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Drunk enough of native drollery
When Sir Richard Steele, of the Spectator, visited Edinburgh, in 1717, on the business of the Forfeited Estates Commissior^ we know not whether he resided in Lady Stair’s Close, but it is recorded
that he gave, in a tavern there, a whimsical supper, to all the eccentric-looking mendicants in the city,giving them the enjoyment of an abundant feast, that he might witness their various oddities.
Richard Shell mentions this circumstance, and adds that Steele confessed afterwards that he had ” drunk enough of native drollery to compose a comedy.”
source-Old and New Edinburgh
