1.      So described by Daniel Wilson from his own memories of it before the construction of Waverley Station, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol.18 (1883-4), p.133.

2.     AJ Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966 and 1988), discusses this process on pages 230-233.  By 1799, the easternmost part of Princes’ Street was almost entirely commercial.

3.     AJ Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966 and 1988), p.139.

4.     Soane Museum, Adam Collection, Volume 2, Drawing 50.  Drawings 51 and 52 also appear to be related to the project, but show a much smaller structure.

5.     See J Manco, "Pulteney Bridge," in Architectural History: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, Vol. 38 (1995), pp.129-45, especially pp.130-132 for the influence of the Ponte di Rialto.

6.      J Manco, "Pulteney Bridge," in Architectural History: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, Vol. 38 (1995), pp.131-2.  Palladio’s design is described and illustrated in The Four Books of Architecture, Book 3, Chapter 13 and Plates 9-10.

7.     During his later years, with his Scottish commissions forming an increasingly high proportion of his workload, Adam maintained a permanent office in Edinburgh.  "…The office kept at least three men fully employed, who visited and surveyed sites for the firm, arranged contracts, met clients and tradesmen on the Adams’ behalf and copied designs sent up from Albermarle Street." (A Rowan, "William Adam and Company", Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 122 (1974), p.671.

8.     Soane Museum, Adam Collection, Volume 2, Drawing 182.

9.     For the Bridewell, see TA Markus, "Buildings for the Sad, the Bad and the Mad in Urban Scotland, 1780-1830," in Order and Space in Society, ed. by TA Markus (Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 1982), pp.65-88.

10.   Soane Museum, Adam Collection, Volume 2, Drawing 100.  The ascription of this drawing to the Calton Hill project is by Stephen Astley (Assistant Curator, Sir John Soane’s Museum).  The drawing has traditionally been associated with Adam’s South Bridge scheme, and its identification with the bridging of the Low Calton ravine is still a matter of contention.

11.    In Bristol, for example, the financial crisis caused by the outbreak of war in 1792 was particularly severe, and a number of developments were abandoned, not to be completed - or, in some cases, for work not even to re-start - until the final victory over Napoleon nearly a quarter of a century later.  See Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bristol, (Faber and Faber, 1952).

12.    For the construction of what came to be called Regent Bridge, see AJ Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966 and 1988), pp.138-48.

13.    Soane Museum, Adam Collection, Volume 34, drawing 7.  The design was never presented to the South Bridge Trustees, but appears to relate to Adam’s original 1785 scheme for South Bridge.  It is likely that the reduction in the length of the building plots, and the consequent loss in the Trustees revenue involved in this proposal, meant that Adam felt it not worth while putting before the Trustees.  See A Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.354.   In the computer model of South Bridge the main proposals, which appear in both the principal elevations and the ground-plan, have been followed.

14.    AJ Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh, 1750-1840, (Edinburgh University Press, 1966 and 1988), p.147.  Construction of the bridge cost £12,329, and forming the road cost £27,110.  The road cut through the old Calton Hill Burial Ground and required considerable excavation of ground.

15.    A Fraser, The Building of Old College, (Edinburgh University Press, 1989), p.88.  It is worth stressing that in neither case does the figure for building costs include the flanking buildings, construction of which was undertaken by private individuals after the ground had been feued to them.