Thus should her towers be raised: with vicinage
Of clear bold hills, that curve her very streets,
As if to vindicate, 'mid choicest seats

Of Art, abiding Nature's majesty;

And the broad sea beyond, in calm or rage
Chainless alike, and teaching liberty."

THE EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW
RAILWAY,

AS originally incorporated by 1 and 2 Vict., cap. 58, to run between those places, with a branch to Falkirk. Capital £900,000 in shares, and £300,000 in loans. By Act 15th Vict., cap. 109 (17th June, 1852), this Com

pany was re-incorporated under the same title, and every Act previously obtained repealed, except Special Acts as to other companies specified. The Union Canal became embodied in the Company in 1848. The Company was re-incorporated and consolidated by 15 Vic., 96 1852. Productive mileage, 142 miles, including 32 of

Union Canal.

By 18 and 19 Vic., cap. 158 (July 23rd, 1855), the company undertook to subscribe £50,000 to the Dumbartonshire and Helensburgh. Power was also taken to raise £150,000 by shares to enlarge the Queen-street station, and for other purposes, and also to raise a further sum of £30,000. The company is also entitled to issue preference shares, in lieu of borrowing.

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway also leases the Edinburgh and Bathgate.

By 21 and 22 Vic., cap. 64 (28th June, 1858), the Stirling and Dunfermline is vested in the Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Forth and Clyde Canal Company is constructing a branch from the harbour of Grangemouth, to join the Edinburgh and Glasgow line at Falkirk.

CALEDONIAN.-After a long contest with this company, a contract was entered into, under an award by Mr. Houldsworth, in 1857, to the following effect:-To the Edinburgh and Glasgow 30.64 of the net traffic receipts of both lines, and 69.36 to the Caledonian. By a later arrangement, the Scottish Central was induced to break off its mutual working with the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee, and to join the Caledonian and Edinburgh and Glasgow confederacy.

TRAFFIC.-The capital account to January 31st shows that £4,254,270 had been received, and £4,225,432 expended, including £7,879 during the last half-year, leaving a balance of £28,838. The revenue account for the half-year ending January 31st shows that £156,585 had been received, including £2,219 estimated dividend on stock in the Dumbarton and Helensburgh, and £2,503 for rents; and £58,909 expended in working the traffic; £30,105 paid for interest on loans; and £17,875 for rents and dividends to other companies, leaving a balance of £49,695.

GLASGOW, DUMBARTON, AND HELENSBURGH.-This line is worked by agreement with the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, by which the whole expenses are divided by the train-miles run.

STIRLING AND DUNFERMLINE.-The lease of this line in perpetuity passed through Parliament without any variation from the terms of

agreement. The stock

(£450,000 at 4 per

cent.) has been

created and issued,

and £130,000 of de

benture debt assumed.

HE people of North Britain are proverbially cautious, but they are also sagacious and persevering. A long time elapsed before they would venture on so large a project as a grand trunk railway; but having carefully watched the movements of their brethren of the South, in respect to these vast national

undertakings, and being satisfied of the important results likely to accrue from their general introduction into Scotland, they commenced operations in earnest.

We may briefly describe the COURSE OF THE RAILWAY BETWEEN EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW, reserving a more particular description of the various objects of interest on the line for another page.

Leaving the terminus at Edinburgh, the general course of the line is nearly west, as far as Falkirk, from whence it pursues a direction about south-west of Glasgow, and runs nearly parallel with, and on the north of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, which it crosses near Lock Sixteen of the Forth and Clyde Canal, from whence it is nearly parallel, and on the south of this Canal, all the way to Glasgow. Within about three miles and a-half of the Glasgow terminus, it crosses over the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway.

The sharpest curve is at Springvale, north of Glasgow, being of about half-a-mile radius. The radius of curvature is generally about a mile. With the exception of the inclined plane at Edinburgh, the gradients throughout are all of the first class.

The amount of earthwork on this line is considerable. The principal cutting, which is in Abercorn parish, is about fifty feet in depth. It is nearly three miles in length, and amounting to a million of cubic yards.

There are altogether five tunnels, amounting in length to 2200 yards. The first is at Winchburgh, and is 330 yards long; the second at Callander, 830 yards in length; and the remaining three, which are at the Glasgow inclined plane, are respectively 476, 292, and 272 yards in length; the span of each is 26 feet, and the height 22 feet. These tunnels are built of stone and brick, but chiefly of brick. The arches are 18 inches, and the side-walls 21 inches in thickness. Except the Callander tunnel, which is in a curve of a mile radius, the whole are in straight lines.

