Walk No. 189: Historic Walk - Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Date: Tuesday 20th January 2015
Start Time: 10:45 a.m.
On a very cold but bright sunny day with no wind
and dry underfoot, sixty Strollers turned out well wrapped up for the January
History Walk led by our Blue Badge Guides Karen and Helen. We met outside John
Knox’s House in the Royal Mile where we started the walk by hearing a bit about
the location of the mistresses of Deacon Brodie (at least 3 plus his wife) and
how one led to his downfall. We then sneaked down the Close to the back of the
house to hear all about Patrick Geddes. He was born in Ballater, went to school
in Perthshire and then came to Edinburgh
University to study
Botany. He dropped out after a week but continued to study in London
and Paris and in 1890 came back to Edinburgh when appointed
assistant in Practical Botany for the University based at the Royal Botanics.
He promoted the idea of ‘green space’ in towns for the health benefits and you
can still see these open spaces and gardens down the closes of Edinburgh today. He also promoted ‘learning
by doing’ and arranged for the school children to be involved in growing their
own vegetables (sounds familiar). He arranged many exhibitions and travelled
extensively promoting his ideas and being involved in planning towns from Jerusalem to Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He lived in India from 1917
to 1924 when for health reasons he moved to the South of France until his death
in 1932.
We then crossed the street to Tweeddale Close where the house of Dame
Margaret Kerr was. This subsequently became the Head Office of the British
Linen Bank which led to robbery and murder. It then became a printers and home
to the Poetry Society. Sheds for Sedan Chairs still exists in Tweeddale Close.
It was then off down to Chessels
Court, purpose built flats dating from 1748, and
where at one time the Customs and Excise had rooms which Deacon Brodie robbed.
It was this last robbery which ultimately led to his downfall after fleeing to Flanders. Here we heard about the tale of Andrew Gray,
who fled Edinburgh after being sentenced to
death for rioting, went to Morocco
and returned many years later as a sea-captain. He saved the Lord Provost’s
daughter from the plague, later married her and they lived in a house on the
Royal Mile near where a statue of a Moorish man can be seen above the door.
Next we went into Sugarhouse Close, originally a
sugar refinery then a brewery but now student accommodation, and then Bakehouse
Close to hear about the origins of Bovril. It was time for some warmth, so
Karen had arranged access to Old Moray House, dating from 1618 and built for
Mary Countess of Home, now part of the University. The interior ceilings and
walls still remain as they were intended and were beautiful to look at and
admire. The house was also used by Cromwell when in Edinburgh. The balcony overlooking the Royal
Mile only had its railing added in 1842 so that no one would fall on Queen Victoria as she passed
by in her carriage. It must have been a precarious vantage point before that.
Leaving there we went up to visit the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning number 2 in St John Street
where Sandy
gave us a talk on the history of the Lodge and its prominent members like
Robert Burns. It is the oldest continually used Lodge in the world and one that
was built specifically for that purpose in 1735, though the Lodge dates from
around 1677. It was a lovely building with some of our attendees getting caught
out by the 3D style paintings on the wall, and all were impressed by the
Sneltzer Organ dating from 1757 and still powered by hand today. We then had a
brief stop outside the Museum of Edinburgh to hear about the number of brothels
that used to exist on the Royal Mile (lots), where the age expectancy of the
people who worked there was only 30, and to look at the sea shells in the side
of the buildings put there to ward off witches. We then crossed over to Dunbar Close
to see another example of gardens that Geddes had arranged, and site of a bar
that Rabbie Burns used to frequent.
Finally, at the foot of the Royal Mile we
heard a story about conspiracy, murder and execution involving a wife, her maid
and butler. With a cunning that would please current ‘soap’ writers, the ‘lady’
was beheaded by the ‘maiden’, Edinburgh’s version of the guillotine, while her
maid was burnt on the Castle Hill at the same time to divert attention from the
other execution. The butler was eventually caught and sentenced to death on the
wrack, which was normally only used for interrogations. The judge was obviously
a friend of the murdered husband.
Our
thanks again to Karen, Helen and Sandy for all the information we enjoyed on
the walk.
