The New Royal High School, the third plate, is a superb building, and merits especial notice, in association with the intellectual character of the city.  The Temple of Theseus, at Athens, has furnished models for its beautiful columns.  “The Regent Road, forming the new and noble entrance to Edinburgh, serves as a terrace in its front.”  Here again the indistinctness of the Old Town aids the fine effect of the new buildings.  This plate is for the most part brilliantly executed by E. Goodall.

Edinburgh, from St. Anthony’s Chapel, is the fourth plate, and certainly not the least striking of the whole, although its chief merit is in the distance, which, for distinctness and delicacy, is admirable.  Holyrood and its decaying Chapel, seen from this point, are beautifully made out, and the picturesque but massy form of the Castle fades away in the extreme distance.  The foreground is bold and bright, but the distant details of the view are the charm of the picture.  The engraver is W.I.  Cooke.  “The view of Edinburgh from this point will give a correct idea of the relative situations of the Castle and Calton Hill at opposite extremities of the city.”

Edinburgh from the ascent to Anthony’s Seat is the fifth plate.  Here we scarcely know which to admire most, the beautiful work and etchy spirit of the mountainous foreground, the minuteness and delicacy of the distant city, or the actual brightness of the Firth of Forth broken by the “noble breast-work of Salisbury Crags and the point of the Cat’s nick.”  The Crags, it will be recollected, are about 550 feet above the level of the Firth of Forth:  a few sheep lie scattered about them, and the part of Arthur’s Seat on the left; the straggling pedestrians in the path to the Cat Nick are of emmet-like proportions.  This plate is by W.R.  Smith.

By the way, what a delightful Series will be these views of European cities for the walls of a cheerful breakfast parlour, or to alternate with well-filled cases of books.  How pleasant it will be to sit in one’s arm-chair, and look around upon “the principal cities of Europe.”  We say “for the walls,” since these Prints are too valuable to be hid in folios, or pasted in albums.  Frame-work, we know, is an expensive affair; but Colonel Batty’s Views are worthy of oak and gold; and a good plan is to put them in one broad oak or maple frame, with gold moulding, dividing the views by bar-work.  They will be then both elegant and intellectual furniture.

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THE SELECTOR; AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

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ANGLO-SAXON HISTORY.