THE NEW TOWN

The finest part of the first New Town has been saved until the end of the walk: Charlotte Square is a masterpiece of Georgian design. Its architect, Robert Adam, never got to see the finished effect, but it is his work on the north and south sides of the square that is responsible for its unity and poise.

On the west side, St George's Church, designed by Robert Reid to Adam's instructions, became West Register House in the 1960s. Its distinctive green dome is modelled on St Paul's in London, and it is topped with an illustration of the natural order: a gilded cross on top of the earth on top of the imperial crown.

Just as with the other fine squares in the New Town, over the years a significant number of Edinburgh worthies have lived here: William Fettes, the grocer who became director of the British Linen Bank and founder of the city's most famous school, died in No.13. Lord Cockburn lived at No.14, and used to listen to the corncrakes on what is now the Moray Estate. Earl Haig, the British commander in the First World War, was born at No.24. From 1959 to 1999, No.6 was the Edinburgh residence of the Secretary of State for Scotland; from 1999 it will be the official residence of Scotland's First Minister.

The most interesting house in the square is undoubtedly No.7, the Georgian House (open April-Oct Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 2-5; last admission 4.30; adm). In 1975, after careful restoration by David Learmont, it was opened by the National Trust for Scotland as a showcase Georgian residence of the period

1790 to 1810, the New Town partner to Gladstone's Land on the Royal Mile (see Walk I).

A volunteer guide is on hand in each of the five main rooms (the Bedchamber, surprisingly enough on the ground floor, the Kitchen in the basement, the Drawing Room, Dining Room and Parlour) to answer any questions that the arrangements might provoke. The furniture is of particular interest, being distinctively Scottish, with the best examples in the Dining Room and Parlour.

One of the few original features of the house is the stone-compartmented wine cellar in the basement. It's worth looking at this first and then watching the 20 minute video reconstruction of a day-in-the-life of the house. Another short film on New Town architecture also sets the house in its context. The immaculately clean kitchen is one of the most popular rooms, with its boiling range, rotating roasting spit (powered by the heat of the fire) and baking range. Here the food would have been prepared for the informal but gigantic suppers that were such a distinctive feature of the Scottish enlightenment, and so very different from prim ; Victorian dinner parties.

Leave Charlotte Square at its southwest comer, fuming into Hope Street and down to the West End (off Princes Street). Cross over towards the Caledonian Hotel and walk a short way down Lothian Road.

On the corner of Lothian Road and Princes Street are two churches, St John's and St Cuthbert's, both worth a look around if they're open. St John's is Episcopalian, and it's the older of the two buildings, designed by William Burn in 1816.

At the first turning on the left after St Cuthbert's, on the corner of King's Stables Road, is a round tower put up to protect the West Churchyard from grave robbers. The churchyard contains the graves of many notable people: Dr Jamieson of the Dictionary, George Meikle Kemp, architect of the Scott Monument, Thomas De Quincey, and John Napier, cursed by many a schoolchild as the inventor of logarithms. In the corner, just under the Castle Rock, there is a tombstone to someone called 'Jekyll', which is supposedly where Robert Louis Stevenson got the name for Hyde's alter ego.

This is the end of the walk if you'd like to stop for a drink, try the excellent vegetarian Café beneath St John's, or if the weather is fine continue through the churchyard into Princes Street Gardens where there is an open-air Café next to the children's playground.