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Grim Treasures: Macabre Tales of Edinburgh's Old Town
| Article
# : |
18006 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1999 |
1,576 Words |
| Author
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David Hicks; Photographed By Maxine Hicks
David Hicks is an anthropologist at the State University of
New York, Stony Brook. Maxine Hicks is a freelance
photographer. |
Running west to east, from Edinburgh Castle to Queen Elizabeth's Palace of Holyroodhouse, is a narrow street known as the Royal Mile. The Mile appears to consist of a single thoroughfare, but locals regard it as consisting of four sections that merge imperceptibly and see each--Castle Hill, Lawnmarket, High Street, and Canongate--as having contributed distinctive imaginative treasures to the Old Town's fund of macabre tales.
In these tales, one monument makes a frequent appearance: the Mercat Cross, an ornate pedestal that juts abruptly into the air through the sidewalk on High Street. Dating from 1365 but destroyed and subsequently replaced during the last century, the Mercat Cross served as an important focus for civil authority and social concourse. From it, government officials would hang royal edicts, lists of excommunicated sinners, names of criminals, and diverse notices of concern to serious citizens. The cross has also served as a magnet for folklore. Today, the pillar provides a convenient starting place for visitors wishing to enter the Old Town's past to recapture some of its more gruesome happenings.
One dreary January night I encountered a teller of such macabre tales beneath the Mercat Cross, where a group of expectant visitors had assembled. Douglas was one of several guides working for a local organization dedicated to bringing the past to life for curious visitors to Edinburgh. Down alleys and courtyards of the Old Town, through stygian chambers tunneling under the streets, these contemporary curators of folk culture lead their intent audiences into a world preempted by the Devil, madness, greed, and murder. The four tales Douglas told that dark and dank night in Old Town certainly chilled our imaginations.
The Devil's call
The year 1513 has a bleak reputation in Scottish history. That year, at the Battle of Flodden, an English army inflicted a devastating defeat on the Scots by annihilating the cream of their nobility. This disaster, however, was not entirely unexpected. At least not for those, like Sir Richard Lawson, who had heard the Devil speak.
The story goes that, several weeks before he was to lead the Scottish forces in battle, King James IV was praying for success in the abbey at Holyroodhouse. During his devotions, an eerie cry resounded from the Mercat Cross. Those who heard it said it was the Devil, standing at the plinth, reading aloud the names of those warriors who would join him in hell after the
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