Treasure trove....

Were I to be cast away (for a short period only, I hope) on a desert island, this would fill in the gaps between trying to work out which were the non poisonous plants, how to catch fish, and how to make fire.

It is packed with all that you need to get a sense for how the citizens of Edinburgh lived (the well-off ones at least) in 1826.   George IV was on the throne.  For some reason, the people of Edinburgh loved him.   (I don't think that Hugh Laurie looked anything like him.)

It was also the year when the National Monument to the dead of the Napoleonic Wars (our side only I'm sure) was started on Calton Hill.   To this day it has  not been completed.