young mason was beginning to discover that Eskdale was hardly a wide
enough field for his budding ambition. He could carve the most careful
headstones; he could cut the most ornamental copings for doors or
windows; he could even build a bridge across the roaring flooded Esk;
but he wanted to see a little of the great world, and learn how men and
masons went about their work in the busy centres of the world's
activity. So, like a patriotic Scotchman that he was, he betook himself
straight to Edinburgh, tramping it on foot, of course, for railways did
not yet exist, and coaches were not for the use of such as young Thomas
Telford.

He arrived in the grey old capital of Scotland in the very nick of time.
The Old Town, a tangle of narrow alleys and close courtyards, surrounded
by tall houses with endless tiers of floors, was just being deserted by
the rich and fashionable world for the New Town, which lies beyond a
broad valley on the opposite hillside, and contains numerous streets of
solid and handsome stone houses, such as are hardly to be found in any
other town in Britain, except perhaps Bath and Aberdeen. Edinburgh is
always, indeed, an interesting place for an enthusiastic lover of
building, be he architect or stonemason; for instead of being built of
brick like London and so many other English centres, it is built partly
of a fine hard local sandstone and partly of basaltic greenstone; and
besides its old churches and palaces, many of the public buildings are
particularly striking and beautiful architectural works. But just at the
moment when young Telford walked wearily into Edinburgh at the end of
his long tramp, there was plenty for a stout strong mason to do in the
long straight stone fronts of the rising New Town. For two years, he
worked away patiently at his trade in "the grey metropolis of the
North;" and he took advantage of the special opportunities the place
afforded him to learn drawing, and to make minute sketches in detail of