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On the evening of the 5th of November 1828, a woman by the name of Janet Brown read in the Edinburgh Courant of the arrest of William Burke and William Hare on suspicion of murder. She was shocked, both men being known to her, and with growing dread recalled that it was in their company that she had last seen her friend, Mary Paterson, six months previously.
Hallowe'en is here again!
As darkness falls across Edinburgh's Old Town, my macabre minions and I are preparing to scare the wits out of more willing victims than any other night of the year. As is usually the case, there will be many extra ghosts lurking up closes and down gloomy stairs to help us along; and of course, we also have the benefit of thousands of unpaid extras haunting the streets as well!
In the first of an occasional series, we look back at events in Edinburgh's history that happened on this day.
On this day in 1687, the first sedan chairs became available for public hire in Edinburgh.
Although some the wealthier residents of the city had owned their own private sedan chairs for many decades, this was the first opportunity that the lower orders had to experience such luxury. The bearers of these "hackney chairs" were typically Highlanders who had migrated south in search of employment: men used to heavy labour and being outdoors in all seasons.
Every few years (seven, in this case) we feel like a bit of a spring-clean. That extends even to our online realm, so we decided to give this very website a bit of serious TLC (timid light caressing? --Ed).
