The prefent volume is divided into five parts. The first chapter, after tracing the origin of the city, becomes rather a hiftory of Scotland than of Edinburgh. Not finding any documents earlier than November 16, 1093, and being unwilling to fill his book with traditional details or conjectural investigations, Mr. Arnot commences his account from that period. As this part of hiftory has been frequently confidered by many able and learned gentlemen, and is fufficiently well known to moft readers, efpecially fince the labours of a Robertfon, a Tytler, and a Whitaker, have fo much elucidated. its darker parts, we fhall pass over it.

The principal entertainment which hiftory affords, is a true delineation of manners and characters; and its merit confifts chiefly in the juftnefs and vivacity of the picture which it prefents. The period defcribed in the firft chapter, viz. from 1093, to the acceffion of James VI. of Scotland, was overcaft with fuch darkness, and enveloped in fo much obfcurity, as not to allow Mr. Arnot to give more than a sketch of the manners of the Scotch of thofe early times. Their provifions, drefs, houses, furniture, learning, arts, trade, entertainments, &c. are the fubject of the second chapter.

As almost every article of drefs was of foreign manufacture, indulgence in fplendor was highly pernicious in a kingdom. that cannot be fuppofed to have had much commerce; and fumptuary laws were frequently made to reftrain excess in drefs. Befide plumes of oftrich feathers on the heads, and rofes at the knees and feet, fans in the ladies' hands, and corkheeled fhoes for gentlemen, are mentioned at a very early period. The meats furnished for royal entertainments were, in variety, confiderable, and, in quantity, enormous. There were provided for a Chriftmas dinner at court, for jellies alone, 506 ox feet, 1500 fheep's feet, and thirty-fix cocks. plendor of their fideboards was exceffive, and they seem to have gloried in fhew and extravagance; as the following story plainly evinces:

The

At an entertainment given by the Earl of Murray to the Patriarch of Apuleia, A. D. 1544, although he had good store of filver plate, he ordered his fide-board, befide the plate, to be furnished with Venetian crystal glaffes, and gave his fervants inftructions to overturn it, as if by accident, in the midst of dinner. The noise of its fail alarmed the company, who expreffed their regret for the lofs; but the Earl, making no account of it, ordered the fide-board to be refurnished with ftill finer cryftal.'

The leffer barons, a clafs of people anfwering to our term gentry, were by no means fo fplendid; as for household furni ture, they poffefied few things, which, in the prefent times, would

would claim a place in a fervant's hall. The only pieces of furniture in a baron's hall, i. e. dining-room, were large standing oak tables, forms, and cupboards with or without doors. They ate moftly out of wooden difhes called tren-plates, used wooden or horn fpoons, and drank out of wooden cups.

Of letters, they were extremely ignorant; and although Univerfities were established in the country about the beginning of the fifteenth century, yet fo little were the people difpofed to reap the advantages arifing from feminaries of education, that, at the distance of nearly one hundred years, it was thought expedient to enact, that every baron or freeholder of substance fhould put his eldest fon to fchool; there to remain till he should acquire thorough knowlege in Latin; and that he fhould. afterward study philofophy and law, that he might be capable of officiating as judge ordinary.

Through the next three chapters, Mr. Arnot pursues the hiftory of Scotland, from the acceffion of James the First of England, to the union in Queen Anne's reign. This era of the Scotch history affords an exemplary inftance that nothing fo deeply perverts the judgment, and corrupts the heart, as the fury of civil contention excited by religious bigotry. The fucceeding chapter, which brings the hiftory down to the prefent time, is more confined to the city of Edinburgh than to the kingdom, if we except the relation of the rebellion in 1745.

The fecond part of the work commences with a description of the town, particularly marking its fituation, extent, boundaries, &c. its churches and religious houfes fallen into decay, or destroyed by the mischievous hands of intemperate zeal; and after (pending much time in the contemplation of these remains, Mr. Arnot defcribes the prefent ftate of the churches, and religious establishment, the caftle, parliament-houfe, palace, and other public buildings.

