SINISTER STREET.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 213, 8 September 1928, Page 15 (Supplement)

SINISTER STREET.

~ — * —— [ I A MILE OF ROMANCE EDINBURGH'S THOROUGHFARE BTORY OF THE ROYAL MILS, Tlis Royal Mil* in Edinburgh Is a thoroughfare with a mors sinister and romantic history than any other in Europe. Extending from the Castle to Holyrood, along what are now Lawn Market, High Street and Cannongate, it was the scene, two centuries ago, ef Hbval processions, executionsj riots, and every conceivable kind of atrocity* Boy Roasted. Royal processions from tho Castlo to Holy rood were not, in those days, the decorous and popular aifair they are now. The mobs which thronged the thoroughfare seldom showed respect for royalty. On one occasion even the Queen was jostled, insulted and cursed by the crowd. Queensberry House was associated with the signing of the Treaty of Union and the scene of a particularly gruesome murder. The crime was committed by the Duke of Queens berry's idiot heir, i-iord Drumlanrig. !j During the signing of the Treaty, with which the Duke was entrusted, the half-witted heir was left for an hour ic Queensberry House with a CannonIgate spit-boy. | Though Lord Drumlanrig was generally considered to be harmless, he often had violent periods, when he had to be restrained. On this occasion he must have had a sudden fit of actute madness.

When the remainder of the household returned, flushed with the excitement of an historic occasion, they discovered the spit-boy was missing. They asked Lord Drumlanrig where he was, but he professed unconcerned ignorance. Nothing in the arrangement of the house suggested foul play. But on examining the spit, the pantry hand 6aw inside it what looked like a human body. It proved to be the roasted body of the spit-boy, hanging on a hook. The ducal household was promptly summoned, and an examination was made of the body, which showed that the boy must have been murdered before being fastened in the spit. Duchess* Pig Race. On the lighter side of life the Royal Mile had its moments. The story is told of how that merry-hearted tomboy, the Duchess of Gordon, who was "even more noted for her beauty than her wit," challenged her si6ter to a pig race down the Royal Mile. The sprightly duchess is said to have had some difficulty in "getting aboard" her mount, but succeeded after much perseverance and laughter. I Once "up" she soon had the pig going, but history does not seem to relate who won the race or whether the pigs stayed the course. At any rate the race formed itha subject for amusing anecdotes for years afterwards. a Judge's Wig Stolen. f Another amusing story is associated with a house in Byres Close, where the | great Scottish judge, Lord Coalstoun, | lived. The judge was leaning from his ! window one day when two tom-boys | on tho upper floor, undeterred by the ■ immense dignity of the great man below, | attached a kitten to the end of a string j and lowered it on to his head. When the \ string was jerked upwards the kitten's i claws whipped off the judge's wig. i Whether Lord Coalstoun received this contretemps with dignified contempt or entered into the spirit of the thing and waved an amicably reproving finger at the window above, it would be interesting to know! At anvrate, we are told that the judge's friends were not averse to a little leg-pulling on the subject. Tragedy again crept into the Royal Mile with the assassination of Lord President Lockhart by a disappointed litigant, one John Chiesley, the Squire of Dairy, whose hatred the judge had incurred. Chiesley had prowled abqut nursing his grievance until he worked himself into a frenzy and finally decided to I murder the judge. I The Lord President was in the habit |of attending St. Giles Cathedral, and | Chiesley loitered about until the service 9 ended. Pistol on Corpse. { After leaving the church with a i friend, the Lord President proceeded up the Royal Mile, little suspecting that he was cio9ely followed by the Squire of Dairy, who shot the judge dead as he was entering Old Bank Close. Chiesley was hanged and his body left to swing in chains on the gallows between Edinburgh and Leith. When ! his skeleton was unearthed many years : later at Dairy the pistol with whieh he murdered Lockhart was found attached to the neck. j 5 Public Executions. Hundreds of people were executed in i the Royal Mile. Some were hanged, j some went to the block, others were S guillotined. | Sir Walter Scott, sat at a window opj posite the gallows when Burke, the body- | Bnatcher, was executed. The spot is | marked by three stones let into the roadj way near the north end of George IV. | bridge. ' A vast concourse witnessed this event, | because of the specially atrocious t character of Burke's crimes.