Ramsay Gardens, a students' quarter fostered by Prof. Patrick Geddes (b. 1854), grew out of the "goose-pie" house where Allan Ramsay lived, and with its red-tiled roof and effective lines adds warmth to the view of the Old Town from Princes Street. Not the least interesting structure is the old City Cross (restored at the cost of W.E. Gladstone), which stands in High Street, adjoining St Giles's. Several of the quaint groups of buildings of Auld Reekie have been carefully restored, such as the White Horse Close in the Canongate; the mass of alleys on the north side of the Lawnmarket, from Paterson's Close to James's Court have been connected, and here Lord Rosebery acquired and restored the 17th-century dwelling which figures in the legend of _My Aunt Margaret's Mirror_. Another model restoration of a historic close is found in Riddle's Close, which contains a students' settlement. If these and other improvements have led to the disappearance of such old-world picturesque buildings as Allan Ramsay's shop "at the sign of the Mercury, opposite Niddry Wynd," Cardinal Beaton's palace, the old Cunzie House, or mint, the beautiful timber-fronted "land" that stood at the head of the West Bow, and even such "howffs" as Clerihugh's tavern, where Mr Counsellor Pleydell and the rest played the "high jinks" described in _Guy Mannering_, it must be conceded that the changes in the Old Town (many of a drastic nature) have been carried out with due regard to the character of their environment.