The
Old Town of Edinburgh
These
engravings ... serve to delineate the peculiar loftiness and arrangement
of the houses in the Old Town. Some of these consist of several
floors or 'flats' as they have here been termed. From the
inequality of surface on which these dwellings are raised, the great
variety and diversity are produced.
Unlike
the tame uniformity and monotonous insipidity of many London streets,
here the houses exhibit an endless change in their perpendicular and
horizontal lines
The
base of one mass is often on a level with the chimneys of another;
and thus, whilst some families are living apparently in the clouds,
others are destined to dwell beneath the surface of the earth.
In
one of these "stacks of houses" here represented, there are no
less than ten stories, or 'flats'; and it is a fact that many of these
flats are inhabited by distinct families, whilst one flight of stairs
communicates to the whole.
Although
its precise contents and measurements cannot be accurately ascertained,
it may be calculated at 720 feet in length, 160 in breadth, and 78 feet
in height. Its solid contents are estimated at two millions of
cart loads, or seven thousand entire yards of earth.
[Modern
Athens]
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