, forms of itself a beauty of no small effect in picturesque scenery. But whatever may be the opinion of men as to the beauty of the hill itself, when viewed from the vale below, there is no dia versity of opinion respecting the delightfulness of the prospect when seen from its top all around ufor there is here seen such a vast extent of rivers, and fertile fields, and towns, and fhips, and varied hills, breaking the uniformity, and giving such a vast diversity of pleasing contours, as fills the mind with an imprefsion of immense extent, and unboun ded profusion of fertility and of wealth.

In the fore ground is seen a view of the new invented buoy by captain Joseph Brodie, described (Bee, vol. viii. p. 238,) carrying a flag staff always upright; though it, floats with the same freedom as any other buoy, It consists of a cone, like other buoys, having a ballast of cast iron fixed at one side,