High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR
Edinburgh is immensely fortunate in having preserved, to a greater extent than any other street in Europe, the core of the medieval burgh. It is nowhere better seen than here, at the head of the Netherbow. The unique qualities of the Old Town have been appreciated by visitors for generations, and one of the most colourful and perceptive descriptions was penned by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a noted American author of romantic works. He visited Edinburgh in 1856 and again in the following year, though his first impression was far from complimentary:
“In the Old Town of Edinburgh, we saw those immensely tall houses, seven storeys high, where the people live in tiers, all the way from earth to middle air. One thing did not in the least fall short of my expectations − the evil odour, for which Edinburgh has an immemorial renown, nor the dirt of the inhabitants, old and young. The town, to say the truth, when you are in the midst of it, has a very sordid, grimy, shabby, unswept, unwashen aspect, grievously at variance with all poetic and romantic associations.”
However, Nathaniel Hawthorne was soon to view old Edinburgh in a rather more favourable light, writing: “The sun was setting, and gilded the Old Town with its parting rays, making it absolutely the most picturesque scene I have ever beheld. The mass of tall, ancient houses, heaped densely together, looked like a Gothic dream.”
Sources:
- Passages from the English Note-books, Volume II by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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