The Coolidge examiner., 1933-08-04
PREPARED by National Geographic Society
WASHINGTON. d. C.-WNu service.

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. y. C.-wNU Service.
TDINBURGH. focal point Of
many tours through Scotland,
is singularly, If austerely, beau
tlful.
The city is a honeycomb OF mass
I've stone buildings rising TO heights
that made ii the Manhattan of the
Middle ages, some OF the walls so
thick that long afterward elevators
could be installed without protrud-
ing into the rooms. :,
BY all the precedents ard guide
books. the Edinburgh visitor should
head straight for Castle Hill. But
TO some. the first thriller they ever
read. Doctor Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde"
still is the most vivid tale Of Edin-
burgh. So they hunt out Brode's
Close. dank and dark to this day,
though not So eyil-Smelling as when
its dual denizen, Deacon Brodie, was
a Doctor Jekyl by day and a Mr..
Hyde by night.
Pause before entering the close
you would call il an alley-and the
minds eye converges into a swift
news reel of events along the his
tory -encrusted Royal Mile. into
which il opens.
Grand Dame Eleanor, countess Of
stair. leaps from yonder window
tstill in fun view 20 escape a tan
trum OF her violent, If blue blooded,
husband. Down a "wynd" whis-
pers one hag to another gossip from
opposite seventh stories, the ancient
walls leaning like two Pisas. Dainty
Miss Eglintoune, later Lady Wal
lace, skips across the way TO fill
a kettle from the community well.
HoydeniSh duchess of Gordon rides
a sow she had captured under a
neighbor's "forestairs," while her
more diguifed sister belabors the
animal with a stick.
Only the backbone street was
wide enough for carriages in those
days; ladies and gallants were
borne in sedan chairs by stout
Highlanders into the side arteries
for teas and calls. Burghers' wives,
in silks or Scotlands fine wool,
shopped for jewels in basement cub
byhOles. or bought velvet and laces
at tiny booths under roofs. of
the balconies reached by the pc
culiar foreStairs of nearly every
tenement. They were jostled by
oountrywomen in green and crimson
homespun, and by sailors from ships
that brought over cattle and tallow
from the Low Countries.
The Lawnmarket Sector.
Brodie's Close opens now, as then,
into the I.awnmarket sector Of the
Mile. where Scotland's parliament
once ordained "all cotton claith,
white and grey; all lynning claith
is 10 be sold there and in no
uther place" Open stalls and can
vas-topped booths, displaying bolts
of cotton and webs of linen, were
besieged as are bargain counters to-
day.
About you remain the lands" or
tenements of the days when a city
wall pressed to an altitude and COM
pactness like the lower East side
in New York. OF course, your men,
ory can disregard time and bring
events OF centuries into instant To-
Gus.
Toddling aristocrats play with
racing ragamuffins. They scurry at
the approach of party of knights
of France in glittering armor, their
pennants flying. on their way to a
tournament TO compete for the COW
eted kings prize, a golden lance.
Ten o'clock; the taverns and clubs
disgorge their crowds. Everybody
rushes for home. Up and down the
street rings out the worlds most ef-
fective curfew-the cry, "Gardy-loo
gardy loo" (gardez reau). Down
pour swill and garbage from hun
dreds of tenement windows. 1t is a
luckleSs citizen who has not reached
shelter.
Little wonder the fussy Boswell
trying to put his towns best foot
forward for captious Johnson, com
planned. Il could not prevent his
being assailed by the evening eff.
iluvia of Edinburgh" The resi-.
dents of fashionable st. James court
were thought very alOof and squeam.
ish when they engaged a private
scavenger 10 remove their refuse
Today all Edinburgh is equipped
with modern sewage-disposal sys-