We got on the bus to go to "The Royal Mile" and we went in the wrong direction.
We finally got around to where we wanted to be, having had a great tour of the city and seaside of Edinburgh, we walked to the Royal Mile.
We started walking up the road when we came across this:
To the right side of the picture you can see a group of people gathering. At the centre of that group was Ben Hunter.
He was giving a walking tour of the city of Edinburgh -- we didn't know if it was a paid tour or not, but we decided to join in.
Ben was describing this monument--it used to have wooden doors attached to it. If you were found stealing in the city, they would hammer your ear to the door. You had 2 choices at that point.
1. Rip your ear off, then everyone for the rest of your life will know that you are thief and finding work would be very difficult.
2. Stay for the 24 hours you were sentenced to. During that 24 hours, people could throw rotting food at you, the family "poop bucket" etc...
Ben sounded interesting--and knowledgeable. Sounds like the guy for us.
We walked all over the city.
A few of the great stories Ben told us:
Deacon Brodie was a man who's name is highly used. He was a man who made really amazing boxes and locks. He would sell these boxes and locks to the super rich. He ended up having a gambling problem and found that he was highly in debt, which could be punishable by death. So he decided to start stealing from the boxes he had built. So, late at night he would steal into peoples homes and steal. The City was very upset about this thief, so they asked Deacon Brodie to head up a task force to see who was behind all the thieving. Deacon, didn't find himself....eventually he was found guilty and was put to death.
The other great story was about Greyfriars Bobby. Before there was a City Police force, the city would hire men to be Night Watchmen. Most of the Watchmen would walk the city at night with dogs, fierce, bite-y dogs.
Greyfriars Bobby was a terrier, a lovable, sweet little dog owned by John Gray. He made friends with the people and He guarded the city with John Gray for 2 years.
John Gray fell ill and died, when he was buried, Greyfriars Bobby sat at his tomb for 14 years. People of the city fed him and took care of him. A license was purchased for him and he was given the keys of the city. Amazing story. Now, consider this, Greyfriars Bobby was allowed to vote before women were--because he was given the keys to the city.
Amazing.
So, when Greyfriars Bobby passed away, the City actually allowed him to be buried in the City cemetery. There is a statue of him just outside of the cemetery.
Greyfriar Bobbys Tomb Stone
The Statue of Greyfriars Bobby
One of the interesting things about being away, we actually found the lack of dogs disturbing. The Scottish, seem to like their dogs. In 2 weeks, we counted 50 dogs. (49 I think actually)
Ben walked us through the cemetery. There were 350 tomb markers, but they think there could be over 50 000 people buried there.
Ben walked us to some metal gates, there were some flowers attached to the gates, like someone had just been there to honour the dead.
Behind the gates was the convenanters' prison. People who were held for their beliefs. It was said that they were held face down at night, not allowed to move. If you moved the guards would kill the person on your right and left.
They said people died of exposure, and in some cases drowning, rather than move and hurt their fellow prisoners. They were given no shelter at all.
Most days they were fed about 4 ounces of bread. Ben did say that some people from the community would bring food to them--in support.
At one point--there were about 300 prisoners put on board a ship set to sail for America. The salty sea captain and his crew survived, but they said that not many of the people on board survived. It was thought that the sea captain had wrecked the ship on purpose, collecting insurance money.
Ben told us that JK Rowling wrote her first couple of books in a coffee shop--she used names from the headstones as characters in her books--Tom Riddle and Voldemort are buried in Greyfriars Churchyard.
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