View of High Street towards the West (Lawnmarket and the Castle)

Aquatint by David Allan (1797), one of two companion views
[click on the picture to enlarge it]

"These streets (High Street and Canongate, which are of great length, and considerable width, have been in many respects modernised, and partly rebuilt; and being disencumbered from disagreeable and embarrassing objects, now give an air of neatness and elegance to the most prominent parts of the old town, which lessen that dissimilitude with the ancient and modern districts, sufficiently to unite the whole under the idea of one large and embellished capital.

John Lettice

{View of High Street towards the East (Canongate and Holyrood House)

by David Allan, c.1793.
A later companion view shows the street from the other end, which was a usual practice in townscape painting.
Pen and black ink and watercolour over pencil (National Galleries of Scotland).
[click on the picture to enlarge it]

Allan also depicted the trades of the street and painted portraits, notably of the architect of the New Town, James Craig.