Strike out the vineyards and that description will apply very well
to Cockhoolet; and in addition you ought to have seen from its roof
Edinburgh and the sea; but on this day the sea wore a garment of mist,
and had wrapped the metropolis in it also, as it not unfrequently
does. You ought to have seen more than one range of hills too, yet
except by eyes well acquainted with them their outlines could hardly
be distinguished from the leaden gray clouds lying in bands along the
horizon.

But as the party stood on the roof the clouds began to rise, tower
upon tower, against the sky, and the sun, who retires early at this
season, went behind them, when, instead of the pale, wistful gleam he
had been keeping up all day, he suddenly threw a deep bright golden
border on all the edges of the dark misty battlements which had piled
themselves like castles of the Titans: a big rift appearing at their
base, there poured through it, filling up the space, a great belt of
crimson rays streaked with gray, as if from burning ashes falling into
it, and like the dense glow from a furnace, giving the idea that the
cloud-building was on fire, and that the flames from below, shooting
up inside the dark walls, were the cause of the brilliant illumination
that shone round every pinnacle and coign of vantage. It was a grand
and a curious sight. You could fancy the sun looking across to the
old Castle of Edinburgh standing on its rock, and saying, "Can you
do anything like this with all the gas and paddelle you can lay your
hands on?" Precisely this idea struck Mrs. Parker, for she said, "I
think that is as good a sight as the castle the night the prince was
married."

"That was a very good sight in its way," said Mr. Parker, "but we can