The third part treats of the population and supply of provifions; the amufements, and places of public diverfion; the univerfity, fchools, and literary and feientific focieties.

The fourth relates to the legislative and judicative affemblies, to the revenue, to charitable foundations, trade, commerce, and arts; and the laft part is appropriated to the defcription of the fuburbs, particularly Leith, and its various manufactories.

From the above recapitulation, our readers will, in fome degree, be able to judge of the entertainment and utility which they will probably find in the perufal of the volume. It is well written, excepting a few Scotticifms; and, from the variety of matter that it contains, it must evidently have coft the author much labour and inveftigation;-it will doubtlefs be read with pleature;

9

pleafure; and, from Mr. Arnot's great accuracy, we fuppofe it may be fafely quoted as an authority.

The Appendix contains thirteen articles; moft of them are documents for illuftrating the hiftory, though fome of them are inferted as curiofities. The laft article confifts of three letters, originally published in one of the Edinburgh papers *, which illuftrate many peculiarities in the manners of that metropolis, and denote its rapid ftate of improvement. We shall transcribe a few of the most remarkable paragraphs:

In 1786, the valued rents of houtes in Edinburgh, which pay cefs or land-tax, are more than double what they were in 1763, and are ftill increasing.

In 1763, the revenue of the poft office was 11,000l.; in 1783, the fame revenue was 40,000l.

In 1763, there was one stage-coach, which fet out once a month for London, and it was fixteen or eighteen days on the journey.- In 1783, there were fixty ftage-coaches monthly, which reached London in four days; and in 1786, the stage-coaches reach London in fixty hours.

In 1763, the fhore-dues at Leith (a fmall duty paid to the city of Edinburgh on landing goods) amounted to 58ol.; in 1783, the hore-dues amounted to 4cool.

In 1763, the revenue arifing from the diftillery in Scotland was 47391. 185. 10s.-in 1782, it was 93,7011. 125. 1d.

The half of an Edinburgh newspaper, which fold in 1740 for 361. and in 1763 might have been purchased for 100l. fold in 1783 for 1300l.

In 1763, the number of boys in the high-fchool [i. e. grammar-fchool] was not 200,-in 1783, their number was 500.

In 1763, there were 396 four-wheel carriages entered to pay duty, in 1783 there were 1268.

In 1763, people of quality and fashion lived in houfes, which in 1783 are inhabited by tradefmen, and people in humble and ordinary life; thus Lord Prefident Craig's houfe is at prefent occupied by a falefwoman of old furniture.- Lord Drummore's house was lately left by a chairman, who lived in it fince his lordship, for want of proper accommodations.-The houfe of the Duke of Douglafs at the union is now poffeffed by a wheel-wright.

In 1763 there was one dancing affembly-room; and the profits were given to the charity workhoufe. Minuets were danced previous to the country dances; ftrict regularity with respect to drefs and decorum and dignity of manners was observed.-In 1786 the old affembly-room is ufed for the city guard. There are three new affembly-rooms built, befide one at Leith; but the charity workhoufe is ftarving. Minuets are given up, and country dances only are ufed, which have often a nearer refemblance to a game of romps than elegant and graceful dancing. Drefs, particularly by the

We are informed that Mr. Creech, an eminent book feller, and active magiftrate, of Edinburgh, was the author of them.

men,

men, is much neglected; and many of them reel from the tavern, drenched in wine, to an affembly of as elegant and beautiful women as any in Europe.'

Well may the Edinburghians fay, tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur cum illis! The whole of thefe letters, of which the above extract is not a twentieth part, affords the most astonishing contrast of the different state of a city, within the space of about twenty years, that can well be imagined. Did it not come from fuch unquestionable authority, we Londoners might have thought the inhabitants of Edinburgh were returning to the ufe of the long bow. Roth...m.

