.

THE PARLIAMENT CLOSE.
Time has wrought its changes most notably around the precincts of St.
Giles's Church.

The church itself, if it were not for the spire, would be unrecognisable; the _Krames_ are all gone, not a shop is left to shelter in its buttresses; and zealous magistrates and a misguided architect have shorn the design of manhood, and left it poor, naked, and pitifully pretentious.

As St.Giles's must have had in former days a rich and quaint appearance now forgotten, so the neighbourhood was bustling, sunless, and romantic.

It was here that the town was most overbuilt; but the overbuilding has been all rooted out, and not only a free fair-way left along the High Street with an open space on either side of the church, but a great porthole, knocked in the main line of the _lands_, gives an outlook to the north and the New Town.
[Picture: The Spire of St.Giles's] There is a silly story of a subterranean passage between the Castle and Holyrood, and a bold Highland piper who volunteered to explore its windings.