I had begun to take some taste for reading; and a
domiciliation in the country must remove me from
the use of books, excepting the small subscription
library, in which the very book which you want is
uniformly sure to be engaged.
I resolved, therefore, to make the Scottish
metropolis my regular resting-place, reserving to
myself to take occasionally those excursions, which,
spite of all I have said against mail-coaches, Mr
Piper has rendered so easy. Friend of our life and
of our leisure, he secures by dispatch against loss
of time, and by the best of coaches, cattle, and
steadiest of drivers, against hazard of limb, and
wafts us, as well as our letters, from Edinburgh to
Cape Wrath, in the penning of a paragraph.
When my mind was quite made up to make Auld
Reekie my head-quarters, reserving the privilege
of _exploring_ in all directions, I began to explore in
good earnest for the purpose of discovering a suitable
habitation. ``And whare trew ye I gaed?''
as Sir Pertinax says. Not to George's Square---
nor to Charlotte Square---nor to the old New
Town---nor to the new New Town---nor to the
Calton Hill; I went to the Canongate, and to the
very portion of the Canongate in which I had formerly
been immured, like the errant knight, prisoner
in some enchanted castle, where spells have
made the ambient air impervious to the unhappy
captive, although the organs of sight encountered
no obstacle to his free passage.
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