ART. XIII. Tranfactions of the Royal Irish Academy, MDCCLXXXVIII. 4to. pp. 376. 18s. Boards. Elmsley. 1790.

IN

N our feventy-ninth vol. p. 203, we laid before our readers an account of the inftitution of the Irish Academy; together with an analysis of the first publication of the fcientific tranfactions of this new Royal Society to which our fifter Ifland has lately given birth. We have now before us a fecond volume of their valuable Memoirs; and we fhall immediately proceed to a review of its contents*.

This volume, like the preceding publication, is divided into three claffes, under the titles of Science, Polite Literature, and Antiquities; and we fhall give an account of them in the order in which they occur.

SCIENCE.

An Account of the moving of a Bog, and the Formation of a Lake, in the County of Galway, Ireland. By Ralph Oufley, Efq.

This remarkable event happened on the 28th of March 1745, at the bog of Addergoole, near the town of Dunmore. An extraordinary rain, or rather water-fpout, continued for little more than an hour, accompanied with a tremendous noife; immediately after, the turbary or peat-mofs, of about ten acres, was feen floating, and fubfided at last on a piece of low pafture ground, of nearly 30 acres, which thus became, and ftill continues, the wettest and most unprofitable piece of bog in the kingdom. The adjacent river, being at the fame time choaked up, overflowed the back grounds, and fpread by degrees into a lake of nearly 300 acres: but a junction of this lake with the ancient channel of the river, below the new bog,

* A third volume, for 1789, has likewife recently made its appearance. We fhall pay attention to it, as foon as we have concluded our progrefs through the prefent.

having been happily effected, it diminished, in feven or eight days, to 50 or 60 acres, of which extent it ftill continues. A copper-plate is annexed, reprefenting the face of the ground before and after this tranfpofition.

An Account and Defcription of three Pendulums invented and conftructed by John Crofthwaite, Watch and Clock Maker, Dublin.

The first of thefe is a compenfation pendulum, of a very fimple construction, but which promifes to be more perfect than the operofe combinations hitherto devised. It confifts of two equal fteel rods, forged out of the fame bar, at the fame time, of the fame temper, and in every refpect fimilar; fo difpofed, that any expanfion or contraction taking place in one, is inftantly counteracted by an equal expanfion or contraction of the other. The invariable fupport, on which the end of one of the rods must neceffarily reft, is a steel bracket, projecting from a large block of ftatuary marble firmly inferted in the wall.-We have feen a contrivance on the fame principle, (which indeed is the most obvious one for the purpofe,) in one of the early volumes of the Tranfactions of the Stockholm Academy: but whether it was actually executed, (which Mr. Crofthwaite's has been, with a fuccefs even beyond expectation,) we do not now recol

lect.

The fecond of thefe inventions is a pendulum with a diamond fufpenfion; and the third, a clock where the maintaining power is applied immediately from the escapement wheel to the axis of the pendulum rod, without verge, crutch, or any other agent. The mechanifm is ingenious, but cannot be made intelligible without the plate.

An Account of a new Method of illuminating the Wires, and regulating the Pofition, of the Tranfit Inftrument. By the Rev. Henry Uisher, D. D. F. R. S. &c.

In the tranfit inftrument of the academy's obfervatory at Dublin, made by Mr. Ramíden, there are feveral valuable improvements, refpecting the illumination of the wires, the adjufting of the horizontal pofition of the axis, and the apparatus for reverfing the inftrument to verify the line of collimation. Dr. Ufsher has given delineations, in five plates, both of the common and improved conftruction; and, in the defcriptions, he points out the particular inconveniences that were to be obviated, with the different means devifed for that purpose. The moft interefling of thefe improvements is an invention for adjufting the plumb-line; which, as the author juftly obferves, does high honour to Mr. Ramfden, and is a most valuable acquifition to all aftronomical inftruments where plumb-lines

are