At the church gates, is the historical _joug_; a place of penance for the neck of detected sinners, and the historical _louping-on stane_, from which Dutch-built lairds and farmers climbed into the saddle.

Here Prince Charlie slept before the battle of Prestonpans; and here Deacon Brodie, or one of his gang, stole a plough coulter before the burglary in Chessel's Court.

On the opposite side of the loch, the ground rises to Craigmillar Castle, a place friendly to Stuart Mariolaters.

It is worth a climb, even in summer, to look down upon the loch from Arthur's Seat; but it is tenfold more so on a day of skating.

The surface is thick with people moving easily and swiftly and leaning over at a thousand graceful inclinations; the crowd opens and closes, and keeps moving through itself like water; and the ice rings to half a mile away, with the flying steel.