The lateral towers are connected with the central one by means of flying buttresses, and with spandrils and crockets. The four principal arches and buttresses sustain an open trellis, which extends round the building in front of the first gallery. On a level with this gallery is an apartment used as a Waverley Museum. From the gallery rises the principal tower. On each side is an arched window. A flying staircase leads to the third gallery. Around are towers, buttresses, pinnacles, arches, crockets, corbels and finials-in all the rich profusion of Gothic architecture. On reaching the fourth gallery the view is grand in the extreme. At each successive stage are elegantly-sculptured niches, intended for statues illustrative of the poet's works. The height of the Monument (increased beyond the original design) is two hundred feet six inches above the level of Princes Street. It is ascended by 289 steps. The monumental statue under the canopy represents Sir Walter in a sitting attitude, with the ample folds of a Scottish plaid hanging loosely about him, and his favourite hound Maida at his feet. Mr Steell has seized the moment when the great novelist has just recorded some of his imperishable thoughts in the volume which is in his hand, and he has communicated to the features a look of complete abstraction, while the dog, as if startled by the closing of the book, is in the act of lifting up its head to catch the expression of its master's countenance. The statue was inaugurated in 1846. The block of marble from which it was chiselled, contained 200 cubic feet, and weighed upwards of 25 tons. The monument is constructed of sandstone from Binny Quarry. The funds raised by the original and auxiliary committees amounted to £17,243, 4s. The sum of £1871, 12s. 8d., was expended in procuring subscriptions. For the statue, Mr Steell received £2000-eight small statues cost £179, 5s. 10d. a sum of £460, 3s. 5d. was lost by a contractor, and a railing was constructed at the expense of £147, 13s. 6d. The balance, amounting to £13,584, 8s. 6d., was expended in the monumental fabric. Persevering as were their labours, the auxiliary committee were unable to procure funds sufficient to provide statues for all the niches. Thirty niches are still unoccupied, but Mr James Ballantyne, the esteemed Scottish poet, is now exerting himself to complete the work. The sum of £2000, Mr Ballantyne believes, will suffice to provide the remaining statues.