Edinburgh. A View of the Old Town, taken from Princes Street

Edinburgh: published by Daniel McIntosh, sold in London by Boydell & Co., and Colnaghi & Co, 1814. Aquatint, printed in brown ink, coloured by hand, by John Clark. A lively view of Georgian Edinburgh.

A fine view of a windy day on one of the most fashionable streets of the period: in the foreground a stagecoach is leaving, laden with passengers and apparently pursued by a late-comer who gestures in an attempt to attract the attention of anyone on the coach. More serenely, the coach is flanked by fashionable Edinburgh going about its daily business. This view may be seen as a precursor to John Clark's own Views in Scotland published in London between 1824 and 1825 with a total of 35 plates. A 19th century gazetteer notes that 'Edinburgh presents, from almost every point of view whence it can be viewed such scenic and architectural groupings as are perhaps unrivalled in any existing city in the world. It possesses attractions peculiarly its own, and fixes the gaze and challenges the admiration of a spectator by displays of general excellence, unaided by the sumptuousness of any one object, and undergraded by the deteriorations from its prevailing style of magnificence.' (Fullarton [publisher's] A Gazetteer of the World 1856, III, p.140).