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Edinburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson
page 68 of 81 (83%)
will press with embarrassing effusion on a perfect
stranger. It is inexpedient to risk one's body in a cab,
or not, at least, until after a prolonged study of the
driver. The streets, which are thronged from end to end,
become a place for delicate pilotage. Singly or arm-in-
arm, some speechless, others noisy and quarrelsome, the
votaries of the New Year go meandering in and out and
cannoning one against another; and now and again, one
falls and lies as he has fallen. Before night, so many
have gone to bed or the police office, that the streets
seem almost clearer. And as GUISARDS and FIRST-FOOTERS
are now not much seen except in country places, when once
the New Year has been rung in and proclaimed at the Tron
railings, the festivities begin to find their way indoors
and something like quiet returns upon the town. But
think, in these piled LANDS, of all the senseless
snorers, all the broken heads and empty pockets!

Of old, Edinburgh University was the scene of heroic
snowballing; and one riot obtained the epic honours of
military intervention. But the great generation, I am
afraid, is at an end; and even during my own college
days, the spirit appreciably declined. Skating and
sliding, on the other hand, are honoured more and more;
and curling, being a creature of the national genius, is
little likely to be disregarded. The patriotism that
leads a man to eat Scotch bun will scarce desert him at
the curling-pond. Edinburgh, with its long, steep
pavements, is the proper home of sliders; many a happy
urchin can slide the whole way to school; and the
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