West Princes Street Gardens

To the south, a wide area of attractive residences, spaciously set amid gardens and wooded policies, gives a garden - city aspect to Edinburgh.

The extension of the boundaries of the city in 1920 has brought within its area outlying districts to the south and west, with their numerous industrial and residential villages. These are linked up by efficient transport services, and, with the steady growth of building out from the city, are rapidly being absorbed.

Edinburgh furnishes a notable example of the dovetailing of city and country. The suburbs have been steadily reaching out into the country along the principal thoroughfares, leaving ample areas of green fields, woodlands, and hills partly enclosed between the advancing lines of town architecture.

The modern city, on the other hand, has presented in a striking and refreshing manner a realisation of the phrase rus in urbe. Edinburgh's numerous parks, whose green spaces, the invigorating city" lungs "of modern public health policy, add immensely to the healthfulness of the citizens, and offer a great variety of pleasant places of resort and recreation.

Of the parks, the first to claim the admiring interest of the visitor is the Princes Street Gardens, which occupy the site of the old Nor' Loch, and fill the valley between the Rock and Princes Street.

These are an almost unique feature. There are few cities in the world in which a promenade in the principal street can leave it by a little iron gate, and find himself immediately in an inviting garden valley, with restful green lawns spreading before him, with shady seats, and with a general air of seclusion, the proximity of the city's traffic effectively banished from the consciousness.

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