Reflection Point

Intersection of South Charlotte Street and Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2 4AH

Walk to the intersection with Princes Street at the end of the block and consider the words of two notable American writers as they expressed their feelings of deep affection for the city of Edinburgh.

The first is Washington Irving, best known for his short stories Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving visited Edinburgh in 1817, and this is what he wrote: “I am enchanted with the general appearance of the place. It far surpasses all my expectations. Yesterday was a warm day, with now and then a very light shower, and an atmosphere loaded with rich clouds through which the sunshine fell in broad masses, giving an endless diversity of light and shadow to the grand romantic features of this town.  It seemed as if the rock and castle assumed a new aspect everytime I looked at them, and Arthur’s Seat was perfect witchcraft. I rambled about the Bridges and Calton Height yesterday, in a perfect intoxication of the mind.”

The other writer is the novelist Henry James, best known as author of The Turn of the Screw, who composed an equally romantic account of his impression of Edinburgh when he visited the city in 1878. “The night of my arrival here was a superb one; the full moon had the possession of a cloudless sky. There is no street in Europe more spectacular than Princes Street, where all the hotels stand in a row. Princes Street was absolutely operatic. The radiant moon hung right above the Castle and the ancient houses that keep it company on its rocky pedestal, and painted them over with a thousand silvery, gray touches.  They looked fantastic and ethereal, like the battlements of a magician’s palace.”

Sources:

• Tour in Scotland 1817 and Other Manuscript Notes by Washington Irving
• Travels with Henry James by Henry James