" Edinburgh is a beautiful town no doubt, but in winter weather there is a waght of misery and wretchedness all about. Princes Street is very pretty & flashy & shoppy, but the grand old High Street is a most depressing place. The tall houses have an air of depressed nobility much more revolting than mere poverty, like a cast off chimney pot hat on an Irish scaffy. "

― James Cadenhead , James Cadenhead RSA RSW, 1858 - 1927: his letters home as a young man