The bridges over the railway are generally of semi-elliptical form, and of 28 feet span; there are 31 turnpike and high-road bridges under the railway, and 33 over. The principal skew bridge is over the turnpike road at Linlithgow, which is constructed at an angle of 33°.

There are several viaducts of considerable extent, the principal of which are over the Almond and Avon waters. The Almond viaduct, which is built of stone, is by far the most extensive work of the kind on the whole line, and consists of 36 segmental arches, each of 75

feet span;

the piers on each 7 feet in thickness. The whole length of the viaduct is 720 yards, the extreme width, 28 feet 4 inches, and the general height about 50 feet. The viaduct over the Avon valley consists of 20, and the Redburn viaduct of 8 arches respectively. AVING left the Station at Edinburgh, which is well situated in Prince's-street, in the hollow which divides the Old from the New Town, the train passes through Prince'sgardens, and the stranger will notice the ornamental bridges thrown over the line. Passing at the foot of the (our readers will understand that we are travelling with our back to the engine) and after passing through a tunnel, we reach CORSTORPHINE STATION, three miles and a-half from Edinburgh. The parish village is situated three miles west of the Scottish Metropolis, on the New Glasgow-road. Within the ancient collegiate church (an erection of the fifteenth century), now used as a parochial place of worship, there exist several sepulchral effigies of the Lords Foresters, a family of historical note in the fifteenth century.

Corstorphine Hill, a slight eminence between the village and the city, is beautifully planted, and throughout its sylvan glades are scattered several elegant seats and villas, commanding very extensive and delightful prospects. Under the east slope are placed Ravelston House and Craigeroole. At Craigleith, in the neighbourhood, a mile and a-half from Edinburgh, on the Queensferry-road, is an immense quarry of sandstone, from which nearly all the modern part of Edinburgh has been dug. Deeply imbedded in this rock a few years ago, there was found the trunk of a great pine, reduced to the nature of the mass in which it had been involved.

Two miles from Corstorphine we reach GOGAR STATION, near which will be perceived the ruins of an old church. Proceeding on the line, we next arrive at the Ratho Junction Station, from whence the visitor

may, if he chooses, diverge from the main route and proceed by the BRANCH LINE TO BATHGATE, almost ten miles distant, passing by Broxburn, Houston and Livingston (the patrimony of the family of the same name, lately ennobled under the title of Earl of Linlithgow, but now extinct in the male line).

The thriving town of Bathgate occupies a piece of slightly elevated ground, consisting of an old town and a new, and containing in 1851 (inclusive of the rural part of the parish), a population of about 4000. Bathgate was, in 1824, constituted a free burgh of barony by act of parliament, and is managed by a provost, three bailies, twelve councillors, a treasurer, and a town-clerk, the magistrates and town-council being elected by the burgesses. At the east end of the town, a handsome and conspicuous building was erected a few years ago, in consequence of a bequest by a gentleman named Newlands (a native of the parish, who realised a fortune in Jamaica), for a free school, under the management of five teachers. The population of Bathgate is supported, partly by the adjacent lime and coal works, and partly by weaving. The adjoining lands formed part of the dowry given by Bruce, with his daughter Marjory, to Walter, the High Steward, who resided, and in 1328 died, at his residence here, the remains of which are still pointed out in the midst of a bog in the neighbourhood, together with some narrow causeways which led to it through the soft ground.

Torphichen, a little straggling village, lies in a sheltered plain, about four miles directly north from Bathgate. Though now consisting of only a few cottages, and lying remote from all public roads, it was once a place of great distinction. Here the knights of St. John, a powerful body of military ecclesiastics arising out of the crusades, and who finally possessed a vast amount of landed property in all the countries of Europe, had their chief Scottish Preceptory. Fragments of old buildings, of a massive and castellated appearance, remain scattered throughout the village, to attest the former splendour of this settlement. The very stone fences in the neighbourhood bear an appearance of antique dignity, having probably been erected by the former tenants of the place, or constructed out of the ruins of their houses.

The church of the Preceptory, which was built in the reign of the first David, has suffered so much from time, or from more ruthless