MISCELLANEOUS.
NOTES ON BOOKS, CATALOGUES, SALES, &C.
No one can have visited Edinburgh, and gazed upon
"The height
Where the huge Castle holds its state,"
without having felt a strong desire to learn the history of that venerable pile, and the stirring tales which its grey walls could tell. What so many must have wished done, has at length been accomplished by Mr. James Grant, the biographer of Kirkaldy of Grange, the gallant governor of that castle, who was so treacherously executed by the Regent Morton. His work, just published under the title of Memorials of the Castle of Edinburgh, contains its varied history, ably and pleasantly narrated, and intermixed with so much illustrative anecdote as to render it an indispensable companion to all who may hereafter visit one of the most interesting, as well as most remarkable monuments of the metropolis of Scotland.
The lovers of fine engravings and exquisite drawings will have a rare opportunity of enriching their portfolios in the course of the next and following week, as Messrs. Leigh Sotheby and Co., of Wellington Street, commence on Monday a nine days' sale of a magnificent collection of engravings, of the highest quality, of the ancient and modern Italian, German, Dutch, Flemish, French, and English schools, which comprises some superb drawings of the most celebrated masters of the different schools of Europe.
We have received the following Catalogues:—Bernard Quaritch's (16. Castle Street, Leicester Square) Catalogue of Oriental and Foreign Books, comprising most Languages and Dialects of the Globe; and John Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue, Number Four for 1850, of Books, Old and New.