Midlothian, historically the county of Edinburgh, surrounds Scotland's capital on every side, its rural parishes stretching from the Pentland Hills in the west to the Firth of Forth and the sweep of coast running east toward Musselburgh. An account of the county written at the close of the eighteenth century marvelled at how thoroughly the wealth and demand of the neighbouring capital had transformed the surrounding landscape, its market gardens around the city producing strawberries, gooseberries, even grapes, peaches and nectarines for Edinburgh's tables, while further out wheat, barley and potatoes were raised on some of the best-farmed land in Scotland.
Dalkeith, seat of the Duke of Buccleuch in his park above the River Esk, was already noted as offering a better grain and cattle market than Edinburgh itself, while Musselburgh, joined to Fisherrow and Inveresk across the Esk by a bridge reputed to be of Roman origin, supported a busy population of fishermen and traders; nearby, the fields once carried the marching lines of the Scottish army before its defeat at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. Crichton Castle, built by the guardian of the young James II and later levelled and rebuilt after a feud with the Earl of Douglas, stood among the county's most striking ruins, while traces of copper and lead ore were noted in the Pentland Hills that rise sharply along the county's western skyline.
Leith, Edinburgh's ancient sea-port suburb, already possessed one of the safest harbours on the Forth, its roads capable of mooring vessels of any size, a maritime gateway that gave landlocked Midlothian's produce and manufactures direct access to the wider world even as the county's own rural character, market gardens and grand suburban estates alike, remained visibly shaped by the great city at its centre.