was the old state prison is a very fine one, and the feeling of the architecture of the period that he has aimed at--which is, if I remember right, about the year 1500--is admirably carried out. The room, when I get it hung round with engravings of the Castle at different periods from 1573 downwards, and also get it decorated in various parts with trophies of arms and armour, which I am to have permission to select from the armoury in the Castle, will be one of the most interesting rooms there. My collection of views of the Castle will be largely taken advantage of for the decoration of this room. The view from the top of the tower is, I need not say, one of the finest in Europe; and there is a path right round, so that the view can be seen from all points. “The old Parliament Hall has been at a stand-still for some time; but Mr. Blanc has drawings for the windows and doors completed, and estimates for them are now being taken. Here is a point on which I would like to be enlightened. You say in your ‘Memorials of Edinburgh:’ ‘From the occasional assembling of the Parliament here, while the Scottish monarchs continued to reside in the Castle, it still retains the name of the Parliament House.’ Now at a gathering of eminent men of Edinburgh that I had at the Castle some time ago, Mr. Dickson of the antiquarian department of the Register Office took it upon him to give an address to the party when they were in the said hall; and he said in the course of it that it was quite a misnomer to connect the word parliament with the building, as the old Scottish Parliament met in the Tolbooth, and there does not exist any evidence to show that any of its meetings were ever held in the old Parliament Hall. What do you say to this, my dear old fellow? A few lines about the matter by return of mail from you will be a favour. By the way, a discovery has been made lately in regard to the building which will interest you. It is that the walls are much older than the corbels, the latter having been found to have been stuck into them: Mr. Blanc is of opinion about two hundred years after they were built. What do you say to this discovery?”